Loose Leaf Notes

The latest Building Community Brick Project at my son Josh Copus’s Old Marshall Jail Hotel began in late September and ran until Saturday of this weekend when the project’s 4,000 goal was met.

The Old Marshall Jail, a boutique art hotel and restaurant along the French Broad River in Marshall NC, is itself a reflection of this community art project. Bricks designed and stamped by the community were incorporated throughout the repurposing of the old jail with tributes, historic notes, humor, sayings and signs of the time.

For this latest project, a public folk art monument will be created next spring using the stamped bricks to build a place to sit for contemplation on the OMJ patio.

It will be something between a ruin and cathedral, and in my mind a representation of resiliency and resurgence shaped by time and trials, such as the Helene flood that decimated the town last year and ultimately brought the community together to rebuild.

This is the way it works, Josh said on Friday, Joe’s and my first day helping the volunteer staff at the Building Community Brick Project.

“My mom taught me a long time ago that even a shopping list is interesting when it gets old enough,” meaning it tells a story of the time it was created and, like the correspondence of letter writing, can act as personal documentation.

Over the phone, I gave Josh a few good ideas for what I said I would stamp on a brick, until he said, “Mom, you need to come and do some yourself.”

Open for brick making from noon to seven, we started quite early on Day 2 of our Community Brick Project stint and others joined us. “I can’t see you, but I know you’re there,” was one of the early flirtatious things I said to Joe soon after we met and while at a bonfire. Now it’s part of the OMJ time capsule, going down and marking our history.

The Governor came to make a brick! Josh and Governor Josh Stein became friends through the town’s rebuilding. Always juggling one visionary project after another, Josh was not able to be there when the governor appeared.

I recognized him right away, and found myself saying, “Josh isn’t here but I’m him mom, so I think you should hug me!” (There were pictures in the media of Josh and the governor embracing when the Governor came to survey and offer assistance after the flood).

I set him up and showed him the brick-making ropes and Joe got Josh on the phone.

Other celebrities who made the day fun and memorable were renowned Ballad singers Donna Ray Norton and Sheila Kay Adams, who hold a ballad swap every second Wednesday evening at the OMJ.

And some of Joe’s mentor/teachers and friends from his psychotherapy training joined in the fun.

We all had a grand ole time and look forward to seeing the finished art that we helped to create in the spring.

– More about OMJ Hotel and Josh Copus, ceramics artist HERE and HERE and on Facebook.