Straw dogs and Scarecrows

Harry and I spent the day in Petersburg. He is writing a story on its rebirth as an arts community and I am there to try to determine if this is a place I need to invest my energy in. Our favorite neighbors purchaced a three story storefront here and we are mourning their move already.

It was a splendid day with WIFI in the cafe. The coffee was respectable and the clientele eclectic. I was fortunate to be able to catch Ignatious and Rob at home since they were preparing for a big show and leaving the next day. Their house is mid 19th C, amazing, historically significant (Grant had a cigar with Lincoln on the porch...) and authentic. They haven't mucked it up with modern convienences and Martha Stewart paint.

We met several interesting artists. Ron Walton purchaced a storefront (depicted above) and is dividing his time between studios in Virginia and New York. Aimee and Alain Joyeaux moved to Virginia from Indiana. She is a photographer and her husband, a retired museum curator, are working on a painstaking restoration/conversion of a huge Beaux Arts storefront. There is a real energy there and it was exciting.

We drove to Pburg on Friday for their big art walk. This city may have great supporters and grassroots developers (people who have enough credit to buy an old building and then swing a real hammer) but it has a long, long way to go as far as attracting a consistent level of quality among the artists showing in the city. (oh, I could go on here but I won't)

The highlight of the evening was was a collection of Sculpture and digital works by Theodora Merry at the Petersburg Library. Her sculpture is most interesting and loaded with content born of a working artist/mother/arts administrator. She is fearless regarding her use of materials and would be capable of trying most anything successfully if she had a few good fabricators in her studio. (wouldn't we all?)

The best thing about Petersburg is the feeling that most anything is possible... even if you know this feeling may be fleeting and naive but it's still real and intoxicating to see what people are accomplishing. To make something out of nothing... a dead city into an arts community... Maybe anything IS possible there. (its happened elsewhere, right?)

People felt that way in Richmond in the 1920's or 30's. Life wasn't perfect but it was changing. I once felt that way not so very long ago. The straw that broke that optimist's back was the 2000 election and then the straw floated down the James with the results in 2004.