Do they line up by height? Someone told me Georgia has a gnat line. I don’t know if I live above or below it or if it matters.
Try Prozac in the Kitty Chow. A friend hires a cat whisperer to call long distance and provide psychiatric services for her cat.
But this item is worth bringing to your attention:
Homeowner decorates and decorates. Putting it up and taking it down is exhausting, but it’s a labor of love.
When I moved to Carrollton in 2011 it took six months to get an Internet connection. I live in the county and waited for cable lines to be dug and a cell tower to be built. Meanwhile, I used computers at the library. I noticed an interesting house a couple of doors from the library and the first time I saw it I knew an artist lived there.
Art is the expression of human creative skill and imagination, and that expression is evident where Kathy and Peter Lumpkins live. Kathy was a trauma nurse for 15 years but could easily have chosen art as her profession. She makes and casts molds, paints, and sculpts in clay in her home studio.
I drive past there slowly and savor the ever-changing art scene. I appreciate public art because it’s accessible to everyone, not just displayed in museums for a few to enjoy. The week before Halloween I saw people gathered across the street from Kathy’s house, which was built in 1902. The crowd seemed to be in awe of what was ensconced in her yard, on the porch and in the trees.
The display fulfilled public art’s mission to engage the community’s sense of place.
During my 30-plus years as a docent at my former hometown museum, I saw numerous art installations, some interior and some referred to as land art. The genre incorporates a broad range of everyday and natural materials which are often chosen for their evocative qualities. Installations are site specific in that they are designed to exist only in the space for which they were created.
Before Kathy and Peter transformed their house on Rome Street into an attraction six years ago, they lived in Atlanta in a 4,000-square-foot lumber company warehouse. Their loft, which had a 7-foot waterfall, was chosen “Best Kitchen” on an Atlanta home tour and was featured on the 2002 HGTV program “Lofty Ideas.”
In a previous life the Lumpkins were church planters in the New Orleans bayou. Kathy finds creative ways to display souvenirs from that experience and from their overseas travels. Her installations use “found objects” and she is not opposed to dumpster diving. We share a disdain for the massive over-packaging in our throw-away society and a reverence for re-purposing. Her Atlanta kitchen used school lockers for the pantry.
People give her things and she finds things on the side of the road. Kathy is sentimental and can’t stand to see anything thrown away. For her, it’s about memories. Rusty gates welded together, driftwood, fountains, and a library card catalogue have found a place in her life. She has collected a lot of stuff and every piece has a story. She said, “There’s so much beauty in objects. I see things and go, wow!”
Kathy works in Atlanta and wishes she had time to get more involved in Carrollton. But she gives back. Her installations are gifts to everyone who drives past her place. She brings art into the open so we can look at everyday things and appreciate them in a new light. This often-decorated house and yard is one of Carrollton’s gems.
Every season and every holiday Kathy gives her community the gift of her creativity. Why does she do it? She said, “It makes me happy to make people smile.” When you drive past her house, I’m sure you will smile.
In this season of giving, her gift is worth writing about. Merry Christmas!
Murphy is a member of the Carrollton Creative Writers Club and the Carrollton Civic Woman’s Club. Reach her at shareyouropinions@yahoo.com.
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