I just got a phone call from my dad.
"Are you at your computer?"
"Yeah."
"Log on to the Denton Record Chronicle."
(that's our hometown newspaper)
So I did... and
THIS is what I saw.
Picture from Denton Record Chronicle website: www.dentonrc.comHow freaking awesome is that? That's my parent's shop. My Mom. My Dad.
hehe and the paper called their business "venerable"
/proud daughter
**Since you have to register for the DRC I'm going to include the text here but I found it at the DRC... (That's legal right? :)
Of all the roofs in TexasPainter picks Laura’s Locksmith for ninth of 50 creations in U.S.
09:36 AM CDT on Sunday, April 2, 2006
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer
Perhaps more like a Johnny Appleseed than a Christo, controversial artist Scott LoBaido set out Feb. 22 from his Staten Island, N.Y., home to paint a large-scale, stylized American flag on one roof in each of the 50 United States.
DRC/Gary Payne
Scott LoBaido paints a U.S. flag on the roof of Laura’s Locksmith on Saturday in Denton. LoBaido is trying to paint one flag on the roof of a building in each of the 50 states.
He started his ninth flag on Saturday, having persuaded John and Laura Easterling to adorn the roof of their venerable Denton business, Laura’s Locksmith, on University Drive with a kinetic design that looks as if a flag is being unfolded.
LoBaido, 40, who witnessed the 9/11 attacks and wants to finish his project by the event’s fifth anniversary, said he was inspired to do his “Flags Across America Project” after helping people in Gulfport, Miss., clean up immediately after Hurricane Katrina. At first, there was little outside help, he said, and then the military started flying in relief and supplies with helicopters.
“I usually do murals, but I turned to someone and said, ‘I need a roof,’” LoBaido said.
He painted one of the surviving Gulfport roofs as a way to say thanks and then went back home to Staten Island to plan the project.
So far, LoBaido has worked his way through nine southern states on a shoestring budget. He’s had little luck attracting large-scale sponsors, but lots of luck with small gifts as he travels from state to state in his 1989 custom-painted Chevrolet Suburban, staying with friends as he searches for roofs. An old friend from Staten Island, Madlyn Jackson, offered him a place to stay in Carrollton while he was in Texas. At first, he planned on painting a roof somewhere in Fort Worth.
“The first day I had a tough time finding the right roof. I went from Carrollton to Bedford to North Richland Hills,” he said. “Everything was too new and I was getting frustrated.”
On a swing through Denton, he said he headed west on University Drive and the roof of Laura’s Locksmith caught his eye. He almost talked himself out of it, he said, but then hung a U-turn and talked the Easterlings into it.
“They were cautious at first, and had some questions — a lot of people think I’m selling something — but then they were real excited,” he said.
But Laura Easterling had to sweet-talk the landlord into this paint job.
“But you see so much that’s ugly, and nasty and bad in the world,” Laura Easterling said. “I hope this helps people remember how great this nation is.”
An experienced muralist, LoBaido said he’s used his brushes — and in this case paint rollers — to express his appreciation for his First Amendment freedoms before. Not long after 9/11, when students at an Upper West Side school stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance, he went to the school and began to paint a flag on the school building. The move got him arrested and garnered him some notoriety. He’s also been arrested for artistically inspired protests at the Brooklyn Museum and the French Consulate. And some critics have said his works on canvas, such as a painting that depicted President Bush holding the flag and the severed head of Osama bin Laden, displayed at the National Arts Club two years ago, are deeply subversive.
LoBaido isn’t necessarily turning over a new leaf with this new project. His sketchpad reflects his ongoing riffs on the Stars and Stripes. But, he said this project is about doing something positive.
“I’ve tested the boundaries of First Amendment freedoms and I haven’t got my hands cut off for it,” he said. “There are lots of people to thank for that.”
The Easterlings, who have been in business since 1989, painted the building’s exterior a bright, southwestern gold and turquoise about six months ago. John Easterling said that they were tired of people not realizing where they were located.
With the roof painting, which LoBaido usually finishes in a day, he’s sure people won’t have a problem now.
“Once its done, I can’t wait to call Frenchy and say, ‘eat your heart out,’” John said.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com
