KY Day 6 - Folk Art, Fine Art, and Foam Art
I started today by getting my morning coffee at Third Street and Stuff in Lexington. Part Cafe, part gift shop, and part art gallery, I loved the vibe of the place so much. I ordered their special called a rocket which had coconut butter blended in with the coffee. It tasted great, but was super heavy so it was almost more of a meal than a beverage. All in all though it was a great place to hang out and get some work done.
After my coffee, I drove up to Berea, the arts and crafts capital of Kentucky. I started out visiting the town's Artisan Village and looking at lots of local handmade crafts, sculptures, and paintings in different little shops. I felt bad looking around with no intention of buying anything but everything looked so cool I didn't want to miss any of it. My favorite one was a woman who just had hundreds of carvings and paintings of Santa, but she was currently working on one so I got too self-conscious to take a photo.
Berea wouldn't be the Capital of Arts and Crafts in Kentucky though, if there was just one Artisan Village. There was also a Folk Art Center, and it was my next stop. I loved it in there, it was like a giant mall of quirky art. Each artist had their own little station and there must have been over 50 artists being highlighted, a few of whom I even recognized from earlier at the Folk Art Museum. My favorite piece though was unlike anything I'd seen before. It was a portrait made by Darrel Davis of the first African American jockey to be inducted into horse racing hall of fame with a win percentage that is almost unparalleled even 100 years later, Isaac Murphy Brock. The thing that made exceptional however is that it was made entirely out of dryer lint on a painted wood surface. Truly bizarre but kind of beautiful.
For lunch, I stayed in Berea and went to Noodle Nirvana, a socially conscious Mom and Daughter Noodle restaurant. I got the pad thai with crispy roasted chicken, a spring roll side, and a thai iced coffee. It was all superb, and a portion of all their profits go to worthy causes so you can feel good while eating well.
Before heading back to Lexington, I got one more coffee for the road from the Native Bagel Co. The coffee was pretty good, and the baristas were really nice and I had a fun time sharing some jokes with them.
Back in Lexington, I went to the Headley-Whitney Museum. The museum is the former house, library, rose garden, and personal gallery of acclaimed jeweler George Headley. There were no photographs allowed inside the museum, but the exhibits were a few of George's own works, a gallery of photographs by an incredible artist named Tony Leonard, Intricate Doll Houses of the estate and the estates of his wife's family, and a gallery of works by elementary school children. George's works were probably the most impressive to me, and I can understand why he made such an impression in the jewelry world. His passion later in life was Bibelots, little jeweled statues that serve no other purpose beyond looking pretty. There was a lot of incredible ones, but here is the only one I could find a real good picture of online.
Museum admission also covered a tour of the grounds which was a real treat. His personal library and gallery were in a special building that he designed to look like a giant Bibelot to catch the eyes of passers by. It was also the site of a large art heist in the 80s and most of his own works that weren't in the exhibit in the main building were melted and down and sold for their precious metals. The highlight of the tour was the shell grotto, a small shed decorated wall to wall, floor to ceiling with rare and exotic shells that George Headley collected during his life. The four walls were each bedecked with a mural made out of shells created by an artist named Carl Malouf. Even the tiles on the floor were made out of fossilized coral. I could have spent hours just sitting there and taking it all in.
After the museum, I went to Old Kentucky Chocolates because Sonya had told me that their bourbon chocolate cherries were a must try while I was there. I got one of those, a moon shine truffle, and a classic dark chocolate. Everything was rich and flavorful, but the bourbon chocolate cherry was probably one of the best candies I ever had.
I still had a little time to kill before I met Sonya for dinner, so I went to the Good Foods Co-Op to sit and do some work. I had a coffee which was pretty good, and I thought the barista did an exemplary job dealing with an older customer ahead of me, who kept asking "How come you can't go up to a woman and call her beautiful anymore? It's a compliment." Everyone except that guy seemed a little confused as to why this was time or place for that conversation as nothing seemed to have precipitated it, but the barista did a nice job brushing him off without being mean about even though the guy was noticeably making him uncomfortable.
When I did meet up with Sonya we went to Bourbon n' Toulouse for dinner, a cajun and creole restaurant. The food was really amazing, and the prices were unreal for the quantity and quality of the food. Sonya got a half and half of chicken etouffee and jambalaya, and I gota BBQ pulled pork sandwich. The BBQ sauce was made with honey and bourbon and it was the perfect blend of sweet, smokey, and savory. Plus Toulouse was the name of the best Aristocat, so I just had Everybody Wants to be a Cat playing in my head the whole time.
After dinner Sonya and I warmed up with hot chocolate from Chocolate Holler. She said it was one of her favorite places in Lexington, and I can see why. I got the chocolate orange hot chocolate, and it was perfectly balanced hot chocolate. Easy to drink, rich, smooth, and with just the hint of citrus-y zest. I loved it, I had some fun joking around with the cashier, and most importantly I got to spend my last full night in Kentucky hanging out with one of my best friends.
Favorite Random Sightings: Awesome Inc.; The Buttonhole; Happy Balls!; The Richest Octopus
Regional Observation: I'm gonna really miss having the option of getting everything flavored with bourbon.
Albums Listened To: The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society by the Kinks (a Very British Masterpiece); Knnillssonn by Harry Nilsson (probably his most consistently good late career album); Knuckle Down by Ani DiFranco (i think i forgot to mention that we saw her recording studio in buffalo); Konk by the Kooks ( probably their best album)
People's Favorite Jokes:
"My dad used to always answer knock knock jokes by saying 'Come in!'"
What's a magician's favorite dog? An abraca-labradoodle
Why does a chicken coop have only two doors? If it had four it'd be a chicken sedan
Songs of the Day:
I love this song, and I love how little of a shit Ray Davies gave whenever he was supposed to lip sync for tv
Bonus: For some crazy reason this isn't on my iPod