For Art’s Sake - Bohos in the ‘burbs

Artisan Resource Center is a beehive of creativity

A tour of the Artisan Resource Center is like visiting some 19th-century dime museum, that Barnum-age attraction where city dwellers could go to see human curiosities, variety shows and acting troupes all under one roof. There is a plethora of idiosyncratic talent co-existing in this warren of 25 studios. Open one door: An eccentric pops out. Open a new door: another.

The creatives are stacked one on top of each other in this complex of jewelers and painters and fashion designers and birdhouse architects.

The center is a 43,000-square-foot warehouse in a Cobb County commercial zone within spitting distance of I-75, owned since 1986 by working artists Rip and Jefflyne Potter.

Jefflyne is “the boss, basically,” says Rip, and manages the business arm of the Center. “I’m the hunchback,” jokes Rip, the resident Mr. Fix-It who displays the free-spirited demeanor of someone who’s found his niche in life and plans to stick with it.

An architectural designer for a variety of national and local clients, Rip has built interiors for the Masquerade and the notorious Manhattan nightclub Limelight.

In ARC’s beehive of art, craft and everything in between, bizarre relationships form. Intense, slightly gothic Andre Freitas, whose AFX Studios designs everything from professional wrestler costumes to Opryland showgirl costumes, pops into perky Linda McMullan’s studio. There, Freitas takes a break from designing “Tales of the Crypt”-worthy effects to help McMullan turn out her froufrou tassels and frothy Lula Belle handbags.

Instead of laboring in solitude in lonely split-levels with only the sound of Oprah to break the silence, these artists work in a hive of community and cooperation.

“If you’re in a jam or need a hand, you can go next door,” says sculptor Fernando D’astoli who’s finishing up a marble sculpture for Kennesaw State University, which Rip helped him hoist.

More cohort than landlord, Rip is generally in his own woodworking studio next door, where he’s currently building a cypress door with an art nouveau tree carved in its center for a Brookhaven arborist’s home.

Down the hall is a retired investment banker turned high-end birdhouse artist, Stan King. He turns out absurdly beautiful craftsman-style houses made from recycled wood. For the raptor house he is designing for a California vineyard plagued with field mice, King has included red, stained glass windows and a silhouette of a field mouse on the base to inspire his feathered dive-bombers. Meanwhile his “love nest” birdhouse is worthy of an Atlantic City tryst, complete with tiny mirror on the ceiling.

Like Jefflyne and Rip, the ARC artists exhibit the kind of infectious, satisfaction of doing work they love with no boss but themselves.

Sure they occasionally get stuck in the doldrums of creativity, bringing to life the grandiose wishes of the nouveau riche demanding $15,000 custom coffee tables. Many of these people would never dream of buying artwork, says an ARC ceramic artist, but think nothing of dropping thousands on faux finishes and custom kitchen hutches. But part of what the Potters hope to foster is a community where artists are able to make money from their efforts. At the heart of the ARC philosophy is the simple truth that “somehow you’ve got to make a living,” says Jefflyne.

The Artisan Resource Center will hold an open house and studio tour Nov. 19-21. ARC is located at 585 Cobb Parkway, Marietta. For information, call 770-423-0048 or visit www.artisanresourcecenter.net.Susan Bridges holds her annual Big Angel Blowout (www.somecallitart.com) Nov. 18-21 in her Inman Park home/gallery. It features artwork sized and priced for a boho holiday shopping spectacular. Bridges has a knack for showcasing off-the-beaten-path artists including sublime Southern gothic photographer Mark Starnes, ’50s-obsessed painter Tracy Wagner, neo-folkie Cooper Sanchez and a cast of artists exhibiting more wit and whimsy than seems proper in these dark and perilous times.

felicia.feaster@creativeloafing.com