Friday. Last day. Busiest day. Quite possibly the best day. First stop was Brownsville, Tennessee. We went to check out Billy Tripp’s Mindfield. The sculpture/mixed media art piece was started in 1989 after his father’s death as a memorial to his parents. Billy recieved the okay from the city to be buried here so it will also become one huge awesome grave stone for him. I took about 100 photos of almost every aspect of the piece but it does not really give it justice. The whole idea is out there…

Right after I wrote a long note to Billy in a guest book of sorts Karen and I take a drive around back to his “studio space”, if you will. Thanks to a handy tip from the mail man we learned we could go around back to see more and I spot Billy! My first instinct is to shout, ” Are you Billy?!”, and hop out of the car. My reponse from him was the perfect introduction to this bizarre artist. “Are you her? I’ve been waiting for her all my life. You must be her!”

After a meeting like that you have to stick around, particularly when the man is wearing a bright green shirt and hot pink belt with a matching bandana. We talked to him for a bit and I had a bunch of questions. I was mostly interested in any controversary this piece would stir up in a conservative area. He referred to us as friends and offered us one of his books and business cards. He wanted feed back on the autobiography and warned us it might be a difficult read and not make much sense. We got to hear about what is coming up in the life of his Mindfield and shook hands good bye. Quite the morning! Thank goodness for the mail man.

-B

Currently listening to: Dolly Parton