Randyland

Scout loves a good adventure. And today, I had one of the single most amazing experiences of my LIFE. Because I only have a week left in Pittsburgh, I'm trying to explore parts of the city that I adore so much. My favorite neighborhood is the Mexican War Streets, and the weather felt unseasonably warm, so I was wandering around and looking at the gorgeous historical homes. Being old and brick, the homes are rows of browns and burnt reds.

And then I turned the corner, and my eyes widened. "What.... is.... THAT?!"





A house. A house in the brightest of yellow, purple, green, and completely covered in road signs, vintage signs, garden signs. I was amazed. As I pulled out my phone to snap a picture, a man walked up to me. He was all smiles. Bleached blonde hair with some darker roots poking through. Simple, plain clothes that seemed nothing of status. And then, Dolce & Gabbana glasses.

His smile was as happy as the side of this house.

"Hi! You don't have to just take pictures from out here! I'll show it to you!" he says to me. "I'm Randy, what's your name?"

"Um, hi! I'm Scout. What is this place?" I ask him.

"It's my house! It's RANDYLAND! Come on, I'll show it to you!"

There's a middle aged couple standing nearby who had been talking with him. I glance their direction, and the woman nods and smiles and motions towards the purple-green-yellow-blue garden gate that Randy is holding open for us to walk inside.

So.... I went with them and went into Randy's garden.




It was amazing. There were brightly colored lawn chairs everywhere, painted doors leaning against the side of the house, a structure that you could tell was a waterfall in the summer, the fence was painted pink and purple, the side of the next house was bright as well with abstract scenes that look like a fairy tale.

It was so mesmerizing, so joyous. So happy. I snapped back to attention to hear Randy rambling on and on to the couple about the Northside Door Project, about art days for children, about the poetry sessions that go on in the garden.

Poetry sessions? Art for children? Who is this man?




"C'mon, I'll show you what I've been working on inside!" he says to us.

"He wants me to go inside? Who is he? What am I doing?"

Regardless of the fact that I was being offered to walk into a strange (on more than one level) man's house, with a strange couple, in a strange neighborhood, I could not help but agree. The man from the couple said to me, "Now you're a lucky lady, because very very few people actually get to see the inside!"

Randy opens the door to his house, and we're immediately at a stairway. But this stairway is just as odd, bright, and happy as the outside of his home. It is entirely art with a three dimensional aspect because of stucco that he has cut out and attached to the walls. Each segment of this long stairway is different. The colors are orange, white, black, purple, and everything you can imagine. Shapes, and flames, and geometry are covering the stairwell entirely.

I decided to put my phone away and not take pictures inside, because I sensed immediately that unlike his garden, this was a more private space. He took us into his great room which was eccentric as hell. The entire ceiling was painted. It was full of blue bubble like circles, and a darker blue ribbon-like color was painted in a twisting pattern throughout the ceiling, and in the corner the chaos became calm with a night-and-stars scene.

I began paying attention to Randy's rambling again. He was going on and on about how you cannot control art, but art takes control of you. "I'm not a smart kid, I don't know how to paint, but I painted this and I can't believe it!" Randy's voice sounded EXACTLY like Sean Penn's in "I am Sam," and I was beginning to get this sense that Randy was some beautiful blend of a genius not like the rest of us.

He wasn't kidding when he continued with, "See, everything in my life is fast! I talk fast, I dream fast, and everything comes to me; I'm like an octopus" ::insert flailing of arms here:: Randy began smiling directly into my eyes as he said, "See, art is love! This is all love here! You know, there's more love in this world than there is hate, and you just have to let it shine through!" He said to me, "This ceiling here is my brain. I bet if you could see into my brain, this would be it!"

Everything that Randy says is completely animated with such exuberance and enthusiasm, and it is contagious. I found myself smiling till it hurt while listening to him talk.

"But there's one more special secret to this place that I've just got to show you!" he said as he interjected into his own monologue.

We walked up a few more stairs and he unlatched a door on the ceiling. And then, we went onto his roof. The couple that was with us stayed behind, because the lady was afraid to go, but Randy and I walked onto his flat rooftop.





I lost the air in my lungs up there. When you looked down, you saw Randy's garden and all of it's color, eccentricity, and random art. You saw it from a different perspective, in its wholeness, and it was just pure inspiration. But then, when I looked back up and out in front of me....

I saw Pittsburgh. Beautiful, glorious, magnificent Pittsburgh. I saw the stacks of houses, I saw the outline of downtown, I saw home.

"What do you think?" he says to me, rocking on his heels.

As I stared out at my city, I replied to him, "I think I've died and gone to heaven."

As Randy continued more rambling about love, and joy, and "the journey," I interjected (because that's the only way I could ask a question -- he talks so fast!) , "Are you from here?"

"Yep, yep, been in Pittsburgh all my life. I'm just a simple country boy. I bought this house here for 10,000 dollars on a credit card, and I've been working on this journey and this art for almost ten years. But see, I don't want it! I don't want this art. I'm putting it in a trust fund and I'm giving it to the city of Pittsburgh so that they can continue the journey and the joy."
Who is this man?! Standing in his presence, staring at his smile, surrounded by his vibrant creations, and listening to him talk about happiness and joy -- but not in a cheesy way, but in a very genuine and raw way -- I couldn't help but feel some of that joy and passion transferred onto myself. I felt... revitalized. Hopeful. At peace.

I left his house and thanked him for the tour, completely dumbfounded by the experience that I'd just stumbled into.

But it turns out I'm not the first or only person to have stumbled upon Randy and his Randyland. He was so humble, that I would have never guessed that he'd recently been on the Today Show and is actually a local celebrity around here.

I would like to introduce you to Randy:






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Did you watch them both? If you didn't go push "play," now. Seriously.

Randy is my new hero. And to think, I just randomly stumbled upon him. What an amazing Pittsburgher. Wow... just... wow.