Secret Pittsburgh

“Creativity is for the gifted few: the rest of us are compelled to live in environments constructed by the gifted few, listen to the gifted few’s music, use gifted few’s inventions and art…This is what our education and culture conditions us to believe, and this is a culturally induced and perpetuated lie” (Nicholson 5). To painter and sculptor Simon Nicholson, today’s society fails to give individuals the opportunity to experiment in their environments. Randy Gilson, the father of the one and only Randyland, could not agree more. His childhood taught him to be resourceful, innovative, and productive. To this day, he lives to be a walking exception to Nicholson’s idea of how society has trained us to act.

Growing up, Randy and his family faced many challenges. His mother, a woman who left her abusive husband when Randy was eight years old, struggled to meet her family’s basic needs. Randy recalls the first Christmas they celebrated away from home: “When I was eight years old…mom…ran away with six kids. The first Christmas, there was no Christmas. The Church gave her socks and underwear…I remember, like, we wanted toys. I went out in the streets of the neighborhood I didn’t even know, but I did see toys in the garbage, so I brought the toys home.” This was the beginning of his experimentation with his surroundings. He compared himself to a toolbox, and realized that he had the tools to help him move from project to project using the scraps he found: “I realized my eyes were a tool to see, my hands were a tool to bring [something] home…my mind was a tool to fix it, or make something new out of it, and my heart was a tool to be happy.”

But why was he so wise and creative at such a young age? What made his way of thinking so different from other children’s, when, after all, “there is no evidence… that some young babies are born creative and inventive, and others not” (Nicholson 5)? He gives his mother full credit, and says his creativity came from watching her struggle.

“I think creativity has been stolen by people’s comfort zones. Children today do not have the opportunity to see their parents struggle, then when they struggle, they think they’re odd. They see that their parents are happy all the time. There’s no crying, tears, anger, hurt, running out of money….When I watched [my mom] struggle, I realized there was nobody to help her…I saw her cry, so I thought, ‘Okay, crying is normal. So if I cry, mom cries, I’m normal. If I can’t figure something out, mom feels stupid sometimes, it’s okay to feel stupid’…I think that a lot of times people today aren’t seeing the weaknesses or the strangeness of growing. They’re seeing the polished look.”

To Randy, if people are not challenged or forced to face struggles in life, then they will never learn to question or reach for greater potential. The “polished look,” as he describes, leaves no room for growth or improvement. Nicholson’s theory of loose parts supports the same idea: “In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it” (6). The more variety a person is exposed to, the wider the range of outcomes.

Today, Randy continues to recycle pieces for his gallery, a now $1 million franchise after growing from a $10,000 credit purchase 21 years ago. He spends hours sitting in his yard, welcoming everyone that wants to walk around with a big smile and a loud, “Hi, how ya doin?! Welcome, welcome!”

Along with her strength and perseverance, Randy’s mother also emphasized the importance of love and generosity to her children. He grew up observing her example of welcoming others to the dinner table, despite their own hardships: “Mom would always show us…that even though we were poor…there was always people that had less than us. [She] always said that no matter how many people there are ahead of you in life, there’s always ten times people behind you.” Though he faced a great deal of unkindness and bullying while growing up, he does not stop sharing his love and making everyone feel special.

He strives to make his garden a sanctuary for all, no matter their background. Although many people want to associate him with his Christian faith, he tries to stay neutral: “I just want people to leave [their] tensions outside, [to] come inside Randyland [and] just feel the gifts from everyone…all the people that walk through here…leave something: a smile, a heartbeat. I tell people, ‘Sing a song if you wanna! Give a gift to the garden. If you want to leave a dance for the garden, dance in the garden!’…Leave a prayer in the garden. The next person that comes through will pick up your prayer… for health, for happiness …That’s just me!” he says with a chuckle, “I’m just the old guy!”

The space that Randy has created for himself, locals, and visitors from all over the world, is unlike any other outdoor art gallery in the area. Renee Piechocki’s Pittsburgh Art In Public Places: A Walking Tour Guide, documents different pieces found around the city. Aside from the colorful Jazz House down the road, which could be considered a cousin to Randy’s “yellow castle,” nothing compares to the spectacle on the corner of Arch and Jacksonia Streets. The garden gives a special combination of “the real and the imagined, things and thought on equal terms” (Soja 68). The yard and art are representations of Randy’s perceived and conceived realities. His creations symbolize his emotions and evoke in viewers their own perceived, conceived, and lived versions of the space.

At this point, Randy is thinking of retiring from his food-serving job at the Westin Hotel. He lans to give away his unique museum to become a non-profit organization for art, theatre, dance, and programming. However, his legacy is bound to live on, and continue to send ripples throughout the world. Randy is an example of the power of persistence and optimism. He is a success story for those who struggle daily to find ways to survive, those who struggle in school and feel like they do not belong, and those who can find the good in every situation.

“If we don’t struggle, then we don’t question. If everything’s okay, okay, okay, okay…then you’re horizontal. You’re not growing. When it’s not okay, then you have to question. When you have to question, then you have to reach. When you reach, you open, and when you open, you go from A to D to A to Z. It’s your world….And so, like, I’m just a 60 year old guy that built a museum out of garbage, because I picked toys out of the garbage when I was a kid…Now…the New York Times just did a big story on my life.”

Perhaps Randy can be considered one of Pittsburgh’s gifted few. Perhaps he was merely fortunate enough to live in an environment full of loose parts to work with and to create something out of nothing. No matter how one looks at Randy Gilson’s story, there is no doubt that he is a special component of Pittsburgh’s personality. He is an inspiration to how one ought to live, and how one ought to share the skills and wisdom he or she possesses. For if we do not test our limits, we will never understand just how big we can be.

 

Works Cited

“About Us.” National Aviary. The National Aviary of Pittsburgh, 2017. www.aviary.org. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.

Gilson, Randy. Randyland. Randyland, 2016. randy.land. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.

LaNoce, Emma. Personal Interview. 12 Apr. 2017.

Mattress Factory. 72.55.174.104. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.

Nicholson, Simon. “The Theory of Loose Parts: An important principle for design methodology.” Studies in Design Education Craft & Technology, vol. 4, no. 2, 1972, https://jil.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/SDEC/article/view/1204/1171. Accessed March 21, 2017.

Piechocki, Renee. Pittsburgh Art In Public Places: Downtown Walking Tour. Pittsburgh PA: Office of Public Art, 2013.

Pittsburgh Bureau of Building Inspection. 1523 Arch St.. 1942. Archives Services Center, Pittsburgh. Historic Pittsburgh, http://www.historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A20130204-hpichswp-0066. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.

Soja, Edward. Thirdspace: Journeys to Lost Angeles and Ither Real-and-Imagined Places. Cambridge MA: Blackwell Publishing Inc., 1996.  53-70.