Daily Iowan

Issue date: 7/13/07 Section: Arts

Media Credit: Ariana McLaughlin/The Daily Iowan

Pomeroy, one of the many small, corn-entrenched towns dotting Highway 7, is in the midst of reviving its ghost-like presence through the arts. Although most of the town's buildings still stare blankly out on the town's empty streets with fading signs and dark, dusty windows, life has slowly crept back into the community as local artists move in, purchasing decrepit buildings for their workshops.

Pomeroy residents still drive 20 miles to buy groceries, but they can hear live music at local bar Byron's, visit the Kaleidoscope Factory, view stained-glass windows at Abbejas Glass Art and hand-painted barn panels at Liz Meyer's American folk Art, and thumb through vintage books at the Hungry Horse, all in downtown Pomeroy's miniature Art District.

"For a long time, it was pretty much dead," said Byron Stuart, the owner of Byron's. "Trying to get this little arts community going has been really fun."

The ball began rolling in 2004, when Leonard Olson purchased an 1890s drugstore for a mere $1,000. This he turned into the Kaleidoscope Factory. Despite the store's remote location, Olson sells his 'scopes to eager travelers from all over the United States.

"I'm not selling art, I'm selling an experience," Olson said, smiling. "Customers are buying the art to validate the experience. They're going home, and saying 'I met this crazy guy in Pomeroy.' "

He carves buttons, magic pixie dust dispensers, and gavels as well as kaleidoscopes, using shells and colored beads. His passion for kaleidoscopes began in 1997, when he was hospitalized for a heart attack. His friends bought him a kaleidoscope for some entertainment during his agonizingly boring bed rest. The tube of ever-changing geometric colors never left his side.

When the 54-year-old Father Christmas look-alike left the hospital, he traded his addiction to nicotine for an addiction to power tools.

"There was no great epiphany," he admitted. "The sky did not open up and say, 'You shall make kaleidoscopes.' "

He made his first real kaleidoscope in 1999 after buying a lathe. When one of Olson's 'scopes was auctioned for $110 at Stuart's annual hemophilia benefit, he realized that kaleidoscopes were money-makers.

"It was pure greed that got me into the business," he quipped. Although, the heart-attack survivor said, the beautiful, infinitely mutable diamond-shaped images in a kaleidoscope have a very profound, personal meaning.

Continued...

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