Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/845169
Clockwise from top: Randell Morgan created the light installation on the stairwell of the former lodge from 1898; 100W co-founder Travis LaMothe, event coordinator Adrienne Lichliter; founder/owner Kyle Hobratschk. 72 when we broke for lunch." Flash forward, and in late April, en route to Dallas Arts Month, I made a memorable hour stop-off, where I briefly met Hobratschk and Pinto Bean, his rescue Chihuahua mix, before the duo dashed off to a dinner in Dallas. Lingering on, I toured the town's art space across the street, which is run by Rebal and Searcy. They not only leased space and resided on the third floor of the building in the early years, but now own an impromptu gallery, Rebal/Searcy Studio. The gallery is housed in a former grocery store built in 1924 by local mogul L.T. Davis, the founder of Wolf Chili, which had its beginnings in Corsicana, and was named for Davis' pet wolf (as relayed in the town guide book). The day of our visit, the gallery and 100 West's first-floor space shared an exhibition of one of Searcy's discoveries: self-taught artist Wayne Hall, who is an assured master of assemblage. Meeting Hall, who also serves as a church deacon in a nearby town, was a highlight memorialized by acquiring one of his sculptures for my personal collection. This spring, Rebal and Searcy closed on a historic home, an 1866 Victorian two blocks from Kyle's guest house/residence, contributing yet two other voices to the artistic and literary renaissance of this Texas town. "What is really special about 100W is that its very existence, and its tremendous flowering, have been an absolute total surprise," Rebal says. "It's as if this idea wants to happen and is simply pulling us along. I told Kyle about a building for sale, he bought it, and we rented studio space. And then it went boom. How about an Artists' Collective? Great. How about an artist/writer residency? Great. Why don't we buy some historic old houses here … and another studio. Well why not? And life has never felt so good. Hooking up with Kyle's enthusiastic vision and ability is the best thing that ever happened. "There are so many special memories at 100W. Painting in the glorious light- filled studio; drinking wine on the roof as David reads to a group by flashlight; fabulous dinners with everything mindful, authentic, and as hand-made as possible. And now a constant stream of the most creative souls on the planet working with us and becoming important friends. This is not the rat race." L ate one night, Hobratschk revealed, "If I'd known what was involved, I might not have done it." It was the following month, during my second visit to 100 West, and the first to break bread and stay overnight. After a tamale communal dinner finished off by homemade lemon-icebox pie, and overseen by Collective artist Adrienne Lichliter (whose day job is coordinating education at the Crow Collection), we were back at the guest house, a classic, front-porch Victorian, painted white, circa 1888. Hobratschk and his retired architect mom who owns it, Celeste Hobratschk, restored the home a couple years after he purchased the lodge. It functions as a bed and breakfast of sorts, a charming spillover for resident artists' friends and families, and cultural pilgrims like myself. We sipped cinnamon tea and looked at one of my host's sculptures in the entrance. He had made the silicon mold for this sculpture from the hole where 100 West's original support columns once stood, an impression taken when they were removed to be replaced with new beams good for the next 100 years. Hobratschk says that if repairs hadn't been undertaken in 2012 — replacing a badly leaking roof and crumbling columns that no longer touched the floor, just dangled from the ceiling — the building might have had five or six years at the most before being beyond salvation. But he did come along, this pied piper of ideas and fortitude. Nearly 50 artists and writers have passed through the doors as residents at 100W. One of the first was Anna Membrino, a Dallas artist and SMU alum. "I remember the night Kyle first mentioned the residency to a group of us from SMU. We were all having dinner at his house, and he said that he had heard about this beautiful 100-year-old building an hour away from Dallas. He painted a picture of a series of studios in the building, maybe an artist's residency. Would we come? "Yes, we would," we said. We saw the photos and fell in love. It sounded like a dream, and then Kyle