Sister Louisa

Sister Louisa is "channeled" through a gentleman by the name of Grant Henry, who I first learned of in Hollis Gillespie's columns and books. If there ever was an encouraging example of a life lived humanly, not perfectly, it's Hollis. She's been an Atlanta girl for some time now, but she actually grew up around the South Bay area. I'll tell you right now that her book titles are so irreverent and inappropriate that some of you couldn't bring them in the house because your children would repeat them at school and you'd get a call from the principal. But you will probably find a lot you can identify with in them. To get a taste of Hollis's style, read her column about her outing with her friends, including Grant "Sister Louisa" Henry.

I was pleasantly surprised a week or so ago when I finished my lunch at Octane, my favorite coffee place, and looked up to realize that I was surrounded by "Sister Louisa," who was the artist of the month. I really love that Tony, Octane's owner, does this, because there's always something new to look at and it's usually really good, plus he's giving exposure to local artists that could really use it. I took my laptop and escaped from the office yesterday afternoon so that I could work on a document for a project that - I swear - is trying to drain the life from me. And lo and behold I discovered that Grant Henry was setting up for an opening there that night, and Hollis Gillespie was to be there as well. I met Grant and chatted with him for a few minutes, and he was warm and gracious.

So they had an opening party and everything last night, and I went home and took care of the dogs, then drove back to Atlanta so I could get Grant and Hollis to sign my copy of her first book. Grant did the jacket design for it, as well as for her latest book, which is why I wanted them both to sign it. At the end of the month when the art comes down off of Octane's walls, I'm buying a Sister Louisa painting of Jesus that has the same saying painted on it as the window in the picture above. Sister Louisa might seem sacreligious on the surface but if you think about the stuff for more than two seconds it makes sense, I believe.