Left, meet right. And somewhere in between, you meet Elizabeth Robinson. The co-owner of Professional Staffing Group and a glass artist says between her third floor office and her basement glass studio, she utilizes her left brain and right brain skills and they “meet at the glass house on the first floor.” She is of course referring to her retail location in Fondren Corner, and says she is unlike the typical artist. “I’m a math person,” she says, “and it comes out in my glass.” She’s also a musician. Robinson was a ‘fence-climbing’ small town girl who played drums and strings at the W in Columbus and put herself through college with a tune or two. She says she interprets her artistic work mathematically and rhythmically. ‘I could dance to this’ someone once told her of her method for creating beautiful breakables like pieces she makes from single ‘blanks.’ “Each person who receives a piece is woven back to another.” Continue reading “Living in Glass Houses: Meet Elizabeth Robinson” »

Stuck. It’s a miserable place for a creative and for Fondren artist Jason Moore, the gestation period may be over. It was nine months ago that the 29 year old Yazoo City native left his nine to five to pursue his passion. “I had gone as long as I could go in that world,” he says, “and drawing was something I always liked.” Graduating from Ole Miss with an English and classics education, Moore says he became physically ill in the day to day grind. With his girlfriend Holly Jackson’s encouragement, he set out to pursue a passion that had been inside since childhood. Moore won a Yazoo City art contest as a 12 year old and the prize was a week long art camp in Jackson. Seventeen years later, pen and watercolor are his tools of the trade, and a natural stress reliever. Jackson, a copywriter, says she sees Jason happier, healthier and more whole as a full time artist. Continue reading “Nine Months to Rebirth: Meet Jason Moore” »

Before and after: it’s his favorite part of the job. Don Egdorf is the Upper Ninth Ward New Orleans native who says his own apartment is living proof of his “work as a hobby” mentality. The 57 year old serves as building superintendent for Peters Development Corporation, overseeing nearly a dozen properties, four of those in Fondren. Spending his junior high years at Gulf Coast Military Academy, Egdorf says he was misunderstood. “I was bored,” he tells us, “and got labeled as falling behind. Today, they’d put me in the gifted class.” And they certainly couldn’t call him bored anymore. His busy job is making sure everything gets done. It’s also his biggest challenge. “Coordinating people,” he says, “can be tricky.”

But it is a remodel that gets his juices flowing. Like his basement apartment in Fondren Corner. With built in fish tanks, a hot tub, and a maze of rooms, Egdorf is always hard at work on the ‘next project.’ He called it a ‘useless warehouse’ before, but now dares to call it ‘one of the nicest apartments in Fondren.’ When Egdorf is not building or coordinating, he’s spending time with the people he loves – like his kids, and complete strangers. “I walk up to people in Rooster’s or Basil’s,” he says, “and just start a conversation. You can do that here. It’s different than anywhere else in Jackson.”