A Tour of Staunton Virginia With Diana Hale

In early June, Misty, Miles, and I went on out first family road trip. It was a relatively short affair, about ten days long. If it were up to me, I would have pushed for at least two weeks, but we weren’t sure how Miles was going to react on long car rides. It wasn’t so much of an if he likes it or not situation, it was more of dipping your toes into the water of inevitability. He’s going to enjoy road trips. I like putting them together and I like driving very long distances. Misty likes riding and Miles is strapped into a chair and cannot move…for his safety, of course.

The trip was to take us from Winston-Salem North Carolina and up to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. Along the way we’d make stops in D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Only one long drive was planned, and that was the first day of driving. 

First few hours of our road trip.

 

The first official stop was to see the great mail-artist Diana Hale in Staunton Virginia. I have sent mail-art to Diana for years and got to know her a little bit through ZMAG (an online group of mail-artists) meeting on Zoom. We’ve done a few projects together and it’s always a pleasure to see her work in the mail. Not only was it exciting to meet up with Diana, but I was extra excited to see her “space” in downtown Staunton, just in the shadow of an old courthouse. It’s a location that she’s been renovating for some time. She creates from there, and she exhibits the work of others, and has mail-art centered public shows.  When we visited, she was still showing work from “Stamp Out Ice.” In that show, she had artists contribute work, many of which were artist stamps sheets, concerning the influx of Ice agents on American streets. Even some of my silliness was there in the form of Vanilla Ice themed stickers, that Diana had graciously turned into stamps sheets. 

 

List of Stamp Out Ice participants. 

Diana Hale showing us parts of the show. 

Come see the archive!

It’s rare when I got to meet a mail-artist. Usually, I go to them because no one’s coming to the fifth largest town in North Carolina. I have met a few folks, some in the U.S., and some out of the country, but that doesn’t happen all that often. At some point I need to go to one of these big gatherings. It’s nice to be around someone that knows postage rates and the problems everyone has with that one mail-artist…you know that one. It’s dorky, painfully specific fun.

Diana had us park right in downtown Stanton; a city located in the Shenandoah Valley. I especially liked the fact that she directed us towards free parking, those little details are what make for a good host. I appreciated that. After our hellos, we made it over to space. Walkin there, it felt like we had dropped into the late 19^th century. I imagined gas lamps and men in top hats wondering the streets near the towering courthouse. I could imagine a dastardly crime committed in one of the adjoining buildings. Right as the coppers were about to pounce, the cloaked character ducked down an alley and into a dark entry way.

Inside 7 Lawyers Row, I’m not sure there’s an official name, Diana graciously led us around. We looked at the stamps on the walls, and the items on the circular table in front of us. Many of the items were left over from an earlier protest that coincided with the Stamp Out Ice show. In the middle room, we looked at the artifacts she had hung on the wall, an impressive display of mail memorabilia. For a few seconds, Diana and I named the artists solely from their unique personal style. She had books too, a small library of anything related to mail-art, mail, or adjacent subjects. I imagine she’s still accepting donations for the collection. The backroom is a place where she creates work when the space (I hate I keep using this word) is open for visitors on the weekend. He work tools are in that room.  The jewel in her bonnet is a stamp perforator. People who make artist stamps covet these hard-to-find items built around the time gas lamps would have been used on the streets just outside the door. They know the years and the history behind them, who made them, and where they came from. To own one is to announce you’re “the real deal.” Although I liked the main event, I like to see how people work even more. I’m always interested when you get to see how artists create their work and where they create it. Positioned around the room was work she was currently developing, some of which I could make sense of from social media posts and Zoom meetings. Seeing these sorts of things, make a person that you’ve only known through their work a lot more real. 

Miles and the perforator. 

 

After the tour, we went over a few blocks to get lunch. Diana pointed out a few of the more unique elements of Staunton’s architecture as we went. We especially focused on the new “social areas” in the street. These areas are little places where people can sit on wooden benches on top of indoor grass and relax. They took up space where cars could have parked. While waiting on a seat for a burger joint, Miles took advantage of these recently installed areas by rolling around in the grass, which felt like was playing in the middle of the street. It was slightly nerve racking. He tried out both areas in front of the restaurant.

The four of us finished up lunch and strolled back towards are car, looking at a large group of tourists who seemed to be on some sort of official tour. They were looking too long into buildings for it not to be...something. We filed past them as they twenty or thirty of them started to stream into Diana’s building. Misty and I thanked Diana for the tour and the wonderful afternoon. It was on to the next stop. You must move quickly if you’re going to The Luray Caverns, don’t you know.

Thanks Diana.

If you’re in or around Staunton VA or just want to send Diana Hale some mail-art, you can find her at 7 Lawyer’s Row Staunton Virginia 24401.