The Thought Lot is a place where viewers, artists and musicians can gather every week with the support of the Shippensburg community. Artists bring their works in and sell them to potential buyers looking for their next fix.
The warehouse, located at 37 E. Garfield St., held an exhibit opening Friday night at 6 p.m. for artists Alabaster Slade and AMBNC.
The duo together is Gargantuan X, an alternative pop musical group that played a show at 9:15 p.m. Friday night after the art viewing.
Slade introduced his latest piece, “The Lonely Phone Booth,” in an exhibit that allowed viewers to freely look at and touch themselves.
The booth is typically hidden along High Mountain Road in Shippensburg and spectators are invited to call the landline number 717-477-0302 to leave a voicemail for the artist.
Slade said he has reached about 200 messages in the past week and saves the most memorable messages for a book he is going to write.
“This phone’s taken on a life of its own. People are trying to find it and some people don’t believe it’s real,” Slade said.
Both artists rented out the warehouse for visitors to come by and check out their portraits. There are a total of 51 paintings that are all under $100 apiece.
Along with the plethora of paintings available, the two artists have brought their latest album to the show entitled “X Marks the End.”
“We’ve been making music together for roughly seven to eight months,” said AMBNC, creator and editor of the videos that go along with their songs.
AMBNC makes animated background videos for when the duo play their songs in front of audiences. “All the videos are on YouTube, they’re easy to find,” he said.
As the musicians spoke about their album debut, they talked about the hardships of putting together the show on such short notice.
“We got a call from The Thought Lot and they said the space was available,” Slade said. “Usually we’re a year ahead of schedule, but we had to put this viewing together in about three months so we didn’t have much time to do everything we wanted.”
The performers have been working day in and day out to get their material together to present to audiences. Their passion lies in the process of creating art and giving it to others.
Neither artist is in this business for the money; they simply enjoy spreading their vision around and making their mark on society while they still can.
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