If a week is a long time in politics, as British premier Winston Churchill famously remarked, imagine what two months can achieve in business.
When Eagle Rock looks back at The Eagle Rock Rock and Eagle Shop in years to come, this much will stand out: Imagination and enthusiasm are often all you need to make a good idea work in just about any creative field.
The Eagle Rock Rock and Eagle Shop—TERRES for short—started out as almost an April Fool's joke on 4765 Eagle Rock Blvd., with a grand opening that made it to the pages of the New York Times as well as our very own L.A. Weekly. A week ago on Sunday, June 3, the store celebrated its last day with another bash for which about 100 people turned up.
For store owner Bettina Hubby, running TERRES was one of the most creative spells of her life. "I was surprised to meet so many people in Eagle Rock and beyond who were already engaged in the making of art about rocks or eagles," she says. "They would come in and tell me about their work, which inspired me to include them in the shop/exhibit and which ultimately made the whole experience more engaging than it already was."
Hubby has had an informal offer to do an art installation based on TERRES in the Los Angeles area. "I might even try to do it in Europe," she says. "It would be great to do an Eagle Rock Rock and Eagle Shop there."
TERRES has also been invited by For Your Art, a store across the road from LACMA, for the opening of Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass, the much-publicized art project revolving around a 340-ton granite megalith. TERRES will be one of the exclusively rock-related art projects that For Your Art will host on June 16 and 17.
Hubby has been asked to curate a table of rock-related objects and artwork from TERRES' stock and exhibit. All items will be available for sale and Hubby will be manning the table throughout.
"So it will be a way to further experience the spirit of the project," says Hubby. She adds, unable to resist the urge to indulge in word play: "Though the eagles won't be present, the rocks will represent."
