Tile Tales [Updated]

SFDB has been a big fan of Tilefortlauderdale since our blog birth in February. The concept of leaving a hand-painted tile for someone to find in a restroom or under a mail box or in a newspaper box is just so creative and so unique that we try to mention each and every "drop" and the story behind the tile.

Most of Tilefortlauderdale's tiles have not been found or, at least, have not been reported back as being found. Mary Tiler More, Tilefortlauderdale's writer and tile painter, leaves the blog address on the back of every tile so that "finders" can contact her if they want.

Recently one did and the story of "Feisty Fred" grew to such epic proportions that a Clarksville, Tennessee, newspaper picked up on it and, well, you have to read it to believe it.

Finding an artifact from a previous civilization outside one of the oldest structures in this area would have been less surprising. What 8-year-old Samantha Smith found outside her church after a day at Vacation Bible School was an artifact of the Internet age, a monument of new expressions of creativity.

Under the sign for Patriot Park outside Bethel United Methodist Church, Samantha, who goes by the nickname Sami, saw what looked like the brightly colored edge of a poster or greeting card.

"I saw something sticking out. I thought it was a piece of paper, but it wasn't. It was this," Sami says, holding up a large floor tile.

On the tile is painted a dapper-looking cat with a ring of bells around its neck, standing tall and staring ahead boldly. "Fred Feels Feisty" is painted in block letters up one side. Fred looks feisty!

Read the whole story to find out how the tile made it from Florida to Tennessee. I will tell you that the best part of all, in my opinion, is the influence this has had on one 8-year-old's life.

Sami is so excited about Fred that, although she intends to keep him and not hide him in another spot, she is thinking about painting tiles of her own and hiding them for others to find. The found art has provided a new charge for Sami's own artistic nature.

[...]

"I like how she paints on this. I like the texture," Sami says. "When I take art classes, I want to learn how she does it. Drawing is my hobby that I will always cherish."

And that, folks, has to be about as much "impact" that a blogger can hope to have. Don't you think?



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The Miami Herald has picked up on the Tennessee story that is now AP syndicated.

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