If you happened to drive through Escalon this past weekend, you might have wondered what that long line of people was doing along First Street. The line started at the door of the newly opened Poor Example, situated in The Merchant Yard building, 1455 First St., and snaked along the walkway to the building, then down the sidewalk toward McHenry Avenue.
They were waiting, patiently, for a chance to get in and see the artwork and other items in the Poor Example gallery, with artist Mike Mitchell at the helm.
Mitchell, an Escalon High School graduate, has returned to his hometown to open a business, which drew in huge crowds for each day of the three-day grand opening celebration, which ran Friday, March 28 through Sunday, March 30.
“It’s a store I started with my sister, Leann Castellanos, and my wife Lauren Mitchell, formerly Lauren Wall; we’re all from Escalon,” Mitchell explained. “I always had this idea of coming back and doing something with art here because that’s what I love.”
Mitchell said he wanted to be an artist but couldn’t find a job opportunity or a way to advance his career here, so he went to college and developed his design style and had been living and working in Texas for about 10 years before coming back to Escalon.
When a space at The Merchant Yard came up, he decided to take the plunge.
“The space came up for rent and we’ve been talking about it for years,” he explained of collaborating in a store. “When we moved back, this came up for rent and we just went for it.”
Also purchasing the former Bakery building on Main Street, that will be undergoing extensive remodeling, with the ultimate goal of moving the business there within a few years.
“I made a bunch of new stuff,” Mitchell said of preparing for the opening, “and with my wife Lauren and my sister Leann, Poor Example is our store and it’s filled with my art.”
He added that his wife is also very “art savvy” and did a lot of the design work and created some items in the shop, while Mitchell did the majority of the artwork.
The artist admitted that he and his crew were a bit overwhelmed by the response, which saw people standing in line waiting for ‘admission’ to the shop, as the space is limited and they could only have a handful of people in at one time.
“It’s been crazy; we’re very happy with the turnout, I had friends come in from Texas and Canada, we had people coming in from Australia that came here,” he explained.
With online sales and some gallery shows, Mitchell said opening the store is easily “the most successful in person event I’ve ever done; to have that happen in Escalon is wild.”
From limited edition prints to figurines, hats and key chains, all drew plenty of attention from shoppers throughout the weekend.
Poor Example will be open primarily by appointment and hope to have some regular limited hours, as well as opening up when special events are occurring on Main Street.
“My family’s all here, they all live in town and some of them haven’t really gotten to see what my art career is like so they’re kind of still digesting that,” Mitchell said, smiling. “The best part about it was that, and my friends coming in, just all the people that came in from all over, all over the country, a lot of Bay area people, Sacramento people, LA people and everybody’s just having fun and having a good time.”
