Earlier this year, Rhody resident Edward Peters had an idea to share his garage space with his grandson, also named Edward Peters, who enjoys drawing and creating art. But the elder Peters also wondered if
the plan would go the way of the idea to build a treehouse, which hadn’t yet come to fruition.
The duo stuck to it and made it happen though, turning the old firehouse
building he rents in Brightwood as an art gallery, and opening it to visitors
during select weekends over the past two months to show some of his
grandson’s creations.

“It was a little scary,” the grandfather said. “Thinking there could be people
who are harsh and critical, (but) it hasn’t been that way. Yesterday a group of
boys, teens, came in and were real supportive. A lot of good things to say.
“He was giddy, kicking his feet up,” he added about his grandson.

Edward, the 10-year-old artist, is in the fifth grade at Cascadia Montessori
School in Vancouver, Wash. and gets a lot of his inspiration for his art from
cartoons and video games, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon and even
Hanna Barbera. The walls of the garage now hold a large number of his
works, but Edward has sketchbooks with numerous other works still being
worked on, as well as a couple of commissioned pieces from visitors who have
stopped by the gallery.

“I do a lot of things at the same time,” the young artist said. “Sometimes
when I’m kind of annoyed by a lot of things and school gets difficult, I get
home and have all these cool character things in my mind and sketch them
out on paper.”

He noted he’s considering becoming an architect or artist when he grows up,
while he also spends time writing comic books, creating Lego minifigures and
updating his Instagram page and YouTube channel (fastgamer101 on both
platforms).

The garage, located at 63053 E. Brightwood Bridge Road, was built in 1952
and the older Peters, a retired experimental aircraft parts manufacturer, noted
that it previously housed a firetruck and then was converted into an auto
shop. Now, he modifies bikes there when it’s not serving as an art gallery, and
one of his creations was to make a fully electric bike.

The pair hope to keep the gallery going in the future.

“We’ve been thinking about this for two or three years at this point I’m just
amazed that we were able to do it,” said Edward, the artist. “It hasn’t been
too busy, but I still had a great time doing it.”