After a heavy downpour cooled down the hot afternoon on July 6 — Pittsburgh seemed awfully tropical this time of the year — we made our way to Randyland. When I was poking around before the trip for Sights To See, I discovered Randyland. Yep, that looks like a sight to see, was my instant conclusion.

“Randyland is the labor of love of Pittsburgh artist Randy Gilson, a local artist and neighborhood renovator,” Atlas Obscura says. “Over the years Gilson has almost singlehandedly turned a blighted neighborhood corner in Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets into one of the most colorful spectacles in the city.”

The exact boundaries of Randyland are a little vague. But I know that it includes this colorful building at the corner of Jacksonia and Arch streets.

Maybe this colorful building on Jacksonia.
And the space in between those buildings. Most definitely that space.
Drizzle was still coming down when we reached Randyland, but that didn’t stop us from entering the space — a sign welcomes all — for a look-see. There’s something colorful everywhere you look.

Randy greeted us and we spent a few minutes talking. Though this video might be scripted, it gives you a pretty good idea about how Randy behaved: he was effusive. He seemed genuinely glad to see us, the nth group to wander into his colorful compound. He asked our names and where we were from. He told us it was important to be ourselves and be happy.

In case the isn’t there, Randy greets you anyway in life-sized cutout form.

Later, he went next door, which he said was his studio, but we did see him again before we left, since we bought a couple of t-shirts and a button from him. They were reasonably priced, especially when compared with the merch at the Andy Warhol Museum gift shop. Besides, Warhol is dead, as opposed to effusive and very much alive Randy Gilson. It’s good to support living artists when you can.