Giancarlo Fradella, a Napa barber, was able to cut hair for two months outside the Gordon Huether studio near Napa after summertime restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic blocked barbershops from seeing customers indoors.
The Napa barber Giancarlo Fradella was able to continue working during the coronavirus pandemic when Gordon Huether, a longtime sculptor in Napa, offered the use of a covered patio at his art studio on Monticello Road.
This summer, one man’s art studio became another man’s lifeline.
Gordon Huether has crafted sculptures in Napa for 33 years, the last 12 at a studio on Monticello Road northeast of the city. But for two months, a place devoted to creating art pulled double duty, after Huether offered the site to a barber who had become one of millions thrown out of work after shelter-at-home orders triggered by the coronavirus pandemic caused shutdowns across numerous industries — including hair-care establishments in California.
A covered patio at the studio became an outdoor — and thus legal — barbershop for Giancarlo Fradella to ply his trade, allowing him to continue providing for his wife and two children while COVID-19 put his regular job at a Napa barbershop on hold.
“It was a godsend,” said Fradella, a barber for nine years. “The idea that came into my head to reach out to Gordon was perfect. Him as an artist, being able to see my passion in my craft, it really meant a lot to me.
"Now I'd like to take everything I learned from Gordon and pay it forward to other people. … I've given out haircuts to some homeless people, to victims of the fires, given out 150 haircuts to Napa Fire Department and the sheriff’s office. I gave 20 free haircuts to medical staff at the Queen.”
Since moving his studio to Monticello Road in 2008, Huether has offered the building for after-hours use for various uses, including meetings of the Napa Valley Opera House board and gatherings of the Napa Valley Flea Jumpers ukulele group. No off-peak visitor, however, was quite like the one who would take up temporary residence over the summer.
An independent contractor cutting hair at the Executive Room, Fradella found his work shut down for more than two months by a stay-home order issued by California and Napa County on March 20. After a month-long reprieve, a second order required barbershops and hair salons to move their work outdoors, launching what at first was a fruitless search for Fradella.
Huether
“It was frustrating, it was confusing and it was stressful,” he said. “Working downtown for so long, I know a lot of local biz and building owners, so I literally drove in circles racking my brain about who to reach out to, who would let me work on a rooftop, the back of a workshop, anywhere that I would work on outdoor side of things — and I was coming up short.”
In July, running short on options, Fradella cold-called Huether — well known internationally for his sculptural art and locally as a city planning commissioner, but known to Fradella only through the artist’s daughter.
“He was having a hell of a time trying to find a place to keep his business going, so I was super happy to be able to help,” Huether remembered. “He couldn't work indoors, which was a big fat problem, so I thought — where can he work outdoors? I said, ‘I'm happy to help; why don't you come by and look at where we can set you up?’ It was a no-brainer for me.”
On visiting the Gordon Huether Studio the next day, Fradella found a covered outdoor space where could set up shop, free of charge. Outfitting the patio with a barber’s chair, full-length mirror, tool station and a power cord running into the studio building, he worked at the improvised open-air barbershop before returning to the Executive Room in September — keeping a busy schedule even on 100-degree days that forced him and his visitors to arrive as early as 6 a.m. or else persist through dripping sweat. Only an evacuation triggered by smoke from the Hennessey Fire in August halted his work.
The only payments Huether accepted from Fradella were his thanks and “a nice big lasagna dinner” sent by the barber’s wife, according to Fradella.
“Closed mouths don't get fed; if I'd been afraid to ask, I wouldn’t have had anywhere to provide for my family,” he said. “Sometimes you have to put fear aside and humble yourself. Don't be afraid to ask and speak up.”
“I learned what I already knew but what I need to be reminded of sometimes: that one gets more from giving than one gets from getting,” said Huether. “I see it that I have a new friend that I didn't have before. Had there not been this pandemic, this opportunity to lend a helping hand, I wouldn't know him.”
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For me, the most lasting memories of 2020 will inevitably revolve around the forces that overturned what we considered "normal" life until this year — the coronavirus pandemic, a historic season of wildfires, and anti-racism protests that played out in Napa as in numerous communities nationwide.
But as the year ends, I include as one of my five most memorable stories my account of Napa's Lighted Art of Festival back in January. It was a taste of fun and relaxation that now seems so long ago, but that we hope to reclaim again.
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You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@napanews.com
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Heart of the Valley: A Napa artist’s studio helps keep a barber in business - Napa Valley Register
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