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Karen Killian

paintings • portraits • reflections
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Featured
Chessie
Chessie

“Sunmark’s Cheshire Tide”
Pencil on paper; 11 x 14”
Collection of the artist
©1989 Karen Killian

My first Golden; my first Golden drawing. She was literally sittin’ on the dock of the Chesapeake bay, in an irresistible pose, and she started this whole thing!

Oakley
Oakley

O, I miss you, O!

from a photo taken on beautiful Griswold Point, Old Lyme, CT, Christmas time 2001
Pencil on paper; 12 x 12”
Collection of the artist
©2017 Karen Killian

Omega
Omega

English Setter Pup
Pencil on Paper; 13 x 17”
Collection VanDerBeek
©2013 Karen Killian

THE ENDLESS GOLDENS
of THE SUMMER HOUSE

Story and artwork from the collection, Shop Dogs
by Karen Killian ©2026

Scaly Mountain, North Carolina, 1990. Paula and Barry Jones had dinner with friends who introduced them to their Golden Retrievers—you could call it a soul-snatching ambush! Before long Barry was on his way to the breeder in Atlanta to meet an available young dog named Yosha. He scooped him up, changed his name to Josh, and brought him home for ever. Josh was their first shop dog before they even knew that they needed a shop dog!

Just weeks later, the breeder called them about Josh’s sister Glitzy. She had gone to a man who wanted her for his everything, except that he already had a wife, three children under three, and a road warrior job. Turned out that his wife had been abusing Glitzy in futile attempts to beat down the frenzy. The breeder reclaimed her, and Barry drove right back to Atlanta. Her name was Lizzie by the time they got home, where there were more second chances in the works.

Barry and Paula, freshly married, on the heels of successful careers in film, writing, art and fashion, had been captivated by the mountains of western North Carolina. Barry was planning a book about mountain crafts, and Paula was taken by the artistry of willow furniture. She was eager to learn and sought the tutelage of one Lee Ray Wilburn of Rabun County, Georgia. All set to meet with him in his woodworking shop, Barry interrupted her, “Paula, he’s a gritty old Southern codger, no doubt marinated in archaic opinions about ‘women's work’. You can’t waltz in there like you just stepped off the runway!”

Having been a model in Atlanta, she took his point. She bought a pair of rugged blue jeans at the Army Navy Store and commandeered his faded old flannel shirt. She plopped a worn baseball cap over her short hair and laced up her clunky hiking boots. Until then, those boots were her only concession to their newly-rustic lifestyle and frankly were a little too spiffy for this get-up. Finally, she stopped at a drug store for nail polish remover and scissors, then sat in the parking lot to make her nails look like they weren’t afraid of an honest day’s work.

When she arrived, Lee Ray was bending the willow for a child’s chair. He went over all his tools and demonstrated every step until the piece was finished. Then he handed her some twigs and drawled, “Tonight go home, build a chair, bring it tomorrow.” Paula complained that she hadn’t taken any notes! But Lee Ray was dogged: “You don’t need no notes. Just build a chair and bring it tomorrow.” Paula headed to the hardware store for her very own tools then home to spend the entire night crafting her first willow child’s chair. In the morning she took it to Lee Ray who said, “It’ll do. Tonight build two end tables.”

Paula’s newfound skills were, as a matter of fact, better than “It’ll do.” They got busy. They brainstormed, sketched, and refined designs. Barry hunted and gathered perfectly green willow and Mountain Laurel, so the shop exhaled damp earth and late autumn. He hand-bent the sticks. She laid them out. He wielded the nail gun. She held them firmly, exactly in place. In effortless collaboration, they built an inventory and traveled to show their wares from Carolina craft markets to Atlanta decorators. Upon taking a serious order for many-many chairs, Paula turned to Lee Ray Wilburn for extra help, but he trotted out his dyed-in-the-wool prejudice, “I ain’t gonna work for no girl!” Full stop.

Undeterred, the Joneses turned their passion into a furniture company and opened a small shop, The Summer House, in Scaly Mountain. Word spread quickly among the natives and beyond. After a House Beautiful article featured their very first massive, beautifully intricate table, they received a large commission for Robert Redford’s Montana ranch, followed by an order from Hollywood’s George Lucas. Paula smiles when she says, “I still have that very first table!”

Then they fell completely in love with Highlands. So they moved their shop right downtown and settled into a cozy apartment upstairs with their two big shop dogs. It was a lovely way to ease into Highlands, which was slower and quieter in those days. They walked everywhere with Josh and Lizzie, who just knew that they were there to meet absolutely everyone! Eventually they bought 35 acres of an apple orchard and built a magnificent Barry Jones-designed barn to house the woodworking shop. In ’95-’96 they added on to the barn and moved the store there, with a bell on the door to summon the wagging tails. The dogs reveled in their shop days, being “trained”, that is, taught tricks and treated by customers who were instant friends. In the back room, furniture was being built, but more importantly, “Sticks! Good sticks! Everywhere!” An afternoon nap on fresh fragrant sawdust, a jump in the lake before dinner— it was such a good dogs’ life! Several expanded showrooms and generations of Golden Retrievers later, The Summer House continues to thrive at 2089 Dillard Road, where that very bell still rings every time the door opens!

As the shop grew to offer a full range of furniture, decor, and design services, Paula stepped away from woodworking to focus her grace and class on customer relations. When I asked how long she had maintained her country-bumpkin character, she laughed, "Ten years!" It ended the day Barry returned from New York City—specifically Saks Fifth Avenue—with a bag of luxurious scents and cosmetics and declared, "It's time!"

Meanwhile Barry was always thinking about those Goldens, that they weren’t going to live forever and that it would be wise to stock up! Over the years came…

Buddy: Barry went back to the breeder who had a litter whose names were to suggest loyalty. But of course Barry had already chosen a name for the new guy, Buddy, so he became Buddy By My Side. Shop-dog-magic is inherent to a Golden Retriever, so Buddy slipped right into the role, and he was a gift to everyone’s spirits when Lizzie passed on.

Nellie Ann: was named after two characters in two Broadway plays, Nell and Annie, which also happened to be the names of two of their traveling companions, a group of friends in New York City to see Little Shop of Horrors. The next day’s adventure was to pick up their new puppy, whose litter was themed “Musicals of the ’60’s”. I’m exhausted just writing that paragraph— what a lofty mission was Barry’s naming of the dogs!!!

Bucky: Then came a litter with the theme “Luck of the Irish”, and Paula found a great big four leaf clover on a puppy’s paw, so naturally that puppy went home with them as Lucky Bucky Jones.

And Josh, the original: Josh was a happy and robust 100+ pounds. He lived to be 14½ and coached his successors well in the art of shopdoggery!

Paula began to mind the store with a camera at hand. Their customers’ children invariably entertained and were entertained by the dogs, so she photographed them playing together. It was the days of SLRs and 4-day film developing down at the Kodak store, and Paula always had extra copies made. When the children came back again, she gave them their photographs. Delightful tradition! She has a fat album stuffed with old photos of children of every age with every shade of Golden. To this day an adult will come into The Summer House and announce, “I was one of those kids!”

The store was humming along, the Joneses had designed and built their lush estate on private acreage behind the store, and life seemed quite nicely settled. Except Barry wanted one more Golden!

He thought maybe an older dog this time. The breeder happened to have a not-older -enough dog, Gumbo. (Aside: Gumbo was living in the kennel with his littermates Shrimp ’n Grits! That’s going in my file of catchy dog names.) The moniker-maker of the Jones family re-named this guy Buster, which proved way too fitting. For the first time Barry and Paula found themselves with a canine terrorist in the store, eating the cords of $500 lamps, chewing $2,000 couches, and committing other sins of the unsocialized. A spectacular failure as a shop dog, Buster was granted early retirement back at the breeder’s.

Enter Oliver, born on April Fool’s Day, 2019.

Oliver, almost the “older” dog that Barry had been thinking of—he was two, had started life in a hectic household with a bird, a cat, and another Golden, all of whom tortured his sweet soul. His respite was running every day with the gentleman of the house, until said gentleman suddenly passed away. Abandoned to the chaos, Oliver was heart-stricken and dangerously stressed. The widow and the bird and the cat and the other Golden made the difficult but loving decision to return him to the breeder. After many years of welcoming dogs suited to their lifestyle and vice-versa, the Joneses had learned the value of working with a breeder who stayed responsible to the well-being of her dogs long after they left her kennel. A good mark of a good breeder.

He came as Oliver, the first dog whose name got past Barry’s snappy editing. As he recovered and came to trust the peacefulness of the Joneses’ love, the perfect dog with the perfect name has answered the bell on The Summer House door his whole life, and he and Paula have cared for each other since Barry’s passing in 2023.

Now it’s The Summer House by Reeves (purchased by Reeves Hardware of Highlands). And with impeccable style, Paula Jones continues to tend the store on Friday, Saturday and Monday. However Oliver clocks in every day. Mind you, he doesn’t bark or rush or jump anyone. He’s a pro—he meanders to the door where he quietly appreciates adoration! Unfortunately for his job performance review, there are days when lunchtime smells too delicious for him to come out of the kitchen. Browse a little while, he’ll find you!

Even on Paula’s days off, she chauffeurs him to work in the morning and retrieves him in the afternoon when they do errands and have a good walk. Oliver considers every one of The Summer House’s welcoming and experienced staff his family, or at least servant. Among them is his “godfurmother”, which she told me is her title, who takes the social butterfly for weekly sleepovers with her own dogs. I asked Diandra what is her favorite thing about Oliver “working” every day. Without a thought she said, “It’s how happy he makes everyone who comes in the store!”

You can visit The Summer House for elegant shopping or just to meet Oliver, as many do, and I imagine you’ll feel it, too!

Oliver of The Summer House
“I’m so so happy to greet you!”
Oil on Belgian linen; 20×16”
Collection Jones
Highlands, North Carolina
©2026 Karen Killian