Perhaps the broadest hint, though, is a saying painted on one slat from Neil Benson, photographer and guru of the Dumpster Divers, a group of Yow's fellow artists that works with found objects: "Trash is simply a failure of the imagination."
"People always say, 'We've always wondered what goes on in there,' " says Yow, a slight, bearded man who wears sunglasses indoors and an exclamation point after his last name (Yow!).
What "goes on" is a house inseparable from its occupants, who are, in turn, inseparable from each other.
Yow is an artist who also writes music. Alexander is a musician and music teacher who paints and collects art. The house contains their living quarters and studios and is filled floor to ceiling with thousands of artworks and objects they have collected: some by them, some from their friends or by fellow artists, more that they found in flea markets or that were given to them. Or even just left outside.
There are also six cats named after artists, including Nora, the piano-playing cat on YouTube who is more famous than her owners. "Nora" is for the British surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, and if you want to know more or hear the cat play, go online. This story isn't about her, although she thinks it is.
Yow, 57, and Alexander, 52, bought the place in 1999 after what seemed, at least to Yow, like an endless search. Alexander had a list of 10 requirements that included a buzzer on the front door and a half-bathroom off the music studio, so her students wouldn't have to traipse all through the house looking for it.
The modest size was an asset for both of them.
"We love to be surrounded by art," Yow says. "It's never too much for us. I just like to fill things up."
