Tom Deatherage’s Magic Bus

By NADIA PFLAUM

“It’s been a tool shed, a spare room, a crack house…”

Art collector Tom Deatherage ticks off the different uses for the graffiti-coated bus parked behind his gallery, the Late Show, at 1600 Cherry. Deatherage is fluttering around the bus, cleaning up debris, and waves me on when I ask to take a picture. I’m hardly the first — people stop and snap it all the time.

“Hell, one of these days, I might hafta start livin’ in it if I lose the building,” Deatherage proclaims, before going back to his tinkering.