LOCALS
THAT’S RAD A Raleigh couple brings their creativity and unique point of view to retail, music, and art by KATIE PATE photography by EAMON QUEENEY
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ne night in 2003, Greg Clayton was painting in his basement and created a cartoonish red yak with a serene smile. “He was a fun, cute, happy little guy,” says Clayton. The character stuck with him. Soon the Rad Yak, as Clayton named him, became a sort of unofficial mascot, a stand-in for the cheerful, spontaneous sort of inspiration that has helped Clayton and his wife, 36 | WALTER
Myra Smith, grow several small businesses over the years. Clayton and Smith each grew up in small North Carolina towns and first became friends while attending art school at East Carolina University in the early 1990s. After college, they went their separate ways for several years — Clayton toured with a rock band called Lustre, and Smith traveled and taught English abroad — but reconnected once they’d
each made their way back to N.C. They soon fell in love, and their marriage has been defined by its artistic endeavors and entrepreneurialism. “You get to these places in your life when being creative is the necessary thing,” Smith says. “It’s a compulsion.” As a result of their relentless ingenuity, Smith and Clayton have established themselves as an integral part of Raleigh’s local retail and art scenes.
