barn raising, sage praising...

i love sage.

so much it hurts.

but we’ll get to that later in the post…. just mentioning it in the title got me all distracted.

what i was really intending to begin saying was… that i got to witness (and be a minor, minuscule part of) a desert-style barn raising last week.  it was awesome.

john has been wanting to build a quonset hut on his property for years.  nora has been wanting john to build a quonset hut even more than john himself, so that he can move his “car collection” out of the garage (slash, her studio).  he does have a pretty gnarly rack of cars, which includes both a monster truck as well as a first-generation prius.  but he also wants to build the structure to serve as a studio space of all sorts, as well as a general man cave (which in john’s world means yarn storage and slacklines alongside giant power tools). 

well, you won’t be surprised to learn that john is just as stylish and manly with a toolbelt as he is with a crochet needle. 

hands on his hips, with a silver sparkly belt tied round the waist of his carharts….  john was commanding the concrete slab like he does the stage as Johnny Victor the rock n roll legend.

my mom had made a short visit (we had an epic time, which included getting her on some rock in the park!!), so i missed out on the first two days of teamwork and sore muscles.  but i managed to show up on day three, just in time to bolt together a number of loops, which now await hoisting onto the scaffold.  much more enjoyable than my meager attempt at helping, was watching the scene, observing the intricacies and complexities of building what would seem like a simple structure, and getting to devour nora’s homemade lunch… and fresh baked cookies.  it was treatment like no one (especially those expected to complete manual labor) should be spoiled by!!

john had (to no surprise) rallied a crew of fellow artists, park rangers, long-time desert friends, neighbors, and home depot junkies… who all showed up to pitch in (some more than others).  steve, of course, was helping run ship… and was rushing home to the studio afterwards to spend the evening making tools or special parts to solve the day’s dilemmas.  building a quonset hut is like putting together a 3D puzzle, with pieces that are at once awkwardly rigid, but also long and willowy.  the building goes up loop by loop, with each loop (or strip) consisting of 7 individual and unique sections.  it’s like building a teepee with pickup sticks.  the first few require elaborate holding and aligning, but once you get it close enough to start adding more pieces, the stronger and more stable it becomes.  but that initial alignment can really be the worst.  john and crew managed to get two loops up the first day (pretty damn good), and two more the following.  as i showed up, we worked a whole day on bolting new segments as well as wrestling with the alignment of the 4 existing sections and the specs they were supposed to agree with. 

after three days of what must have been totally exhausting physically and mentally (too bad the weather here just sucks), john had to go back to work, and the initial buzz and rush of the building process was put on hold.  now, between shifts at the park, finding lost hikers and saving lives (and sneaking onto climbing routes), john can grab a helping hand or two and throw up a loop here or there.  slowly it will all come to life.  i hope i get to see it completed before i leave (that’s serious pressure, john…), but if not, i guess i’ll just HAVE to make a trip back immediately to get some photos of the final product, and more importantly, to help set up and test the safety of that slackline.  in fact, don’t you think it might need a monthly safety test?  

shortly after the man cave, i got to visit a homemade house of all different sorts.  do you all remember sam maloof, the badass woodworker?  i wrote about him in a post a while back, when we went into pasadena and saw an exhibit on him at the huntington museum.

well, it’s hard to imagine many people more inspiring.

in fact, i think i mentioned before, he was given a mcarthur genius grant back in 1985 (which made him the first craftsman to ever receive the award).  but no mention of his many accolades, praises, or which presidents owned pieces of his furniture, would do justice to the incredible vision and craftsmanship that his life and work represent.  you can read a pretty wonderful obituary of him here if you wish (he’s truly worth looking up).  he and his wife alfreda lived near claremont, and spent their entire lives creating a home (sam literally designed and built everything by hand), and an identity, a community, rich with artistic influence and a love of humanity. he believed very strongly in simplicity and practicality, and, as i talked about before, the differences and overlaps between art and craftsmanship.  he wanted each of his pieces to vividly remind one of the connection between the material, the creator, and the owner… and thus he refused to ever mass-produce his work (despite the tremendous demand). 

his original home sits atop a beautiful citrus grove. 

did i mention, he built it entirely by hand?  

it is an awe-inspiring wooden maze of treehouse-like rooms, simple but deeply-thoughtful designs, intricate details, joineries, and door latches around every nook.  yes, there is a famous hand-made wooden spiral staircase made out of gorgeous hard wood from old shipping crates, and the whole space is full of exquisite textiles, pottery and collected art of all types.  the LA times article called his home “a living monument to the creative impulse”.  i can’t think of a much better way to describe it.

and it has been officially deemed a national historic landmark.  when california was building the 210 freeway in 1999, slated to run right through his property, they went to the trouble of moving the entire home, piece-by-piece, three miles.  and now they’ve added visitor centers and museum-type buildings.  

there is also a gorgeous maze of botanical gardens surrounding the buildings.  it is in these gardens where they are hosting their first-ever sculpture show, and have invited select artists to display pieces amidst the natural landscaping.  steve was invited to have a piece (actually, two pieces) in the show, and so last sunday, i got to trek down to the property with steve and ruth to scope out the grounds and claim our territory (this was how we also weaseled our way into a private tour of the house – but you’re not allowed to take pictures inside, so you’ll just have to go visit yourself).  to our surprise, many of the other artists had come down the day before, and thus, along the paths through the gardens, most of the key spots already had stakes pounded into the earth with “reserved by an artist” signs.  but also to our surprise (and soon to theirs as well) we somehow managed to get the best damn spot on the whole property!

i kid you not!!

steve is going to put one of his newest kinetics (i think the one we just finished, which i will show you pictures of here at the end) on top of a hillside at the corner of the house.  it’s right in front of the famous “treehouse room”, apparently one of the most photographed spots on the property (and after going in the house, it’s my favorite room by far).  im not sure whether everyone else just assumed that empty, too-perfect pedestal of grass was off-limits, or whether we were the only ones with nerve enough to ask to put a sculpture there… but man, it made me giddy just thinking about it.  the opening is april 29, and i really….. really… want to come back just to see that piece go up, and be there when the first flood of people come through.  the other piece will be the birdhouse (the one whose elaborate construction you saw pictures of), and will go in another perfect spot: where the path stops, encircles a big, good-for-sitting tree, and changes directions as it weaves back though the gardens from where you’ve come.

so dang awesome.

it was also in these gardens where there grew so many types of sage a person could die and go to heaven!  it was one of the best things i’ve smelled…. well shit…  ever, i think.  seriously.  if i could rub a genie and make a wish… i might very well wish that every time i walked into a room, or someone mentioned my name, or someone even just thought of me, they smelled that smell.  gonna have to figure out a way to grow desert sage in my brooklyn windowsills.  and maybe just keep some in my pocket at all times... for those moments when i’m stuck in a hospital lab full of test tubes and about to panic.

anyway, the day was incredible.  and even though i’m joking, it really made me appreciate how lucky i am to have this chapter of my life… this part of my life… to keep me so grounded and alive as i embark on this new one.  just being in that house was such an overwhelming experience, for anyone, but especially for me right now.  it literally made me want to lock myself in a room full of metal and clay and god knows what else for 50 years.  i had so many ideas, and questions, and thoughts, and visions, id never be able to scribble fast enough to capture them all… i felt like my brain was on fire.

i was thinking about it all day, and all evening into the wee hours of morning while i weaved through wooden tables at pappys.  i literally didn’t want to fall asleep when i finally got home, because i didn’t want that feeling to end.

in so many ways, whether they’d admit it or not, steve and ruth are creating a life that is not far at all from what sam and alfreda created.  it’s part of why the experience of being here and living here has been as overwhelming and enveloping as it is.  and it’s part of why i have wanted so badly to share it with you all…. and why i am determined to continue doing so in some form even after i leave here next month.

i wasn't (and still am not) certain about the whole blog-writing thing.  but one thing's for certain.  you all play a huge role in making it what it is... and making the whole experience so much more validating.  could never thank you enough for that.

and on that note…. i’ll leave you with pictures of the newest piece (and one photo from more moonlight climbing in the park!)…


the piece is called solar system.