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.
the piece is called solar system.