The following text accompanies an installation I made as part of the NOMO Exhibition we’ve designed and curated as the culmination of our residency at Kohler Arts. Over the past few weeks I’ve made fictional, yet plausible sculptural elements that support the idea that surfing has origins on the Great Lakes. I will provide more detail soon about the NOMO Exhibition, but here’s a preview of my “Legend of Lumberjack Surfing” installation:

The Legend of Lumberjack Surfing

“There is a little known legend that surfing has early 19^th century origins on the Western shores of Lake Michigan, separate from its more ancient roots on the islands of the South Pacific.

When timber rafts were floated down Wisconsin’s rivers to be shipped to far off urban centers, large slabs of wood occasionally broke loose along the lake and washed ashore. Enterprising lumberjacks and boat-builders often rescued the timbers by drifting them offshore, standing atop them and paddling them to beachfront workshops, occasionally attaching sails to ease the journey. When the surf was heavy, the maritime lumberjacks beached the timbers by riding waves to shore, steering with a long wooden paddle. Over time, the activity of riding waves became an end in itself, and the ‘lumberjack surfers’ learned to shape the rough sawn planks for better performance in the waves.

By the early 20^th century, the ‘lumberjack surfers’ adapted wooden boards to ride on land by attaching crude wheels to their undersides, thus inventing an early form of the skateboard. Many of these ‘trapper’s skateboards’ were made from stretchers originally used to tan wolf hides. By the middle of the 20^th century, experimental skateboards were commonly made from discarded, wooden alpine and water skis, which were rapidly being replaced by fiberglass.”

Another part of the NOMO Exhibition at Kohler Arts features longboard skate graphics I designed collaboratively, like the Northern Pike Longboard (above) drawn by Mary Whitehall and Zak Worth. The burnt/etched deck is part of a series depicting fish native to Lake Michigan

Tagged: appropriate technology, bike culture, contemporary art, craft philosophy, deep craft, DIY, furniture design, green design, innovation, kohler arts, longboard, public art, scott Constable, skateboard, slow design, surfing, sustainability, tall tale, traditional craft, vernacular architecture, woodworking, wowhaus

Jefferson planted ‘mad dog’ at Monticello, brought from the West by Lewis and Clark

Ene and I had made three cross-country road trips before our most recent family pilgrimage. The first three punctuated a single year almost twenty years ago, when we negotiated a move from the East Coast to California. We made an exploratory trek through Canada, up into Alaska’s panhandle and down the pacific coast, then a meandering southern ramble back east across the southwest and the Deep South, and finally, a no-nonsense westward beeline traversing the middle, our stuff in tow. Despite dissimilarities, I think of each journey as a rite of passage, a chance to drop everything, check the pulse of American life and open up to the happenstance of the open road.

Twenty years later, as we zig-zagged our way back East across the continent, I realized what a Californian perspective I’ve gained, especially since our move from Oakland to the wild Sonoma Coast. Traveling east to west, ‘nature’ is interpreted through the abstract filters of ‘culture’. I found the opposite to be the case as we car-camped our way over the Sierras, across the desert and into the ancient canyons leading into the Rockies, down to the High Plains and over the Mississippi River to the ‘old country’, back into Culture.

postcards depicting Elvis’ Graceland abound inside the site’s many gift shops

Being short on time and long on ideas, we decided to organize the last leg of our eastbound journey around just two sequential destinations, Graceland and Monticello. Both paragons of American domestic architecture, albeit for nearly opposite reasons, the two iconic homesteads present the polarity of American civilization. In many ways, Jefferson invented the West, and Monticello both anticipates and celebrates its utopian origins and vast potential. Elvis is more a victim than a victor of a more contemporary fame, and his architectural opus, unlike Monticello, is a dystopic retreat from public life, more like the prototype for today’s exurbs. Both celebrity sites share a Southern love of neoclassicism, which lends itself naturally to kitsch.

However crude its manifestation, it is ultimately up to Public Taste to preserve assets of nature and culture, both low and high.

Tagged: aesthetics, cross country, deep craft, elvis, geography, graceland, monticello, road trip, vernacular architecture

satellite view of the village of Nicasio, CA, built around a baseball diamond

Driving the back way from our studio on the Sonoma Coast to Marin County to install a project over the past few months, I’ve fallen in love with the village of Nicasio. Its tiny town center consists of a church, a general store, a roadhouse/bar, post office, Druid’s Hall, real estate office, and a few houses, all surrounding a baseball diamond that comprises the Town Square. Nestled in the San Geronimo Valley, Nicasio connects the main drainages of Nicasio Creek and its tributaries up to the ridgelines. The buildings are all authentic examples of late 19^th century rural American vernacular, all the more poignant when the focal point is a well-maintained baseball diamond.

Nicasio’s classic Town Square is a baseball diamond

dairy cattle graze around St. Mary’s Church, which flanks the baseball diamond

Outbuildings like this are still in use and shine when the Buckeye blooms

Ancient black locust trees dwarf this charming cottage on Nicasio’s Town Square

Tagged: baseball, california coast, deep craft, nicasio, scott Constable, sonoma coast, town square, vernacular architecture, watershed

Living and working in West Africa many years ago, we learned to Greet the Elders

When Ene and I worked in West Africa as US Peace Corps Volunteers, we developed some habits that still inform our community-based projects. Principal among these is a kind of public ritual we call Greet the Elders. In remote villages, before introducing a new idea like a fuel efficient woodstove or method of filtering water, let alone seeing it adopted and integrated, it’s key to follow a certain protocol, at once formal and convivial. It always begins by meeting with the village’s key decision makers- the tribal chief and other elders, market women, the village shaman and sometimes a government official. These greetings could easily last all day and into the night, taking place either in French or Konkomba, a regional language we struggled to use for the basics. The most relevant information would be exchanged through a ritual call-and-response series of questions about the ‘news’ of the day, ranging from one’s health to the crops, the animals, the children and the neighbors, all without making eye contact while loosely shaking hands, nodding and bowing,

“Ajoko-poya?”, “Alafia”, “Amonko-poya?”, “Alafia!”, “Ditunde-poya?”, “Alafia-weh”, “eh-HENHH!”

After the exchange of news, the bonds of trust would be sealed by spending the remaining day together, eating fufu and drinking chukatuh, then dancing together into the night to the ‘mento’ beat of Ashanti drums.

Our latest Wowhaus public art project, designing a system of ‘watershed markers’ for the City of Oakland, is a good example of how the final product relates to the process of engaging with the community. Although Ene and I have strong ideas about the importance of maintaining a healthy ‘watershed’ in an urban environment, we approached the project with very open minds, not knowing if the general population of any city necessarily knows what ‘watershed’ means. In a kind of sponge mode, we randomly surveyed people in diverse neighborhoods about what images and symbols connote water and stream ecology. We shared our findings with Oakland residents invited to public meetings, and learned more about how regular people think of the idea of a ‘watershed’. We were surprised to hear similar stories across cultural and economic spectra, boiling down to childhood memories about playing in urban creeks, turning over rocks to discover life teeming beneath, and finding ways to cross the stream.

in-process detail of one of four relief sculptures in clay and stone, to be cast in bronze

We decided to make a series of ‘stepping stones’ to capture this spirit, to be cast in bronze and embedded in concrete paving over culverts where creeks have been diverted. Ene has made great progress sculpting these ‘stepping stones’ in clay. We have a sequence of four, which can be arranged in any order, and will be sited at Oakland’s busiest pedestrian thoroughfares, drawing attention to the hidden creeks and waterways draining to the Bay.

To read more about the wowhaus ‘watershed markers’ for the City of Oakland, please click here and scroll down.

Tagged: appropriate technology, craft philosophy, deep craft, innovation, Oakland, public art, wowhaus

These elegant ’sand trees’ are unique to the low tide conditions of Doran Beach

As Ene and I begin to fabricate our relief sculptures for a system of watershed markers we’ve been commissioned to design for the City of Oakland, we’ve been returning to our local beach at low tide for research and inspiration. The way the sand behaves at a certain angle of incline, at very low tides, makes a lovely tree structure that micro-cosmically mimics the contours of drainage patterns constituting the local watershed.

mussels cluster on rocks alongside barnacles, starfish and anemone

The Beach Fleas (Orchestoidea) are everywhere along Doran

To follow the progress of this wowhaus public art project, please click here and scroll down.

Tagged: aesthetics, california coast, deep craft, innovation, phenology, public art, scott Constable, slow design, sonoma coast, watershed, wowhaus

traversing Greenland, 1930 (image: public domain)

I am truly honored that Russell Baldon, acting Chair of CCA’s Wood/Furniture Program, invited me to be the ‘Wornick Visiting Distinguished Professor of Wood Arts’ for Fall 2010. I’ll be teaching a studio-based ‘Atelier’ course for the semester that will give me an opportunity to share my studio and field research with students; the process will be cumulatively documented on these pages. It has been over seven years since I’ve taught at CCA and I’m excited to work collaboratively with students to prototype new ideas in woodcraft related to planning and executing a micro-expedition. Here is a brief course description:

MICRO EXPEDITION

Expedition into the unknown has played a perennial role in human history. Whether in the service of survival, expansion, inquiry or piracy, people continue to explore the world through the vehicle of expedition.

MICRO EXPEDITION will be a meditation upon the nature of exploration, with specific focus upon framing a contemporary sense of the unknown and developing the vessels related to a particular expedition, with emphasis on woodcraft. During the semester, students will plan a waterborne expedition, build a small fleet of craft appropriate to the waterway and intended goals, as well as any peripheral gear suitable to wood construction. The class will work as a collaborative atelier, learning the basics of wooden boat building through the construction of minimalist craft, to be launched for a 2-3 day voyage, with destinations determined collaboratively. Guest lecturers will include a Bay Area naturalist, a maritime historian and a naval architect.

Tagged: appropriate technology, california coast, cca, contemporary art, deep craft, expedition, furniture design, innovation, invention, Russell Baldon, scott Constable, woodworking

‘Adams Angling’ is my favorite catalog for thinking about planning an expedition

The transition to fair weather from a long and gray, chilly wet season always has me dreaming about excursions to the wilder reaches of Northern California, testing my wits in the face of a more bare mode of survival. While it’s been years since I’ve acted on the impulse, I consider myself well-prepared for the opportunity should it present itself, hopefully when I am not so (gratefully) burdened with Projects.

Meanwhile, I’m content with the vicarious thrill of thumbing through the pages of Adams Angling, my favorite catalog of antiquarian books and gear related to hunting, fishing, wilderness survival and Natural History. Somehow, the act of reading the catalog is almost better than the books themselves, and brings me closer to the actual experience I desire. Just knowing that this obscure body of knowledge exists and is accessible placates my wanderlust, and I can shift my focus from ‘thinking about planning an expedition‘ to the demanding tasks at hand.

Tagged: adam's angling, appropriate technology, california coast, craft philosophy, deep craft, fishing, scott Constable, traditional craft

sketch of my original concept for a stair tower within a mock, old growth redwood trunk

I still think of the new cabin I’m designing as a treehouse, even though it will be more of a house on stilts nestled in a fairly dense, second growth redwood grove, making no attachment to any tree. My original idea was to camouflage the structure by making the stair tower resemble an old growth trunk, consisting of coopered redwood timbers housing a spiral stair (see above drawing). For practical and economic reasons, we’ve opted instead for an open, timber framed stair tower, more like a fire watch, with more emphasis on the the interior experience of the perched cabin itself.

I’ve enjoyed researching watch towers and houses on stilts, and appreciate my client’s focus and resolve to keep the program as simple as possible. It’s been a wonderful collaboration and we’re close to having a design ready to permit and build. I’m especially thankful to be working with Scott Hunter, Ph. D. P.E., whose design recommendations have added to the minimalist/maximalist ethos of the project.

a classic watch tower

staged climb to a watch tower, with ground shelter

a dwelling tower

nice windows on this hut

who doesn’t love a good beach shack?

Heidegger figured it all out in his famous writing hut

Tagged: california coast, deep craft, heidegger, hut, scott Constable, treehouse, vernacular architecture, watch tower

The remainder of our week continued to be full of surprises as we mined Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and its environs along the shores of Lake Michigan for activity relevant to our NOMO project. As Ene and I process our research and  interactions and begin to shape it into an exhibition/exposition to be staged at Kohler Arts Center this summer, I wanted to share a string of images and some rambling commentary below:

I’m always surprised and delighted to find such a thriving maritime culture and history in Sheboygan, where perch, salmon, trout, whitefish, chub and smelt are still fished commercially.

We made a habit of buying fish at Schwartz’s Fish Market, where they still smoke their own fish and tally the price by hand, just as they did in 1912 when the market was founded. Friday night is when every bar and restaurant in town features a ‘fish fry’, which is not to be missed. All generations gather at familiar neighborhood spots for drinks (the ‘old fashioned’ is the traditional fave), live music (usually with a German theme), and astounding salad bars, rife with delicious potato salads, herring, pickled beets, slaws and salad greens. The fish offerings change seasonally, but tend to feature lightly breaded, fried perch, wall-eye and cod.

a birch forest along the lakeshore south of town

Among many antique tools and ‘plausible historic artifacts’ I culled for the installation in the Kohler Arts gallery, this Dutch plate captured the feeling I’d like to conjure.

I found a wood mill in the back of a red barn just outside of town

Our friend Kristofer Rusch brought us on a road trip that included a stop at ‘Mike the Recycler’.

A diolorama of a Red Cross volunteer at the Sheboygan History Museum

Portion of a WPA-era mural ( 1935), by Schomer Lichtner at the Sheboygan Post Office

drawing by Sheboygan artist Zak Worth

another drawing by Sheboygan artist Zak Worth

We’ve been staying in a historic, salt-box house that borders the James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden, and I have been daily blown away by his artistry with such a rude material as concrete. The house was built as a boyscout clubhouse, and has the following word carved into the stones flanking the fireplace: Kind, Courteous, Friendly, Helpful, Loyal, Trustworthy, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, Reverent. These are all apt descriptions of the general populace in this region.

Tagged: deep craft, james tellen, kohler arts, scott Constable, skateboard, surfing, vernacular, vernacular architecture, zanzi

Structurally, the new treehouse I’ve been commissioned to design will be a radical departure from the various tree-sited structures I’ve made over the years, but the spirit of arboreal living will remain in tact. Sited at the edge of a dense, second growth redwood grove, this treehouse will be more like a watch tower, aloft in the trees without making direct connection to any tree. Consisting of a rustic cabin perched atop a winding stair tower, the new treehouse will have more in common with regionally familiar water towers and silos, for which the foundational connection to the ground is most critical. After laying out the structure’s footprint in a clearing between clusters of coast redwood, our first step has been to take soil samples, which will be analyzed by a soils engineer to specify the appropriate footings for minimal impact to the root system.

carefully digging soil samples in the redwood grove

We dug about thirty inches deep and confirmed the soil to be Wilson Grove Formation, consisting of late Pliocene/late Miocene marine deposits, common to our neck of the woods. The structure will be supported by a perimeter of cast concrete, deeply secured to the ground with helical anchors screws

Tagged: deep craft, green design, scott Constable, sonoma coast, treehouse, vernacular architecture, wilson grove formation, woodworking