Ene and I began the week in Oakland’s China Town preparing for a rush of meetings and site visits for a fast-tracked public art project. It was Chinese New Year and the cacophonous stutter of firecrackers cleansed the streets and businesses of evil spirits, their exploded carcasses littering lovely patterns on the sidewalk.

As we prepared our proposal back at our studio compound, the fair weather continued to push a reluctantly welcome early spring, with the camellias at their peak and many new plants in bloom, including:

The Christmas camellia (camellia sassanqua)

A variegated vinka, or periwinke

and the azeleas, all of which helped ease the pressures of an intense week.

Tagged: Chinese New Year, public art, wowhaus

Though in decline in practice across the world, the patterns of seasonal subsistance still capture the imagination, evidenced in this image from the Sacramento River Delta, culled from the archives of the Department of Fish and Game. I’m interested in reviving this scale of self-sufficiency. *

Tagged: inspiration, river delta, self-sufficiency, vernacular

The meadows and I are fully in clover right now.

Tagged: clover

I was recently invited by Matt Bua and Maximilian Goldfarb to submit a drawing for the publication of their upcoming book and accompanying exhibition, Visionary Architecture (title pending):

“Visionary Architecture will concentrate on un-built (impossible or speculative) structures that exist on paper. This project begins with an invitation to a wide range of participants, including artist, designers and architects of renown, as well as those presenting ideas for the first time. The book will reveal an array of works that convey alternatives, byproducts, expansions or critiques of one’s environment. The book will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Cribs to Cribbage, which will begin at Mass MOCA in March 2009 and expand throughout the year. The book, together with the exhibition, will highlight many visions that exist outside of established channels of production, and conventions of design.”

I categorized my submission as ‘folly’ and described it as follows:

“The Incline House is one of a series of seasonal, situationist structures, combining the sybaritic delights of contemplative sitting, meandering conversation and mindful motion so essential to a lazy summer evening.”

I would love to have a building that combines the semi-public, screened front porch and the semi-private rocking chair/porch swing, having spent my formative years lost in conversation/contemplation on front porches.

Tagged: m49, matt bua, maximilian goldfarb, porch swing, rocking chair, visionary architecture, wowhaus

Grazing cattle keep the willow’s bob perfectly trimmed.

Tagged: pruning, willow

I’m continuing to feature an ongoing series of interviews and studio visits with other makers/artisans/crafters. If you would like to introduce yourself and your work to a growing Deep Craft network, I invite you to visit the PARTICIPATE page of this site. Meanwhile, allow me to introduce you to Matt Bua, artist/builder.

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Tagged: deep craft, funkitecture, matt bua, vernacular architecture

I delight as much in finding a piece of blue sea glass during a drizzly walk on Doran Beach as might an exogeologist upon discovering tektite in the cratered sands of the Sahara or the volcanic dusts of Venus.

Tagged: sea glass, tectite, venus