Ene spins the composter above our vegetable garden

MIX, our bike-powered compost tumbler, has found a final home on the Wowhaus compound, perched atop what remains of a pool deck, above our vegetable garden. The tumbler quickly breaks down our kitchen scraps, mixed with ashes and sawdust, and dumps the mixture into a garden bed in need of amelioration. The functional sculpture returns from an exhibition called Terroir: A Sense of Place, curated by Patricia Watts for Art at the Cheese Factory in Petaluma. Last year, MIX debuted at Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco, which you can read more about here.

Tagged: appropriate technology, contemporary art, deep craft, DIY, gardening, green design, invention, wowhaus

One of the wonderful things about having a rural home and studio is that going to town is always pretty thrilling, even for a long day of Wowhaus project-related meetings, as is occasionally our charge. Ene and I gussy up a bit, put on our shoes, pack up and head south, catching up on the news along the way. Yesterday, we spent the morning pouring over local historical archives in the City of Richmond’s Public Library, doing visual research for an upcoming public art project for which we are delighted to be finalists. Most of our public projects are urban by nature, and we find our new-found rural perspective helps us to maintain a fresh outlook on the challenges of the day; the contrast between the two enables us to keep them in balance. We do keep a small studio in Oakland, and dream one day of having more of a dual residence.

Late 19th century map of Oakland showing major creeks

We proceeded to a meeting with Kristen Hathaway and Leslie Estes of the City of Oakland’s Watershed and Stormwater Management Program to brainstorm how best to articulate a system of Watershed Markers for the City, which we have been commissioned to design. We were excited to compare maps from the past with the contemporary geography as we navigate the process of siting the markers for optimal impact, looking for converging natural and cultural features in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic.

‘Grumpus Bumpus’ is hollow, with a resonating aperture on the bottom, so doubles as a musical instrument when a stick is dragged across its back.

After a late lunch at Vik’s Chaat House in Berkeley, our final stop was at Berkeley’s Artworks Foundry to inspect the patina on our bronze sculptures for the Sunnyside Conservatory in San Francisco. The patina looked great, and the sculptures will be ready to install upon approval by the City of San Francisco’s Arts Commission, who are funding the project. Once installed, we will be hosting a neighborhood workshop in the fall when people gather in the park for their annual pumpkin carving. The neighbors are eager to depict our Sunnyside Menagerie creatures as jack-o-lanterns, which will be the perfect welcome to their final home.

Tagged: contemporary art, deep craft, Oakland, public art, scott Constable, sunnyside conservatory, watershed, wowhaus

Artist Mark Brest van Kempen explains his water catchment/recycling system

We spent an inspiring evening yesterday at the home of our friend Mark Brest van Kempen, an Oakland-based artist whose work “draws our attention to nature’s role as source, setting and savior“. Mark’s house and studio are a kind of living laboratory nestled in the hills on the verdant banks of Chimes Creek, whose year-round flow spills gently over a waterfall below the house. Mark has worked tirelessly to protect the creek from the effects of residential development upstream, and his house is a model for how domestic architecture can simultaneously protect a watershed and create habitat. Mark’s family recycles their greywater, which is processed through a sequence of living plants that produce food and attract beneficial birds and insects. They also harvest rainwater from their rooftops and use solar-powered pumps to cycle it back onto the flat roof above Mark’s office, where he has created a lovely ‘lizard habitat’ (see below).

recycled rainwater nourishes a rooftop lizard habitat

Please stay tuned for an interview with Mark Brest van Kempen in the coming weeks.

Tagged: appropriate technology, deep craft, DIY, gardening, green design, green roof, greywater, mark brest van kempen, slow design, watershed, wowhaus

Taking a break under a giant bluegum eucalyptus on Whitaker Bluff

The eucalyptus was planted extensively throughout California by Australians during the Gold Rush for use as timber. They mistakenly thought the wood to be well suited for railroad ties, but the trees took differently to the soil and tended to grow in spirals, the grain twisting when cured.

“They went on to note that the promise of eucalyptus in California was based on the old virgin forests of Australia. This was a mistake as the young trees being harvested in California could not compare in quality to the centuries-old eucalyptus timber of Australia. It reacted differently to harvest. The older trees didn’t split or warp as the infant California crop did. There was a vast difference between the two, and this would doom the California eucalyptus industry.”

Santos, Robert L. (1997). “Seeds of Good or Seeds of Evil?”. The Eucalyptus of California. California State University.

Ene, Aili and I have been enjoying cycling the ranch roads West of Petaluma, where the eucalyptus were planted in lines along ridges and roadways as windbreak. I’ve used the wood in several projects and love its grain character, though its hardness and twisted growth patterns make it difficult to work. Several years ago I developed a chair design (see below) that capitalizes on the inherent attributes of the wood, which I found well-suited to sliding dovetail joints and narrow dimensions, which are less prone to twisting.

The Euc Chair (1995), which I developed after the Oakland Hills fire, when there was an abundance of eucalyptus cut for fire breaks.

Tagged: california flora, craft, deep craft, green design, woodworking, wowhaus

Shell Beach, from the Kortum Trail

I thought appreciatively of Bill Kortum as we hiked the section of the California Coastal Trail named in his honor. Bill is an environmentalist of local renown who has been instrumental in protecting the coastline for public use. The late morning fog kept us cool as we made our way from Wrights Beach to the headlands south of the Russian River, stopping at Shell Beach for a picnic and a nap. I noticed these new blooms along the trail:

a Swallowtail in the Paint Brush

The thistle is beginning to blossom

Tagged: bill kortum, california coastal trail, california flora, deep craft, phenology, scott Constable, sonoma coast

A section of the fabric from Christo’s ‘Running Fence’ (1976) is used as a backdrop for the Salami Toss at the Occidental Fire Department’s annual summer barbecue.

When Christo and Jeanne-Claude realized their seminal Running Fence project in West Sonoma County in the mid-1970’s, they traded materials used to construct the 24 mile long fence with ranchers in exchange for use of the land. Learning more about the project from first-hand knowledge when our family moved to the area about three years ago, I thought it would be interesting to investigate what remains of the original materials and how they have been put to use by ranchers and others over the past 30 years.

Ene and I wrote a proposal for a project we called Running Fence Revisited (click to see original proposal), for which we are still seeking funding to produce a publication. Meanwhile, I’ve begun to research and document the project on these pages and invite anyone interested in helping to participate by leaving a comment below. The first artifact we’ve discovered related to Christo’s original Running Fence is a section of the fabric still used by the Occidental Fire Department as a backdrop for the Salami Toss concession at their annual summer barbecue, which we attended yesterday.

If you have any information about what remains of Running Fence, would like to learn more about Running Fence Revisited or help us to conduct research, please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Tagged: christo and jeanne claude, conceptual art, deep craft, land art, occidental, running fence, scott Constable, west sonoma county, wowhaus

In the powdered donut drawer,
a bank’s blue ballpoint pens.

Beneath the white pine floor
damp sand beds cedar cellar beams.

Above the front screen door,
the transom’s wavy pane’s trimmed,
pinned with enough loving imperfection

to shed a season’s rains in a blow,
sweetening the chamfered glow.

Tagged: deep craft, poem, scent memory, scott Constable