photo by Jenny Elia Pfeiffer for the December ‘09 issue of San Francisco Magazine
I’m already fielding inquiries for dining tables after the publication of an interview with Ene and me in the December issue of San Francisco Magazine, written by Joanne Furio. The interview is called ‘We Gather Together’ and it unpacks our approach to the role of furniture in bringing people together, particularly around the holidays. If you live in the Bay Area, pick up a copy at the newsstands, or click on the link above. Ene and I are both very pleased with the article, and thank Joanne and Jenny for doing such a wonderful job.
Most people know Ene, my wife and wowhaus partner, as one of the sunniest people they’ve met, and rightfully so. Our wowhaus compound has been blessed by her love of planting, harvesting and saving seeds, as she eagerly scouts out patches of sun throughout the year, populating them with seasonal flowers and vegetable gardens, battling hungry deer and gopher with joyous aplumb.
With the soil softened and moist from early rains and short days, Ene is truly in her element as she purposefully marches about the property, picking the last of the apples, dragging hoses and planting fruit trees, mulched with woodshop shavings. Her winter garden is predictably unruly, its inner logic a kind of living, visual manifestation of Ene’s happy hands and exuberant spirit. We eat well from Ene’s Winter Garden, where collard greens, dyno kale and lettuces thrive, and I love nothing more than to discover what’s ready to cook, driven by hunger to forage at dusk for the family dinner.
Ene’s Autumn Greens
Saute bacon in a cast iron skillet. Remove bacon to drain on a cloth or paper towel. Drain the bacon fat from the pan, leaving some. Add olive oil and saute sliced onions until slightly softened. Add chopped kale, collards or other green, tossing with the onions over medium high heat. When the greens are tender, de-glaze the pan with apple cider vinegar and toss in chopped apples and the bacon, crumbled into pieces. Reduce heat and allow to simmer until flavors blend, adding water if the mixture is dry. Season with salt and pepper and serve over pasta or as a side dish with roasted chicken or fish.
three of eight Space Chairs for Becoming Independent, ready for finishing
I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with artists with developmental disabilities in the design of my Space Chairs for the new playroom at Becoming Independent (BI) in Santa Rosa. The eight chairs are made from locally-milled Monterey Cypress, and their backs frame panels lovingly painted by eight individual artists who regularly participate in BI’s innovative Artworks Program. The chairs, half of which have arms, will be used daily by children of all ages who have varying degrees of developmental disabilities. I’m very pleased with the outcome, whose design program has been a challenge, requiring safety, durability, low cost and ease of configuration. I’m confident the project will prove to be a successful prototype for continued collaboration, and I look forward to exploring the potential for more expressive forms featuring panels painted by the Artists of Becoming Independent.
To follow the thread on my collaboration with Becoming Independent, please click here.
Wherever I travel I try to document roadside, vernacular architecture. Often times a journey to another region refocuses my attention when I come home to the Pacific Coast of Northern California. I was struck by these two structures over the past week, which pretty much typify the working class, domestic landscape of West Sonoma County. The (perceived) major divide within this demographic is between ‘hippies’ and ‘rednecks’, but I’m interested in the overlap between the groups; they have more in common than you’d think.
I hit the ground running upon my return from the first leg of our Kohler Arts Residency in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Our plate will be quite full over the next 6 months while we develop a project focused on non-motorized transportation for Kohler, which will begin to take shape in earnest when Ene, Aili and I return to Wisconsin in April. Meanwhile, here are a few highlights from the world of wowhaus:
Ene updated the wowhaus website to feature our most recent work: www.thewowhaus.com
Wowhaus is interviewed in-depth in the Style Counsel column of the December issue of San Francisco Magazine, which hits the newsstands in the coming week.
Our Sunnyside Menagerie project will be open to the public soon (see poster below), and all are invited:
Otherwise, I’m focused on clearing the decks and readying my woodshop to make interior furnishings and fixtures for a private residence in Marin (more to come), which will occupy the majority of my time from early December through late March. We also have two active public art projects in San Francisco, one in Oakland and one in development in Walnut Creek, California, which will be the largest lenticular mural we’ve made, if all goes according to plan. I’ll do my best to post progress and ephemera on these pages, and hope you’ll continue to stay tuned!
After finally seeing the Pritzker Pavilion of Millenium Park in Chicago first hand, I’m beginning to view the work of Frank Gehry as an architectural cousin to the financial mindset of the likes of Bernard Madoff. Both stand out as icons of a gilded era that seemed until recently to be in its infancy but is rapidly retreating in the wake of global crisis; two expressions of ‘irrational exuberance’ for the ages. While Madoff’s possessions are auctioned off to pay the victims of his elaborate Ponzi scheme and he suffers universal scorn, the contemporaneous architecture of Frank Gehry remains well outside of reproach. Yet I can’t help but to find a connection between the cosmic twins and think it’s time to allow hindsight to color how we see Gehry’s architecture, which at its core is pure spectacle, the aesthetic equivalent of financial hubris and greed.
Obviously, the big difference is that Gehry’s buildings actually work, which is a fundamental requirement of architecture, unlike banking. With hindsight, though, the question arises what do they work for, and how should architecture work? Hopefully, as the latest age of excess fades in memory, a new kind of functionality will emerge in both the realms of finance and design, one that values the human scale and honors its role in addressing sustainability, without sacrificing spectacle or glamour. Hopefully, Gehry’s buildings will continue to influence us as harbingers of the nascent potential for the imagination to stretch the boundaries of technology and material culture. What remains to be seen is if we will get return on our aesthetic investment. Upon experiencing Gehry’s work for the first time in person, I did not.
On my final day in Sheboygan I was treated to a Hmong Festival, hosted by the Kohler Arts Center. The Festival featured the traditional storytelling, crafts, costume, food, music and dance of the Hmong culture. Through an epic pageant performed by local children (see video clip above), I learned about the exploitation and eventual persecution of the Hmong, and their tragic migration from China to Laos, and eventually to Thailand where they were refugees after the Vietnam War. Several Hmong families found their way to Sheboygan over thirty years ago, and the population has steadily increased as the Hmong settle in and participate as vibrant members of the community. We look forward to working with the Hmong people of Sheboygan as our Connecting Communities project takes shape as artists-in-residence this spring and summer.
photo by Jenny Elia Pfeiffer for the December ‘09 issue of San Francisco Magazine
three of eight Space Chairs for Becoming Independent, ready for finishing
