artist/musician/chef Josef Szuecs of The-Way-To-Go-Joes My friend and neighbor Josef Szuecs is one of the most multi-talented people I’ve ever met. Owner of Renga Arts in Occidental, CA, guitarist/founder of the locally popular, self-described ‘porch jazz’ combo, The-Way-To-Go-Joes, Joe is also an accomplished chef, and his food often features seasonal fare he hunts, grows, fishes […]
Author Archives: Scott
Focus on Beginnings
Like a lot of makers, a significant portion of my time involves working in solitude, or at least in focused isolation on the task at hand. My best work results when I enjoy this part, but I’ve learned how to trick my way into the appropriate attitude to just get the job done if need […]
In the Studio with Angelina DeAntonis
artist/textile designer Angelina DeAntonis sits in the chair her mother made, surrounded by Angelina’s ottomans I did not expect to be distracted by a chair as I entered the San Francisco studio of artist/textile designer Angelina DeAntonis, but the chair’s clean lines and straightforward presence captured my imagination, and it looked very much at home […]
Bull Kelp of the South Swell
The seasonal south swell has returned to Doran Beach, piling up shapely waves along with lashings of Bull Kelp. Last year I was intent upon taming the kelp for a wild-crafted, bioregional chair. My dream remains intact but this year I’m more seduced by the waves. enormous tangles of kelp accumulate along the shore after […]
The Week in Bloom
Now the sanderling outnumber the dowitcher along the Sonoma Coast, where heaps of kelp remind of the season’s first storms. Last week’s extratropical activity dumped up to ten inches of rain from Typhoon Melor, which blew across the Pacific from Japan. The uncharacteristically humid, warm weather forced some unlikely blossoming, turned the local pastures green, […]
Back to the Studio
a satisfying pile of offcuts accumulate as I make chairs for Becoming Independent Getting back to the studio this week makes me grateful that my work as an artisan requires such a range of activity. After a couple of weeks of project-related proposal-making, site visits, speaking engagements and interviews with the press, I’m delighted to […]
Bioneers
Bioneers was held over the past weekend at the Wright-designed Marin Civic Center Bioneers is an annual, three day forum for cutting edge ideas in the realm of sustainability and ecology. This year’s conference was aptly sited on the campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center and marks the twentieth anniversary of the […]