the underside of this pallet reminds me of a Mayan city At some point when making a sculpture or piece of furniture, my job is simply to convey a load to the ground. The perennial challenge is to invent or interpret a structural program that gets the job done but adds something new in the […]
Category Archives: visceral inquiry
Yuletide Wishes
The number twelve holds perennial cultural significance Wishing good harvests and peace to all for the new year, in honor of the twelve days of Christmas and their origins in ancient Yuletide festivals.
The Week in Bloom
a bounty of foraged hedgehog, pig’s ear, white prince* and cauliflower mushrooms Earlier this week, my friend Josef Szuecs invited me to join him on a late season mushroom foraging expedition. Joe has been writing a seasonal Mushroom Report for DeepCraft, and is deeply steeped in mushroom culture, having collected, cooked and eaten wild mushrooms […]
Skygazing Excursion
late afternoon clouds along the Valley Ford-Bodega Road “You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.†-Henry David Thoreau In West Sonoma County, the sky blooms when the lands lay dormant. Between storms, I make skygazing excursions and think about what I might do with paints and canvas, longing to free […]
Skygazing
Study of Clouds over the Sea, Brighton, oil on canvas by John Constable, 1822 Like my distant relative, the English landscape painter John Constable, I find myself increasingly looking skyward. Along the Sonoma Coast, the sky is alternately either clear blue or opaque gray for most of the year. But as winter approaches and the […]
Ene’s Winter Garden
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 […]
Boat Slicks and Baseball Bats
It’s probably no coincidence that one of my favorite tools is the ‘boat slick’, a huge chisel whose long wooden handle either resembles, or is made from a baseball bat. I first learned about the properties of wood playing baseball as a kid, carefully selecting the bat with the tightest grain before going to the […]