Field Lab

Bodger’s camp in the Chiltern beech woods, late 19th century (from The English Regional Chair, Bernard D. Cotton, Antique Collector’s Club, 1990) The strategy behind my residency at Mildred’s Lane will be multi-tiered, ranging from the development of a working, craft  production facility on site to the promotion and marketing of Goods to be produced, […]

Future Classic?

looking through the translucent, fiberglass/resin skin to the honeycombed, cardboard core of one of Mike Sheldrake’s prototype surfboards In terms of the triad of beauty, performance and workmanship, Mike Sheldrake’s cardboard surfboards transcend the impressively vast exposition of mostly ‘DIY-for-DIY’s-sake’ projects and demonstrations at this year’s Maker Faire. Posing serenely amidst whirring gizmos and gadgets, […]

The Week in Bloom

elegant windlass at each pair of posts, framing a gateway The only sounds punctuating my bike ride to the coast along the quiet, eight mile stretch of Valley Ford-Franklin School Road were the sweet song of the meadowlark perched on fence posts and the eerily creaking eucalyptus in the wind. As I climbed the long […]

Preparing for Mildred’s Lane

naturalist/essayist John Burroughs In preparation for my residency and lecture at Mildred’s Lane late next month, I’ve been studying the upper Delaware River, reading about its history and looking at maps. I was struck by a passage by the nineteenth century American naturalist/essayist John Burroughs, describing a boyhood trip down the Delaware in his book […]

The Week in Bloom

Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria) brightens roadside culverts Clusters of California poppy, red hot poker and wild pea brightened roadside culverts and hay barns as we cycled the Bodega Highway to the coast through a light morning fog. The lupin grow yellow around the contours of Bodega Head, a rocky bluff that juts out into […]

Final Oakland Installation Dispatch

Lake Merritt, looking towards the Northeast James and I completed the lenticular murals yesterday by clear-coating them with a  protective, anti-graffiti glaze. Touching every square inch of the surface of the images reminded me how much the tiles have been handled over the past eight months, how much care has gone into realizing a hand […]

Oakland Installation Dispatch

Ene, James and I worked long days in the heat and completed the Oakland Fusion murals by the end of Saturday, exhausted and relieved. Our biggest reward was when word spread among the train conductors to check out our project, and they would make a point of leaving the train to walk by the murals […]