Living and working in West Africa many years ago, we learned to Greet the Elders When Ene and I worked in West Africa as US Peace Corps Volunteers, we developed some habits that still inform our community-based projects. Principal among these is a kind of public ritual we call Greet the Elders. In remote villages, […]
Category Archives: bioregion/vernacular
Sand Trees
These elegant ‘sand trees’ are unique to the low tide conditions of Doran Beach As Ene and I begin to fabricate our relief sculptures for a system of watershed markers we’ve been commissioned to design for the City of Oakland, we’ve been returning to our local beach at low tide for research and inspiration. The […]
Micro Expedition
traversing Greenland, 1930 (image: public domain) I am truly honored that Russell Baldon, acting Chair of CCA’s Wood/Furniture Program, invited me to be the ‘Wornick Visiting Distinguished Professor of Wood Arts’ for Fall 2010. I’ll be teaching a studio-based ‘Atelier’ course for the semester that will give me an opportunity to share my studio and […]
Adams Angling
‘Adams Angling’ is my favorite catalog for thinking about planning an expedition The transition to fair weather from a long and gray, chilly wet season always has me dreaming about excursions to the wilder reaches of Northern California, testing my wits in the face of a more bare mode of survival. While it’s been years […]
Treehouse Report
sketch of my original concept for a stair tower within a mock, old growth redwood trunk I still think of the new cabin I’m designing as a treehouse, even though it will be more of a house on stilts nestled in a fairly dense, second growth redwood grove, making no attachment to any tree. My […]
Kohler Arts Dispatch
Lake Michigan shoreline along the Kohler-Andrae State Park, south of Sheboygan The remainder of our week continued to be full of surprises as we mined Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and its environs along the shores of Lake Michigan for activity relevant to our NOMO project. As Ene and I process our research and interactions and begin to […]
New Treehouse Developments
The treehouse will be hidden in a remote redwood grove, beyond a Gravenstein orchard Structurally, the new treehouse I’ve been commissioned to design will be a radical departure from the various tree-sited structures I’ve made over the years, but the spirit of arboreal living will remain in tact. Sited at the edge of a dense, […]