painting by William Eley of Becoming Independent Communicating by making pictures must be among the oldest, most primal human instincts. For people born with severe developmental disabilities, the realm of art-making sometimes provides the only tangible outlet for the depths of thought and emotion. ???????? ?? ???????? I studied at RISD and the Art Institute […]
Category Archives: project dispatches
Conspicuous Skies
Perseus cluster (image by Ken Crawford, Rancho Del Sol Observatory) I do my best to court coincidence, but would not consider myself superstitious. Like anyone, I just find it reassuring when cosmic events complement the task at hand and try to pay attention to patterns as they emerge. ??????? ???????? I did not plan to […]
Bicycle Composter Comes Home
Ene spins the composter above our vegetable garden MIX, our bike-powered compost tumbler, has found a final home on the Wowhaus compound, perched atop what remains of a pool deck, above our vegetable garden. The tumbler quickly breaks down our kitchen scraps, mixed with ashes and sawdust, and dumps the mixture into a garden bed […]
Wowhaus Goes to Town
One of the wonderful things about having a rural home and studio is that going to town is always pretty thrilling, even for a long day of Wowhaus project-related meetings, as is occasionally our charge. Ene and I gussy up a bit, put on our shoes, pack up and head south, catching up on the […]
Giant Eucalyptus
Taking a break under a giant bluegum eucalyptus on Whitaker Bluff The eucalyptus was planted extensively throughout California by Australians during the Gold Rush for use as timber. They mistakenly thought the wood to be well suited for railroad ties, but the trees took differently to the soil and tended to grow in spirals, the […]
Running Fence Revisited #1
A section of the fabric from Christo’s ‘Running Fence’ (1976) is used as a backdrop for the Salami Toss at the Occidental Fire Department’s annual summer barbecue. When Christo and Jeanne-Claude realized their seminal Running Fence project in West Sonoma County in the mid-1970’s, they traded materials used to construct the 24 mile long fence […]
A Chair for Mildred’s Lane
I made this sketch of a sixteenth century dining chair I saw at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The chair is thought to be either English or Scandinavian in origin, and we did see many like it at folk museums last summer while traveling around Norway and Estonia. The type is well suited for production […]