GOINGS ON AT ALMA & NANCY'S JOSHUA TREE STUDIO...
DECEMBER 2009
ALMA ALLEN EXHIBITION AT HEATH CERAMICS , LOS ANGELES
Exhibition of sculpture, furniture, bowls by Alma Allen from November 20099 to January 2010.
DECEMBER 2009
HEATH / COMMUNE / ALMA CANISTERS ARE SOLD OUT!
OCTOBER 2009
COLLABORATION WITH HEATH CERAMICS AND COMMUNE DESIGN
Alma always enjoys the creative process of working with Commune Design and was delighted that Commune has brought together Alma and Heath Ceramics for this project as they have brought together the materials wood and ceramic. Alma has admired Heath from a young age when he scored a couple of plates from a thrift store for his first apartment as a teenager. Each walnut top is unique in shape and custom carved on the lathe to accomodate the variations in the hand thrown canisters.
From Roman Alonso at Commune: The collaboration was inspired by German ceramic kitchen canisters my mother has had since I was a child. They were beautiful and practical and they involved ceramic AND wood. I'd been wanting to bring Heath and Alma together on some kind of product related project, the Commune kitchen canisters were the perfect opportunity. Commune worked with Heath on special glazes and with Alma on the walnut tops. We are thrilled with the results.
From Adam Silverman at Heath: The collaboration between Commune, Heath and Alma is a nice example of cross pollenating. Roman from Commune initiated the project, having worked with both Alma and Heath on several projects, he thought it made sense to try to bring us all together, and I think his instincts were good. The final canisters or jars, are really beautiful. The wood, forms, details, finish, etc. of Alma's lids bring the ceramic jars to another place, making them even more rich and complex and beautiful and functional, which is hard to do, all of that at the same time.
Look for the canisters at Alma's upcoming show at Heath Ceramics in Los Angeles.
OCTOBER 2009
PATINAS
Alma's been experimenting with patinas on the bronze sculptures like a mad chemist. After months of strange and/or diasppointing results he recently concocted a formula we love. New patina sculptures will be at the upcoming Heath show.
SEPTEMBER 2009
WORKING ON STOOLS
We got a big Sugar Pine Tree from Big Bear. It was removed because it was raising the roof off of someone's house in the mountains above the lake. They had to zipline the tree down to a barge in the lake where we picked it up. On the way down from Big Bear with the trailer loaded up with logs, the trailer brakes went out so Alma had to drive 5 mph in low gear and hope for the best.
SEPTEMBER 2009
"HOODOOS BY ALMA ALLEN" EXHIBITION IN TOKYO
LANDSCAPE PRODUCTS FACTORY IN KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN
Nakahara-san took us to his home town of Kagoshima in Southern Japan where he has a small furniture factory owned by a super charming family who also have a cool shop and cafe in town. This is where Alma's new coffee tables designs were made.
KAGOSHIMA CONTINUED
For lunch one of the sashimi options was raw chicken! At the factory compound they also have a huge garden and the grandparents were making miso. The grandpa is also the chief welder.
AUGUST 2009
NEW FURNITURE DESIGNS INCLUDING LAUNCH OF LANDSCAPE PRODUCTS LINE
Alma and Shinichiro Nakahara from Play Mountain / Landscape Products are collaborating on a new furniture project. Alma took inspiration from one of his recent carved solid wood tables to make this prototype in metal and walnut lumber to be made by Nakahara-san’s Kagoshima factory in Southern Japan. We’re very excited to visit the factory and the nearby Yakushima Island, home of the amazing 1000+ year old Yakasugi cedar trees, this September. I’ll just try not to think about what Alma could do with one of those beauties.
Alma has really been liking experimenting with metal and wood designs lately, especially with the added element of color using powder coated metal. This is the first prototype with a nod to the Noguchi coffee table but the newer versions go in a different direction. They can be seen at the upcoming Heath show.
AUGUST 2009
CONTINUED
During a recent visit, Nakahara-san and Alma talk about the upcoming exhibition and furniture line as well as old Landcruisers. He’s got one too in Japan!
Nakahara-san is always with interesting, creative people – designers, artists... This visit he was with journalist and photographer Aya Muto and Yuri Nomura who did this very cool documentary about ecological food practices in Japan called Eatrip. Check out the gorgeous web page for the film.
AUGUST 2009
ROCK HUNTING
We took back roads from Pioneertown to Big Bear to take the Fritz and Fanny for a swim. They’re pretty rough dirt roads, (although smoothed out some by firefighters during the big Pioneertown fire a few years ago), that take you through an amazing transition from desert environment to alpine. Pine trees morph with enormous joshua trees – the largest I’ve seen – creating a Dr. Seuss effect.
Alma hit an abandoned marble quarry along the way and picked up some of this white marble.
Swimming in Big Bear Lake is kind of comical in how un-idyllic it is. Boats, airplanes and jet skis roar past making you feel like you’re taking a dip on the 10 freeway. These desert dogs are desperate though so they’ll take whatever cooler climes and bodies of water they can get.
AUGUST 2009
OUTDOOR SHOWER (HEE-HEE)
We have plans for an outdoor shower, ideally nestled in the rocks with panoramic views, but right now we’re trying to get the indoor shower and bath tub done. After we got signed off a couple years ago, the house has pretty much been on hiatus as we had to get back to business to try and pay for the thing. Banks don't want to lend you money on land - even a gorgeous piece of land next to National Park - if it doesn'thave even a shack as collateral let alone water or power. The whole process was a nail-biting affair juggling 0% offer credit cards and any loans we could get short of taking Fritz to the pawn shop. I realize now how lucky were though now that the 0% offers have dried up. The shower was a source of building regulation frustration on par with Edison nonsensically insisting on primitive above ground wires and the Joshua Basin Water District’s Sarah Palin-like request for an 8 inch mainline to nowhere. For some reason our particular building inspector didn’t like our cast concrete drain in the shower even though the other inspectors had no problem with it whatsoever. Sick of arguing about it, we finally bought a Home Depot fiberglass shower pod (pictured) to satisfy the one inspector. And so we have been living with the fiberglass pod sitting awkwardly in the luxurious shower area gathering dust outside its formed plastic walls. The shower pod has been moved to courtyard while the bathroom finally gets it’s proper due like a Paul Masson wine including cedar-lined walls. Now is not a good time for this project either with Alma’s shows in Japan and LA this Fall, but if we didn’t get it in this year it might be another year before it’s warm enough we can shower outside for a month while the work is done.
AUGUST 2009
THE STREAMLINE REVISITED
After two and half years living in the Streamline, we were happy to see it go. Fritz wouldn’t even walk near it after we moved into the house. If you called him from its vicinity, he would crouch down with his tail between his legs. He did not want to live in that thing again, especially with a spacious house so nearby. But we recently had a bittersweet reunion with the Streamline which is now happily parked in Keiko and Taku’s backyard (the owners of Tortoise and Tortoise General Store pictured here with Fido!) in the temperate and green world of Venice. I don’t think there’s any love lost on its part either. It is now a beloved guest room with overnight visitors exclaiming they’ve never slept so well. But this is why you shouldn’t marry after a couple charming first dates! Even I was beguiled by this Don Giovanni on the night we spent and kind of missed the old thing. Alma’s familiar complaints about being pushed against the cold metal walls and Fritz & Fanny’s nightlong pacing tempered too much nostalgia though.
AUGUST 2009
WELLS AND THE GOATS
I remember hearing some joke once, described as an old Polish joke – a man goes to the doctor complaining that he lost his job. He has no money. His wife and children are hungry, his house needs fixing, everything is in disrepair. His doctor tells him to get a goat. “But why would I get a goat?! I have enough troubles!” The man decries. “Trust me. Get a goat.” The doctor replies. The man returns a couple months later even more miserable than before. He complains to the doctor that the goat has made things a thousand times worse. He chews and bites everything in sight – his yard, furniture, children. The doctor replies: “Get rid of the goat!”
Wells, our beloved bronze casting assistant, recently acquired not one but THREE goats – Barack (he’s black and white), Garbonzo the pygmy angora, and Alba, the only one who can produce milk. Yesterday he arrived very tired, having spent the night with Garbonzo and Alba in their goat cage. Some extravagant sequined and taffeta attired artist friends from San Francisco were visiting Wells' Joshua Tree compound and were inspired, possibly due to psychedelics, to create a music video starring Barack. Barack was wrested from his goat buddies in the night much to the bleating despair of Garbonzo and Alba. So Wells consoled them until the artistes were finished. I keep joking with Wells ala the Polish doctor “Get rid of the goats!” but he doesn’t find this very funny. Maybe I’ll change my tune when he starts bringing me delicious homemade goat cheese and yogurt.
JULY 2009
GRAY WATER
More pipes went into the wash to the South of our house where all the geo-thermal loop Pex pipe is buried. (More on the earth loop in the previous post.) This Spring we planted some trees – fig, apricot, pear, olive and pomegranate – watered with gray water in drip irrigation pipes underground. Up until now we’ve just been moving the gray water hose around with the filtered water. We have some very happy native juniper and creosote. I’m hoping that the use of gray water balances out planting non-native fruit trees even more so than Al Gore flying around in a private jet to warn of environmental dangers.
JULY 2009
HEATING IS EASIER THAN COOLING OUT HERE
Alma has spent many, many hours experimenting with the heating and cooling system of the house. Unfortunately the cooling tower on the swamp cooler and the geo-thermal loop have not been as successful as the solar water heater. The solar water heater supplies most of our hot water needs year-round and heats the house in the winter through the radiant floor heating. The
geo-thermal earth loop - hundreds of feet of Pex pipe buried a few feet underground in the wash which is connected to the pipes in the cement floors - only lowers the temperature a couple of degrees. This is pretty much useless on a day like today which was over 100, hardly worth running the pump.
UNDER SIEGE
I received a beautiful box of succulents and cactus for my birthday and thought it would safe in the 10 foot high walls of our courtyard separating the studio and house. Nope. I'm feeling quite sorry for myself looking at the devoured remains and hope this isn’t somehow symbolic of my future. I suppose I was asking for it with something called a succulent out in the desert. But they ate the spiny cactus too. Many of our projects out here suffer a similar fate and I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the high desert rats, birds and squirrels are far more perseverant and industrious than I am. Nature wins.
I could fence in the succulents as I did with the tomatoes and basil but that seems kind of silly with a decorative plant. And did I mention this is within the 10 foot high walls of the courtyard? The birds eat whatever tomato leaves extend pass the top of the fencing. One of the tomato plants is full of tomatoes – by some act of God still there ripening on the vine. I guess the critters are waiting until they get a little bit riper and I set out some fresh buffalo milk mozzarella and French sea salt. The other tomato plant is growing like crazy but missed the window of time before it got too hot to produce fruit. Maybe this Fall it will develop some tomatoes if I can keep the birds off of it. I experienced some needed schadenfreude talking to a friend in Venice/Los Angeles – which I romanticize as a nirvana of perfect weather and easily satiated animals who can saunter down to the beach for snacks - in full battle with some raccoons over their garden and koi pond. His daughter’s red-eared slider turtle was the most recent victim.
Now the mint is doing great. Rats don’t like mojitos. You can go crazy with the mint.
UPDATE 10/27/09: The mint got devoured by caterpillars as did most of the basil. The smaller tomato plant actually produced tomatoes while the big one just got big but the tomatoes split and fall apart before they are ready to eat. I guess I needed to shade them. But then some critter figured out how to get in the cage anyway so they're all half eaten anyway. I don't think I have the high desert gardening gumption. The farmer's market is a lot easier.
TELEPATHIC DIRECTIONS FROM EXTRATERRESTRIALS
One of the coolest things we've done out here lately is have a sound bath at the Integratron. We've long been intrigued by the buildng and its unusual historical marker located within a nexus of odd desert attractions including a huge orchid farm and a huge rock - Giant Rock - pictured below.
The marker matter-of-factly explains: "The Integratron is the creation of George Van Tassel, and is based on the design of the Moses’ tabernacle, the writings of Nikola Tesla, and telepathic directions from extraterrestrials.” Another highlight: “The purpose of the Integratron is the rejuvenation of the human body, similar to recharging a battery, and basic research in time travel.” Once you experience a sound bath in the Integratron, you’ll understand why such seemingly radical ideas were stated with such gravitas and authority in bronze. I have no idea what it's like to astral project, but while I was having the sound bath in the dome, I felt like I was doing it. For more information go to: integratron.com
MAY 2009
GIANT ROCK (SIMPLY PUT)
Giant Rock lore claims it as the largest free standing boulder - in the world! Having just returned from the land of amazing rocks in Moab, Utah, I have my doubts, but whatever it may or may not lack in size, it makes up for in personality. People have long been drawn to the rock. Although the people of yesteryear were way more rad than the current yokels who are inexplicably drawn to spraypaint the natural wonder. In the 1930s a prospector named Frank Critzer staked a claim and built a subterranean one-room home underneath it taking full advantage of thermal mass to keep his place cool in the summer and warm in the winter. During WWII he was wrongly suspected of being a German spy and was killed in his underground home when law enforcement threw tear gas in to get him out causing his mining explosives to go off. So the story goes. Critzer was friends with George Van Tassel of the Integratron. He and his wife opened a café famous for its pies which served mostly fly-in customers with airplanes using a landing strip next door to Giant Rock that Critzer built. Van Tassel also held huge UFO conventions at Giant Rock attracting 11,000 people in 1959. I feel so lame that we built a house, but not one based on a Tesla coil that can create cell rejuvenation, time travel, and communication with extraterrestrials. Not to mention a café and landing strip and UFO convention site. We gotta get on it.
THE UPSIDE TO THE DOWNTURN
The crash in the real estate market has had the pleasant side effect that you no longer see hideous beige manufactured homes popping up in Joshua Tree like weeds. Now they sit forlornly with their yards scraped clean of vegetation and chainlink fences and withering For Sale signs. Fortunately Joshua Tree is divided up into many small parcels because of its history of homesteading, making it difficult for the ticky-tacky houses to go up in large swaths. With fewer people out to flip and make a quick buck, it leaves room for architecturally interesting projects done more as a labor of love. For example, Richard, pictured here in the white t-shrt, is resurrecting a Frank Gehry log cabin which was originally an installation at a museum. And Randy Polumbo, pictured left, just had his house made from rocks and rusty treasures featured in the New York Times.
OTHER USES FOR LADDERS
It's hard to make things flat, especially with a chainsaw. Alma and Wells using a ladder with the chainsaw mill to create the flat surfaces for coffee tables like this one:
LANDCRUISER TRIP TO MOAB
Craving a place drier, more desolate and with fewer amenities than Joshua Tree, we went on a camping trip to Southern Utah.
SPRING TIME IN THE DESERT AGAIN
We spotted our first tortoise and the desert is filled with flowers! This one was captured by our talented nature & wildlife photographer neighbor David McChesney / outmywindows.com. He definitely sees many more creatures than we do with Fritz & Fanny around.
You feel guilty taking a hike because you step on so many blooms - or other creatures newly awake. Fritz & Fanny and I went on a spontaneous hike in the sci-fi named BLM land area “Section 6” and noticed a caterpillar crossing the road... then another, and another. At first it was charming - they’ll become butterflies! - but the quantity of them quickly became disconcerting, probably because I was wearing only flip-flops. I didn’t undertand why they were all crossing the road and not content to nibble on the similar offerings where they originated. It seemed like driving from Venice to go to the McDonald’s in Silverlake. As my steps became more jerky to avoid stepping on the crossing caterpillars, I could only imagine their motives were far more insidious and the hike became like an episode of the X-Files. Surely this could only result in the caterpillars burrowing into our vulnerable bared tootsies. The only question was whether the budget allowed for a dramatic explosion of butterflies out of our eyeballs and mouths once they desiccated our insides or just more of the brown grubbies recast from the previous scene emerging from various orifices.
ACE HOTEL
Alma, Roman from Commune, and TK Smith with Fritz and Fanny at a photo shoot by the pool at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs designed by Commune. Poor Fritz had a tough day and was feeling awkward and self-conscious in front of the camera. He was shoo-ed away by the photographer who was enamoured only with young Fanny. He expected a little better treatment in Palm Springs! Home to others of Fritz's stature - Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford...
The hotel looks amazing and the vibe is really great. We're really excited to have a place like this so close to home including a great restaurant!! We have to make regular trips to Palm Springs to hit the Trader Joe's and the culinary offerings in the high and low desert can be a bit sparse - especially as a fishitarian. I mean no disrespct to Crossroads and Pappy & Harriet's but I would be quite grateful if they took some mercy on the full-time locals and varied the menu a bitl? Sadly, the excitement I once held for the Crossroads tempeh reuben lost its luster before we even moved out here. And down below the offerings are geared toward the meat and potato crowd who pack the early brd specials.
But lunch at Ace included amazing fish tacos, vegetarian pot pie, (pot pie being the hottest substance known to man), pot brownies - it's on the menu! - which you can enjoy in the restaurant with newly unearthed Terrazzo floors or with a cocktail by the pool...
ACE HOTEL
Alma's bronze lobby door handles with some lovely ladies posing in the background - also excited about the new Ace!
DECEMBER - JANUARY 2009
SUCKING THE UNIVERSE
Alma had a show at Anthony Greaney in Boston.
SIX WEEKS LATER
Alma's leg is still looking pretty broken six weeks later when they took off the tall cast (the fibula broke farther up) but the doctor put him in a removeable fracture brace.
ALMA BROKE HIS LEG
Right after New Years Alma was out dirt biking (Suzuki DRZ 400) in a very remote location in Johnson Valley and broke his leg despite the fact that he was essentially wearing a full body cast of protective gear. (Personally I avoid activites which require a full body cast to prevent needing one.) Nevertheless he suffered a tib fib double whammy. After waiting for two hours in the dirt with no signs of his friends who drove off to get a 4WD truck to haul him out, and as the sun went down, the wind kicked up, the shock wore off, and the pain set in, Alma finally decided to activate his GPS SPOT Messenger device he had recently acquired. There was also the little fact that his friends wouldn't be able to get anywhere near him... perhaps this occurred to his friends around the third or fourth hour of tryng to get back... to Alma a little sooner... A long hike and hours of riding on bumpy dirt roads are not good conditions for an unsplinted broken leg.
Since he normally rides in areas that aren’t even a twinkle in a cell phone service’s eye, he hoped the SPOT would only be used to send messages that he was okay and track where he had been riding using Google Maps. Worst case scenario if he had mechanical problems he could also send me a message for help. But he unfortunately got to put it to the full test after owning it only a couple months and had to push the 911 button. The SPOT/GEOS service then contacted the local authorities. There was an unsettling period of time when I was trying to explain GPS coordinates to the the local San Bernardino Sheriff’s Dept and offered to email them the link to Alma’s whereabouts on Google maps. We finally got through to some higher–ups via GEOS contacting a central emergency response center in Sacramento and help was on the way - although Alma didn’t know this for sure as he lay in the dirt and the dark. Alma could only be reached by helicopter because they couldn’t drive anywhere near him on the single track dirt bike roads. All in all he waited 5 hours in the dirt after breaking his leg but after hitting the SPOT it only took them 2 hours until the helicopter arrived. Although he took every safety precaution possible, his dirt biking injury was not met with a ton of sympathy at the packed holiday weekend Palm Springs hospital full of Glammis victims. (If you don’t know about the Glammis sand dunes phenomenon – check it out.) Alma is careful to only go on designated trails and does not chew up virgin land or ride near houses - unless he doesn't like you. :)
Fritz and Fanny looking rightfully nervous...
But working on sculpture...