Adventures in The Zone

Leonard Knight Leaves Salvation Mountain

2011-12-15T12:04:00.002-07:00

Last week, Leonard Knight, the creator of Salvation Mountain, asked his main assistant, Kevin Eubank, to take him to the hospital. He knew he was having cognitive issues. The hospital observed him for 72 hours and then released him to a long-term care facility with some form of dementia. So the upshot is that Leonard is no longer at his amazing creation.

Fortunately, Kevin had been working with Leonard for the last couple of years and has been trying to organize things legally to preserve the Mountain after Leonard passes. Last night, though, I got the word that Kevin died in his sleep.

Salvation Mountain is important not only as a fantastic folk art environment but also because of Leonard's heartfelt message that God is love. He spent thirty years building the place and it now receives thousands of visitors a year. Up until now, Leonard has tried to greet every one of these visitors to share his message.

Many times over the years some church or other would try to co-opt Leonard's mountain and message to serve their own, narrower vision, Leonard would not have it. His pure message was so universal, accepting and inclusive of all denominations that he could not see having it serve one particular dogmatic system.

When Leonard started having cognitive issues, which actually was more than a few years ago, to the rescue came Kevin Eubank. Kevin had had heart trouble and I think a heart attack which changed his life. He decided to devote himself to helping Leonard preserve the Mountain and its spiritual message and to protect Leonard from various vultures who sought to either take Leonard's money and resources or to take the Mountain for their own purposes.

It is interesting that, only a few days after Leonard was put into a care facility, that Kevin would die peacefully in his sleep. It is as if Leonard was the real attraction and his message was the purpose of the whole thing and Kevin was granted a few more years of life to insure that Leonard, the mountain, and the message would continue on. That job done, Kevin's work was through. It is hard not to believe that divine forces were at work. Although I am often very skeptical of this kind of thing. I feel that this is a great possibility and it comforts me to assume it's true.

The Mountain is being watched and protected against vandalism since neither Kevin or Leonard are there now. Efforts are being made by many to preserve the site, particularly to preserve it in the spirit that Leonard wants it preserved. Here is the latest update on the status of the mountain as of yesterday, December 14, 2011.
Here is Kevin's last update on Leonard's condition and how he is faring at the care facility.

I hope that Salvation Mountain does get preserved as some sort of park although the government's stance on religion may preclude their official involvement. It may be up to a private foundation or organization to keep the site intact and available to the public. Kevin had been in contact with an organization called SPACES, which exists to preserve art and cultural sites. They were instrumental in the long process to preserve and protect the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. I emailed them yesterday to tell them about Kevin's death. They said they will do what they can to help preserve the Mountain but said also that it is a difficult situation.

Without Leonard there, it will be a bit empty. People came from all over the world to see Salvation Mountain as an art site and they got the happy surprise of meeting Leonard, experiencing his loving presence and hearing his message to the world that God is Love.

Visit the Salvation Mountain website.

The Cadwac Finds a New Home

2011-10-17T20:57:00.001-07:00

My art car, the Cadwac now has a new owner. It is going to have a new life, too. Plans are in the works to do a major visual remodel of the car. Although it doesn't belong to me anymore, I will still be involved in helping with the remodel. Any metal work needed will be done at my shop. The new owner intends it to be used as a mutant vehicle at Burning Man next year as well as appearing in various parades and such.
It will have a whole new look - a darker, more steampunk look, with the addition of fire cannons and other effects, it should be pretty damn cool! We will add air springs to it and a trailer hitch as well as some special fog and lightng effects.
I am glad to see new energy and enthusiasm put into it. I will post updates on its transformation here in this blog.

One other thing, I fixed the link in my previous post so that you will actually get to see more photos of Charmingdale. Sorry I got it wrong the first time.

A Move to Charmingdale

2011-10-10T09:54:00.003-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted to this blog mostly because we have moved off-grid. In August we packed it all up and moved to a remote mountain location forty miles from the nearest town. We have to create our own power, pump our own water, and climb a ladder to make a cellphone call. We do have satellite internet though. After a bit of fussing we got it going at the end of September.

Charmingdale is what we call it. The name comes from one of the first post offices in the area. The residents at the time wanted to call it Charmingdale and they set up a post office and created a town - kind of. Not really a town, just a small collection of ranches out in the wild. The post office only existed for about a year and that was the end of that. I think this all happened about 1880.

We got here as a result of answering an advertisement in the Caretaker's Gazette. They were looking for managers for a remote biological field station. The site used to be a ranger station until the colleges got a hold of it. They got three hundred applications for the job but we were the lucky ones and got the position. Our job is to maintain the 8 acres of buildings, fences, and fields.

Our adventure in this Zone has begun and there will be many future reports on what goes on out here. As of now, we just had our first freezes as winter approaches. We have picked the pears from our orchard and are getting things battened down for the cold part of the year. It is a beautiful time of year in a beautiful place. We are keeping the location secret for now just for the fun of it.

More photos here

Phonehenge West Update

2011-07-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

There is a nation whose government can take land that you own at any time and put you in jail for creative home building. What country is this? It's the United States of America. If you think you own your house or your land, think again.

OK, so I am a little over the top to claim that he is being prosecuted for creative home building. It's actually building code violations he is in trouble for. There are 9 counts, but I don't know the specifics. I think one of the violations is building too close to the property line but at least some of them are related to not getting permits to build some of the structures. But, still, isn't putting the guy in jail a bit excessive? Especially for the area that he lives in. It is very rural, sparsely populated, and decidedly not upscale. Not to mention that he has been building this place for 30 years! And, only now, they come for him?

As of this date, I think the place is still standing but Kim Fahey and his wife, who built the place, have been forced to move out. They have removed most of their personal belongings. He spent a short time in jail awaiting sentencing but was released on bail. Now his sentencing date has been postponed until some time in early August because he had to be hospitalized for kidney stones. I am guessing that it's too late to save the place unless some big names and big money step in immediately. Even then, maybe not.

In June, a group of us went out to Phonehenge West to see it, take pictures, and get a feel for what is going on there. If you have read my previous post about Phonehenge West, you already know some of the background on this assault on private property rights. For those who never got to see Phonehenge, See my photos here.

Save Phonehenge West from Destruction

2011-06-12T10:57:00.001-07:00

For the last 30 years Kim Fahey has been building an impressive live-in art installation in the mountain/desert of Southern California. Now it is threatened with destruction due to building code violations. Not only that, it's creator faces possible prison time for building art! That's crazy. Sentencing is July 8, 2011, so there is very little time to mount a massive public outcry to stop this travesty.
This is a major artwork and needs to be saved, in my opinion. It is also an example of government's out-of control-intrusion into people's lives. Read this LA Times article about the latest trial and then go to the Save Phonehenge West Facebook page to stay informed and/or make a donation to fund the efforts to save it.. This isn't just about art. It's about government's increasing erosion of private property rights and creative expression.
I hope to visit Phonehenge West in a couple of weeks to show support and take some photos and video of it. If we can't save it from the wrecking ball, at least we can document it's creative grandeur before the denizens of mediocrity destroy it..
It's not impossible to save artwork from the government. In Chandigarh, India, a major sculpture garden by Nek Chand was threatened by the Indian government. Because of public outcry, the government backed down and actually ending up making it a park and funding it's maintenance. In California, the location of Phonehenge West, the Watts Towers were threatened by the government and then, because of public involvement, it was saved and is now a government funded park.
The government exists to serve the people. Not the other way around. Please share this with everyone you know.

Rest In Peace Charlie Russell

2011-05-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

Charlie Russell, aka Chasterus, died sometime in the night between Tuesday, May 10 and Wednesday, May 11. It was natural causes of some kind but we don't know yet exactly what happened. He was a well-known art car artist and the founder and mayor of East Jesus. For anyone who doesn’t know, East Jesus is a habitable, extensible, experimental art environment-in-progress that has been Charlie’s home since December of 2006. His website is currently still online but I don't know for how much longer since no one but he had the password.

Charlie wasn’t feeling well the weekend before his death. He had stomach and lower back pain. A friend took him to the hospital Monday morning. I don’t know what all they did but they ended up prescribing antibiotics and an antispasmodic and sent him home. A trusted friend stayed with him through Tuesday and, in the evening, Charlie said he was feeling a little better. The friend went home. At 7 AM the next morning (Wednesday) he cam back to check on Charlie and found him sitting where he left him - apparently a peaceful death.

Most of the time, when someone dies in Slab City, their camps are disassembled within weeks by the locals who take what they can use and sell the rest for scrap. We did not want this to happen to East Jesus. Almost immediately word was spread about what happened. Jon Alloway, the producer and director of an upcoming movie, “Into the Zone”, was instrumental in contacting those close to Charlie. Close friends, Greg Hill, Flip Cassidy and Joe Holliday arrived the very same night to protect East Jesus from looters. More friends arrived over the next few days, including myself, until over a dozen supporters were present to decide how to preserve East Jesus. It was a good weekend. Not a happy weekend, but good. If only Charlie could have seen the love shown for him and his creation.

At this time East Jesus is being maintained and even expanded. Friends have been erecting a perimeter fence around the compound and another, higher, fence around the containers and living space. The site is occupied 24/7 so that nothing gets damaged or stolen. Keeping it going through this summer will be the biggest challenge since it is brutally hot, especially in August and September.

Charlie will be missed by many, many people. He was a renaissance man. His expertise covered so much ground. His singing was amazing. He had technical knowledge about so many things. He was way into ham radio and other electronics stuff. He had a refined sense of design when he created art. He had strong, well thought out, opinions about most things. He had a great sense of humor. To his friends, he was kind and generous and he had almost zero tolerance for mean or dishonest people. He followed his own path with little regard for convention or social norms. I loved and respected Charlie and will miss him greatly.

A memorial celebration is being held on June 5^th at NIMBY in Oakland, CA. I can't make it for this but I created a short video to be played at the event. There is a collaboratively created sculpture area in East Jesus that serves as a memorial to Charlie. We started it the weekend after he died. If you knew him, you are invited to add to it.

To stay informed about East Jesus, or help it continue, you can view the East Jesus Facebook page.

Mega Art Jam Report

2010-12-01T10:02:00.001-07:00

Craziness in the desert! We arrived Friday morning in East Jesus for the Mega Art Jam and East Jesus Build Party. There were over 20 people present and creativity was the order of the weekend. I worked a little on the Tower and Nita and I both started cutting fabric to make flags to string along the guy wires for the tower.
Our friend Blaze came down from Northern California and created a sculpture in the garden. He also did some needed maintenance work including leveling the library trailer, one of the latest additions to the East Jesus compound.

Rabbit worked on his camp, cleaning up and bringing in more building materials. Joe added another room onto Xanadon't - his growing art structure. Some of the Gypsy Camp folks were playing music, and it was a damn good time. The weather was perfect. See my photos You should also check out, if you can, this batch of photos by Flip - Really great shots. AND... I made an extremely short video. Short because I didn't shoot much footage. It's too bad I didn't capture some of the amazing musicians on video.

Mega Art Jam in East Jesus

2010-11-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

This Thanksgiving weekend there will be a MEGA ART JAM in East Jesus. All kinds of artistic possibilities and projects will be explored, added to, started, finished, and embellished. From Friday November 26 to Sunday November 28 there will be an art creation extravaganza in the tiny suburb of Slab City, East Jesus, population: one.

Come out and make art out of junk, camp in the desert, and have a good time. This is desert camping. Bring your own everything. Don't leave a mess. Don't piss off the mayor!
More info about the event on the East Jesus Build Party Facebook page If you want to come to the event, be sure to R.S.V.P. on the Facebook page.

There are other fun things to see in the vicinity, too. The big attraction is Salvation Mountain. This is an art/religious monument created by Leonard Knight. There are also some gigantic, wildly painted concrete tanks. There are lots of art cars, too. For those interested in a natural anomaly, there are mud volcanoes only a couple of miles away at the edge of the Salton Sea. The Sea, itself, is pretty strange, not to mention the active bombing range right next to East Jesus. What a krazeee place!

Art Car Caravan

2010-10-12T23:15:00.001-07:00

We just got back from participating in the SW Art Car Caravan from Los Angeles, CA to Douglas, AZ. What an adventure! The Cadwac, our art car, had been with my brothers in Southern California for the past year so our friend Mark drove us out to pick it up. We tried to get there in time for the first event of the Caravan, an artwalk in Santa Ana, CA. Unfortunately, when we got to my brother's house, the battery on the Cadwac was dead and we couldn't revive it in time for the show.

We spent the next two days re-painting and adding art to the car. We also got the battery charged, all the fluids topped off, and got it ready to go on a long trip. The first event the Cadwac could make it to was on Tuesday night at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. About eight art cars were present for that event. The cars were displayed in front of the museum's entrance which is in their parking garage.One of the purposes for the caravan was for the organizer, Harrod Blank, to screen his new documentary about art cars. At each major stop a film screening was scheduled.

The next stop was the True World Gallery in Joshua Tree, CA. During the day we toured interesting sites around Joshua Tree. The most interesting, to me, was Noah Purifoy's art environment. It consisted of sculptures and building all made out of junk. We also did a photo shoot at Giant Rock. Giant Rock is supposedly a place where UFO's are seen often. It's a beautiful spot to shoot pictures. In the evening, Harrod's movie, Automorphosis, was shown at the True World Gallery. Afterwards we went out to a campground for the night.

In the morning we drove through Joshua Tree National Monument. On the way there, we stopped by the studio of metal, and junk, artist, Bobby Furst. His studio was amazing! He had such a delicious collection of objects all fairly neatly organized. What an inspiring place. Thanks, Bobby, for letting us visit. On the way through Joshua Tree, we stopped for a photo shoot. Then we blazed onward. Our next stop, Salvation Mountain, near Niland, CA.

Harrod did a special screening at Salvation Mountain for Leonard Knight, creator of this monumental art environment. Leonard is getting pretty old so it was a special treat to see him watching Harrod's movie. Unfortunately, I think he fell asleep during the part of the movie that he, and Salvation Mountain, are in. We spent the night in East Jesus with art car artist and iconoclastic visionary, Charlie Russell.

Early the next morning Harrod, with his two cars, and Nita and I, in the Cadwac, headed east across the desert to Yuma, for a brief photo shoot, lunch, and meeting with the mayor. Then on to Tucson. A full day of driving. We stopped at some really out-of-the-way gas stations and always drew a crowd. In Tucson several other cars joined us for Tucson's Second Saturdays art walk downtown. Harrod showed Automorphosis and the cars were displayed near the theater.

The largest event was next. Bisbee is known for having a lot of art cars for its size. There were eleven cars at Bisbee plus live bands and lots of fun. The Sierra Vista Herald covered the event and wrote a nice article with pictures. The last stop was at Art Car World. This will be a museum for art cars. There is a lot of work to do here, but Harrod has a great vision and I wish him success. He already has a small collection of art cars including one of my all-time favorites, "Carthedral," by Rebecca Caldwell.

We got back home last night. Now the Cadwac is leaking just about everything it can leak - oil, transmission fluid, coolant. I have a little bit of work to do to get it back into shape for another trip. It gets to rest awhile now, though. Winter is coming and that is not a good time to drive a car with no roof or heater.

We had a great time on the caravan. Click here for my pictures.

Here are some other people's blog posts and media coverage of the trip:
Cynthia's Hi-Desert Blog - about our visit to True World Gallery in Joshua Tree
Paintress Gretchen - photos of the Bisbee show

The Wac is Back

2010-09-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

In August of 2006 the engine of my art car, the Cadwac, threw a rod on the way to Burning Man. We towed it back home after the event and then it sat in the yard at my shop, dead, for about a year. In Fall of 2007 I finally got a new engine put in it. The Baker brothers in Tucson did the rebuild at Bakers Auto Machne, LLC.. These guys really know what they are doing and did a great job. Instead of rebuilding the 472 c.i. engine, I traded it for a 500, which they bored out. So now I have an even bigger engine. It was rebuilt in a way to give me maximum longevity instead of building it for racing. This is what I wanted, for it to last a long, long time. Special thanks goes to Gary Taylor for hooking me up with the Baker brothers and for helping take the old engine out of the car.

Anyway, after the rebuild, and after we put the engine back in, we rarely drove it. I probably put only 500 miles on it in the first year since the rebuild. Since it was just sitting there, I decided to try to sell it. Of course, Prescott is not considered a major auto sales market, so I took it to my brother, Randy, in Southern California. He makes a living out of buying, selling, and brokering the sales of cars, mostly collectible Volkswagens. He owns Oldbug.com and has quite a reputation for reliability and honesty as well as tons of connections into the automotive world. He has been trying to sell the Cadwac for me for the past 10 months but no luck yet. An art car is a hard sell, I think.

Suddenly, the Cadwac is getting attention! It got photographed by journalists from Hot Rod Magazine at some event or another and ended up in the November 2010 issue of the magazine in a long article about Rat Rods. The photo shows just the front of the Cadwac with it's Burning Man-like hood ornament made from a wine bottle opener. Cool, huh?

Early in October, I am going to go to California and get my car and take it on an art car road-trip called The Southwest Art Car Caravan (caravan schedule at bottom of the linked page) and Film Tour. Harrod Blank's new movie, Automorphosis, will be screened at various locations between Los Angeles, CA and Douglas, AZ.from Sept. 30 to October 11th of this year. My wife and I will be joining the caravan from October 5 to October 9th. Our journey will begin Tuesday evening on Oct 5th at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. From there we will caravan out to Joshua Tree, then to Salvation Mountain and East Jesus, on to Yuma for a short event, and then to Tucson for another event. At that point the Cadwac leaves the caravan and we head home to Prescott. The caravan continues without us to Bisbee and then to Douglas where Harrod has been creating Art Car World, a museum for art cars.

I am sure there will be various media covering the caravan as it makes its journey through the Southwest. And maybe the Cadwac will get its picture in more magazines, or newspapers, or, gasp, even television? I suppose I still should sell it. I have other ideas for art projects and the Wac has had a great life. I need the money and the space, too. You can own the Cadwac (after the Caravan) for a mere $3000. Remember, it has a nearly new rebuild (excellent quality rebuild, too!) on an awesome huge engine. The engine itself is worth more than 3000 dollars. Contact me if you want to buy a slightly famous and definitely wacky car!

See you on the road maybe!

Not at Burning Man!

2010-09-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

We are back from our non-Burning-Man adventure. We got within two hours of the playa with no intention of going there. We imagined our friends out there in the dust, dancing and laughing and having fun. But we were on a different mission - communion with nature and exploration of the mountains.

We left Prescott on Sunday a week ago and drove to Independence, CA in the Owens Valley. We camped by a creek in the desert but there was an unusually cool period of weather at that time so it was very pleasant. Then we blasted up to Nevada City so I could show Nita the area. We couch-surfed with some locals that have lived there for 30 years so we could get the inside scoop on the region. It still looks extremely promising as a relocation destination. Lots of trees, cool people, rivers with water in them (how unusual), and reasonable distance to major metro (Sacramento) and to the high Sierras and the desert on the other side. 3 to 4 hours to the bay area as an added bonus in case we want to enjoy cultural adventures in one of the more cutting-edge cities in America.

We spent a couple of days in Nevada City looking around, driving rural roads, putting our feet in rivers and picking blackberries that grow wild along the roads everywhere. Then we headed north on Hwy 49 to the California gold rush highway town of Downieville, a super cute little mountain town on the North Yuba River in the middle of gold rush country. It seems that this town is a conclave of members of the Ancient Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus. There is a tiny park with a big commemorative plaque to "Clampers" (what members of this group call themselves). After we visited Clamperville, I mean Downieville, we camped a night near Sierraville next to a creek surrounded by huge trees and then drove through Truckeeville and then through Renoville on our way back south down Hwy 395 -ville.

For the last three or four days we have been camping in the high Sierra, accessing it from the east side. We camped for two nights in the Virginia Lakes basin, right next to Trumbull Lake. We saw deer, beaver, trees, birds, rocks and sky and had to protect our food from bears. People were catching so many trout that they were giving extra fish to us. When we turned off 395 to drive up to the lakes we had no idea of the elevation. It turns out that the spot we turned off the main highway was over 8000 feet and the lake we camped at was at 9500 feet. We were thinking were were just out of shape until we found out how high we were. We spent most of a day hiking up to higher lakes and enjoying the awesome beauty. I was attacked by chipmunks, managed to fend them off, Nita took a dip in a nearly freezing lake, and then we had lunch.

Our last night (Saturday) was spent camped next to Big Pine Creek near the base of some 14,000-foot mountains. We were only at 7900 feet, though. Still pretty high. We did a tiny tribute burn that night. I made a little man out of sticks and set it in the fire pit. We faked the sound of thumping techno, faked a fire conclave show, burned the little man, and then danced around the fire pit one time. We laughed the whole time. Just the two of us.

Yesterday we drove home, crossed the Colorado River in mid-afternoon with the mercury at 111, and pulled into our driveway just after sunset.

It was just the vacation I needed. I got to visit an old and deeply loved friend, the Sierra Nevada mountains, and we endured exactly zero dust storms, unlike our friends in the Black Rock Desert. I heard that there were some crazy dust storms on the playa this last week. Probably no worse than any other year, though. I expect to start hearing reports from the Burn soon, as people straggle back to the default world.

Gypsy Wagon Progress - Color Scheme

2010-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

I started running the electrical wiring inside the gypsy wagon today. The lighting will be 12 volt and there will be several 110 AC outlets when we can hook up to house power. I also started taking apart the stove I picked up. The stove, as it is, is a bit too tall. I figure I can cut the broiler part of it off and make the whole thing about 8 inches shorter. That ought to work.

I then took a little time to mess around on the computer to come up with an exterior color scheme we like. It's great to be able to manipulate color on the computer for this. What I started with in my minds eye was quite different than what we ended up with. Nita and I both consulted on the colors as I changed the color of each of the different elements until we found what we liked. With this info I will go to the paint store and try to find paint chips that match what we chose and have it mixed up for us.

Gypsy Wagon Progress - July 2010

2010-07-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much chance to work on the gypsy wagon over the past several months. In the past few months though, I have made some progress. I got the wood siding on the front (tongue side). I put wood jambs into the door and window openings. I made access doors for the under-the-bed storage space and for the composting toilet. I found all these great little scroll-like pieces of steel and welded them onto the access doors to make them fancy. Click the picture to see the fancy on the doors.

I also just got a stove with an oven from my friend Mel down near Maricopa. Thanks, Mel! I may have to cut the bottom 9 inches off the stove (the broiler) so I can fit it where I want it. I don't think we need a broiler.

Doors and windows are next. They will have painted wood frames. I also need to put some sheet metal up on top to shed water and serve as a mounting base for the solar panels. I would love to get the whole thing sealed against the weather in the next couple of months.

East Jesus Hot This Summer

2010-06-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

I delivered my largest wind sculpture, Cosmos, to East Jesus last weekend. The piece will get so much more attention there than it will ever get sitting in the yard at my Prescott, AZ shop. I wouldn't ordinarily expect much attention until fall but this year may be different. Summertime in East Jesus is usually pretty dead. I'm sure that regular highs of 100 degrees or more have something to do with this. But not this year! Things are happening. Strange and inexplicable things.

Not only is Cosmos now happily spinning away in the desert, another sculpture, by artist Joe Holliday, has been delivered to the East Jesus Sculpture Garden. His sculpture is a 14-foot high woolly mammoth made of tire treads. You know, the ripped and shredded bits of truck tires that litter the shoulders of highways. The Mammoth is not assembled yet but will be together in time for East Jesus' first big summer event - the MAMMOTH ERECTION.- on Saturday, June 19th. The preceding link is to a Facebook page, There will be bands playing at the range and, I suppose, other fun activities. If you are willing to brave the heat of the desert, this will be a fun event. I can't make it, though. I will be performing with my fire troupe, Pyroklectic, in Prescott at the Tsunami-on-the Square performing arts festival that weekend. But that's not the only event in E.J. this summer.

Captain USA (pronounced "oo-sah") will be performing his annual 4th of July stunt for freedom in Slab City with preparations centered in the East Jesus compound. Read Charlie's blog post about this crazy guy. Captain USA will be filmed standing on top of a moving SUV covered with flaming fireworks and gasoline. Sure to be spectacular! The name of this event - The Flaming Burro of FREEDOM!! - another Facebook page. I probably won't make this one, either, but I wish I could. Sounds hilarious!

I will stay busy here, making things from steel and playing with fire. But YOU don't have to stay home. YOU can go out to the desert and participate in the craziness of East Jesus.

Teaching Art in Texas

2010-05-31T10:25:00.002-07:00

My wife, Nita, and I taught workshops at the Eye of the Dog Art Center in San Marcos Texas last weekend. Nita taught a mosaic workshop and Royce taught a found-object art welding workshop. Each of us had ten students. It went really well. Everyone made cool stuff.

In addition to working, we got to visit with good friends, go tubing on the San Marcos River, have dinner at a Texas barbecue place, and make a bit of art ourselves. I posted some photos of the trip here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/zebulonspleen/Texas2010

My Bus Adventure

2010-04-13T23:13:00.002-07:00

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that, about 20 years ago, I had a school bus that was converted into a motor home, I then went on to talk about hippie buses and how cool they were. Well, my bus was a 1962 Dodge. It was 32 feet long and had a 350 Chevy engine and automatic transmission. It was slow and got between 8 and 9 miles per gallon. I bought it in 1990 for $800.

I wanted to move away from the L.A. area and needed a good camping vehicle. What I was really looking for was a Volkswagen bus. I saw an ad in the paper for an old school so I thought I'd go ahead and take a look, even though that was not what I was looking for. I have always loved the old hippie buses so I called the advertiser of the school bus and arranged to see it. I was a bit panicky as I caught myself making an offer on it. "What am I doing?" I thought to myself. "This is crazy." Amazingly they accepted my offer and then a big smile creased my face and the next thought was, "I just bought an $800 ticket to heaven!"

It was already partially converted inside. I went to work on it to finish the conversion by adding cabinets, cleaning up the kitchen, adding some furniture, etc. I painted the bus and my friend, Billy, made a wooden grille for it. I had a couple of yard sales to sell everything I owned that wouldn't fit in the bus, moved into it, and drove off into the night leaving Southern California behind for good. I didn't know where I was going or where I would end up. I was on the road! I ended up in Prescott, Arizona, where I still am today. In 1992 I traded the bus for a truck and a small travel trailer.

It was fun having the bus but I think, even more fun, will be the gypsy wagon I am building. Now that I am back from my annual allergy escape trip, I am back to work on it. I got the tongue-and-groove siding put on the front of the gypsy wagon this past weekend. The next step is to create the jambs for the door and windows.

Art Inside a Freeway

2010-04-09T23:06:00.001-07:00

When Joe was in high school he discovered a mysterious portal into another world. At least it was potentially another world. He got to work and now, six years later, it is, indeed, a strange and mysterious place.

He found an entrance into the insides of a freeway overpass. Joe wasn't the first person to find this place, either. He found evidence of previous visitors. This portal was likely created so that the structural elements of the freeway could be inspected from time to time. Apparently no one has tried to inspect this one for quite awhile. Maybe never.

The space consists of a vault that is just under six feet high, maybe eight feet wide, and probably over a hundred feet long. He divided the space into small rooms connected by tunnels. The string of rooms extends out probably 60 feet. At one point there are a couple of 4-inch holes in the concrete floor where you can see the road below. The tunnels are hidden and/or hung with strips of fabric and plastic so that it is a disorienting adventure to explore. The disorienting effect was on purpose. The vault is right underneath the road bed so you can hear the cars above and feel the vibrations when a big truck goes over,.

"It's all in the details," the artist says about his hidden creation. Everything inside had to be carried up through a 30-inch diameter hole. It is amazing what he managed to get in there. We saw a desk, two toilets (not working) and even a piano! I asked him how he got the piano in there and his response was a question, "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer, of course, is "one piece at a time." There have been parties inside the freeway, too, sometimes even with a live band, The port is just large enough to fit a bass drum through..

He says that there is an entry at the other end of the overpass with another art installation just beginning. Obviously, all this was done without the permission or knowledge of the powers that be. Because of its clandestine nature, the location of this art installation cannot be disclosed. I probably couldn't find it again anyway.

It was pitch dark inside. We had no idea what we were in for when we went looking for the place so we didn't have much in the way of lighting. We managed to scrounge two flashlights. Because of the lack of light and the tightness of the spaces it was difficult to shoot video or take pictures in such a way that you get a good idea what is going on. Nevertheless, I put together a short video of the adventure called "Art in a Freeway Overpass."

L.A. Graffiti and Murals

2010-04-04T20:14:00.001-07:00

I visited my friends, Bill and Jana, in Hollywood a couple of weeks ago. We managed to cram several days worth of art adventuring into only about 24 hours. We explored sculptural art installations in Elysian Park, went inside a freeway to see an unusual art installation, visited a artist's collective of sorts in a warehouse under a bridge, and went for a walk looking for graffiti. I'll start with our graffiti walk.

We took a three-hour walk down Hollywood Blvd. in search of graffiti and murals. There were plenty. There is art everywhere, some of it obviously done with permission and some obviously not done with permission. From simple tagging to elaborate paintings, I was impressed by the talent of these artists..
More photos

Hippie Buses Forever!

2010-02-21T20:32:00.002-07:00

About 20 years ago I had an old school bus converted into a motorhome. It was a 1962 Dodge bus that was a little taller than the usual school buses of the day. I had it for a couple of years and lived in it for several months. This evening I was indulging in a little bit of bus nostalgia and browsed the web for hippie bus photos. I found quite a few.

Hippie buses began in the 1960's and the tradition never went away. There are still people out there decorating buses in the '60's hippie style. The most famous bus was Furthur, the bus that Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters drove across the country. This journey was made famous in Tom Wolfe's book, "Electric Kool-aid Acid Test." The original bus is rotting away in a swamp on Ken Kesey's ranch in Oregon. In the late '80's they got their hands on another bus and Further II went on the road.

I knew a couple of people, in the '70's when I lived in Fullerton, California, who were bus nomads. One guy, Silverbear, would come by most years on his annual migration from somewhere in Oregon or Washington down to the desert of Arizona. His bus, "Patchs", got its picture in a 1979 book called Rolling Homes by Jane Lidz. The book has been out of print for awhile and it has become a collector's item. I understand Patchs might be still on the road. Another friend, Arthur, converted a step van into his home, and I visited another guy who owned a school bus with a couple of VW buses welded on top.

People are still converting buses to motor homes and some of them paint them wildly. I have seen several of them at the Burning Man Festival over the last ten years and they still regularly appear at Rainbow Gatherings. I found a few websites that have collected photos of these. One of them has about 40 photos of colorfully painted Volkswagen buses. Another one has pictures of various hippie buses.

My Gypsy Caravan project is an extension of the love affair I have had with buses and do-it-yourself mobile living for over 30 years.

Caravan Progress Report - 2-15-2010

2010-02-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of new developments to report. I started putting tongue-and-groove wood siding on the ends of the caravan. I stained the wood with a Brazilian Cherry stain and sealed the boards with spar urethane.Then I cut them and screwed them onto the metal frame. Each piece was custom fit to the cuvces and I had to pre-drill the wood and the metal before inserting the screws. I have the back wall done and the wood is ready to go on the front end.

I bought four trailer tongue jacks and modified them to create a way to jack the caravan off of the trailer. I made jacking points at the four corners of the caravan and made mounting brackets for the tongue jacks. I had to exted the length of each jack by two feet. I did a test jack-up last weekend and it worked fine. Now I can remove the flatbed trailer out from under the camper.While I had the camper jacked up, I was able to put sheet metal sides on the lower sides.This is all part of the process of making it weather proof.

I drew, with chalk, the positioning of all the interior elements - the bed, bathroom, kitchen, closets, etc. I researched and figured out how I will make the doors and windows, which , I think, is the next major project.

Caravan Progress Report 1-17-2010

2010-01-17T21:31:00.006-07:00

I picked up the roofing panels on Friday. Just in time, too. Big weather is supposed to be coming our way and I needed to get a roof on the gypsy wagon so the plywood floor doesn't get ruined. The panels are 20 feet long so I hitched up my other trailer and rigged a way to put the panels on it. Fortunately they came bundled on a makeshift pallet of sorts and it wasn't too hard to manage.

On Saturday Nita and I started screwing down the roofing. She would sight along the ribs and tell me where to put the screws. A good bit of teamwork. We got all the panels on but they weren't trimmed yet. I used nearly 300 screws and there are still another 50 or so that need to be put in. That can wait until later.

On Sunday I got out the plasma torch and cut the roofing panels to fit. We also put the roof on the clerestory structure on top. The final step was to silicone all the screw heads. I then tied tarps up on the ends of the wagon and threw a tarp over the top. This wasn't easy. The gypsy wagon is pretty tall and we had a heck of a time getting the tarp over it. The wind kept picking it up and tossing it around. We got it, though and now it should be ready for the rain and snow that is forecast for all of this week.

The photos below show what the gypsy wagon looked like at the end of Saturday. I did not get a photo of it with the roof panels all trimmed and screwed down to the curve of the frame.

Cosmic Caravan Progress Report 1/8/2010

2010-01-08T22:40:00.008-07:00

Since we got back from a trip to California I got some more work done on the gypsy wagon. I put in the floor insulation - 1 inch thick polystyrene panels. I put the 3/4" plywood floor down and attached with lots of screws. I finished the curved ribs on the frame and built the clerestory window structure for the roof.

I ordered the roofing panels, too. They should be here late next week. I wanted a certain pattern of RV siding but the cost turned out ti be prohibitive. I settled for metal house roofing panels which was 1/3 the cost. I got 29 gauge steel coated with an aluminum/zinc alloy and painted an off-white. The color, or lack of it, will make a good background to paint murals on the sides.

Mosaic, Junk, and Mud

2010-01-01T14:56:00.010-07:00

We just got back from a week-long driving adventure to southern California over the Christmas holidays. Since Adventures in the Zone is about art I will focus on the arty parts of our trip. We also visited family and friends for most of the time which was the reason for the trip.

We visited Queen Califia's Magical Circle in Escondido - my second visit but Nita's first. It is truly magical even though I can see some deterioration since my last visit. There is supposed to be a foundation that maintains the site but I didn't see evidence of anyone repairing the broken bits. The first phot0 in this post shows two giant mosaic snakes that frame a view of Queen Califia atop a giant bird.

My brothers and their significant others joined Nita and I along with my good friend, Don, and went to see the movie, "Avatar", in 3-D. A ground breaking movie for sure. I recommend it, especially in 3-D. It is visually amazing.

We went for a walk in Elysian Park in L.A. with friends who live near there. Surprisingly, there are some folk-art pieces cropping up in the less-manicured areas of the park. These things are happening without permission from authorities and by anonymous artists. A totem pole of toys and junk was quite nice. We didn't have a camera with us on that walk so I didn't get a photo myself. I did find a photo of it online, though, on a blog called Summer of Shred. Here's a link to their photo of the Santa Totem

We went out to East Jesus on our way back to Arizona. Things keep changing out there. Some more work has been done on the Tower of Found Object Art and a visitor has arranged the truckload of duck and goose decoys around the tower in an entertaining and hilarious way. Some are partially buried as if the dirt was the surface of a lake. Some are interacting with pieces of junk that are lying around. Nice work! Only a small portion of the duck array is shown in the photo at left.

Our last stop was to see the mud volcanoes that are only a couple of miles away from Niland - the gateway to Slab City. We really loved these! The mud volcanoes are part of a geologically active area on the east side of the Salton Sea. There are hot springs, and geothermal energy extraction facilities in the area, too. The area is seismically active and is the southern end of the San Andreas Fault. Charlie said there were a couple of earthquakes the morning of the day we arrived. Although the mud volcanoes fall outside the focus of Adventures in the Zone, they were so interesting I had to post about them. I shot video. I love the noise they make. See my video here.

Gypsy Wagon Progress Report 12-19-2009

2009-12-19T17:21:00.006-07:00

I got the floor frame skinned last weekend. This meant putting sheet metal on the bottom and painting it. Once the floor was done I and three friends, Dan, Jason and Amber, carried the 6'x16' steel frame out of the shop and onto the trailer. With the floor now on the trailer I welded the pre-made end panels and side panels to the floor and to each other. The Gypsy Wagon is finally starting to look like something.

Today I bent and welded some of the curved ribs on the wagon. It's starting to look a lot like a Conestoga wagon. I guess it's the decorations that will make it look gypsyesque. I am very pleased with how it's going together so far. I have been very careful to constantly measure and square everything so I don't run into fitting problems later on and it's looking like that care is paying off.

When all the curved ribs are welded on (there are four more) I can then skin the outside of the caravan. The sooner the better on this so I can protect the inside from the weather. For the time being I will have to cover it with tarps so the metal won't rust. I'd like to use some RV siding but I don't know if I can afford it. I found a pattern I like that I think will work

There is a lot to this project. Not only do I get to exercise my welding skills, I get to learn wood working, plumbing, and electrical skills as the Gypsy Wagon progresses. I am hoping to scrounge appliances out of old, dead motor homes to save money. The further I get on the project, the more excited I become!

Leave an Interesting Trace - Part One

2009-12-06T20:24:00.003-07:00

Over Thanksgiving weekend about twenty-five people went out to the desert near the Salton Sea, California to build a large, collaborative artwork out of junk. We have a couple of working names for it - The Tower of Barbarella was the first name we came up with. Another suggested name was "The Tower of Slabylon" No decisions have been made on this yet.

We all had a great time building and decorating the tower as well as taking field trips to other Slab City art destinations like Rockette Bob's Church of Broken Toys, Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain, and the two huge concrete tanks that have been totally muralized by a lone artist who calls himself Tom.

I shot video at the event and also took some still photos. The stills are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/zebulonspleen/TowerOfArt

The video is at http://vimeo.com/8023555

Big THANKS to Charlie Russell, the Mayor of East Jesus, and to everyone who contributed and participated in the project. We are NOT done! There will likely be another art jam at East Jesus probably in March of 2010.

Gypsy Wagon Progress Report 11-22-09

2009-11-22T17:48:00.006-07:00

This week I was able to build the floor frame and the frame for the back wall of the Cosmic Caravan. I started by doing a detailed drawing. I then figured out the materials list and ordered up the steel, which was delivered on Tuesday. The first thing I built was the framing for the floor. I plan to be able to remove the structure from the trailer so as to be able to use the flatbed trailer separately if I need it. This necessitates building a floor that is strong enough to hold weight when separated from the trailer. I used 1 1/2" square tubing for the floor frame. I built the frame to be 3/4 inch narrower than the trailer so it will not be too tight a fit when I slide the camper from the trailer.

Then, on Friday, I started building the back wall of the wagon. This is the wall with the door in it. It is at the very back of the trailer. The ceiling height should be 86 1/2 inches when furred out with wood on the inside. That's plenty tall. I made the door frame with an opening 24 inches wide by 77 inches tall. I framed two quarter-circle windows on each side of the door. There is also, framed into the back wall, an opening for removal of the compost from the composting toilet that will be installed later.

The back wall frame is made mostly out of 1" x 1 1/2" rectangular steel tubing. It allows for flooring that will total 1 1/2" in thickness. That's room for a layer of 3/4" plywood topped by 3/4" of whatever flooring material I use - probably a laminate wood-looking flooring of some kind.

On Saturday I finished the back wall frame and clamped it onto the trailer so I could see what it felt like to walk in the door. I think its going to work just fine. I spent an hour drawing up the plans for the front wall - the one that goes at the tongue end of the trailer. This wall will have window in it, a mounting beam for the bed platform, and two access doors to the space under the bed. I made sure there was room between these doors for two propane tanks to mount on the tongue of the trailer.

Today, I went out to a preview of what will be a huge yard sale once it's all organized. I found a couple of solar panels totaling about 100 watts and bought them. I can mount these on the roof and use them to charge the trailer's batteries. There is also a large, dead motor home that I think I can scrounge the kitchen stove and sink out of. There may also be a furnace in the motorhome I can snag. I will have to pay something for thes items but not near what they would cost new.

This is an exciting project for me. When I go to my shop it's hard to get on with my real work. I just want to work on the gypsy wagon all day!

Announcing the Cosmic Caravan

2009-11-14T18:52:00.009-07:00

The European Gypsies (Roma) often traveled in colorful horse-drawn wagons. Brightly painted and ornate, these wagons, known as caravans or vardos, could be seen traveling the rural roads of England and Europe from the 1850’s onward. There were several styles of wagons but two styles stand out - the Bowtop and the Ledge.

I plan to build a gypsy caravan in the Bowtop style but, instead of being a horse-drawn wagon, it will be built on a flatbed trailer so we can haul it at highway speeds with a pickup truck. The Cosmic Caravan will be larger than the traditional ones and will include some modern RV conveniences inside. The old-style caravans were built of wood. Since steel is my medium, I plan to build the frame out of steel. Inside, however, will be trimmed in wood. Wood siding will be on the outside and wood paneling on the inside. We plan to decorate it profusely with paint and found objects, inside and out. It will be a sight to behold (we hope)

I bought the trailer last week. It's a tandem-axle made by Diamond T Trailers. The bed is a little over 16 feet long and a little over 6 feet wide. That ought to be big enough. With any luck I hope to have it marginally functional by March of 2010. Here are a few pictures of traditional style vardos.

The Tower of Barbarella

2009-11-08T17:23:00.005-07:00

There is soon to be a tower of found-object art in East Jesus. We got started on it last weekend. Blaze and I drove out with a truckload of lumber and some tools. Charlie, the Mayor of East Jesus, procured concrete blocks and concrete mix for the foundation. We set the foundation on Friday afternoon, eight concrete blocks, eight bags of mix, re-bar, and three-foot screw anchors were used. This may not be enough but it was enough to start. We began framing the base of the tower on Saturday. By Sunday noon we had used up all the wood and headed back to Arizona.

The Tower of Barbarella (our working name for it) has a 12' x 12' base and, when done, should stand over 24 feet high. Our intention is to cover the whole thing in found and trash objects like can lids, bottle caps, and whatever other durable, not too valuable, and interesting shapes we can come up with.

I, personally, have already accumulated lots of stuff to decorate the tower. I have a box of beer bottle caps, a box of CD's, a big box of shotgun shells, four brass and glass lamps, and, just yesterday, picked up a pile of used and weathered lumber.

The weekend after Thanksgiving a bunch of us will be going out to the site to build the upper part of the tower and begin decorating it. Of course, I will post the results of this next trip right here at Adventures in the Zone.

At right is my concept drawing for the tower. I'm sure it will look different but this is the basic idea.

Burning Man 2009 and AZ Decompression 2009

2009-10-17T18:07:00.005-07:00

I went to the Burning Man Festival for the 10th time this year. We brought the Amphibia structure and had a camp of about 45 people. Lots of fun, as usual. Nevertheless, I am planning to take a break in 2010 and do something else for my big vacation. Burning Man is always fun, and there are always cool things to see, people to meet, and experiences to have. For a change, I would like to have a different experience. I am not sure what, yet. It could be travel to a foreign land, or attendance at one or more other interesting edgy events here in the U.S. We'll see.

Anyway, here is a link to some photos I took at Burning Man this year:
http://picasaweb.google.com/zebulonspleen/BurningMan2009#

In October, I attended the Arizona Burning Man Decompression party at Gateway Ranch near Flagstaff, AZ. It's a much smaller event than Burning Man - only about 100 people. Compare that to the 50,000 that go to Burning Man. I love this event. Great time and great friends! Here are some photos' of the Decompression:
http://picasaweb.google.com/zebulonspleen/AZDecompression2009#

Almost Famous

2009-09-28T20:28:00.007-07:00

A little over a year ago, my sculpture, Cosmos, was rented to be in a movie. The movie, Surrogates, just came out last weekend and the sculpture does show up, but just barely. If you happen to see the movie, Cosmos is at the human reservation in a green area where The Prophet hangs out. This scene is about a third of the way through the movie. Cosmos can be seen spinning away at the left side of the screen for maybe two seconds. If you aren't looking for the sculpture, you will probably miss it. Cosmos is almost famous!

Over the last year I have told people that Disney rented my sculpture and I have gotten many questions about how this all happened. Here is a brief description of what happened and maybe it will give you a little bit of information on how this small part of the movie industry works, at least in my case.

In May of 2008 I got an email from someone claiming to represent a major motion picture who said she wanted to maybe rent one of my sculptures. At first I thought it was just another scam to try to get me to divulge personal bank account info or something like that. The one thing that made me think it might be legitimate was there were a lot of phone numbers at the bottom of the email. I thought it was worth replying to.

It turned out the offer was legitimate. I was in communication with the Buyer for the Surrogates Production. She told me that the Set Decorator (an official title) wanted the "rebel camp" to look kind of Burning-Man- like. The Buyer had not heard of Burning Man so she went on the web, found the Burning Man website, and found a picture or two of my sculpture, Cosmos. This was how she found me.

I had no idea what to charge as a rental fee. Fortunately I have two friends who have worked in and around the movie business. Jeff used to run a company that rented cameras and such to film production. He was the perfect guy to ask about rental pricing. My friend, Don, has done work for Disney for years so he was helpful with information about dealing with Disney.

I came up with a weekly price and they agreed. They paid me two weeks rental fee and a crating fee in advance, which was pretty cool. Disney sent a truck to take it to Massachusetts where the movie was being filmed. I wrote a manual for assembling the sculpture and also shot a video of it being assembled. Cosmos is a bit complicated to assemble so I wanted to give the set building crew good instructions so that they could put it together easily and not damage it.

I shipped Cosmos to Taunton, MA in June, 2008 and it was set up on the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital/school called the Dever State School. If you look up Dever State School you can see pictures of the site, without the movie set, of course.

They rented the sculpture for three weeks and then shipped it back to my shop in Prescott. Unfortunately, one of the parts was damaged in shipping. The Lead Man (another "official" title) was great. He filed a claim with the shipper and I got a check to cover repairs in just a few weeks.

All in all, renting out my sculpture was a great experience. The people I dealt with were very professional and were excellent communicators. I would definitely do it again.

I tried not to have expectations about the sculpture appearing in the movie. I know that the movie industry spends millions of dollars on things that never actually show up on the screen. I hoped that Cosmos would not get edited out. I entertained the idea that it might even appear prominently. I couldn't help being a bit disappointed that it was so easy to miss while watching the film. But it IS there! So that's a good thing.

Cosmos is available for sale. I am asking $26,000 for it. It is a little over 20 feet tall and it's base is 12 feet in diameter. It has several spinning elements that are wind driven. I just shot a 1-minute video of Cosmos spinning in high winds. Check it out.

2009-07-13T07:17:00.001-07:00

Pyroklectic from Zebulon on Vimeo.

I am a member of the fire performance troupe, Pyroklectic. We performed on the Fourth of July in the Courthouse Square in Prescott, AZ. My wife, Nita, filmed us and I used the footage to create this two-minute video of the highlights of our show. I think I can accurately say that Prescott has not ever seen a performance like this before!

A Snapshot of Cosmic Steel

2009-05-02T21:50:00.005-07:00

I shot a five minute video today at my steel fab shop/studio. On Friday I finished, with some help, putting together COSMOS, a large wind sculpture I made in 2004. It has been lying around my shop yard disassembled since it came back from being rented for a movie. I finally cleared a space and put it together. It was breezy today and it moved beautifully in the wind. I just had to shoot some photos and video. There are some other in-progress and completed worksin the video, too. I apologize for the clutter in my shop. I guess I work in creative chaos.
To see the video, go to my Cosmic Steel website

Queen Califia's Magical Circle

2009-04-08T20:07:00.003-07:00

During my California trip in March, 2009, I visited an absolutely amazing art environment in Kit Carson Park in Escondido. It's called Queen Califia's Magical Circle. Opened to the public in 2003, this is the last major international work designed by sculptor and mosaic artist Niki de Saint Phalle.

The Magical Circle is about 90 feet in diameter and every inch is covered in mosaic. Materials include iridescent glass, pebbles, slices of agate, ceramic tiles, and semi-precious stones. The substructure consists of steel and polystyrene foam covered in fiberglass.

The walled circle has gigantic mosaic snakes around the perimeter. You enter the sculpture garden via a walled maze of black, white, and mirrored tiles. You exit the maze into a courtyard containing several totem-pole like sculptures. In the very center of the circle is a giant bird that you can walk under. In the space under the giant bird is a golden egg. On top of the bird stands Queen Califia, holding a small bird in her hand.

Niki named the installation after a legendary black Amazon queen who ruled over the mythical island of California. The roots of this legend date back to a Spanish novel written in 1510. Some people think that California (the U.S. state) was named after this legend.

Before she got into mosaic, Niki made a splash in the international art world with her "shooting paintings." She would embed full paint cans in plaster sculptures, put a blank canvas behind them and shoot the sculptures with a gun, splattering the paint on the canvas.

When visiting Barcelona, she was profoundly influenced by the work of Antoni Gaudi's Guell Park. This experience launched her into the world of mosaic.

Her largest work, the Tarot Garden, took 20 years to build and was completed in 1998. The Tarot Garden is in Italy but, in the U.S., the San Diego area has several of her works on display. Queen Califia's Magical Circle is the largest and most spectacular of her artworks in the United States. See more photos.

East Jesus Expands

2009-04-02T19:38:00.005-07:00

A little over two years ago Charlie Russell moved out to a corner of Slab City to create a habitable, extensible art installation that he calls East Jesus. Shortly after he arrived, I visited him for about a month and helped a little with his growing project. I made a 15-minute video of this experience which I put online. I visited again in March of 2009 and the installation has expanded impressively.

Charlie is the "mayor" of East Jesus. He started by having an old shipping container delivered to the site. In 2007 I and a couple of friends helped start a sculpture garden using the junk that is lying around the place. As of my most recent trip, his installation now includes two travel trailers, several rooms built between the trailers and the shipping container, raised-bed gardens and the sculpture garden has been fenced and more sculptures added.

He has built a music room complete with a grand piano. The walls are covered with found-object art. He has begun a fantastic bottle wall using wine bottles and mortar. There is an LED light in the open end of each of the bottles so, at night, the wall looks spectacular.

Charlie's French friend, Segolene, was there when I arrived. She and Charlie both like to cook so we ate some delicious meals. It was quite a pleasant contrast to be sitting amidst the junk-turned-art right next to a military bombing range eating gourmet cuisine by the ambient light of the LED bottle wall.

A few days before I left, A Canadian musician, Natasha Duchene, arrived to record an album with Charlie as the recording engineer and guest musician. She writes music, sings, and plays the piano.

I added a few more sculptures to the garden on this trip as well as helping Charlie build some raised platforms to hang out on and watch the sun set. See a set of photos here.

The next installment of this blog will blow your mind. Check back in a week or so to read about, and see pictures of, an awesome mosaic environment.

Slab City Tank Art

2009-03-22T13:42:00.003-07:00

I just completed a two-week trip to Southern California in search of interesting art installations. This is the first of a series reports on what I found on this trip. The first installment is about two large murals painted on some concrete tanks at the abandoned military base now known as Slab City.

The concrete tanks are about 100 feet in diameter and maybe 12 feet high. They probably were water tanks. A year and a half ago a guy started painting murals on them. One of the tanks looks like it is finished and the other one is in progress. I thought the artwork was spectacular.

The finished tank has a sexuality theme. The artwork is layered with the background layer consisting of the Kama Sutra positions. On top of that are dancing people with animal faces and also a ring of people holding hands. There are also a lot of small animals depicted in sexual positions.

The other tank is not done yet. So far it has dinosaurs in the background with various weapons being painted on top.

I met the artist and his idea is to create something outrageous. I believe he is succeeding. This has to be one of the only places in the country where someone can get away with creating such a major and controversial work of art. He seems quite unattached to the finished murals and welcomes graffiti artists to come out and add to the work. He refuses to be photographed and doesn't want anyone to know who made the art.

I'd love to go back in about a year and see what the tanks look like then. Click here to see more photos.

Zone Trip 9

2009-02-24T09:40:00.004-07:00

On Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, over 20 people gathered in a secret desert location for Zone Trip #9 - Destruction in the Zone of Mass Destruction. The purpose was to commemorate the end of analog television broadcasting. About 30 old picture-tube-style televisions and a couple of computer monitors were gathered by the participants and creatively destroyed in a somewhat spectacular fashion. The next day it was all swept into piles, loaded into trucks, and hauled to the dump, leaving no trace of the chaos. See a 2-minute video of the mayhem.

There is something about the love/hate relationship people have with TV that prompts a few of them to smash them. There are a number of short videos online showing people smashing individual TV's. A few videos show more coordinated efforts involving large numbers of televisions.

The seminal event that spurred a lot of television abuse was a 1975 film short called Media Burn. An art collective called the Ant Farm produced this video as a parody and critique of modern media. The film concluded with a modified 1959 Cadillac driving through a flaming wall of TV's. I recently found a YouTube video with an excerpt from the film.

I suspect this groundbreaking (and TV breaking) event inspired at least one other similar event. In 1982 The Plasmatics made a music video for their song "The Damned" where they upped the ante by driving a school bus through a wall of televisions.

One year later, in 1983, Godfrey Reggio created a movie called Koyaanisqatsi which has a sequence in it of a wall of televisions being destroyed. I don't have any evidence to suggest that he was inspired by the Ant Farm or the Plasmatics but the timing suggests that the previous videos could have been an influence. I don't have a clip of this one.

This is the end of an era. Television equipment has changed. The old style pictures tubes pop explosively when smashed which is particularly satisfying. Today's TV's no longer use big, heavy, glass vacuum tubes. These new types of screens won't be near as much fun to smash.

Glass in the Desert

2009-02-10T09:09:00.003-07:00

Although this is a "mainstream" attraction, the Dale Chihuly glass exhibition at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix,AZ was so uniquely beautiful that I wanted to share it with you. There was really a lot of blown glass artistically placed in the gardens amidst the plants. The best part about it, for me, was how it fit in and enhanced the gardens. The shiny, brightly colored glass pieces added a surreal feel to the desert and, although temporary, is reminiscent of some of the outsider art environments that I described in my previous blog post. The exhibition will be at the Desert Botanical Gardens until May, 2009 See more photos.

Building a Visionary Environment

2009-01-18T10:35:00.012-07:00

For many years my wife, Nita, and I have had the dream of building a habitable, sculptural art environment. An art environment (also called a visionary environment) is a permanent, large-scale, art installation that reflects the visions and inspirations of the people that have created it. There are many of these around the world mostly hidden away in rural areas where neighbors were unlikely to complain.

The photo above is one of the structures at Eliphante - an art environment in Cornville, Arizona.

Most of the environments of the past were created by dedicated, even obsessed, individuals who spent upwards of 20 years building them. Many of the creators were unschooled in the arts and some did not even think that what they created was art.

One of the most famous examples of a visionary art environment is Watts Towers, in Los Angeles, CA. It was built over 33 years by Simon (Sam) Rodia. He built tall towers out of re-bar and scrap wire that he found and then cemented them with shells, broken 7-Up bottles, broken dishes and other bits of colored pottery that he found. The only thing he had in mind was "to build something big." When it was done, he gave the property to a neighbor and moved away, never to return.

In the 1959 the City of Los Angeles declared the towers unsafe and tried to pull them down. They couldn't do it. The towers were too well-built. The only thing that happened was some of the mosaic pieces popped off. The site was saved from the wrecking ball and, now, Watts Towers is the smallest National Monument in the United States - 1/10 of an acre.

An example of a religiously inspired environment is Salvation Mountain. Leonard Knight has poured and painted over 100,000 gallons of paint on a mud hillside for over 20 years. He has sculpted caverns out of hay bales, tree trunks, and painted adobe. The whole hillside is covered with religious slogans revolving around the idea, "God is Love."

Salvation Mountain, near Niland, CA, was begun in the mid 1980's when Knight decided that was the place to build his monument to God. Sometime in the 1990's the site was declared a toxic hazard and seemed destined for destruction. In 2002 it was entered in the Congressional Record as a National Treasure. Leonard, now in his late 70's, can be found painting on his mountain most days during the winter months.

A few art environments are the work of inspired sophisticates, rather than art world outsiders. The Tarot Garden, in Italy was created by Niki de Saint Phalle, a famous mosaic artist. Along with another well-known artist, Jean Tinguely, she created a garden of gigantic mosaic covered structures that represent the major Arcana of the Tarot Deck.

The Tarot Garden was begun in 1979. During much of the construction Niki lived inside the Empress, one of the largest sculptures. The site was opened to the public in 1998 after almost 20 years of work. Niki de Saite Phalle has created sculpture gardens internationally. One of them is in Escondido, California - Queen Califia's Magical Circle. Niki died in 2002.

THIS IS OUR DREAM - to begin building a habitable, expanding environment of whimsical buildings, gardens, pavilions, and sculptures. We need a place to build it. We are hoping there is someone out there with 3 or more acres of flat-ish land that they can spare, in a location somewhere in the Western U.S. that has good rainfall, soil, and growing season for gardening. It would be a plus for the site to be within or near a progressive, artistic community that would be supportive of our efforts or, at least, not complain about having something unusual in their midst.

The photo at left is a garden gate Royce welded together out of found objects. See more of Royce's steel work at Cosmic Steel.

We expect that it will take 20 or more years to achieve the scale and wonder that could turn the site into a destination for the public. With our combined artistic and construction skills - Nita with concrete and mosaic and myself with steel, I know we can create something grand and unusual. We hope our creations will also make people smile and maybe even be uplifting or inspiring to others.

The photo at right is Nita's latest project - a mosaic wall on the roof deck of The Raven Cafe, in Prescott, AZ. See more of Nita's concrete and mosaic work here.

To read more about our dream, about us, and about how you may be able to help, Click Here.

All Souls Procession 2008

2008-11-30T10:52:00.009-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we participated in the 17th annual All Souls Procession in Tucson, Arizona. This amazing event attracts over 10,000 people in costume for a procession to honor the dead. It is held on the streets of downtown Tucson beginning at dusk. The procession route winds through downtown for about two miles. Thousands of people participate in the procession and thousands more line the streets to watch, many of them in costume, too.

We dressed up like fluorescent moths and brought the Seussian Pedal Tractor down for the event. The pedal tractor had blacklights mounted on it so we could all glow by flocking around it. The tractor performed well although, when we went through a tunnel under a road, we needed people to hang onto the back to slow it down. It's brakes don't work very well at all. In the photo you can see Nita walking at left, Robert and myself pedaling in the back of the tractor and Shelley pedaling and steering up front. I snagged this photo off the web. I don't know who took it.

The procession finishes at an area of loading docks where a performance by Flam Chen ensued. They had two huge cranes hoist performers 80 or 90 feet up in the air. The culmination of the event is the burning of the Urn. The Urn represents the dead and the burning of it represents a release of their spirits. There was music and smoke and fire and EVERYTHING! It was great!

This is one of my favorite events, mostly because it is so inclusive and participatory. Not only do people dress up to be in the procession, they also dress up to watch the procession. We burners love to dress up and play together so this is another fun opportunity to get together. There were a lot of spectacular costumes to see. You can see our friends, Betsy and Kristin, in costume at right.

This was our third year participating in the All Souls Procession. We love it!

Thanks to Clint and Janabanana for the photos.

Arcosanti - Behind the Scenes

2008-11-02T11:03:00.013-07:00

A group of us went on a drive in the Cadwac yesterday. Destination: Arcosanti. This is an experimental urban design project started in 1970 by Italian architect Paolo Soleri. Soleri is a visionary architect. He has designed entire cities (none of them built) with the idea to concentrate human activities in massive structures which would provide more area for nature and agriculture.

Arcosanti currently takes up about 10 acres of an 860 acre site in the high desert of central Arizona. The plan was to build a concentrated urban community as an alternative to suburban sprawl. When complete, Arcosanti is supposed to house 3000 to 5000 residents. It's only about 5 percent complete and progress has slowed to a crawl in recent years due to lack of funding. Arcosanti manages to maintain itself at a minimal level by offering tours, selling ceramic and bronze bells, and hosting performance events. They also hold regular five-week intensive Arcology workshops where you get to live and work at the site while learning. Arcology is a word Soleri made up to describe the merging of architecture and ecology.

Thanks to our friend, Cabiria, we got a special tour of the back sides of the buildings, the insides of storage rooms, construction zones, and behind the scenes at the amphitheater. Maggie, another resident, gave us a special agricultural tour of the greenhouses, gardens, fields, chicken coops, and the funky experimental structures built over the years by the residents. We had a picnic down in camp and were joined by many of the residents who weren't working. The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful and relaxing visit to a unique and interesting place.

There are several residents who live in the completed structures as well as in an area called "camp" down below the main site. Camp is an earthy, more organically grown area that was where everyone lived when building began on the bluff up above. Camp has fields, gardens, greenhouses, and various cubical residences made out of concrete slabs. There are also some nice indoor and outdoor gathering spaces.

Soleri's designs are sculpturally beautiful and the concept of combining ecology and architecture is a great idea. One of the potential problems I see is that there are a lot of people, maybe most people, who would not enjoy living in identical housing units crammed tightly together in huge multi-story structures. I believe human desires for intimate contact with nature, personal control over the appearance of their dwellings, and the desire for privacy and outdoor living spaces need more consideration when designing residential structures. For example, the feeling in "camp" is more vital and human than the feeling in the structures of Arcosanti which have a commercial feel to them.

Soleri is 89 years old. Who knows what will happen to the place when he is gone. It would be nice if it could be opened up for more creative participation and attract the funding needed to complete it in some form. For now, we will enjoy visiting an interesting place and fun people.

See more photos of our visit.

Further Adventures in East Jesus

2008-10-26T10:25:00.005-07:00

I just got back from a three-day re-visit to East Jesus. East Jesus is a "suburb" of Slab City. Charlie Russell is the mayor of East Jesus - population: 1. He is building a live-in found-object art installation there and has made a lot of progress since I last visited about a year and a half ago. It's about five or six times as big. The sculpture garden has been expanded and it's getting more interesting all the time. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures and post them on the web but, unfortunately, my camera's battery was totally dead and I didn't bring the charger with me. oops!
You can, however, see a 15-minute video I made of my earlier visit called Adventures in East Jesus. I plan to visit again sometime in the next two or three months and I will make sure my camera is charged up and ready to go.

Below is a quote from Rabelais that Charlie has on his East Jesus web page. It's indicative of the spirit and philosophy that has informed and driven zone trippers and anarchical thinkers for centuries.

"All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed, Do What Thou Wilt; because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is denied us." -- François Rabelais,Gargantua and Pantagruel (16th C.)

"Be The Man" Burns

2008-10-05T22:54:00.006-07:00

The "Be The Man" sculpture/structure is now just a tiny pile of ashes. The structure was assembled at Gateway Ranch on Friday in about four hours. it went very smoothly. Janabanana made a mask that people could put on when they climbed the tower. That way they could be The Man in Burning Man style.

The fire took a long time to catch hold. Thanks to Gary for tossing more fuel on the fire to get it going properly. In spite of the slow start I thought it burned beautifully. It's amazing how such a large structure could burn down into such a small pile of ashes. You could almost put all of it into a five gallon bucket.

See more photos of the whole process, from drawings to glowing embers.

The whole decompression weekend was a lot of fun. Lot's of dancing, laughing and hugging. We had a great time, even though it rained on Saturday afternoon. I am guessing about a hundred people attended.

"Be The Man" Work Party Success

2008-09-21T10:11:00.009-07:00

After what seemed like a fruitless search for used lumber, I finally found someone who had a big pile of 2x4's laying around in his yard. It was more wood than we needed for the project but the deal was too good to pass up. There were about 60 boards, almost all of them over 16 feet long. Some of them were redwood and most of them were in pretty good shape. I got the wood just in time for our first work party.

The mission was to build at least half of the structural sections of the sculpture. We did way better than that. We were able to get all of the structural sections completed for the Be The Man sculpture and we had time to start making decorative bits, too!

There were several people helping. When Joey showed up with the nail guns, the pace really picked up. Yay for nail guns! Thanks to Cat Herder, Tom, Pete, Ray, Joey, Pam, A.T., Crispy, Ashley, and Lindsey for helping put it all together. All we need to do now is make more burnable decorations and then assemble it at Decompression in two weeks.

Be The Man - A Burnable Art Project

2008-09-17T20:27:00.003-07:00

Be The Man will be a small decorated wooden building I designed that is both a tiny temple and a tower that you can climb. It will be about 17 feet tall and is 8-feet square at its base. It will be on display at the Arizona Decompression - an after-party of sorts for Arizonans who have gone to the Burning Man Festival.

The sculpture is collaborative. People are invited to participate in building it and designing and making the burnable decorations that go on it. When it's assembled at Decompression, participants can climb to the top of the tower and Be the Man! That is to say, they can imitate the Burning Man figure in miniature.

It will only be standing for about a day and a half. At the culmination of the Decompression event we will put a wooden figure on top and the whole structure will be lit on fire and burned to the ground while the crowd cheers. It's a testimony to beauty, spontaneity, and the temporariness of all things.

Many Arizona burners have contributed to make this happen. The more people that get involved, the more fun the whole process will be. Thanks to all who helped and who will help. It's all happening fast. Decompression is less than three weeks away!

The Prescott Valley Kinetic Sculpture Race

2008-09-14T15:05:00.006-07:00

Yesterday we entered the Seussian Pedal Tractor in the third annual Prescott Valley Kinetic Sculpture race. There were 10 entries, up from last year's 7 or 8 entries. There was also a much larger crowd of spectators than before. It's good to see the event growing. We need more wacky events. It's too much fun!

The Seussian Pedal Tractor performed flawlessly, piloted by Janabanana, A.T. and Cat Herder. Halfway through the race, I traded places with Cat Herder and rode the tractor to the finish. The only spot we couldn't get through without help was the mud bog. We needed a push from three or four people to get up the steep edge of the mud pit.

We finished dead last. This was by design actually. We wanted a leisurely ride. Why work hard? We rode the whole course, did not take any shortcuts, and had a great time. After all, kinetic sculpture racing is not about speed. It's about fun!

We won three trophies! That's three times as many as any other entry. We got trophies for The Most Artistic, The Craziest, and Racers' Choice. Two of the trophies were made by metal sculptor Rick Hartner. The other sculpture was made by my lovely wife, Nita, who also was a race judge (Judge Mental) Not only do we feel exceptionally honored to win the trophies, it's a special treat to have the trophies be sculptures by respected sculptors.

Special thanks to the following people:

Cynthia Jones for creating and managing this fun event.
Judge Mental and all the other judges for graciously accepting our bribes.
Janabanana, A.T. and Cat Herder for piloting the Pedal Tractor.
Ken and Nils for being our pit crew and helping us out of tricky spots in the race.
All our friends who came from far and wide to cheer us on.

After the race we spent the afternoon at Prescott Valley's World Arts Festival. We laid out a blanket at the back of one of the big performance tent and watched the musical performances. Between performances A.T. brought out her hula hoops and we entertained spectators and ourselves while still dressed in our racing outfits - tutus and striped tights.

Click the arrow in the middle of the picture below to see a short slide show.

Click here to see larger versions of the photos in this slide show.

Burning Man 2008

2008-09-02T18:10:00.003-07:00

I have just returned from Black Rock City, the location of the Burning Man festival. This was my ninth year. Once again it was lots of fun. The Seussian Pedal Tractor was a success -- mostly. There was one problem that we just couldn't seem to fix. It still worked, though. There was a lot of great art and tons of fun people. There seemed to be a lot of tricycles this year. More than I have seen there before. The weather was mostly good. We had a severe dust storm on Monday and another on Saturday. The days between were perfect. I shot a lot of still photos and only about 2 hours of video. I will edit the video later. Right now I am still tired from the trip and from getting way too little sleep during the week. See photos

The Seussian Pedal Tractor is Done!

2008-08-16T22:49:00.005-07:00

...almost.

The canopy is on, the frame is mostly painted. All the mechanical parts are functional. We took a little test drive this morning and everything worked fine. I got some friends to pose in the three pilot positions on the contraption. It won't be fast but it will go!
The only thing left to do is a bit more paint, some lighting for night driving and a small battery powered sound system.

The Big Wheels Get Paint

2008-08-11T19:22:00.004-07:00

The Seussian Pedal Tractor is almost done. All the mechanical bits are finished. That's three derailleurs, five chains, two brake calipers, shifters and the cables that control everything. We did a three person test-ride last Friday and we couldn't stop laughing. We rode it out of the driveway, down the street aways and then peddled uphill back to the shop. It was hilarious and instructive. The big wheels needed a little bracing at the ends of the spokes. They bent ever so slightly during the test ride. The gearing will work fine. We were able to ride uphill with three people on it but only two people pedaling (the front pedals weren't installed yet). The bicycle chains may be a weak point. I will have to bring spare chain and a chain tool whenever we ride it anywhere.

This past weekend I primed the big wheels and the long bike frame. Yesterday I painted the big wheels with fluorescent spray paint. The plan is to mount UV lights on the canopy frame to illuminate the wheels for night travel.

Today I started bolting the shoes to the big wheels. I need only two more pair. The next post should be of the completely finished pedal tractor. I say this knowing that we will probably come up with wacky ideas for add-ons. It may never be really finished!

First Test Ride

2008-08-04T21:35:00.003-07:00

I got the Seussian Pedal Tractor done enough to take a brief test ride. It's barely together though. Only one set of pedals is hooked up and I haven't connected the brakes yet. It picked up speed pretty quickly. Fortunately I had some friends there to stop me.
I made a big brake disk out of an old stone-cutting circular saw blade. I think it's about two feet in diameter. The beast is heavy so I don't know how well the brakes will work. I think the gearing will be fine. It might even go pretty fast with three people pedaling.
Today I scored a whole bunch of bicycle chain so I can hook up the other sets of pedals to the drivetrain.This coming weekend I plan to finish all the mechanical bits, do a more extensive test ride, and then get it ready for paint.

Pedals on the Pedal Tractor

2008-07-21T20:32:00.004-07:00

This weekend I put the pedals on the pedal tractor. I also figured out a way to take the sprockets off the crank sets and replace them with tiny, 15-tooth sprockets. It looks pretty silly but I need to gear down a lot in order to make the pedal tractor easy to ride. With these small sprockets on the front plus the gearing in the back, it should take almost four complete rotations of the pedals for each complete rotation of the six-foot diameter drive wheels.

Today, I took a little time away from real work to make a tray that sits between the rear seats. This tray can hold drinks, etc,. and it also protects the main shaft gears from the weather.

The next project is to remove the big wheels, rig rear brakes, put the gear on the main shaft and put it all back together. Once that is done, I can put the chains on and we might even be able to do a test drive at that point. I am still getting shoes for the big wheels. I think I only need four more pairs.

Pedal Tractor Progress Report

2008-07-12T16:59:00.005-07:00

The extended bicycle frame was welded to the main axle housing a couple of weeks ago. Last week I made the jack shaft and mounting brackets separately and then today I welded the assembly to the main axle housing. I designed adjustable seats out of two old plastic chairs. I mounted the seats and put the three bicycle freewheels and a small main drive gear on the jack shaft. The gears and freewheels aren't locked down yet. I need to make the pedal parts and then I can lock down all the gears after I line everything up.

Below is a photo of the jack shaft mounted to the main axle housing. The jack shaft is 3/4 inch diameter solid steel. The main axle is 1-inch diameter sold steel. The main axle housing is 2-inch schedule 40 pipe.

The main shaft is a solid axle from wheel to wheel. This is turning out to be a problem. It's really hard to turn the tractor with both big wheels locked to the shaft. I think I will have to cut the shaft and make it a one-wheel-drive pedal tractor. The other big wheel will just roll along. I am contemplating putting splines on the inside ends of the split axle and then making a spline sleeve that I can slide from the drive axle over the free axle in case I need two-wheel drive.

There is still a lot to do. There will probably be a lot of bracing needed. I won't know exactly where until we give it a test ride and see what's too flexible. I also want to weld on cup holders,
umbrellas and shade canopies for all riders, and maybe mounting brackets on the back for a sound system or maybe fire cannons?. Then will come paint, decorations, and maybe lighting for night travel.

I'm not the only person making strange pedal-powered tricycles. In fact mine is fairly tame compared to the ones made by a group of people who call themselves the Department of Spontaneous Combustion. They have made some three-wheeled pedal powered vehicles that shoot fire. Some of these have two big wheels in front and a single wheel in back. See a smaller one here.
And this is a link to a spectacular photo of one of their large ones.

Lawn Chair Larry

2008-07-02T22:26:00.005-07:00

Today is the anniversary of Lawn Chair Larry's famous flight.

On July 2, 1982 in San Pedro California, 33-year-old Vietnam veteran Larry Walters filled 45 weather balloons with helium and tied them to a lawn chair. He floated quickly up to about 16,000 feet. To descend, he shot some of the balloons with a pellet gun. He landed in some high-voltage power transmission lines but did not get electrocuted. After hanging there for awhile the fire department got him down. This is not an urban legend. It's true!
More info on Larry's flight

Larry inspired others to imitate his craziness. In 1984, pilot Kevin Walsh tied 57 helium balloons to a chair and floated above Massachusetts for awhile. When he was done sightseeing he cut his lines and parachuted to safety.

In 2007, 48 year-old Kent Couch tied 105 balloons to a chair and floated 193 miles across Oregon. He was trying to make it to Idaho He also landed safely.

In April of 2008 in Brazil Roman Catholic Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli tried the same trick. He tied hundreds of helium-filled party balloons to a chair and quickly ascended to almost 20,000 feet. It didn't work out for him. He is still missing. More info and photos.

These guys were definitely adventurers in the Zone. They aren't the only ones doing this either. Check out this website.

Below is a photo of Kent Couch floating somewhere over Bend, Oregon.

Pedal Tractor Progress

2008-06-29T11:28:00.003-07:00

I got the big wheels welded up yesterday on the Seussian Pedal Tractor. They are six feet in diameter and there are two of them. They each have sixteen spokes. Each spoke will have a shoe attached to it. I also started building the main axle. Three chains from the pedals will go to freewheels on the jack shaft. Then a beefier chain runs from the jack shaft to the drive sprocket on the main shaft. The big unknown is the gearing. I am using a 20 tooth sprocket on the main shaft which will be driven by a 10 tooth sprocket on the jack shaft. This will gear down by half. I have left room in the differential for a 30 tooth gear in case the gear down is not enough. I want it to be relatively easy to pedal around. It probably won't be fast but that's fine with me.
The next step is to attach the extended bicycle frame to the axle housing and work out the seat placement and placement for the rear pedals.

Tribal Celebration

2008-06-22T18:01:00.004-07:00

In 1995 I, my roommate Jack, and my future wife Nita, decided to dress up in mock-tribal dress and camp out for the summer solstice weekend in a meadow on the property where I lived at the time in the mountains of central Arizona. This weekend became the first Tribal Celebration. We had a bonfire, drank Southern Comfort, and made music until late into the night. The next year we invited more friends and the attendance quadrupled to 12 people. It turned into an annual tradition that lasted until 2004. Attendance was by invitation only so the event stayed pretty small, which was just the way we wanted it. The most people we had was about 30. We stopped after that for various reasons.

This past weekend we revived the Tribal Celebration. It was our 10th wedding anniversary (we got married at the Tribal Celebration in 1998). We though it would be a good idea to get everyone together again to celebrate the solstice. It was lots of fun. We had many people who used to attend the earlier ones and several people that we had met between the last one in 2004 and this one. We enjoyed it immensely. The theme was the same as always - make up your own idea of tribal dress, have a fire, make music, and commune with nature. Below, Lynn, Pete, and Sharon sport their tropical paradise outfits along with drinks with umbrellas.

The kids made sculptures out of downed branches and we burned them on Saturday night. We decorated an old door, drank a bit, drummed a lot, ate good food, and laughed all the time. What a great group of people! We feel honored to be a part of it all.

We have become a tribe of sorts over the years and it is growing. I suppose there are 50 to 70 people who might consider themselves part of this tribe. Membership in it is by invitation and by choice. The love and sense of community grows every year.

The world today is very different than the one of a hundred years ago, especially to those who live in a technological society like ours. We can meet people that share our ideas and goals either online or by chance meeting at events and then create modern tribes. We are no longer trapped by geography. We can go anywhere. We can communicate electronically. I think it's great.

What's your tribe?

Tsunami in Prescott

2008-06-15T21:21:00.005-07:00

Yesterday the 10th annual Tsunami-On-The-Square performing arts festival concluded at the court house square in Prescott. This is one fun event. My wife and I are involved in helping it happen. She is on the board of directors and I help carry stuff around.

We had some guests come from out of town for the festival. We had Kate Pearson and her husband Greg. Kate is an artcar artist from Bisbee, Arizona. She created HexMex and Love23 and seven other cars. Her cars have been in magazines and artcar books. We also had another Kate, her husband Jeff, and their friend Joe. Kate and Joe are involved in theatre in Los Angeles. The photo above shows Joe, Kate, and Nita on the stage at Tsunami teaching the audience about MOOP - Matter Out Of Place. Basically that refers to litter and that everyone should participate in picking it up.

This, in my opinion, was the best Tsunami festival yet. The quality and diversity of the performers was awesome. The final two acts, Instruments of the Now - a fire performance group , and Archedream for Humanity - blacklight theater, were spectacular. I recommend you see either or both of these groups if they are ever near you.

It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. The love was strong between the performers, the volunteer staff, and the audience. It was great.

Meanwhile, our Texas friends stopped by the Cadillac Ranch on their way from Texas to Montana. He took the photo below.

Pedal Tractor Construction Begins

2008-06-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

I had a small collection of old bicycles at my shop so I began taking them apart and cutting them up for parts for the Seussian Pedal Tractor. I am using one of the beefier frames for the front of the tractor. I cut the rear triangle off. I removed the pedals and cranks from three of the bikes to use.

The finished item will be about 14 feet long so I extended the bike frame another seven feet. Below is a photo of the bike frame and, up on the table, the basic layout of one of the large rear wheels. This thing is going to be pretty silly. I'll be heading back to the shop this afternoon to continue working on it.

Meanwhile, there is a whale in our backyard. The Tsunami whale is the mascot for the Tsunami-on-the-Square performing arts festival which will be held next weekend. The whale has been re-skinned and re-decorated so it can lead the parade of performers to the courthouse square in Prescott, where the event takes place.
Starfish manufacturing is also going on right now in our backyard. These are also for the Tsunami festival.

The Seussian Pedal Tractor

2008-05-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

This Memorial Day weekend is the Kinetic Grand Championship in Arcata, CA. This is the largest and oldest kinetic sculpture race in the country. Since it started in 1969, several other races have cropped up across the country. These include The East Coast Championship in Baltimore, MD and about 6 others. One of the newest of these happens to be held in Prescott Valley, AZ - only 10 miles from my house.

The third annual Prescott Valley Kinetic Sculpture Race will be held on Sept 13th, 2008. Last year I was one of the judges. This year I will have an entry. It's working name is "The Seussian Pedal Tractor." I suspect I'll come up with a better name for it before it's done. Here is a drawing of what I will try to create out of steel and old bicycle parts. There are two seats in the back and one up front. All riders will be able to pedal. Note that the 6-foot diameter rear wheels do not have tires. They have shoes instead.
As fabrication proceeds I will post updates here. Wish me luck!

Toast 2008

2008-05-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

The best Toast ever! That's what we thought of last weekend's Arizona regional burn called Toast. The weather was perfect. It was tons of fun. Above is a picture of people enjoying the Snake Pit. The Snake Pit consists of a 30-foot long handmade fabric snake named Juliet. She is stuffed with blankets, pillows, pool noodles, and whatever else we could come up with to make her full and soft. The Snake Pit was filled with stuffed animals to create a silly cuddle space.

Below is a 30-second video of Mr. God lighting his hair on fire while spinning poi. His hair got singed but his scalp did not.

Toaster Tune Up

2008-05-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

The Toaster is a steel sculpture that also serves as an outdoor heater. It consists of three wood burning chimneys that come together at the top. The rising heat spins a propeller. It weighs about 1200 pounds but disassembles into 9 major pieces and a bunch of smaller ones so it's not too heavy to move.

I designed it a couple of years ago and it was built by members of the Arizona Burning Man community at a series of work parties at my shop. We built it so we could use it at our events, particularly Toast, which is an official regional Burning Man event. It's been to Burning Man a couple of times and gets used three or four times a year at various events.

When it is lit up, a large warm space is created in and around the chimneys. It gets burned so hot that the metal warps. It has proven to be a great place to hang out on a cold night. Every year it returns to Cosmic Steel for a tune up. We beat the warped metal back into shape, fix broken welds, and get it ready for the next season of usage.

Yesterday was 2008's Toaster Tune Up Party. Part of the work this time was to put sides on its designated trailer so it won't slide off on bumpy roads. Now the Toaster is all set for next weekend's Toast event and whatever else it gets used at.

Below is a picture of the Toaster set up at Toast two years ago.

Plastic Fun-tastic

2008-04-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

After only a short time since returning from Texas, I entered another zone - the Plastic Fun-tastic zone. This was a party where everyone was supposed to wear plastic. Everything was plastic. It's amazing what people can do with discarded plastic stuff. There was a guy wearing a plastic barrel and several people wearing trash bags and other trash plastic. Below is another great plastic costume.

Texas Zone - Almost Done

2008-03-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

All of our projects are as done as they are going to get before I leave. We finished fencing the garden, put up trellises for vines to climb on and built the steel post and beam wall that will be one side of Ty's shop. Lifting the I-beams was a bit scary but it all went together just fine. Ty and Wow are flying to the Bahamas tomorrow for a week's vacation from working on the ranchette. I will spend tomorrow getting all my stuff together in preparation for the big drive back to Arizona. I will be leaving the Texas Zone Friday morning early.

Below is a photo of an art installation I made at the end of one of the new trails. The bicycle is hanging from a tree branch and the circle below is made from rocks and twigs.

The Tybobwowsky ranchette is under construction and will be for a long time. There are lots of trails to make, buildings to build, art installations to create and install, and plants to plant in the garden(s). The fun never stops in the Texas Zone.

Texas Zone - Cowboy Culture

2008-03-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

We went to Gruene Hall today (pronounced "green"). It's in a touristy little town south of San Marcos. Gruene Hall is a big old dance hall where lots of Texas musicians have played at one time or another including famous ones. Some of the people we saw at Gruene Hall were sporting the Texas cowboy look. I received instructions from Ty on what the Texas cowboy fashion consists of and then he pointed out specific individuals and commented on how well they fit the picture. Here's the layout:

First- cowboy boots. The women get to wear white ones with rhinestones. The men have to wear brown or black ones. The next article of clothing on the way up is jeans. It looks like Wrangler is the "in" brand. The jeans are secured by a belt with a big shiny metal buckle with some kind of cowboy or Texas image on it like a star, or a horse. Jeans should be worn tight. For men, the belly must hang out over the belt buckle. Next we have a cowboy shirt with pearly snap buttons and a kind of down pointing yoke shape to the flaps on the shirt pockets which is reflected in the stitching on the back of the shirt. The shirts can be plain, plaid or striped. Last but not least we have the wide brim cowboy hat in white, brown or black. There are a couple of styles to these.

Cultures change over time so I suspect the Texas cowboy look might be different ten or twenty years from now. Below is a picture of an improbable future Texas cowboy look.

Texas is one of very few of the fifty American states that has a pretty well-defined culture of its own. The Texas cowboy look has been exported all over the West. Texas has its own music and star musicians. Signature Texas music is a kind of folk/country thing. Austin is the heart of the music scene. Texas has its own cuisine - Texas Barbecue. A typical Texas barbecue meal has ribs, potato salad, beans, and beer. The fact that Texas is a BIG state contributes to the culture. Texas has the world's largest honky tonk (a word probably made up by Texans). You can buy really big coffee mugs as tourist gifts. It has Texas long horns, some of whose horns end up on the hoods of big Cadillacs.

Just in case you think I am picking on Texans, it's not true. Of all the Texans I have met so far none of them fit the negative stereotypes that have been ascribed to Texas over the years. They are as friendly, creative, intelligent, hardworking, and fun loving as good people everywhere. I've has a great time in the Texas Zone so far.

Texas Zone - Eye of the Dog

2008-03-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

We went to a party at the Eye of the Dog Art Center last night. It's owned by our friends Beverly and Billy Ray who live next door to the Tybobwowsky ranchette. The first photo is of the arch you drive through as you enter their property.
The second photo is of a few of the buildings on their land. Their home and studios are filled with lots of fun folk art as well as their own whimsical ceramic, collage, and found-object sculptural pieces.

Today we went to Austin for our unusual brand of tourism. We visited junk shops, Habitat for Humanity, a metal sculptor by the name of Barry George (he wasn't home). We looked around for a tower of junk that was supposed to be in South Austin somewhere but we couldn't find it.
The old barrio/slum areas of Austin are getting a re-do as land prices rise. People are buying up the small old houses and replacing them with big modern things. Some of the neighborhoods are a really odd mix of the old and new. One of the extra cool features on the new houses are margarita decks put way up on the roof of three story houses.

Texas Zone - Finished Projects

2008-03-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

We had a very satisfying afternoon. The weather was beautiful - clear, a light breeze, and 75 degrees. I was able to finish the garden gate and Ty and I installed it. Then we installed arch windows as a portal to a trail. The gate is made out of mostly found steel objects welded together.

The building of portals is becoming a passion. Nature is the ultimate artist. No human can even come close to the grandeur and beauty of nature. What I can do is to frame natural spaces by creating portals and windows that draw people's attention to the spaces beyond. If I have done my job well, my portals will invite people to appreciate the natural spaces within. The idea of a portal is that there is a different reality on the other side. Even though there is really no difference, the portal creates an opportunity for an attitude change or a heightened sense of wonder.

I am happy with these two new portals created at the Tybobwowski ranchette here in..... The Texas Zone.

Clouds and Rain

2008-03-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

It's been cloudy for the last couple of days. The weather forecast yesterday said that today we could get from 2 to 4 inches of rain. The reality is that we got only .03 inches of rain. They were only off by about 100 times. Still, there are tornado warnings in a couple of counties just northeast of here. There could be more rain today but it looks like it's trying to clear up. It's 73 degrees and humid. I may even be able to get to some outdoor projects this afternoon. The current project - a garden gate made from found steel objects.

Speaking of counties, the counties here are all mostly square and all the same size. I know this is probably the norm over most of the country but, where I come from, counties are all irregularly shaped and different sizes. I guess it's so flat in most of Texas that there aren't any particular geographic features to define county boundaries by. Or maybe they just didn't care about geography and wanted to impose their rectangular grid on everything.

When I got here everything was brown. Now everything is turning green. The grass is coming up in the pastures. The trees are leafing out. Springtime is here.

Projects at the Ranchette

2008-03-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the trail we made. It connects the garden area to a little meadow where Ty will drop a large block of limestone which will serve as a pedestal for sculptures. The trail winds through the woods in a very friendly way.

We got to a good stopping point on the entry portal pagoda. We need to come up with a name for this thing. It's a drive-through gazebo, a motorportal, a little building that you have to drive through to get into the property. Anyway, this is as far as we are going to go on this thing for the time being. It is ready to have lots of stuff added to it. I imagine it will be an artistic work in progress for a long time.

Last night we visited a place called the Enchanted Forest in south Austin. It is three acres of trees and lots of junk and recycled/repurposed artworks. I don't have any photos of this.

Texas is Dangerous

2008-03-14T11:02:00.001-07:00

I discovered two things about Texas yesterday - fire ants and greenbriar. Fire ants are really small and, if you happen to step on their ant hill, they climb up your leg and wait until there are at least 50 ants and then, all at once, they bite you. Ouch!
The other thing that got me yesterday was a greenbriar vine. It's like natural barbed wire. I hooked my foot in it and thought I could just break it loose. No. Now my left ankle is covered with bleeding scratches.

That's not all, the locals tell me. More fun creatures start coming out as the weather warms up - scorpions, centipedes, and assassin bugs. Wonderful.I hear there are snakes, too. Fortunately I like snakes. Arizona has them, too, so it's no big deal.

It's supposed to be 93 today. I worked all morning creating a trail through the woods to a future location for an art installation. I lopped branches, raked the ground, spread cedar chips along the path and then lined the path with rocks. Sweaty but satisfying work.

Below is a photo of Kevin, Ty and I working on the portal pagoda. We got the basic shape created out of rebar. The center has a vertical axle on bearings so a wind catching spinner can be mounted on top. The whole thing will be about 20 feet high when done.

2008-03-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

It seems that there are a lot of artists in Central Texas. Maybe this is because I tend to be drawn toward other artists and happen to find them. The Tybobwowski ranchette has a long term goal of becoming a place of art installations and sculpture gardens. Right next door is the home and studio of Billy Ray and Beverly Mangham. They have been holding down the estimable position of wackiest artists in San Marcos for some time. Billy Ray is a consummate ceramist. He makes whimsical ceramic sculptures. Beverly works with found objects and collage. They both are in the process of turning their land into an art school called Eye of the Dog Art Center.

On land behind the Tybobwowsky ranchette is the home and studios of Kevin and Denise (I don't know their last names). They both sculpt with found and recycled objects. The other night we went over there and spent the evening casting our hands and feet out of hydrocal plaster. It was quite fun. We will probably do it again before I leave Texas.

The weather this week - on Monday it rained pretty hard in the morning and lightly all afternoon. On Tuesday it got sunny in the afternoon with a high in the upper 60's. Today it reached the mid 70's and is supposed to reach 90 by this weekend. The weather seems to be quite different every day - at least for the days I have been here so far.

A Different Culture?

2008-03-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a tractor in Texas. Some people have small ones and some have big ones. More tractor photos later.

There is only one grocery store in San Marcos even though it's not a small town. The grocery store is named H.E.B. I am told this stands for Harry E. Butts - the founder of HEB. The grocery checker says, "How y'all doin?" when you come up to the counter. Everyone says, "y'all" here.

Since we are near Austin, there is a lot of good music on the radio. The South by Southwest Festival begins this week with hundreds of bands playing in hundreds of venues all around the city. We are going out to hear some music tonight.

The Tybobwowsky ranchette is in the middle of a kind of enclave of artists who work with ceramics and found objects. This will be the subject of the next blog post. Stay tuned!

The Texas Zone

2008-03-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am in Texas for the month of March. I arrived last Tuesday in San Marcos, which is about in the center of the state. Did you know that Texas was a separate country for 9 years? There is a rural area near to downtown San Marcos where several artists have their wacky compounds. I am staying at the Tybobwowski ranchette. We are building an entry pagoda over their driveway as a portal into their zone. There will be sculpture gardens and pathways through the woods to special places when all the building gets done. It will probably never be done, though. It is an ongoing project on 20 acres. The photo shows Ty mixing concrete for one of the corner posts for the driveway entry.

Zone Trip #8 - Ride to Nowhere

2008-02-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to go to this Zone Trip. It was held at Slab City near Salton Sea in Southern California - 33°15′32″ N, 115°27′59″ W. They had a theme - Post-Apocalypse - Punk. It looks like it was organized by an urban bicycling group called the Midnite Ridazz along with some So Cal Cacophony Society people. As near as I can tell, about 40 people turned up for a weekend campout. They visited some of the interesting sites at the Slabs - Salvation Mountain, The Lizard Tree Library, The Range, and East Jesus.

On another subject, pictures of Zone Trip #1 show up also as Zone Trip #7. Apparently there is someone keeping track of the actual sequence of Zone Trips, wherever they occur.

Arizona Zone Trip #1

2008-01-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

The first Arizona-based Zone Trip happened in January of 2008. The zone portal opened and about 30 to 40 people entered. Here's a 5-minute video of Zone Trip #1