Festivals & follies
A Summer Solstice Wedding
Santa Barbara, California 2013
Each summer for decades, Santa Barbara has celebrated its Summer Solstice with a pagan costumed push powered parade that attracts 100,000 spectators. In 2011 dear friends met at the event, then got engaged at it one year later, and decided to exchange their vows within it in 2013. For the duration of the summer, the wedding party of family and friends pre-fabricated a series of wood and bamboo floats and tested their performance on the surrounding streets. I was asked to choreograph this fawns and fairy fairytale wedding and it was quite the memorable event. One vow was given per block, and many spectators were oh so surprised to witness a real wedding amongst the parade showtime.
The Trilobyte
Symbiosis Festival
Pyramid Lake, Nevada, 2012
This project was done with a group of painters known as the Furtherrr Collective, to create gathering space to watch their epic collaborations. They had previously done their work in geodesic domes which lacked space for more than a handful of observers. Each artist, Mars-1, Oliver Vernon, Damon Soule, David Choong Lee and Nome Edona is masterful in their own technique, but come together for group pieces where they are literally painting over each other from sunset until sunrise of each day of the festival. And a lot of people, it turns out, enjoy watching paint dry! The bamboo and fabric structure was called the Trilobyte, and was conceived along with prime builder Warren Binder as a prehistoric creature that had emerged from the depths of nearby Pyramid Lake. One entered through the ovulating vagina into the body which had seating surrounding a central heart fire element. Further ahead was the head with the 10’x12′ panting stage and a driftwood brain hung from the bamboo rafters above. Exiting took place through side gills at the neck of the creature.
Greek Theater
Symbiosis Festival
Woodward Reservoir CA, 2015
In 2015, Art Dealer Brian Chambers requested a reunion of the 2012 build crew to go Furtherrr down the rabbit hole, to a much deeper place. This time, the canvas would be 12’x20′ and would sell prior to the event for $150,000 before even one drop of paint was applied. That is what solid reputation gets you. One third of this budget was given to the much larger build crew for 2 months of prefab and 7 days on site and a team of about 30, led by me. We decided on a greek amphitheater concept built of Douglas fir logs and flinches from a Northern California saw mill. Bamboo was added to the mix along with a plethora of fabric and other artistic bits. Though the ambition and scale of the space was a bit crazy, we pulled it and created another portal into a different world. Many minds were blown…
Fractal Nation
Burningman Festival
Black rock Desert, Nevada, 2011
In 2011 I was asked to lead the design and build for a massive burning man camp, wherein the festival producers and performers from multiple organizations banded together to create 5 nights of sunset to sunrise entertainment while hosting the producers of Portugal’s BOOM festival, who were attending the Burn for their first time. This would be my 13th time participating at Burningman, having attended the event my first time back in 1996, and going deeper and deeper into it’s outer space activities over successive years. This project was huge though, with a $100,000 budget from 3 fundraisers, and 650 VIPS all needing nourishment and care. Our back of house included a commercial kitchen, multiple lounge spaces, and a shower experience like no other. The front of house included a 90′ dome by Android Jones and other visionary artists, a 30′ dome with the Furtherrr Collective live painting, a large bamboo stage from Bamboo DNA, a site built bamboo dj booth, the world’s largest live performance kaleidoscope from France, a 80′ tall sculpture in front from the DoLab Crew called scrambled eggs, and two massive art cars. I was on the playa for 21 days and worked 20 hours a day for 19 of them. It was a tough project, mentally and physically, but through massive effort and collaboration, we pulled off some serious magic…
Multiple Endeavors
Envision Festival
Costa Rica, 2011-2017
I began participating in Envision during its inaugural year in 2011. Due to unforeseen circumstances I took over site management duties from the build leader who sprained his ankle a week prior to my arrival. Thus my focus that year was not a specific art project but rather the organization of the whole and assistance to all the other artists in their needs. I became the glue and worked the full week long build, then helped manage emergencies during the fest while playing photographer, and then managed the full clean up. I was subsequently asked to manage a very large Burningman project that brought together a vast array of festival organizers in addition to the crew from Costa Rica. Thereafter, my presence was sometimes just to party with a VIP all access pass, while continuing build efforts in 2014 and again in 2016. Though these projects helped further my own artistic goals and pushing myself hard to make them happen, it did not lead to the community I had hoped for, as the artistic builders of these events get no respect nor credit with the producers. The DJ’s get their names in lights for a one hour set of pressing buttons, and the participants going full bore on big art for 80 hour weeks, get shafted more often than not, with not even credits on the website and media blitz that follows showtime.
Retirement from this scene ended in 2017 after a stressed out little girl made up a lie about my behavior, and people I thought were friends turned their backs on me in a manner where the judge, jury, and executioners, were the same narcissists in charge of a shitshow called the Village Witches, that develops when promoters think its ok to ignore all emails and calls, and that their only responsibility is to show up and act like the king or queen. I’m still bitter about it, but at age 50 it was time to retire from an activity that is meant to test the skills of much younger people, and taught me that the community they speak about on stage is just self serving bullshit and personal profit is the true highest value.
The Galactic Voyager
a different kind of tree experience
Santa Barbara, California 2012
In 2011 a friend in Santa Barbara presented me with a unique challenge. He informed me that his favorite memory from his own childhood was sleeping under the stars with his kids, and that he wanted the same experience with his kids. The problem was that he lived in a dense oak grove, and thus he asked if I could put a king size mattress 45′ up his tallest oak! It had to have a cover to protect it while not in use, and be both safe and comfortable for sunset wine and overnight sleeps. The solution was to create a boat in the sky, prefabricated on the ground as a series of plywood ribs with a skin of body panels, then reassembled in the tree. A draw bridge entry kept kids out when Dad wasn’t around, and led to a series of ladders ascending to a bamboo dock. Then the cover was removed and stowed, while seat backs and cushions were added as desired around the sides. It was one of the hardest projects I’ve ever taken on, and though at first successful, the elements took there toll, and well, one never gets a new idea perfect on the first prototype.
The Orb
a fun, safe, inhabitable, sculpture for kids
Santa Barbara, California 2012
During the production of the galactic voyager an early problem arose. The client’s son, then about 5, was so excited about the pending tree house that he wanted to help. But it was an intensely dangerous effort. The mother thought it was all crazy, so I suggested that we created a smaller treehouse for the kids first, in the backyard, where they could be watched from the kitchen. But they didn’t want to see some standard thing from the prime living room garden view, and thus a sculptural orb was born. Woven with rattan over a welded rebar cage, and an inserted bamboo slat floor, it was prefabricated on the ground and then hung into place in one go. The kids loved it, but I should have renegotiated the original fee agreement as it was not in scope, and hammered me in the long run when the main project went into cost overruns. Alas, original ar like these projects were are not an easy, nor a cheap experiment.
La Tarantula
a mobile sculpture project
Nevada & Utah, 2013
This fun time project was born shortly after Burning Man in 2013, wherein I brought some bamboo materials to make something at the event, but didn’t. After the event, I took a long drive down to Southern Nevada and Utah, and each time I stopped somewhere, someone would ask me what all the material on my roof rack was for. So I found a tarantula at a campground and got inspired to create a mobile creature and then take him on a photographic safari.
