Cashews in the Bowl of Life
Tony and Bobette live completely off the grid (wind and solar) in Rimrock, a small community amonsgst the boulders just north of Pioneertown. I drive up and find Tony in his mini-Kwanzet Hut-like outdoor ceramic studio behind the house. His shirt is splattered with turquoise and rust glaze, his smile earnest and clearest blue eyes. Tony tells me he is working on a series of Raku fired purposely pointless parrot pitchers in metallic colors. Inside, his wife Bobette solders brightly colored geometric stained glass in their living room. You can see her work here. Their home is surrounded by 8 inches of foam, which keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Their swamp cooler was not on, despite the 103 degree temps and humidity all week! Bobette pulled a bowl of frozen grapes out of the freezer and we sat on stools and talked about art as the process of realizing why we make art, the moment of “I made it blue there because I had a feeling about it.” People in the desert are like the cashews in the bowl of nuts at the party, said Tony, we are similar to eachother, but don’t always find each other the vast, constantly shifting landscape of urban existence. We meet eachother out here and there is already a shared understanding, a love for open space and rawness, of real DIY. Tony used to teach high school ceramics in South Central LA, and he would set up raku firings in trash cans in the art rooms, do it discreetly, and no one ever found out. He and Bobette moved out here 4 years ago for newness, for a horizon, to be artists.
Tony next to his bathtub raku firing pit. He buries his leather-hard ceramic pieces in the newspaper and lights it on fire, closes it off and waits for all of the newpaper to burn. Then he removes the pieces when they are still hot and cools them quickly with water.The Raku firings are performances, dances, the whole body participates, in tough leather gloves, in boots, moving these 1000 degree vessels from the bathtub to the world. I will attend one of these next week, and fire some of my own desert pieces. Move my body in the heat, in the heat.
Katie Bachler was our first HDTS Scout, and was in residence from 2012-2013.
The HDTS Scout Residency is dedicated to learning more about the people and places that make up our diverse and ever evolving community.
During Katie’s residency, visitors were invited to drop into the HDTS HQ, the Scout’s home base, to meet Katie, who could be found making maps, hosting conversations, and baking bread – in between her off-site adventures around town and out in the field.
Katie had a lot in store during her time here, including:
- a series of talks featuring local experts
- joining together to create a web of knowledge
- a research library and archive documenting the many spaces, places, plants, and people that make up this special region
- casual conversations with drop in visitors over tea
- site visits and field trips around town
Katie engaged the community by instigating map-making and rag-rug braiding workshops, the Scout’s Book Club, Art in the Environment classes for desert kids, casual conversations, site visits and field trips—all shared in her Scout’s blog, which serves as the foundation for her book.
