“Kcymaerxthaere” this weekend

Eames Demetrios, “Geographer-at-Large”, homestead fan, and the instigator of the Krblin Jihn Kabin “historic site” in Joshua Tree, will be presenting “KCYMAERXTHAERE:  A global work of three dimensional storytelling” at Dezart One Gallery in Palm Springs on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11-12.  Eames tells us the following:

So I am doing a one man show in Palm Springs this weekend based on my alternative universe called Kcymaerxthaere which resides in part in the Kabin we have at Border and Desert Trail (which you are all welcome to visit).

A portion of my talk will touch on these cabins and the way the name Homesteader may actually be a corruption of the word “haumsteadler.”

Eames says the show is a “pretty cool experience for the audience–very simple in a way:  images and storytelling.”

Q&A and book signing to follow each performance.

December 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. Dezart One Gallery, 2688 S. Cherokee Way, Palm Springs (in the Backstreet Art District). Tickets $16 advance/$20 at door.  Reservations: 760.322.0179 or Purchase Online: http://www.dezartperforms.com.   More at Eames’ Events page.

“Jackrabbit Homestead” Book and Lecture

Kim Stringfellow has announced the release of her long-awaited book, Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938-2008.  Per the JRHS Website:

The 136-page hard cover book with dust jacket includes sixty-one color photographs by the author with an accompanying text by Stringfellow:

• Discusses the largely underrepresented history of jackrabbit homesteading; its historical and theoretical underpinnings, and the participants and boosters of this popular mid-century phenomena.
• Examines the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) and other U.S. public land policies that form how we perceive, use, and manage the California desert today.
• Shares the stories of a diverse cross-section of stakeholders and micro-communities who historically and currently are located within this geographically defined area.
• Examines the shifting/conflicting cultural values within this High Desert landscape.
• Discusses the architectural legacy of the homesteads and how study of the shacks can inform sustainable and green design practices.
• Considers why the homesteads become a catalyst for various human projections including how the shacks serve as a source of creative inspiration for the many artists and other creative types drawn to this area.

You’ll find lots of  the Wonder Valley community (including yours truly) in Kim’s book.  To learn more and to order signed and inscribed copies by the author, click here.

Kim will also be giving a lecture on the homesteads at the 29 Palms Old Schoolhouse Museum on Friday, December 11, at 7 p.m.  $5 at the door.  Click here for more information and directions.

“Old Odd Balls” in Ratany #3

The latest issue of Wonder Valley’s own Ratany is out and to be found about town in the usual places.   Included are articles on artist Bob Arnett; the ladies who meet at the the Church on 3rd Saturdays; an excerpt from a 1994 article on the desert as visionary space by yours truly; and a few words about new neighbors Mythical Bird, a musical group to whom we say, Welcome! 

The feature article for the issue is an interview with artist Ellie Dosier about her “Old Odd Balls.”   Ellie has found that Wonder Valley is where old balls seem to go to die.  She’s amassed a collection of every kind of derelict orb, from golf to soccer to whiffle, in every stage of decay. 

Ellie performed her story of the balls in the Homestead Obsession show of the Homestead Cabin Festival in February 2008.  She also created a striking art piece for the Show ‘n Tell at The Palms during the Festival, titled “The Sites of the Visitation of St. Bouncing Ball and Disciples”.   The piece is an assemblage that includes a found homestead window frame and a ball remnant of great venerability.  The piece still hangs at The Palms and may be viewed there, but without the ball that formed the centerpiece because at some point it disappeared – stolen, we regret to say. 

Of what use was this utterly ruined ball to anyone?  So now the light shines out of an empty socket instead of illuminating the cracked carapace of an ancient orb.  Sigh.

Dosier submits that, after all, the piece wasn’t meant to be lasting.  “That ball is gone now on another part of its journey….It was buried in the sand for who knows how long, sat around in a bucket for two years and missed a trip to the dump; it got resurrected and now it’s onto something else.  It’s impossible to control the destiny of these balls.”

When asked by the Ratany if the balls gravitate toward her, Dosier responds, “Well, not to me, but they gravitate to Wonder Valley which I think is their final resting place.  Probably that ball that got liberated at The Palms was on its way to its final destiny.  I mistook the art piece as its final resting place.  I was wrong – I have the hubris of a human and I misinterpreted what was going on.  So its final resting place might be a dresser drawer, or a backyard or the trunk of the car of whoever took it.”

Life rolls on in Wonder Valley.

“Desert of My Heart”

I’m late in getting this up, but there’s still time to view the paintings of fine artist and serious homestead fan Mary-Austin Klein at True World Gallery in Joshua Tree.

Mary-Austin has a vintage cabin in Twentynine Palms and creates signature small-format desert-scapes that have been exhibited locally and in Los Angeles.  The current show, “Desert of My Heart”, features “miniature landscape paintings of Mojave Desert mountains.”

True World Gallery is at 61740 29 Palms Highway in Joshua Tree.  Hours:  Sunday, Monday, Friday 10-2, Saturday 10-4.    And if you miss this show stop by the gallery anyway; Bonnie always has something fun going on!

“Rusty Bit” show opens October 10

The “Shot to Shit & Rusty Bit Art Show” opens at the Glass Outhouse Art Gallery in Wonder Valley this Saturday, Oct. 10. 

The exhibition features oils and photographs by Adrian Field; metal constructs by Richard Grey; and mosaics by Olive Toscani.

Opening reception is Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m.  Regular hours are Tuesdays through Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.  The Gallery is 4-1/2 miles east of 29 Palms, at 77575 Highway 62 and Thunder Road, Wonder Valley.

Come out and see what your neighbors are up to!

“Wonder Valley Homestead”

Lisa Maher’s family has owned a cabin in my neighborhood for generations, but I’d never met her until a chance encounter last summer.  The image above is her pastel “Wonder Valley Homestead”, from 2009.  See more WV views here, and Lisa’s “Skeleton Village” MySpace page here.   The below is from her blog:

Hi, I wanted to share with some of you that I did go out twice this year to Wonder Valley Ca and work on our cabin.  The cabin is a homestead cabin from the 1950’s.  My Mother and Grandmother purchased the land 5 acres and had the cabin built.  My son went with my once this year to do some foundation work, I also did some roof work.  The cabin was originally Pink and when I decided to work on maintaining in in the 90’s I drove up and it was full of pigeons and crap.  The windows were all shot out from guns and the roof had blown off.  My plan is to maintain it so it wont fall apart.  The area is very unique and untouched.  Check out my pictures of the Wonder Valley Cabin for updated pictures.  I would like to go out a few more times this year to do some additional roof work.

…If you ever get a chance to visit the area it is a magical place and leaves you with a special feeling of freedom and wonder.  A great place to be inspired of a simpler time.

Homesteads in The Sun Runner

The August/September Sun Runner is out, and it’s the Third Annual Desert Writers Issue.   Our homestead lifestyle is the background for more than one story, so check it out!

“Don’t Fence Me In”

“Don’t Fence Me In:  Artists embrace harsh desert in creating their own wide open gallery spaces” is the title of a feature on the homestead cabins appearing in the Home section of the Saturday, August 1, 2009 edition of  The Desert Sun:

The homesteads, the result of the Small Tract Act of 1938, are a part of desert history that reminds us of the pioneering spirit of the post-World War II years when Americans yearned for the open spaces and freedoms of the Old West.

And the government yearned to populate the vast stretches of open land.

The article quotes Kim Stringfellow, the artist behind the “Jackrabbit Homesteads” project:

“I got interested in the hinterland fringe communities a long time ago,” she said by phone from Los Angeles. “They are so close to major cities, but they’re worlds apart from civilization.”

Also quoted is yours truly as an example of someone living on a homestead:

Today, some of the surviving homestead cabins are inhabited by artists like Chris Carraher, who see the openness of the high desert not as desolation, but as a place that encourages self-sufficiency and creativity.

“People here allow themselves to exercise their own unique creativity,” said Carraher. “On one level, they live a life of reduced resources, but that also allows them to come up with inventive solutions.”

There is a photo gallery attached to the Web version of the article with dozens of images, including photos of derelict cabins by Kim and more than you ever wanted to see of my own somewhat less derelict place.   (Image above of my studio cabin by Crystal Chatham for The Desert Sun.)

Thanks to writer Judith Salkin and photographer Crystal Chatham for their interest in our desert!

Coming up on August 1

Palm Springs daily The Desert Sun will have a feature on the homestead cabins in the Home section on Saturday, August 1.  Be sure to get you a copy! 

The Glass Outhouse Gallery: A Private View

The new Glass Outhouse Gallery in Wonder Valley had its premier opening yesterday, June 14, but you can still drop by and see the show every day until July 4.  Congratulations to the artists and the new gallery!

A Private View

A triangulation of emotional purpose.   3 artists-  3 radically different “private views” into the inner workings of creative minds.

Premier Opening Sun June 14th,  1 – 6pm, at 77575 Hwy 62  & Thunder Rd,  Wonder Valley  (4 1/2 miles east of 29).  Open every day 9am to 2pm until July 4th:

Suzanne Ross    Recent sculpture
SHADRI / BURKA  IV
Suzanne’s emotional reaction to Muslim women being forced to confine their identity within the traditional garments of a Shadri or Burka, profusely influenced her images.The sculpture is of handmade paper created by using paper pulp that is beaten and mixed with ash and dyes, water vacuumed to a shape, then adorned with found objects and pastel. Her copious yet subtle images evoke a “fear  of confinement ” and sadness in us all.

Regina Kirillov  Recent Photographs
 FOLKS LOVE TO DRIVE FAST
I started this project two years ago having in mind an inevitable clash between nature and civilization. Can we reduce somehow the damage we are responsible for? It is true we are living in a fast lane–our greed for immediacy overruns our compassion and common sense. Going local-  why don’t we slow down on our roads and become more mindful of other creatures living next to us. These little animals and birds can’t stand up for themselves and fight us. I am saying it for them- portraying their senseless death. So it is not only about compassion but also about justice. Besides, this this project  reflects on my general interest to how death is related to life and vise versa– I see them both as two sides of the same coin.

Robyn Goudy   Recent work
MOSAICS, PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS
What do you need to know at first glance? NOTHING. I thought I had something to say about keeping Art off the alter and out of the gutter; but now I’m not so sure. Like any other residue from idyllic metaphors, I guess something will come of it~  like sugar from sap!