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Artist Interview: Sean January

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I’m so lucky to have so many amazing, artistic people in my life.  My best friend Miranda and her fiancé, Sean, have been together for close to ten years.  During this time,  I’ve observed Sean’s art become bigger (literally!) and better, more eye catching and unique.  What started out as spray painted space paintings has grown into visually stunning layered works of art.  Think space travel  – meets street art – meets glitter!!

I’ve always known Sean to be a deep thinker, a philosopher of sorts, constantly pondering life’s biggest questions and mysteries.  I was really blow away by one of his pieces featuring Jimmy Hendrix and I decided to chat a bit with him to find out a bit more about his creative process. 
Have you always been the creative artsy type?

Yes, I’ve always been artistic.  As a child I had a fetish for drawing old antique cars, carriages and then as I got a bit older, I moved on to drawing elaborate forests with detailed trees, old rickety barns dilapidated with rotten wood, and old nail holes.  Even a rusty old barb wire fence.   Due to socialism and video games my art was put aside and not practiced for years.
 
How would you describe yourself as an artist?

I’m basically an artist that is learning how to incorporate sacred geometry, spirituality, shamanism, quantum mechanics, and glitter (bling!) to attract viewers into asking why is it beautiful?  What does it mean?  And perhaps enlightening them to see how most are controlled by ego on a daily basis and that it’s been a plan for many, many centuries.

Can you describe the process you use from start to finish and how long it takes?
I draw my image on polished wood and then I start in the center working my way around and outward by painting the first area of a color, then with glue I sprinkle glitter on that perfectly tight area.  After drying I can match up closely the next patch of glue and glitter and so on.  Staying within the lines is crucial to having a perfect piece.  The glitter soaks deep into the glue and the glue soaks into the wood creating a concrete like effect.  A casual brushing with a hand brush allows all the lose top flakes of glitter to come off so only the strong embedded flakes of glitter are left.  Depending on size and detail, a painting can take weeks.  Lately I’ve been trying to use just paint and no glitter which is obviously faster but no bling.

What influenced you to start the type of paintings that define your work now?

 
Whew!  Well, there were a number of factors that really influenced me.  The not-so-short answer is I went back to school for environmental science around 2007/2008.  I learned about space and the cosmos – one of the few topics I find absolutely amazing – and started painting them.  However, space paintings got old.  I didn’t feel that they expressed the feeling that I knew I had inside that I wanted to express, something really big.  What?  I wasn’t even sure of yet.  However, I felt that truth was a big part of it.  To paint something that impressed the viewer with truth(s) that perhaps had fallen to the way side of the everyday average person.

Then I took an environmental class where I learned about researching corporation degradation on the environment and even humanity.  I started digging further back into history, found lots of suppressed history, connected the dots and saw a crazy pattern.  For example, every ancient civilization from different continents and time eras all knew many valuable facts of nature and the cosmos.  They knew all the planets, yet we just found Pluto in the 30’s.  So where and when did the knowledge fall off from humans?

One of my favorite heroes Galileo Gallilee studied for years Capornicus’ idea which stated that we were not the center of the universe but that we evolve around the sun, contradicting the Church who said that the Earth was the center of everything and everything revolved around us. The Church threatened to kill Galileo if he perpetuated this notion to the masses because it would cause the Church to lose control of them.

It got me thinking, if truth was suppressed back then, what things are being suppressed in today’s world?  Hint — 9/11, vaccinations, geoengineering, big pharmacy, secret societies, alien contact with several elitists.  The list goes on.  I think people are starting to question things in a way they never did.  They are waking up.  It’s a heavy subject and most don’t want to believe or even discuss it. The average human resists change and so to change their entire view of life and purpose is too heavy.  Cognitive dissonance is the correct term.

So how does one keep moving forward with seeking truth but not get overwhelmed with fear, being ostracized by friends and family who don’t care or think you’re crazy?  Plato said it best, “those that are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone, believed by the masses.”  Boy is this true.

I stumbled upon an image that was found on every continent and every civilization 1000’s of years apart.  This image was etched into granite with laser precision unexplainable by today’s scientists.  This image is known as the “flower of life”.  Ureka!!!  This was the epiphany I needed.  Classified as sacred geometry because this flower and otherworldly information was not created by man.  However, it was a message to man but from who?  God?  Aliens?  A Devine creator was giving the answers in this image. Everything we know in this 3D realm we live in is in the flower of life.

The flower of life/sacred geometry is actuality in the blue prints of everything we can see, feel, and touch. The flower of life contains Metatrons cube, which also precisely contains all the 5 platonic solids which make up everything in the material world.  At this point I feel I’ve stumbled on a huge piece of suppressed truth that was once only shared with monks, masons, secret societies, but was intentionally leaked to the 

masses as a desperate attempt to allow humanity to gain back its’ spirituality. 


Are you always working on something or do you go through creative spurts?

I do paintings in spurts.  Life tugs on every part of me between work, family, etc.  After a while the hunger to create is present but the energy around me must be at least neutral in order to look into myself for what it is I’m supposed to paint. I may see an image or imagine combining several images to make a whole different image for painting.  The weather also factors in.  If it’s too cold or hot, my glue is either too thick to work with properly or thin from the heat and the water starts to separate from the glue.  My paintings are big, and bigger is better because the glitter is hypnotizing but too small it will look like a child’s project or something grandma whipped up.

What are you currently working on?

I just finished a 30×40 canvas (rare) of a Torus in orange, blue, white and black.  The image is like the inside of a hollow donut.  Look at it for a second only and it starts to spin.  Our earth’s electromagnetic field which protects us from the Sun’s harsh solar flares is this shape.  Our hearts pump blood in this very same pattern, up the middle out over the curves, around the sides and under to repeat itself.   This painting was on canvas and used paint pens (fun)!

Do you sell/display your work?

I’ve publicly displayed my art for a few months as a once a month art walk.  Sold 3 or 4 pieces but the time and costs of transporting a dozen pieces ranging from 2×4 to 4×4 in a U-haul was breaking even.  So I chalk it up to exposure and experience with talking to people as I have here today.
Is there anything you want to make that you haven’t yet?
Bigger pieces for hotels, clubs, restaurants or anywhere there’s a lot of traffic.  To be able to have enough paintings requested in order to be a full time artist or at least need to work less.

To contact Sean re what he currently has for sale or for commission pieces, he can be reached at Charlesseanjanuary@gmail.com

Artist Interview: Bonita Chica Arte

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I first met Laura Ramirez in the late 90’s.  We were both single moms with young daughters, living a crazy busy life in LA.  We immediately hit it off.  She was the kind of girlfriend every gal wants, with a wicked sense of humor, outgoing, a great story teller (especially over pitchers of margaritas!) and with the just the right amount of crazy all mixed in.

Over the years our lives took us a little further (in distance) from each other.  First to different cities, then counties and ultimately to different countries when I moved to Costa Rica in 2008.   After I moved, we didn’t lose touch per se, but we definitely didn’t have the opportunity for wine and cheese night, or long phone conversations, so we did what most long distance friends do, we checked in with each other via e-mail and did our best to keep up.  
 
A few years ago, Laura (who I had always known to be a corporate worker bee) started posting these amazing creations on her FB page.  She was making gorgeous Dia de Los Muertos paintings and mixed media pieces that really blew me away.  I didn’t know she had an artsy-fartsy side to add to her arsenal of talents.  This made her an even more kick ass girl than I even knew!
 
I’ve watched her art grow and become more precise and more creative.  Her art is colorful, cultural, but also very playful – just like her.  Since I missed out on this transformation of my friend, I was curious to find out more about how she came to discover this new part of herself.  I shot her an e-mail and asked a few questions and learned a lot about her.  Just when you think you know someone…..
You only recently started feeding your inner artist.  Tell me a little bit about the beginning of Bonita Chica Arte.  What influenced you to start creating your Dia de Los Muertos creations?
 
Ever since I can remember, I loved art and drawing.  I remember being in elementary school and creating large landscape full city drawings.  As the years moved on, I became more social and did not find any pleasure in being indoors drawing.  Then work and responsibilities came into play as well.  No longer could I imagine or create anything.  However, a couple of years ago I started to attend Art and Craft Shows.  I wasn’t consciously looking for art, but somehow something guided me to view the beauty of handmade crafts and art.  It took a few months of traveling and viewing these shows, where my imagination started to work and see.  It was as if the creative side never left my side, but somehow was dormant.  I had said for years, “I’m not creative, I used to be, but not anymore”.  The waves of creativity started to come and it grew and grew, the more I viewed art the more I saw what I could do.  

A whole new sense was born once again, a new fresh look on everything around me.  Everything around me became alive and had a purpose.  I then made the move to actually buy a paint brush and paint.  So one day I’m sitting at my table, the thoughts, the imagination growing overflowing too quickly for me to put down on paper, to draw, to paint.  I had to get my thoughts together, I had to focus and have a direction.  I began to ask myself, who am I?  where do I come from? where will I be?  what do I want people to know?  what do I want people to see?  what moves me?  what hurts me?  who do I miss?  And that’s when I thought of my Dad who had past in 2002.  Although it made me sad, he was such a happy man, such a fun life he lived.  I imagined him looking down at me and saying, “Gabby (my childhood name) you can do anything you set your mind to”.  That’s when I decided I want to pay homage to the dead, and what better way than Dia de Los Muertos which depicts the dead living, loving, happy, dancing as if they never left our side.  Not only was this the perfect theme, but it originates from my own Latino Culture.  So I was able to combine both my heritage and love.



How would you describe the pieces you make?

They all stand for love, life, happiness, and faith.  Dia De Los Muertos is a holiday celebrated in Mexico as a holiday. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called honoring the deceased with their favorite food, drinks, and items.  Each piece is a celebration of a person or even an animal who has past, who is still living, laughing, and loving in the afterlife.  It’s a representation, although they’re gone, they’re not far from us.  I try to incorporate nature as well, either trees, or butterflies within my paintings, as I believe we are all connected with nature and life.

What inspires you to start a new piece and what is the process from start to finish?


It’s an interesting process, it’s not visually inspired.  Each of my pieces start with a poem, I’m also a creative writer, which I haven’t paid much attention to in a very long time.  However, for my pieces each one starts with me thinking of a sentence, then I finish the sentence with a poem, when I finish the poem I see the painting in my mind.  I write the poems behind each of my finished pieces.  So if anyone buys one, if they turn the painting, they will read what actually inspired the painting. 

The following is something I wrote before I did a painting.

We are all seeking answers, we strive to hear what we want,
we lust for answers,
when all we need is time,
time to live, time to breath, and time to believe. 
Stop searching, and begin your journey.

After I wrote this, I came up with the Fortune Teller painting.  It’s a woman skeleton with long black hair who is at a table reading fortune teller cards. 


 
Are you always working on different pieces or do you go through creative spurts?
My creativity starts and it opens one door, then another and another and another, it’s infinite.  I don’t like working on different pieces, as each work I create is full of different thoughts and visions.  I like to give each piece it’s time to come to life.


Have you encountered any obsticles in your creative process?

YES!  In Feb 2013, one of my dogs past away and ever since that date I haven’t painted.  I can’t say it’s definitely the reason why I haven’t painted.  The truth is, I don’t know why I stopped all I know is after that day, I stopped. It’s hard to explain, I have ideas and I want to paint, but I don’t pick up a brush.  Right after my dog past, I wanted to pay homage to her, and started a painting [I’ll email you a pic of the sketch].  I was emotionally drained after I sketched it, as it was a reminder of the pain I felt of losing her.  I didn’t finish it, I haven’t painted it.  Maybe part of my stand still is that I can’t move forward until I finish her painting.  I’m not sure, however, a couple of weeks ago I made myself start a small painting.  I think it’s been a long enough time to start painting again.  Although it feels good to have a brush in my hand, I can’t help feeling guilty that I haven’t finished her painting.


Is there anything that you want to make that you haven’t made yet?

I would love to create a huge painting, a Dia de Los Muertos theme of past lives at a party laughing and dancing.




Where do you currently sell/display your work?

I currently display my Art on my Instagram page; bonitachica_arte.
 


Artist Interview: Kool Kat Art Glass

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I got to know Kathy, the talented glass artist and owner of Kool Kat Art Glass, during two of her family vacations here in Costa Rica.  She and her twin boys did pottery with the hubby and her daughter Syd and her did a couple of jewelry classes with me.  She showed up for one of the classes with a baggie filled with beautiful glass pendants, which I was surprised to learn she made!

She said this bag full of colorful beauties were the castoffs, but to me they were stunning.  I had no idea she worked with glass, or that she was an artist — dabbling in a little of this and a little of that.  

I’m fascinated by glass making.  As much as I try to understand it, the process of making something liquidity hot into something as solid yet fragile as glass mystifies me.  I wanted to know a bit more about the process and Kathy so I decided to do a little interview of her to find out more.

Tell me a little about your art background and how you got started in glass making.  Did you go to school to learn this or was it something you picked up on your own?

I have always been interested in all forms of art.  I really got into art and drawing in High School.  High school is such a hard time, as far as emotional development, so art was a release and a form of expression for me.
 
At 17, I taught myself about stained glass.  My boyfriend’s mother showed me the basics and I took it from there. I loved the different textures, the vibrant colors, and the 2 and 3 dimensions that I could create.  I taught myself by trial and error.  I started my own business and traveled around to art/craft shows and did some commissioned pieces.  I really got burned out on the monotony, so I left Virginia and headed south.
I went to the University of Georgia and started out in the art department as a Drawing and Painting major but slid over to Furnishings and Interiors.  I was afraid I’d be a starving artist.  I continued with glass making through school and until I had kids, then I stopped for about 15 years.  At 40, I felt the need to rekindle my artistic side.  I felt a large void for sometime!  My husband bought me a kiln and I jumped into making fused glass.  I have made some disastrous mistakes and apparently, this is how I learn. 🙂

 

I have a very hard time understanding how glass is made.  I’ve seen artists making blown glass pieces, but I really can’t wrap my mind around the process.  Can you describe how your pieces are made, the materials used and how long each of the processes take?

I buy colored glass in 8×10 sheets.  It all has to be compatible with the same coefficient of expansion.  It’s how glass expands and contracts when heated and cooled.  After I plan a design, I pick out the colors of glass I want to use.  I score the glass with a scoring tool and then break it along the score line with grozier pliers.

I cut out all the pieces for my design and then I take it to grind down all the sharp edges of the glass.  I also get a more precise shape with a diamond bit grinder.  After I rinse the glass and dry it, I tack glue my pieces together.  There needs to be two layers of glass for a strong piece.  The bottom layer is usually a clear piece and I put the design with the colored glass on top.

After assembled, I place the piece (or pieces) in the kiln.  There are different effects, different fusing techniques, achieved by varying the levels of heating and holding at certain temperatures.  The higher the temps and longer the hold, the more fused, or melted together the glass becomes.  On the other hand the lower the temps,  the less molten and it’s more of a tack fuse.  I like this look because it gives a piece more texture.

Generally, a full fuse, tack, or slump takes about 12 hours in the kiln.  This includes the heat up and then cool down to room temperature.

  

 This plate is amazing! How long does it take to make a detailed piece like this?

This one takes awhile!  Each piece is cut out individually and smoothed with a diamond bit grinder.  Then glued and placed in the kiln to tack fuse.  Once cooled, it’s placed in a mold and fired again at different temps called slumping.  Each fuse is 12 hours.  The cutting and assembling is probably 2 1/2 hours.
When designing a creation, is there anything that influences the shapes, colors and designs that you combine?

I love nature, so many of my pieces are reflective of that.  I do a lot of organic shapes with vibrant sunset colors.  I also gravitate towards ocean creatures so I think I am predisposed to use a lot of blues, greens, and purples.

Do you sketch them prior to making them or do you prefer to work in a free-form fashion?

I do both.  Sometimes I have a real picture in my mind and need to put in on paper so I can get the dimensions just right.  Other times,  I just let it fly….especially when I create a jewelry piece.

 

Describe your studio and the equipment you use.

My studio is in my basement and I have almost outgrown it.  I have glass everywhere and tools everywhere!  There is a 3×5 cutting table where I cut the sheets into pieces.  I have a table with a diamond bit grinder that smoothes the edges of the cut pieces and an Olympic kiln that fuses the pieces together.

What do you feel are the biggest challenges that you encounter in your art?

I get glass everywhere — my feet, my fingers, and even glass dust in my face!  I get that when I grind glass.  It equates to fiberglass burn.  I could probably avoid all if I practiced safety measures like I should by wearing protective glasses and masks etc.  Another challenge is that most people don’t want to pay what I think it’s worth.  I think they don’t understand how labor intensive making a fused piece is and that the materials are expensive.
Is glass making your only art form or do you create other lovely things?
I love to draw and paint with acrylic and water colors.  My favorite medium is charcoal. 

 Is there anything you haven’t made yet that you’d like to master?

I really got into pottery on the wheel a couple of years ago.  I’d like to continue but I tend to dabble everywhere and never really get anywhere. So, for now , I’ll focus on fusing.
To view more of Kathy’s beautiful glass work, visit Kool Kat Art Glass on Facebook

Earth/Mud Houses

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Earlier this year, the hubby and I met a new couple in town, Jamey and Hooma, along with their blue-eyed, Baby Betty Boop look-a-like daughter, Zarapheena.  (She’s gorgeous!)  Jamey, a clay enthusiast, came across the hubby’s pottery shop and popped in to talk “mud”.  Come to find out, they were looking for a large piece of property to develop an eco-friendly, off-the-grid, earthen house community, complete with vegetable and fruit gardens, and solar energy.  With so much focus on eco-tourism in Costa Rica, it seems like a perfect fit. 
Since the hubby is a potter, I’m always around clay and have seen it used to create lots of lovely things, however, I’d never thought about using mud or clay to make something as large as a modern day living structure.  Maybe this whole concept sounds as intriguing to you as it did to me?  Upon learning more about the process and then seeing photos of the house they had built in Northern California, (and especially after doing the following interview with Jamey), I was totally on board with the idea and excited to witness firsthand this amazing project blossom into fruition. 
To give you an idea of what a mud/earth house can look like, here are a few photos of the first house they completed.  Despite its dollhouse appearance, the house is about 420 square feet, has a first floor living room and upper floor loft/bedroom area.  Check out Jamey’s FB album to see more photos.

Beautiful mosaic entry
Bedroom/Loft. Beautiful stained glass windows!    
View from the loft into the living area
How’s that for playin’ in the mud!?!  

Jamey and Hooma eventually found a great property about 10 minutes outside of Tamarindo and are now in the planning stages.  The uniqueness of this project intrigues me, so I thought it might be interesting to follow along and document it as it progresses.

Jamey was kind enough to let me interview him and gimme a peek at the history behind all this. The interview is a wee bit long, but Jamey is a great interviewee (and writer since this was a written interview!) and I promise that not only will you learn something about clay and the architectural process, but you’ll be entertained as well.  Be sure to click on the links to the earth structure artists that inspired Jamey so you can get a full appreciation for the scope of artistry that can be accomplished using earth to build structures.  Amazing!

Tricia:  How and when did your “love affair” with clay begin?

Jamey:  Though I enjoyed playing with Play Doh as a kid, I would say that my “close friendship (with benefits)” with clay really blossomed after discovering that it was the key to achieving my quest of integrating art with architecture.  As an art/design major with a focus on architecture in college, I had a vision of combining the two and building sculptural homes—some kind of a cross between caves and playgrounds, because I was sick of all the conventional box-like forms people tended to litter the landscape with.  Once I proved to myself that it could be done in a perfectly functional way (despite being told by the chairman of the architecture department in Denmark to forget it because it’s virtually impossible), the biggest obstacle (other than building codes) was economics.  Such homes would normally cost a fortune since constructing organically shaped, non-rectilinear houses with rectilinear materials is normally a very tedious and expensive proposition, a luxury typically affordable only by the wealthy. 

However, when building with earth, curves are just as functional as they are aesthetically pleasing, and clay has to be the most fluid art and architectural medium in existence.  Not only that, but earth is the most abundant, inexpensive, ecological, and sustainable building material, and houses built with it have the ability to be resistant to fire, earthquakes, water, mold, rot, UV, acid rain, rodents, termites, and even bullets, with excellent aerodynamic, thermal and acoustical insulation properties as well.  No wonder humans and animals have been building with it for millennium!  Clay also happens to be one of the best medicines for cuts, burns, swelling, splinters, external and internal detoxification, and can even remove heavy metals and radioactive particles from our bodies.   What more could one want from a material?

Tricia:  Wow, I don’t think most people think of mud as such a useful element.  Was there something or someone that inspired your idea to use clay for building structures?

Jamey: While still an undergrad, years before I had ever even considered using clay for building structures, I actually used it to construct my first few models of those livable sculptures I had fantasized about, because of its inherent sculptural qualities.  Shortly after graduating, I decided to spend a semester studying construction at a local community college where the depressing reality had kicked in that even if I could afford a small parcel of land, it would cost another fortune for tools and building materials and, after several years of faithfully following my intuition and not straying from my path, I started feeling very defeated. 

It was at this time—in 1991—after attending an Organic Architecture Convention in California and visiting structures built by my favorite organic architects, I stumbled upon a book written by the internationally renowned architect and author, Nader Khalili, who rediscovered the ancient technology of “ceramic architecture”—the art of building and vitrifying adobe buildings.  Once I found out that all I needed was some simple hand tools and the four elements (earth, air, water, & fire), I was so blown away knowing that this was not only the solution to manifesting my vision but it was nothing less than an architectural revolution—the key that would enable anyone to build their dream homes while liberating themselves from a lifelong debt to banks.  I was absolutely ecstatic and practically finished reading the book before I even got home that day.  You can imagine my surprise when I discovered shortly afterwards that the author was teaching at a nearby architectural school!  To make a long story short, I became his most enthusiastic student and apprentice within the week. 

Tricia:  Was your earthen house in California your first attempt at building a usable structure?

Jamey:  No.  Thankfully, I already had some basic carpentry and welding skills from my sculpture and design classes, but my first usable structure was a two-story wooden deck for my parents’ backyard.  Shortly afterwards, I worked on an award-winning elementary and junior high school in Tijuana with my favorite living “organic architect”—the world-famous artist/builder–James Hubbell.   
Kids and parents working on the mosaic in the Tijuana school.  
Mosaic done by Jamey in Tijuana
Next, I apprenticed with another builder, Joseph Diliberti (whose work has been featured on TV, newspapers, and the cover of Clay Art magazine), to build and vitrify an earthen hut.  Later on, I built a couple of greenhouses, a few “hornos” (mud ovens) including a huge dragon-shaped one with the kids at a local charter school, and an earthen playground at another charter school.  It’s one thing to design something on paper but it’s a whole other thing to have to build it.  One of the big problems with many conventional architectural programs, is that most architecture students never actually build anything, and their training tends to encourage/breed expensive and ugly rectilinear buildings that don’t breathe.  Personally, I think all humans should learn how to build themselves a “nest” (like every other animal), instead of being dependent on money, bankers, and professional builders.
One of Diliberti’s ceramic houses being fired (from the inside out).
Tricia:  How long did it take to build your home out of mud?

Jamey:  MUCH longer than it should have!  It was done on a very part-time basis over the course of several years, some of which I didn’t work on it at all.  I bought land northern California in the year 2000 and was living in a very remote location and (for the most part), had little or no help.  I was in a very weakened state of health having just recovered from cancer (due to living in a conventionally-built mold-infested house), with an undiagnosed but inactive thyroid (due to the radiation treatments) making it hard to muster up the energy I needed.  Especially after having to do lots of physically demanding work to develop my land and create gardens, while trying to earn a living.  I’ve also had to deal with injuries from a dirt bike accident and two herniated disks in my back.  On the bright side, the long process and isolation made it possible for me to spend years researching, designing, and refining my architectural techniques.  

In the end, I don’t know exactly how many hours it took to build my home, but I can tell you that about 650 hours were spent just digging, mixing, and applying the mud, not including the sculptural layer.  Now that I’ve figured out how to do it, and have gotten plenty of hands-on experience, I’m confident that, with the right tools and a few good helpers, I could build an equivalent structure in a month or two.  Theoretically, it would take two or three days to build the foundation and framework, one day to excavate and mix the mud, a week or two to smear the mud on the frame, and a few days to apply a few coats of lime, but each coat would need at least a week to dry between coats, during which time, other details like plumbing, electricity, tiling/mosaics, etc., could be completed.


Creating the frame
 
Hooma packing clay/mud onto the frame.
She’s such a hard worker 🙂
Tricia:  Are there any limitations on the type or size of structures that can be built using clay? 

Jamey:  First, I need to point out that clay is only one component of the earth mixture.  By itself, a clay structure will crack very badly which is one reason why sand and/or fibers are equally important components.  As for the type of structures that can be built solely with earth (other than walls), one is generally limited to building using forms that work well with the laws of gravity–like arches, apses, vaults, domes, cones, and pyramids.  However, there are ways around that—like by using some kind of metal armature as I did with my loft. One can build mud structures with vertical or diagonal walls but not unreinforced horizontal ones.  That’s partially why many earth houses have wooden roofs, even though the wood lacks almost all of the earth’s beneficial qualities.

As for the age-old question of whether size matters, no, it’s really more of a matter of proportion.  There’s no real limitation on height so long as the thickness of the walls is in the proper proportion to support all that extra weight.  There are 11-story high skyscrapers in Yemen built with mud which pale in comparison to the heights of various mud brick pyramids still surviving after many centuries.  To put it in perspective, the planet Earth is a giant round earthen structure.  The only theoretical limitation on the size of a structure is that it would have to be smaller than the planet it’s built on because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough materials nor room to give it an adequate foundation.

Tricia:  What were some of the biggest issues that you’ve had to work around? 

Jamey:  Once I got past the societal programming and philosophical issues, the functional and technological issues, the economic issues, my personal health issues, and lack of help issues, the final and most formidable obstacle (more so than actual construction issues), were the legal issues.  By that I mean oppressive building codes tailored to force people to buy expensive, heavily-taxed, and often toxic, unsustainable, non-biodegradable, corporately manufactured building materials, and pay for the various building code inspections at various phases of construction.  Though it’s perfectly legal to be homeless (which is NOT safe), God forbid you try to build yourself a shelter for protection from the elements (what should be a natural birthright, as it is with all other life forms), you quickly realize that there is an invisible leash around your neck in the form of building codes, enforced by people whose own houses are not nearly as safe nor ecologically responsible.

Though I was aware of this significant impediment from the beginning, and spent countless hours stressing out about it, I refused to let it interfere with my architectural pursuit because I had faith that if I could figure out how to make it work, I would find a way to actually do it somewhere, even if I had to move to another country.  My initial solution was to live remotely in the wilderness, outside the scrutiny of corrupt government officials, in a region known for it’s relatively permissive building codes.  However, though I haven’t had any trouble so far, I realize that no matter how far away one chooses to live, it’s hard to escape the nosey tax-funded bureaucrats armed with satellites to spy on us.  Next they’ll be using drones to make sure nobody escapes their rigid regulations and fails to pay them for their “services”.  The consequences of building a structure without their blessings can range from being fined, to being forced to demolish the structure you spent years building with your own hands, to even being arrested and thrown in jail.  How’s that for an obstacle?  Who would have thought that building a simple mud shelter would be such a difficult and risky proposition?  

The fact is that governments (and the bankers that control them) have made a fortune by instituting elaborate systems designed to deprive people of their innate human right to house themselves under the guise of public safety.  As such, earth houses are a serious threat to their financial well being which is why building a mud house is not just a more artistic and ecological alternative to a conventional one, it’s an act of revolution.

Tricia:  Were there any surprises while building that you didn’t anticipate?

Jamey:  Yes there were a few big surprises—one was that it took so long.  Part of the problem was that I was not satisfied with the way the tractor-mounted rototiller mixed the straw into the mud and, in the end, I decided to mix it all by hand and foot instead, which took far longer than anticipated.  Another was the fact that I outgrew the house before I had a chance to grow into it.  I didn’t plan on getting married when I started the project, and I certainly didn’t plan on having any kids but one popped out anyway.  Though my building is completely fireproof, a forest fire affected my building process because (during peak building season), we had to evacuate for over a month to escape the smoke as the firefighters struggled to contain the fire.  This was particularly bad timing for us because we desperately needed to finish our mud house more than ever now that our baby girl was born.  I busted my ass struggling to finish before winter set in but, by the time it finally came into fruition, we decided to move to Costa Rica.

Tricia:  What made you choose Costa Rica to build your first community?

Jamey:  I first had the idea to move to this ecological paradise and build an intentional eco-village over 20 years ago after unsuccessfully trying to convince a prospective eco-village in upstate New York to build their community using a modified version of Nader Khalili’s large-scale ceramic technology.  I later tried to convince all my friends and acquaintances to chip in for a huge piece of land to build an earthen co-housing community here in Costa Rica but there were no takers.  People liked the idea in theory, but either didn’t have any money to invest or were unwilling to put their money where my mouth was.  I ended up moving to northern California instead but found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the government’s insanely destructive political, economic, and environmental policies, and overall cultural trends in the U.S. 

A few years ago, after visiting almost every Central American country on our honeymoon (along with Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia), with the intention of looking for a better potential place to relocate, my wife and I agreed that Costa Rica was the best alternative.  Although there is no perfect place, Costa Rica seemed like it was better suited for my project because of its peaceful, non-militaristic, non-imperialistic, non-over regulated atmosphere, the government’s focus on environmental protection, and the natural biodiversity.  We were interested in tapping into the thriving eco-tourism industry that attracts environmentalists from all over the world who we thought would most appreciate this eco-architectural technology.  Now that we have a child, there is the additional incentive to raise her amongst this friendly, baby-loving, highly literate, and relatively safe society. 

So, having overcome every obstacle life has thrown at me so far, here I am finally getting ready to manifest this practically lifelong utopian vision I’ve diligently worked towards for the last 26 years in the very country I tried to do it in over 20 years ago, but armed with a lot more experience, knowledge, money, good Costa Rican friends, and an intelligent and beautiful wife.  I guess that’s another big surprise I didn’t anticipate… 

Tricia:   100 brownie points for that last portion, right ladies?? 😉

Tricia:  Can you tell me a little about the eco-community you are currently working on?
Ever since reading about fictional utopian societies in high school, I’ve been aware of how much better our lives could be with some intelligent architectural planning.  In designing structures and communities, architects and urban planners have incredible power (though often misused due to their conventional training), to profoundly influence human behavior both individually and on a societal level. 

Most of us are wrapped up in the daily drama of our lives and rarely give a conscious thought as to how much of our stress and problems stem from the bad design of our homes, neighborhoods, and society as a whole.  Unfortunately, the civilization that we have inherited was designed not for the interests of the community but by industrialists to create perpetual consumers and, as such, is riddled with flaws that bring disease, death, debt, and dysfunction upon its dwellers.  Our ancient tribal social structures have been dismantled and replaced with a capitalist version modeled on factory warehousing for wage slaves.

As a dreamer, I’ve spent most of my life trying to imagine what a sane world would look like and how it would work.  A utopia, as I imagine it, would be virtually the exact opposite of the dystopia we have now.  I’ve concluded that, in structure, it would be very similar to that of the rest of the animal kingdom—a diverse assortment of completely decentralized sovereign tribes that independently and sustainably take care of their own basic needs like water, food, clothing, shelter, etc., without being dependent on money or big corrupt governments, as it was for millennia before entering the “Age of Empires”.  Therefore, a key part of the antidote to our societal woes is a better home and community design based on time-tested wisdom and traditional living patterns.

This is the utopian vision and philosophy that motivated me to buy some land in Costa Rica with the intention of building not just a single mud or ceramic house, but a whole neighborhood full of them, each with it’s own unique design!  For this purpose, I’ve secured 14 lovely hectares (35 acres) of pristine and fertile farmland with abundant clean well water and a seasonal creek (with fish) passing through the center, in a quiet part of town less than 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the beach town of Tamarindo.  Half of the entire property will be communal and the other half will be privately owned or rented.  I’m planning on creating about 15 homes on one side of the creek and possibly as many as 20 cabinas for rent on the other side, each with their own private (non-rectilinear) lot that opens into a large, car-free, communal central park.  This park will feature a winding pedestrian path that weaves through the communal farm and orchard, grazing lands, sculptures, labyrinth, playgrounds for kids (and another for monkeys), connecting a water fountain on one end of the path to an Atlantean-like pyramidal structure located on a small island encircled by a large pond (stocked with fish) on the opposite end.
Eco-Village Plan  

I’m still working out the business details but, other than by potentially selling individual lots and renting cabinas, funds will be raised with the creation of an earthen building school that will offer a hands-on approach to teaching my fellow nature-lovers and dreamers how to architecturally liberate themselves in this unique, ecological and artistic way.  It is my expectation that the permanent residents will be participating (at least to some degree) in the design and building of their own houses, though help will be available to them.

Ready or not, we are living in a new (post-peak oil) age and a major economic collapse along with a new way of life is upon us.  The sooner we adapt to this new reality, the less hardship we will bring upon ourselves.  By recreating a tribal village using locally available materials, simple technologies, and minimizing dependency on fossil fuels and money, my hope is that this model community will help get our species back on track by setting an exquisite example of how people can ease, if not eliminate, economic hardship by mutually providing for their own needs.  What kind of brownies did you say those were? 😉


Tricia:  It’s all really fascinating and I’m super excited to see how it all progresses!
 
For anyone interested in more information regarding Jamey and Hooma’s project, they can be contacted on Facebook (Jamey Scott Breinberg) or by e-mail at pyramidiotsavant@yahoo.com.