Last month SunRay wanted me to come see his latest creation up near Fort Bragg (Mendocino coast), but I couldn’t get away.
SunRay is not easy to get ahold of. He doesn’t exactly have a smartphone that’s on all the time. But once in a while he’ll call. This call a week ago was fading in and out, but he was describing the “Waterfall House,” just completed, and I caught snatches of what he was saying:
“It’s got a living foundation. It’s grounded into the earth…it ascends to the heavens. The living walls are clay and straw and they breathe. It’s got a living roof…mushrooms and flowers and moss…It’s 6-sided, there’s a timber frame…cut trees in a fairy ring…”
The phone disconnected…
Anyone else saying stuff like and I’d be thinking, yeah, right…But SunRay is the real thing. He’s a true nature spirit. His buildings are poetry. Hey New York Times, do a story on SunRay Kelley!
SunRay’s a master of “natural materials.” He has a sure touch in making structural frameworks from twisted, gnarly trees. The posts and beams and oak cross pieces here all look like they’ve grown together. The joints are tight – competent carpentry.
“I want my buildings to sing and dance. I don’t want them to be static. Life is motion. Live is movement. The life force is always moving through us.” – P. 59, Builders of the Pacific Coast, where there are 26 pp. on SunRay’s work
SunRay Kelley in “Hani’s Man Cave,” which he built last year in the hills near Middleton (Clear Lake Area), Calif. (His friend Hani has a wife and 4 daughters, and SunRay thought he needed some yang space.)
I got there on a misty December morning, just as he was in the finishing stages. It’s a lovely little building. It improves on the nature surrounding it.
He calls this a “kit.” He cut trees and milled lumber for the 12-sided, 14-½’ wooden yurt on his property in Washington and trucked it down to California. SunRay says he can ship kits like this anywhere: https://www.sunraykelley.com
This interior wall is sculpted cob, a SunRay specialty (the secret is clay), but it’s essentially a wooden building. The porch is framed with locally-harvested manzanita, bay, and pine.
“When Teresa Carey lost most of her possessions in a house fire years ago, she felt liberated. “I didn’t miss a thing. It was almost like a burden lifted off my shoulders. ”
This was the first step toward a more minimalist lifestyle. The second motivating catalyst was her decision to life aboard her sailboat. Before making the move she began to downsize her stuff keeping only what would fit in her car. When she finally made her move to her 27 foot sloop she had given away or sold the majority of her belongings.
Today, Teresa lives on her sailboat Daphne with no flush toilet or shower, an icebox for a refrigerator, no television and few electronics. She doesn’t see it as a sacrifice, but as an opportunity to live a bigger life unfettered by her possessions.
In this video, Teresa gives us a tour of her boat and shows us a few days in the life of a liveaboard.”
“The world lost two musical greats this week. Etta James died today at age 73. Johnny Otis passed away on Tuesday. He was 90.” – By David Pescovtiz on https://boingboing.net/ today.
We had such a great day Wednesday. Country hicks in Big City. We started out at Trouble Coffee, out at the beach, my favorite caffeine cafe on the planet, went over to Mollusk Surf Shop, my fave surf shop (which has a wonderful collection of art books for sale along with surfboards and wetsuits), then down to the unique Gravel & Gold in the Mission, where Lesley’s been selling hand woven shawls (and I’m going to do a Tiny Homes slide show February 24th), Lesley went to fabric and clothing stores, I roamed and shot photos. In the normal course of my day I may see a dozen people. In the city I see 1000s. I stalk with my camera, hunting. So much going on, the city is culturally vibrant, exciting these days. Having grown up there gives my visits special meaning.
It kills me to do such dumb layout as the above, but I don’t know my HTML (and don’t think I’d want to spend all the time necessary to craft it the way I want it to appear). What I need is a drag-and-drop setup so I can do a paper-type layout. Any suggestions? I need quick and dirty, because I want to minimize computer time.
We received this as a postcard a few days ago, saying “Can’t wait to order my copy of Tiny Homes. Thanks for all the hard work.” Can’t make out the signature, it looks something like “Anne.”
This little SUV looked so tuned in. Maybe it’s a surfer with a tiny home.
Beach was wind-swept and people-less as the storm hovered offshore, except for the lovers hanging out on the groin. Tall dark handsome guy “…from Switzerland,” pretty, good-vibes California girl, a nice couple. I love a deserted beach.
“All the leaves are brown,
And the sky is grey…” – Mamas and Papas on Sirius ’60s radio right now. You know, this is a pretty good song.
