April 13th- May 7th: Corvas Brinkerhoff

The day that Corvas Brinkerhoff arrived at The Den from Santa Fe, New Mexico, 6 baby chicks also arrived in the mail.

As if from an alien ship, the chicks descended unto Earth and unto The Den.

Corvas also descended upon New York to make these ephemeral sculptures with his Santa Fe based collective, Meow Wolf.

But as swiftly as life was given, life was taken away.  

During Corvas' Den stay, while Corvas reinforced the chicken coop, Jane Carver and I made room in the coop for the incoming chicks. 

The hen, who resided at the Den for almost 2 years, was made into soup and served to Simon Critchley, author of, among many other works, "The Book of Dead Philosophers", which proposes that to philosophize is to learn how to die. 

April 9th- 11th: Patty Murdoch

The best way to eat foie gras that has been smuggled over the Canadian border: alone, standing in the kitchen, when you are very hungry.

March 6-9: Jenal Dolson

Jenal Dolson's visit proved that we animals are creatures of habit.  

We go after what we want over and over again.

Jenal learned how to make felted rocks during her stay at the den, while we exchanged stories about bats and snakes.

September 4th- 8th: Keiko Kuramoto & Ray McCLure (& Kiki!)

Keiko, Ray and Kiki were in town for our mutual friend Maria Berrio's opening and wedding.

They told us stories about living in the Tenderloin in San Francisco while we ate a simple and amazingly delicious Japanese curry that Keiko made.

Paddy Murdoch again...

Blue Monday with Georgia Elrod. Pat Murdoch traded a breakfast sandwich from Bedford Hill.

February 16- 23rd: Maria Ducasse & Pablo Rodriguez-Sol

This is Mathieu Bonardet from Paris, one of the most amazing dancers I have ever met.  

 Through him I met Maria Ducasse and Pablo Rodriguez-Sol, artists who also live in Paris but are studying in Toronto.

Maria & Pablo painted this mural in the backyard in exchange for a week at The Den.  They also baked two amazing tart tatins, which will never be recreated since I don't fully understand the recipe.

October 22- November 12th: Garrett Riffle

He lets you dress him up for Halloween

He cooks a mean pasta amatriciana

And despite an early snowstorm immediately following Hurricane Sandy, the hens begin to produce.

September 24-29th: Akemi Martin

Akemi Martin, a papermaker from LA, but who lives in NY and is 1/2 Japanese, cooked traditional Japanese homestyle food all week.

Every night was a different meal, with abundant friends to eat it. 

Edamame soup

Update: we just ate our last rice ball and we miss Akemi acutely.  We don't even know or understand how to make rice balls.

September 2nd - 9th: Rotem Linial

Every night was a delicious feast of salads, feta cheese, and kebabs.  I was introduced to tamarind juice.  Rotem made 4 different kids of pickles, including pickled lemons, peppers and cucumbers, each with their own instructions on preserving and eating.  Did she pickle watermelon? I think so.

March 24th - April 1st: Alejandro Almanza

Alejandro Almanza & Danielle Adair hosted taco night





Alejandro changed all the light fixtures in the house and got them working again.