August 10th - 18th: Irvin Climaco Morazan

Irvin Climaco Morazan came to The Den after spending the summer in Mexico and before heading to Virginia to teach.  In exchange for his stay, he knocked down a wall in the kitchen to expose an ancient brick facade.

May 8th- June 8th: Michael K Taylor

Artist and poet Michael K Taylor spent a month at the Den.

 

He devised a way of getting the chickens back into their coop by tapping the rake on the ground 3 times.  In exchange for his stay, he re-framed a huge piece that was falling apart, and painted the hallway.

 

February 11- 25th: Will Hutchinson

Will Hutchinson came to the Den from Missoula, Montana, where he is a fire fighter and an artist.

Will didn't fight against the infamous Black Forest Fire of 2013, which originated near Colorado Springs, but he did fight in the High Park fire of 2012 in Colorado. He showed me some of the photos he takes when he is in the field fighting fires.  Strangely, since he takes them while he is working, he cannot legally circulate these images since they are technically property of the government.

 

 I was in Colorado Springs a month before the Black Forest fire started last year.  At the time, I was making collages using screenshots from the original Bambi animation, which has a famous forest fire scene:

Humans, although never seen in the film, are the sole source of evil in the Disney view of nature.  It is believed that the Black Forest Fire of 2013 did not start from natural causes.  Investigators said the possibility of arson was small because they found no gasoline, matches or other accelerant usually found in arson fires.  Though the cause of the fire remains unclear, it appears more likely to be started accidentally by a person.

 

Some of Will's drawings are inspired by the forms these fire clouds make.

Will fixed various things around the house, including a staircase and some molding.

July 31- August 29th: Mathieu Bonardet & Michaël

I rarely post before and after photos but this time I couldn't resist. For a one month stay at the Den, Mathieu and Michaël painstakingly restored and repainted the main staircase (which was in terrible shape) in the house.  

Mathieu is an artist and Michaël teaches German.  They live in Paris.  

Every day, after eating a few donuts from Dough, they would head out on a 10-12 mile walk around the city.  Mathieu archived their walks almost obsessively.

Mathieu's work often involves actively drawing straight onto a wall.

June 1 - 30th: Becca Green

Becca is my oldest friend.  This photo was taken at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2006, a few days before the building was vacated and turned into luxury loft condos.  Becca lived at 184 Kent for 3 years, until the tenants were asked to leave. 

The 1915 building, which takes up an entire block, was designed by Cass Gilbert, who also designed the Woolworth building.  184 Kent has been called an "eyesore", a "nondescript white box", "magnificent", and an historic landmark, a status which was at first revoked.  It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the days before it was vacated, there was an air of abandonment throughout the building.  Photographs and personal belongings were strewn throughout the crumbling hallways,

and there were holes in the walls that looked into huge empty spaces to which we could find no points of entry. 

Becca and I have known each other since before we were born. 

You could say that our history together is laced with architecture, with accents on lost urban spaces. 

Becca in 2005 on the front porch of the Rokeby Mansion, which in April of this year, The Huffington Post described as "rundown, not unlike Grey Gardens".

On that visit to Rokeby we slept in this bedroom, which the article refers to as "unkempt".
Rumor has it that this room is still occupied by whoever painted the walls with crows and poppies. 

In 2010 Becca cut a hole in my kitchen wall that revealed 7 layers of old wallpaper, including the original horsehair stucco insulation. 

The hole is still there.

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 1st- 4th: Josh Kitts

My cousin Josh Kitts and his girlfriend Adrienne Michelle on vacation from Portland, Oregon. Josh works in the Solar industry and is a master carpenter. Adrienne is a Urologist. 

They restored the side of the staircase, which we discovered was rotten and breaking.  They also brought a delicious pinot noir from the Willamette Valley. 

June 26th- 30th: Lucy Kim & Jon Eden

Lucy Kim & Jon Eden.  They were in town for a wedding.  Lucy, whom I've known for years, is a painter, and Jon is a Reverend at Christ Church Cambridge in Harvard Square.

They restored this old cast iron kid's bench which was found on the street by Luz Fleming, who gave it to me.  

  

                They also built a camouflaged treehouse in the tree in the front yard.