Rambling Journal notes about our new Art House Project:

About our new Art House creative monastic building project: Raw notes on two artist trying to build an Art House Haven on earth for fellow dreamers, mystics, poets, seers and creative creatures far and wide.

We are both artists and have lived all over the world. We were married in Prague, but lived in Antwerp and many other places. We started an arts community many moons ago in Austin, Texas, which is where we met. After running that for seven years, we took a monastic season for some time to have a new dream.

So when it came time to build a dream house haven to gather all our metaphors, we decided to build it right here in Austin, Texas where we met. It’s been a three year process, but is finally going vertical. We hope it truly goes vertical—all the way through the sky to heaven, and is able to haven all those who need a creative monastery on earth, including ourselves. Here are some raw notes on the process thus far! Keep incarnating your dreams friends! We are trying to collaborate with God on building a Big Top for many, or another big boat to save the creatures and humanity from the current floods of discontent and heated polemic discourse. This will be Noah’s new Other Boat for us all! A Circus Boat of safety for those who still want to make art and live well!

We have tried to design from listening to the long story of the land and house we were given to know. We bought a small house years back, and have gotten to meet all the previous tenants, including the little girls who grew up here. We want to honor their stories, while taking this land into new chapters. We had to think long and hard what style to build in, as this structure contains many metaphors.

With our Art House project it’s a bit Neo-romantic in that it references old world arts and crafts like the original house made in 1929. But we hope we added enough modernism and maybe even post-modern touches to make it present. It has a moorish mediterranean nuance, but with the modern loft feels more up to date. The loft is personal, as we lived in one in Antwerp. In fact all the symbolic details of the building are autobiographic in some way. We are gathering our personal metaphors while taking the ones of that particular land forward.
We hope it honors past and present, and the neighborhood as well.
For me it is a bit conservative but we are hoping all the details will contain and express the impossible wow factor of circus whimsy. We shall see. For now it is a monastic cathedral frame, we will see with lights and found objects if we can make it even more.
It certainly isn’t about luxury or money, but about listening to the land and making something Grace-ful and soulful, which is in loving conversation with the existing house and nature on the land. The stained glass will help with the monastic wow factor, we pray! But we have tried to listen well to the land itself, to see what it wants, as we bought the land based on a dream my wife had where a Native American asked her if she wanted to tend and cultivate this particular land. She said yes. So we have for 23 years now. But now, we add its next gesture towards becoming what it already is!
It’s a smart house, but not AI and not too intelligent to go analogue if we need it to.
When I look at early modernism reacting to Industrialism, then the super modernism which is trying to pick up where modernism left off; I think ours is more romantic but without nostalgia or false hope or escapism. Let’s hope so. Everyone needs a philosophy of architecture. Space on earth matters still. It teaches us how to live well. Or invites us into it.
Every architect is a philosopher though. That I’ve learned. Ours aren’t imposing their vision on us; but trying to mid-wife it with us. We leaned away from cold squares and went with arches and more old world features. Felt right for that property. As a continuation of the story going on there.
It’s expensive to do things right though.
Noah’s new other Boat is certainly European in origins though, as are we both. Even in our marriage.
This place even has a window referencing the Prague clock! And cubist Chagall like windows as well. Then of course the more traditional Versailles main windows. Hope people read it well, that is in wonder that leads to an appreciation of the longer story we are all within. We still believe in grand narratives!
That there are beginnings middles and ends. In that sense we are old world modernist.
We also don’t want to structure to alienate people in the neighborhood, but to invite them in, but with wonder! We shall see, if we even incarnate half of our dream. But even half is ok, if it blesses and inspires others to dream out loud.
It’s purposes are several: to gather our life’s metaphors, give my wife a place to sew design weave and teach creative workshops; give retreat space for those who need to rest and create; give me a library art studio space to write and make art; and host community indoor outdoor happenings, art openings, and poetry readings. It will also have an outdoor film theater, as our neighborhood and city are really into film, as are we. It is an outdoor cinema space with professional sound quality and amazing ambiance. We hope to host film openings from friends as well as continue our directors series we did years back at the art community we ran.
And to have question and answer interviews with local and international directors in the outdoor cinema.
We love hosting art openings and weekend workshop retreats. This space will allow us to do both with style and spaciousness.
Our older art community, flourished with art studios downstairs and living quarters up stairs. This one will blend what we learned from facilitating an art community, but be more focused and built with a specific purpose. Art loft for workshops, outdoor cinema space, library, and art studio for openings, and a hosting space for guests.
We are parents of and in the arts, so hoping this new Art House provides room and a safe space for our global art friends to flourish and keep moving forward in their creative processes. To inspire, to teach, to haven and integrate the spiritual and art dimensions of life.
I have a passion for integrating spirituality and art, as art is my practice of prayer and learning to live. We hope to be a Big Top haven to bring together spirituality and art! And to bring them together in an authentic way!
I have lived and help run several creative communities over the years, and trained as an art therapist. Hoping in this structure, we can bring together some of those passions under one big roof or a Big Top! We also love cities.
We hope in this way to also be part of healing our city, or reminding it that it is still a creative haven and incubator for the arts. Even though, it has gotten too expensive and overcrowded (much like many of her sister cities like San Fran and Portland did). Her identity is not dead. We want to keep Austin, Austin—not just weird but creatively eccentric and dreaming out loud.
We are interesting in the identities of cities and honoring their stories. We want to both honor that Austin has always been a creative capital, but also an inventor and haven for entrepreneurs to develop their work and dreams.
That each city has a long story, and that Austin’s can continue hers with the right collaborators. We hope to honor her identity and story and keep it moving forward into many more creative chapters.
In this way, we are parents and friends in the arts with our city.
We hope to be part of making Austin still livable and inviting for other creatives, so as to both restore and help Austin remember her name and story.
We will offer affordable and free happenings and having to many to come in the spirit of keeping Austin, Austin; and ourselves, ourselves. Eccentric mystical artists who love dreaming out loud and blessing others around us.
We will be offering creative workshops, readings, film nights and creative retreats. And I am thinking of doing some art therapy training retreats as well. My wife teaches design and clothing workshops among her many other interests.
We also hope to have international guest artist in for workshops and retreats. We can’t wait to see the dream land on earth. In the meantime, Noah’s new other boat is being constructed to haven all the wild things, animals and artists and carneys and circus freaks it can hold!
We look forward to seeing this art ship floating…..

My wife is a seamstress, writer, teacher; I do art therapy, counseling, help with art festivals in Europe, and just run around being a fool mostly—trying to just inspire and love others to be themselves.
We both are mystics and hopefully practical ones, who can help others be more themselves through their creativity. We like to help others integrate their creativity and spiritual lives in a meaningful way. This should be a fun new chapter and stage for us in life and art mentoring.
This season’s life project could be called: “When mystics try to build”. Ha. We are both out of our gift set, but have had a remarkable international team of architects, interior designers and builders who are helping us bring this vision down to earth. We are very thankful for this, as we could never have made this happen without each of them.
Including all the amazing craftspeople who are collaborating with us on this project-from stain glass masters, to lighting experts, to sound geniuses, to our incredible architectural team, and the inner circle of interior designers who have kept us inspired to press on, and land this dream on earth. Thanks to all. Here we go!
I’m particular excited about our outdoor covered cinema showcase which I am calling, Solomon’s Porch Cinema. I already have some film makers lined up for viewings and discussion evenings.
My wife is excited about doing her design and clothing making gatherings and retreats. And we both are excited about having a creative haven for us and many to come! If you build it, hopefully they will come! We are just trying to gather and complete our symbols before we move on to the great Art Studio in the Sky! And leave an inspiring circus tent of wonder and possibility for those to come!
More notes to come, as the art space ship lands on earth!!!