The Djerassi Artists Residency Colony
September 10, 2006
Alumni of the Stanford Master of Liberal Arts program arrange several
outings a year, for anyone in the program, past or present. The
Director's Tour of Djerassi is
fabulous - a slow walk through oak meadows bleeding into redwood
forests, installations blending with the landscapes.
The colony is on 580 acres of beautiful land up west of Skyline.
Eight artists at a time (writers, composers, choreographers, film
makers, photographers, painters, media artists) spend a month.
They get 600 applications per year, for 60 appointments.
- Looking west, from inside the barn
- The barn houses studios as well as the large central space: composition room, dance room, painting studio. Also, a kitchen put to glorious use by the chef, who prepares dinners Monday-Friday for the artists.
- Agave in the late morning fog
- Artists' house shrouded
- Look under the green branch - see the fairy in the tree, under a flame
- A pole of redwood, charred, sits in a large "stump", bound at top with rope
- Like twin rooms that are both enclosed and completely open. You can walk and rest inside.
- Sun through the roof
- Sometime in my life I will learn how to photograph these hills that I love
- Arch concepts: The State Certified Fact No. 848 attests that a 216 pound 8 ounce gold nugget was found, then reburied, somewhere around here.
- The fog layer is either slow to burn off, or, it's moved in for the afternoon
- Door to the dark underground that leads you in blindness to light in this circle
- Underground slats
- Five doors (not yet weathered) stand in the distance
- The first and last door can be swung on their hinges
- Landscape on log
- Inside the old barn (the most iron-strong, secure, modern barn on the inside that you ever hope
to see, covered with the old barn's wood on the exterior) is a shimmering plastic replica
- Looking towards the front entry of the barn
- Side view
- Front to back
- Nature's sculpture
- Large redwood stump upholstered in dark red vinyl with gold tacks
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- Faerie in the woods
- Looking the wrong way through a transclucent photograph (encased in plastic) - my red Stanford sweatshirt is reflected near the top
- Looking at it straight on this time - but my reflection persists
- A pointed sculpture of madrone wood hangs in a redwood grove
- Sunken ship
- Head first into the ground - all we see is the torso, and two legs flailing in the air
- Old oak
- Fresh sausage deliery truck
- Sphere takes root
- Colony of sand castles hiding in the grove
- The old barn, about in the middle
- Stickmen playing music
Marianne Mueller
Last modified: September 10, 2006