Radio & Video Category

Please watch this important film about our planet: http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGeXdv-uPaw

On November 11^, James and Drew Hubbell were interviewed and filmed at Ilan Lael–the Hubbell home and art studios–by ArtPulse.TV.

The web video Hubbell & Hubbell on Life, Art, and Turning Mistakes into Wonders has been posted, and can be viewed on the ArtPulse.TV website: http://artpulse.tv/?p=543

James Hubbell working on Ilan Lael Chapel. Photo from ArtPulse.TV

In one video highlight, Drew recalls that during construction of the Boys’ House a blowout of some concrete formwork became the opportunity to create something even more beautiful than they had planned. Rather than rebuild the formwork and re-pour, his father added mosaic tile to the “mistake.” James adds, “Mistakes are gifts, and if you can not fight them, they’re on your side.”

The video nicely blends older images of the Hubbell compound, Ilan Lael, with panoramas taken of the property during the interviews. We were happy to share the thoughts behind the art and architecture of Hubbell and Hubbell.

We thank Phoebe Chongchua and the crew from ArtPulse.TV for their interest in our work and for creating this wonderful interview. We enjoyed seeing the finished piece, and hope you enjoy it too!

The new chapel at Ilan-Lael, artist James Hubbell's residence and artist compound. (Source: KPBS.org)

These Days San Diego‘s Maureen Cavanaugh talked with James about his projects, the annual open house, and the new chapel on his property in Santa Ysabel. Professor Stephan Haggard of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UCSD also joined the conversation.

Topics include sustainable building, the role of beauty in art, creating peaceful relationships between countries and cultures, and other thoughts on building and life, such as:

CAVANAUGH: How do you create music out of a building?

HUBBELL: I don’t know. I think you have to put it as a value that, you know, it’s just like the conference that we’re doing on beauty. It’s not really to define what beauty is but to see if it is becoming something that’s talked about in the culture and valued. And if it is, how do you use it? And so its sustainability or all of those things, if they’re values that are in your psyche, you just do it, you know. But if they’re things that are written down as regulations, you probably do it wrong.

——

CAVANAUGH: I read where you said that you think that we might be heading towards a new romantic age. Why do you think that?

HUBBELL: Well, I think that we’ve been obsessed with control, you know, on everything from schools where you teach in order to get grades to genetics to politics. And I think that particularly recently we’re learning that we’re not really in control and that you have to celebrate mystery and celebrate things that just happen. Otherwise, you kind of destroy everything. So and, to me, that’s what the romantic is, it’s somebody that accepts that life isn’t something that you – you go from A to B to C, it takes you somewhere.

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You can listen to the interview and read the transcript on KPBS.org:
Artist James Hubbell Builds Park in South Korea
By Angela Carone & Maureen Cavanaugh
These Days San Diego
June 17, 2010
(Quotes and image excerpted from KPBS.org)

CW San Diego 6 News reported on the Farrar Green Home Slab Party on May 23, 2010. The net zero energy design, surrounded by a sustainable farm to provide a carbon neutral footprint. The design and building of the home and farm will hopefully be a model for collaboration with talented partners to create an extraordinary sustainable home. farrargreenhome.org

Farrar Slab Party on YouTube

Hi All,

Here’s a link to a video presentation with highlights from the Salute to James Hubbell which was sponsored by Mingei International Museum on October 3rd, 2009 to honor James Hubbell’s art and humanitarian work.

Please feel free to share it with anyone you loves James and his work!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unUYdDBk9s8]

Best,

Marianne Gerdes
Director
Ilan Lael Foundation