Designed
by artist Jay Nelson, the Patagonia Worn Wear wagon runs on biodiesel
while driving and solar power when the sewing machines are spinning.
Photo: Erin Feinblatt
Throwback Thursday: Surfer, Artist & Designer Jay Nelson on new Worn Wear camper & working with Facebook
In our Summer 2013 issue we caught up with San Francisco, California-based Jay Nelson, a surfer, artist, and designer who is recognized for his creative pieces, ranging from a submarine-shaped annex at Mollusk Surf Shop, to his surf-concept vehicles, like the one he built for Rob Machado.
As part of Patagonia’s Worn Wear Tour, Nelson recently built a
solar-powered camper shell from redwood salvaged from giant wine barrels
and mounted on a ’91 Dodge Cummins fueled by biodiesel. For more
details behind the camper shell project, read the full story from Patagonia.
Neslon spent a month working at Patagonia
in the tin shed courtyard where Founder Yvon Chouinard started the
company. “When we set up the project we thought it would be fun to do
some part of the build at Patagonia,” he explains. “It was really fun to
be immersed in the community…”
In between building some of his other
projects, the surfer has also been working on several art installations
at Facebook, including an “observatory” on the roof top of the company’s
Frank Gehry building.
“It’s a dome like structure that you enter into with circular seating,
and at the far end is a circular window that looks out on the SF bay,”
Nelson says. “The hope is a space for human interaction and landscape
appreciation. It’s just about peace.”
Designing Differentiation
Surfer, Artist, And Designer Jay Nelson
As a kid, I used to dream about building tree houses. Not the kind
you get at Costco in a box kit made with pressure-treated planks, but
the sort of structure you’d create from scratch in the branches of the
perfect tree. Actually, as an adult, I still find my imagination
wandering every time I spot one of those perfect trees.
Surfer and professional artist Jay Nelson has turned that capricious fantasy into a reality.
The San Francisco-based artist was commissioned in 2004 to build a
tree house for a friend in Hawaii, and hasn’t looked back. He’s moved on
to craft captivating wooden structures, including a submarine-inspired
annex that doubles as an office space and art installation dubbed West
Portal in San Francisco’s Mollusk Surf Shop.
One of Nelson’s latest creations, The New Haven, at La Friche in Marsielle.
“Most of the work I do at Mollusk is a collaboration between the
owner, John McCambridge, and I,” Nelson says. “He usually has a need for
some sort of structure, and then we come up with an idea based around
his needs. Mollusk is an exception because of my relationship with John.
I’m not all that excited about doing other stores, mostly because
there’s usually limited time, and generally going into it people already
know what they want; there’s less room for creativity.”
Nelson has been noted for his surf concept vehicles like the van he
built for Rob Machado, which took elements of his tree houses and
installations, combining them to create the interior of the ultimate
surf trip mobile. His most recent work, a wooden camper hull atop a
fully functional boat, utilizes minimal space by incorporating a front
storage compartment for surfboards and a sunny, cozy nook and living
area. Nelson prides himself on the progression of his work and views art
as a way to “learn through doing,” he says.
The relationship between the art he creates and the way it translates
to emerging retail trends is an interesting concept to Nelson. He sees
consumers leaning toward quality, handcrafted pieces over the
convenience of mass-produced goods.
“Every time I buy an object I think, ‘Is this something I want to
live with and look at and touch every day?’” he says. “For example, you
never leave IKEA thinking, ‘I love this thing.’ You pack up your car and
think, ‘I just spent $500 on a pile of things that have no meaning to
me.’ Where, if you go pick out a coffee table from a furniture-maker who
you really like, you are probably going to love it, and treasure it,
and see the beauty and the story in its handmade quality. I think people
are starting to realize life is too short to live with junk.”
Nelson is intrigued by ways to develop
methodologies within his work—not by reinventing for every project, but
by staying open to new, visually different outcomes. “Generally the
moment I start to see habits forming in my work I want to break them.”
Similar to how companies are constantly pushing to evolve and find
what’s “next,” Nelson is intrigued by ways to develop methodologies
within his work—not by reinventing for every project, but by staying
open to new, visually different outcomes. “Generally the moment I start
to see habits forming in my work I want to break them,” he reveals.
Still, the craftsman acknowledges that there is a steady element to
his art, and at the end of the day, it’s how he pays the bills—even if
the unique model leaves most of us wishing our talents lent themselves
to a more beguiling way of doing that. When asked what he appreciates
most about the job, his reply sums up that free-spirited love for
nature—and the inventive skills needed to work with what’s provided—that
most of us in the action sports industry share.
“Building tree houses is an incredibly creative process,” Nelson
says. “You work with the limited parameters that the tree gives you.
It’s a collaboration between the tree and the builder.”
A look inside The New Haven, built by talented craftsman Jay Nelson.
