Original subtitles

The first time I got here I suppose I felt

enchanted, coming up the stairs and sort of peering in through

these large windows and thinking that

existence in a house like this must feel a little bit magical.

I think my original intention for acquiring

this cabin was just to have an escape from the city.

Being an artist based in New Orleans,

having a place that felt in communion with the environment

allowed me to get away from the city and practice my art

and be in a place that was more peaceful, more quiet,

and more nature-oriented.

Abita was an old spa town known for its clean water,

and the swamps is kind of what you

think of as South Louisiana.

And so it's interspersed pine forest

with sort of swamp and marshland and rivers and bayous.

This property was sort of hiding in the woods and falling apart.

It just felt like it was held together

by fishing line and duct tape, and it had just gotten

to the point of no return.

I was intrigued.

I came to see it, and I fell in love with it.

That was the beginning of a very long process.

My first goal was to just shore it up, clean it up, and save

the sanctity of this structure.

So, luckily, I found the people to work

with that saw the vision.

I told them that I wanted to achieve

a place that felt artful and natural at the same time.

What we added with the renovation

is almost like a fallen tree that bisected an upright tree.

That's kind of how I think of it.

When we intersected those two forms,

we still felt that there needed to be this grounding element.

So that's how we came up with this living

wall that has planters in it.

And eventually, the plants will grow and vine

and cover that whole structure.

We planted herbs in some of the planters,

and you can easily pop out of the kitchen, grab a few herbs,

and go back to cooking in the kitchen.

You enter by going up the stairs on the right,

and that brings you to the main room of the house--

the living room, dining area, kitchen area.

We have my art on the walls.

We have couches to relax.

We have a dining table to gather and eat.

And we have the kitchen, which is open.

It has large kitchen island with salvaged wood around it

and poured concrete countertops.

Off to the side of the living area is the master bedroom.

There's a bathroom with a closet tub

and a large sprawling ivy plant that becomes

sort of the art on the walls.

And I love the copper faucets in the bathrooms

that we incorporated.

Off the kitchen side of the house is another large deck.

That deck has some wooden cladding that acts as a sun

shield from the morning sun.

One of the most beautiful features of the house

is the spiral staircase, which was updated with the renovation

and really made into a sculptural element--

these floating wooden beams that come off the center steel pole

and intersect the wall.

And there's gaps of light in between each tread

of the stair.

The spiral continues up to the third floor for two stories.

And all along the way, there's windows

placed at different heights.

Those windows act as like a viewfinder of the woods

and give you a different perspective on the landscape.

The sense of raw materials that we were able to achieve

with the space, starting with the existing

wood floors and wooden beams.

And to me it just captured the spirit of the house.

It's so simple but it's utilitarian,

and it's beautiful to look at.

I like to call this house the tree

house because it's raised up and it's the height of the trees.

And I remember one day sitting down and writing

the tree house philosophy, and it

starts with "Live by the sun."

I love to just make a coffee and go out onto the deck

with my journal and write.

Journaling has become such an integral part of my lifestyle

and my art practice.

The third floor has always been like this bonus room.

It always has had a real creative feel to it.

So I wanted to keep the spirit of that room alive as a space

where you could just totally hide out.

Really strong morning light comes in

through those windows right over my painting area,

right over the desktop.

And it just-- if I get up and I make my coffee

and I go upstairs, it's almost like the light just crashes in,

and you're congratulated for having risen.

I think the best moments in painting

happen when you don't feel like there's anywhere else you're

supposed to be in that time, that that moment doesn't need

to end, and I feel like that room is great at creating

that sense of time travel.

There's quiet to hear your own thoughts

and hear them kind of echo back to you.

The idea of becoming a mother for me is another creative act,

I suppose.

When I first started to think about the nursery,

the only thing I knew for sure was

that I wanted to put my wallpaper

mural, the enchanted forest, in the space--

playing off the natural setting here of the woods

and the magical woodland vibe of the mural,

making those two things come together,

creating the type of world that I've always gone internally

to tap into to give myself a sense of magic

or a sense of wonder.

And I like to think of the mural as always being

a way to start a new story.

I think that it will be another thing that will open

my heart just like wide open.

That's like already what art does.

The vulnerability that you have to have to be an artist

is so vast and great.

And I thought that I knew that, but now

I feel like whatever I've been doing was just the beginning.

I set this intention that I really

hope to give her a life that involves

being outside every day.

I want feet in dirt and hands on plants.

I want to give her a sense of the wildness that I found here.

I hope that we'll feel really centered

and able to feel like we're in the right place

at the right time.

I think there would be a real sense of pride in that,

actually.