1.1 My Life in Un/Learnings

In 1985 when I was six, my mother, my sister and I move to Vermont from Idaho, where my mother got her BFA in graphic design. We started out living at my grandparents farm in Monkton, Vermont (where my mother was raised). My grandfather was the 5th generation dairy farmer to labour this 400 acre farm. Shortly after we moved, he auctioned off the farm. My grandfather was too old to do the hard work and none of his sons wanted to take over. This was a common trend in Vermont at this time.

My memories and impressions of the farm and farm life are strong and are a deep part of my identity. My mother and her brothers and sister had this rural farm-life upbringing, I have gleaned a lot from these agrarian roots of my family.



My mother’s sister, aunt Liz, her husband and their four children, lived in the same town as us, Bristol, VT. Growing-up I spent a lot of time at their house, they lived a ‘homesteader” life style to some degree. Liz was knitting and sewing the families clothes, weaving rugs and mats, growing a big garden, canning, making preserves, baking, cooking and my uncle had a large wood shop. This was my first real exposure to such a lifestyle, and I got the chance to participated in most these actives. This made a deeper impression on me than I knew at the time.

 I learned by watching and doing, with guidance; shelling peas, mixing and punching down bread dough, passing the shuttle through the loom, sliding and catching loops on the knitting needles and guiding the jig-saw around the traced lines on my piece of wood. This was also a bonding time for me to get a grounded sense of family.

My maternal grandmother is a deep-hearted spiritual visionary; I have learned so much from her. When I was young she taught me to quilt and we would make art together. Now our relationship has blossomed into deep sharing and caring. My grandfather was a special man also, he never stopped growing food, even when they moved to town he lined the driveway with tomatoes and grew his annual pumpkin patch on a friend's field. He was also a sugarer, making maple sugar and maple sugar candies, which he would sneakingly pass the children under the dinner table. I am grateful to have such roots!

Corinne Chatelan was born in the French speaking side of Switzerland near the city of Lausanne. Her family was also agrarian, her father took over the family farm when she was a youth. She left Switzerland (with her partner of the time) on a two year sebatical around SE Asia and Austrailia. They kept running into a Mexican man, Jose (also the one who introduced me to Permaculture, see him giving a TEDx talk in spanish). He traveled to Switzerland with them and then brought them to Palenque, Mexico in 2000. Corinne and I met and united in Palenque, after she had split with her Swiss partner. We moved to Vermont and were married in November of 2005. She is a passionate yogini, cook, and gardener. 

Since as early as I can remember I have been an artist, I started out drawing and expanded into painting, crafting, sewing, knitting, crocheting, beading, sculpture, paper-mache and more. This is a talent whose origins comes from my family on my mother's side; my great-grandfather was a Swiss lace designer, my grandmother is a watercolourists, a quilter and writer, my mother is a designer and fiber artist.

A quote from my father, "When you were younger you were too much of a perfectionist and would get upset when you couldn't get everything just right. The good part of this is you could concentrate like crazy and get down to detail.  It also made it hard for you to take and use criticism to your advantage." These are two of art's greatest teachings for me; patience and the how to use constructive criticism to my benefit.

I started making and selling jewelry in 2003 when I lived in a cave in the Green Mountain National Forest (more photos). I was not able to do be a jeweler full time, I was also landscaping and painting houses. This time in my life was full of deep teachings! I was living barefoot in the woods, washing in the cold river, cooking on wood fire, using no flashlight and hitchhike when I needed to travel far (I lived like this for six months). I learned that the comforts we deem necessary are a prison. This upper & middle class worldview give us no true freedom nor security. It does not mean we must all live like this to be truly free. It means that we must not take what we have for granted and we must face our deepest fears of not having what we are use to having. I believe it helps to try "doing without" and see how we can still be happy. I believe, it is here we can find what really matters, love for ourself and others.

My wife, Corinne and I united and came to the US from Mexico in 2004. We bounced around from the cave to friends places making macrame jewelry, fabric bags and crochet pouches. I learned that craft is something that can bond us as humans, looking at history this is a key feature of any culture and social order. In 2006 I started making chain-link silver necklaces and earrings (seen above). I learned to do this style of jewelry from my Mexican friend Lalo. I mangled a lot of wire before I started using silver, this taught me perseverance. 

This same year we also taught a class for 1-5 year olds called "Tad pole Arts" at Frog Hollow in Middlebury, VT. This job's main yield was being able to witness the spontaneous, non-judgmental, innate ability of children to create.  

The summer of 2007 Corinne and I started a booth at the Bristol farmers Market with our jewelry and mid-season started selling wood fired sourdough bread. We participated in this market for two seasons selling our jewelry and bread. I also made the market flier and logo which was printed on T-shirts.

Paper-mache has also been a medium which has provided me with many unlearnings. I started out using it for class projects and to make masks and sculpture. As a youth the magic of a living character that could talk, wink and interact with me was fascinating, Marionettes (newspaper article of me with marionette to the right). In 2006 I built my first one, a little duck-man named Jede and in 2007 I built the Love Dragon. The process of building them was a deep experience as I had no instruction nor guidance, all I could find was a few images of some marionette controllers (which is a big part of the design and functionality). These two have traveled with me to many events, even though I am not much of a puppeteer, they are always a hit with the children (for more images see craft photo gallery below).


Building wood fired earthen ovens and baking sourdough bread are two of my favorite activities! These skillflexes have transformed my life. My first experience with these living magic ovens was in 2003 in Mexico baking bread with Corinne and selling it to the tourists. Then in Ghana in 2005 I cultivated my first sourdough starter and baked for a community of friends in an earthen oven for one month. My interest grew out of these experiences and I met others who were also just starting to explore this field. I continued to explore sourdough starters and baking in a friends cob oven in Maine, USA. Eventually I built my first oven and from here my experience snow balled and I built them were ever I was and continued my learning of baking. I baked with an old German baker in Vermont and learned a lot just by watching his way of mixing by eye using no measurements. In 2012 I was asked by my permaculture teacher Mark Krawczyk to teach the Yestermorrow earthen oven course with him, we have been teaching this course together every year. I have taken my skills into my travels repairing and building ovens in Mexico and Guatemala. Teaching with Mark was the beginning of my teaching career. Co-teaching help me gain self confidence and learn from being side by side with an experienced teacher. This experience has been invaluable in both my professional and personal growth. See my Facebook page where I share photos from my oven experiences called Bode Earth Ovens.