DESERT DWELLERS By John O’Hern

The Palm Desert, California, home of Sharon and Steve Huling features contemporary two- and three-dimensional art.

Sharon and Steve Huling built a home in Seattle that initially had a lot of empty walls. They share an interest in American history and Sharon had an interest in 19th century art. They soon began to collect late-19th-century American paintings.

After getting married in Seattle in 1980, they found themselves in the midst of the rise of the studio glass movement. Dale Chihuly founded the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood in 1971. “We both liked glass,” Sharon says, and so they slowly began to collect studio glass by artists who have become the greats of contemporary glass. She now serves on the board of trustees of Pilchuck.

She notes that “their interest in glass together with remodeling a contemporary home in Palm Desert, California, in 2014, exposed us to more contemporary art. Today, one of the things we enjoy most is meeting and supporting young artists by collecting their work.”

Steve comments on the small world of glass art: “Sharon had purchased a triptych by April Surgent in Portland, an artist she liked. April works in cameo engraving on glass. We were invited to a show of hers and saw her pieces on Antarctica. We had been to Antarctica and she had been there in 2013 with the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. We commissioned her to do a piece on a bay we had visited. One evening she was at a dinner at our home with other artists and art supporters and she saw Erich Woll’s glass matchstick piece in the dining room. She told us her husband had made the small stanchions that mount the matchsticks to the wall. Later,

she mentioned our name to her husband, Zak Hinderyckx, who is a metal fabricator and bicycle builder. He told her he had had worked with Gerard Tsutakawa on a bronze sculpture we have at our home in Seattle.”

Sharon says, “I’m attracted to the ideas behind things. Erich Woll takes common objects out of context and assigns them a new context. In his piece In My Neck of the Woods, he refers to man’s effect on the environment. After seeing Erich’s piece in a local gallery, Steve and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Finally, he said, ‘We have to have it!’”

She continues, “On a shelf in the living room next to Erich Woll’s Mobius is Joyce Scott’s From the Day After Rape Series: Suicide, made of glass beads and thread. Her work is so compelling and strong and raw. She speaks the truth dealing with difficult subjects. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016.”

The pencil drawing in the dining room is by Joel Daniel Phillips. “I fell in love with the drawing the minute I saw it at a San Francisco art fair,” Sharon explains. “It is a drawing of a homeless man named Billy who lives near his studio in Oakland. Through art, Joel and Billy have become friends. And, through art, Joel is able to help all of us see Billy’s humanity. Subsequently Steve and I got to meet Joel and discovered that he is also from Seattle. We’re thrilled that he was the third prize

recipient in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2016.”

The collectors visited Cuba in 2012 with the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Council. One of the artists they met was Aimée Garcia Marrero, an acclaimed painter, photographer and sculptor. “We both fell in love with two of her self-portraits,” Sharon explains. “We only had about five to 10 minutes to decide on which one we would buy, so we bought both because ultimately we couldn’t decide!”

Steve advises collectors to listen to people who know more about a subject than they do. However, he says, “If something catches your eye and you go back to it time after time and you see different things each time, you know it’s for you.” Work comes into their collection in a number of fortuitous ways. Steve recalls that the comptroller of his business collected Carol Grigg’s prints. He purchased one of Grigg’s watercolors as a gift for Sharon. “There’s a tie-in to the William Morris’ Petroglyph Vessel on the living room shelves,” Sharon notes. “You can also see the influence of the animal paintings of the Caves of Lascaux in France.”

Visiting the studio of Alden Mason they saw a painting they were interested in. Two years ago, a crow had become trapped in their chimney and Steve called a chimney sweep to rescue it. The crow had a characteristic limp and the couple now recognizes it when it returns to a tree in their garden every year with its mate. Mason’s painting was a spirit animal painting of crows but he told them, “I’m not selling it.”

Sharon relates, “Alden started painting in oil and developed a toxicity to it. After he changed to acrylic he developed a toxicity to it, too. His later work was watercolors.” Their first Mason piece is Alien Bouquet, 1998. “I was interested in the amount of movement in his paintings, and Hopalong Hattie never disappoints,” Steve comments.

Steve notes that when they built their house in Seattle “glass’ popularity wasn’t as widespread as it is today. The Mason didn’t fit there either. Our Seattle home is eclectic even though the emphasis is on 19th-century paintings in heavier period gold-leafed frames. My favorite glass piece in Seattle, a full dress by Karen LaMonte, is there as are pieces by Dante Marioni and Joanna Mannousis.”

“The Chihuly was originally in Seattle

but it’s now in Palm Desert,” Sharon adds. “We bought it at Chihuly’s auction benefiting Seniors Making Art, a charity Chihuly founded in 1991 that offers art courses at senior centers to older adults.

“You’ll see a similar aesthetic in both our homes, although the Palm Desert house reflects the vitality of the desert and the more contemporary focus of the Palm Springs Art Museum and galleries like J. Willott Gallery here in Palm Desert where we purchased some of our paintings and glass pieces,” she continues. “It’s wonderful having two very different homes reflecting where they are.

“We never thought of ourselves as collectors,” Sharon says, “although I think of us as glass collectors now. If I were going to give advice to young collectors, I would tell them that I think you need to trust yourself and if something brings joy to you, go for it. Don’t worry about what other people think. We love living with the art in our homes. Art brings beauty into our lives.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANCIS SMITH 1 On the left is Lino Tagliapietra’s Dinosaur, 2016, blown glass, next to William Morris’ Suspended Artifact: Antlered Spoon and Gourds, 1994, blown glass and steel stand. The mixed media work over the sofa is Udo Nöger’s Gedankenlos (Thought Experiment), 2016. The two leather Smock chairs and the Luna cabinet in the corner are by the Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola. The sofa is by Vladimir Kagan (1927-2016). 2 On the top shelf are, from left, Untitled, blown and lamp-worked glass with glass rods by Flo Perkins; Gluber, 2009, blown glass, silver and steel, by Rik Allen; and Richard Jolley’s Aqua Cobalt Torso with Metallic Leaf, sculpted glass. On the middle shelf are Bertil Vallien’s Area I Map: Map See, 2005, sand-cast glass relief and iron stand, and Dale Chihuly’s Olive Brown Persian Set with Empire Yellow Lip Wraps, 2003. On the bottom shelf are, from left, Banner, 2015, blown and polished glass, by John Kiley; Morris’ Petroglyph Vessel, 1998, blown glass; Erich Woll’s glass Mobius, 2016; and Joyce J. Scott’s From the Day After Rape Series: Suicide, 2010, glass beads and thread.

3 Karen LaMonte’s cast glass and metal Lark Mirror, 2004, is to the left of the sofa. Above the sofa is Alien Bouquet, 1998, acrylic on canvas, by Alden Mason (19192013). On the right is America Martin’s Woman II, 2017, oil and acrylic on paper.

4 On the far wall is Joel Daniel Phillips’ Billy, 2014, charcoal and graphite on paper. The wall sculpture on the right is In My Neck of the Woods, 2013, sculpted glass, by Erich Woll. In the foreground is Himself, reverse fire enamel on glass, by KéKé Cribbs.

5 Two paintings by Aimée García Marrero hang in the alcove: Marea (Tide), 2010, oil on canvas and thread, and Estigma (Stigma), 2010, oil on canvas and antique brooch.

6 On the ledge of the bar is South Hill, 2001, ceramic and paint, by John Woodward.

7 Above the vanity is Beyond the Fine Line, 2017, flame worked, cast glass and mixed media by Jason Chakravarty and Jennifer Caldwell. Above the chair is Marita Dingus’ Face 18, glass and mixed media. The watercolor on paper is Primal Skin, 1989, by Carol Grigg.

9 Peter McFarlane’s Feather, mixed media on circuit board, hangs above the vanity.

8 On the left is Untitled, 2009, monotype, by Jackie Barnett. Above the chaise is Concentric Harmonies for Kandinksy, 2016, acrylic on canvas, by Michael Schultheis.

10 On the left are two oil on panel paintings by Erin W. Berrett: from left, High Noon, 2008, and Marc Jacobs, 2011. On the right is her Girls Night Out, 2011, oil on panel. Partially reflected in the mirror is Andrew Hare’s Buick Sky, acrylic on canvas.

11 Sharon and Steve Huling sit in front of Hopalong Hattie, 2003, acrylic on canvas, by Alden Mason (1919-2013). In the background is Adam Belt’s Through the Looking Glass (After the Giant Magellan Telescope), 2013, two-way mirror, mirror, wood and LED lights.

12 The Palm Desert, California, home of Sharon and Steve Huling.