James Hubbell

“The interconnection with all life is not a random thought.  To me it is a fact. To say that we are more alike than different is true, as human life was formed from stardust, the explosion of stars to form supernovas that create and cast all the elements of the planets and all life in the universe.” “

—James Hubbell

James Hubbell was a talented artist and craftsman, a passionate naturalist, a devoted friend, and a gifted teacher. He mentored countless individuals, using art as a way of communicating compassion and kindness. A wide-ranging creative legacy is famously expressed in the home James and Anne Hubbell hand-built on an oak-boulder and chaparral-covered hilltop near Julian, California. They named it Ilan-Lael, a “tree that is a gift from God.” It has served as home to his thriving art business, Hubbell Studios, which specialized in handmade art and architectural artistic elements for 65 years — and continues to do so today.

His art was based on a philosophy of seeking inspiration in nature. Materials often included natural and found objects from his property or nearby sources. His work championed the forces in life that shape us: the good and the bad, the irregular and imperfect, and the joy and pathos of life.

Throughout his long career, James explored concepts in organic architecture and design that were a unique expression of San Diego. Thousands of visitors made the pilgrimage to experience the flowing shapes of Ilan-Lael’s buildings, constructed of stones pulled up from his property, wood milled in Julian, and adobe fired in Escondido and Tecate. Colorful mosaic designs flow across walls and floors like the stream that crosses his property. Stained-glass windows amplify sunlight, washing walls and floors with rainbows of dancing color. Door handles and cabinet drawer pulls of metal and manzanita burls invite a lingering touch.

In urban and suburban San Diego, James created hundreds of public and private art installations. Highlights included the Pacific Portal gazebo and Pacific Rim Park’s Pearl of the Pacific on Shelter Island, a mosaic fountain at Coronado Ferry Landing, and numerous stained-glass windows, metal gates, and mosaics in private homes, libraries, and churches. Internationally, he gained recognition for collaborative design-build projects in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico, and a series of “peace parks” around the Pacific Ocean built expressly to bring together people from different cultures as one Pacific Family.

Left to right: James at a year old, James at age 7, and the family; left to right, brother Bert, mother Julia, sister Roberleigh, and James.

James Hubbell was born in Mineola, New York, the son of Julia Jones and James Hubbell Sr. and brother to Harry (Bert) and sister Roberleigh. Shy and struggling in school with traditional lessons, he turned to nature and art to make sense of his world. He drew nature’s rhythms and patterns incessantly, finding solace in  beauty. His artistic talent was recognized in his early years by all who wondered at his abilities.

He attended 13 schools throughout childhood, including a military academy and finishing school at Choate Rosemary Hall. Just out of high school he had a chance encounter with Quentin Keynes, grandson of Charles Darwin. James joined the young explorer Keynes on a trip to Africa and Europe: a year-long journey that opened their eyes to new cultures and the great art works of Europe and tribal Africa. 

He traveled to Europe again to self-study classic works of stained glass, including Chartre Cathedral’s famed windows. Returning home in 1951 after his walkabouts, he studied at Whitney Art School in New York and then later at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan, where he majored in sculpture. After these sojourns he settled in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where his mother had purchased the Wishing Well Hotel. 

Left and center; James drawing in Africa. Photos: Quentin Keynes. Far right, James visits Japan while stationed in Korea. Photo: ILF

From 1952 to 1954 he served in the Korean conflict as a base artist after making it clear to the camp commander that he “couldn’t shoot anyone.” While in the army, he discovered Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote and the knight-errant who was determined to follow his heart, no matter what others may think. 

James often said his life was a series of small encounters that led to great opportunities. His most important professional contact came in San Diego with residential architect Sim Bruce Richards, who had been a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West. James’s mother recruited Richards to remodel The Wishing Well. The Hotel became the first significant collaboration between Hubbell and Richards. Pleased with James’s designs, Richards began including James’s artworks in his home designs. This partnership lasted over 25 years and James credits Richards for helping launch the success of Hubbell Studios.

James became a member of Creating Civic Community “C-3”,  Allied Craftsmen, and  other art organizations that introduced him to luminaries in San Diego’s art and architecture community including architects Kendrick Bangs Kellogg and Lloyd Ruocco, critic James Britton, artists Malcolm Leland, Arline Fisch, and Toza and Ruth Radakovich, and arts patron Elizabeth Marshall. 

Left: James and an early stained-glass piece. Photo: Sim Bruce Richards. Right: James at work in his studio carving wood. Photo by Otto Rigan.

His first important one-man exhibit in San Diego was curated by James Britton and featured in San Diego Magazine, 1955. He would go on to have dozens of art shows from San Diego to Oceanside, and internationally in Findhorn, Scotland, and Moscow. 

In 1958, he married his soulmate Anne Stewart, and together James and Anne Hubbell embarked on building a one-room stone cabin with their own hands near Julian, California. This primitive beginning eventually grew into a compound of 14 separate buildings with flowing organic shapes that quickly attracted local attention. A 1968 article in the Home Magazine section of the Los Angeles Times fueled regional interest, and in 1979, James and Ilan-Lael were featured in “From The Earth Up,” a book by artist Otto Rigan. In 1989, James appeared in his first documentary, “The Art and Vision of James Hubbell,” made by KPBS-TV. Hundreds of other newspaper and magazine articles and several documentary films have also covered James’s home and studios. 

Left: James and Anne on the eve of their wedding in 1958. Right; Family portrait taken in the living room for an article in San Diego Magazine 1967 by Marilyn Hagberg Photo: John Waggaman. Left to right, Torrey, Drew, Lauren, Anne, and James Hubbell.

James and Anne started their non-profit Ilan-Lael Foundation in 1983 to further their interest in bringing art to the masses and introducing non-artists to art-making opportunities. He launched this endeavor via a publication, Hidden Leaves, a magazine that commented on the livability of fast-growing cities, with a focus on San Diego. James was part of a chorus of voices who weighed in on San Diego’s rampant development at the expense of open space, nature, pedestrian safety, and many other ills tied to incomplete or outright poor planning. 

Left: James in front of the Big Studio. Photo: John Waggman. Right: James working on the roof of the Boys House. Photo: Otto Rigan.

While James and Anne Hubbell were building their home, family, studios, and their non-profit foundation, James also created notable public and private artworks and buildings on San Diego sites. The Triton Restaurants of the 1970s, on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego and Cardiff-by-the-Sea, drew much attention for their lavish sculptural entry ways, carved-wood and stained-glass doors, and sea-inspired interiors. These projects captivated a visiting New York architect Victor Bisharat, who hired James to design 18 doors and a stained-glass window for a private palace in Abu Dhabi. “Palace Doors of Abu Dhabi” was the second book written about Hubbell by Otto Rigan and featured photography and Arab poetry that inspired this once-in-a-lifetime project.

James in front of Sea Ranch Chapel. Photo: Michael Gerdes

One of James’s most celebrated architectural designs was The Sea Ranch Chapel, a beloved landmark that now draws thousands of visitors each year to an architectural community called The Sea Ranch in Northern California. This small boat-like meditation structure made of redwood, local stone, and stained glass won numerous architectural awards and was featured on the cover of Progressive Architecture Magazine in 1985. It became the penultimate project of a very busy decade of artistic and architectural successes. 

In 1987, James turned his efforts toward participating in international art shows and starting park projects that incorporated community-building collaborative approaches. He represented the City of San Diego at an art show in Vladivostok, Russia, in 1989 and while there befriended Russians who would later work with him to build the first Pacific Rim Park. That same year he joined artist/community organizer Milenko Matanovic to develop a Soil and Soul design-build concept that resulted in Kuchumaa Passage, a public art piece on the grounds of Rancho La Puerta Fitness Resort and Spa in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico (45 miles from downtown San Diego). 

In 1990, James began a collaboration with San Diego engineer and activist Christine Brady to build a kindergarten in a marginalized community east of Tijuana. Colegio La Esperanza became a 30-year volunteer project for James. He organized hundreds of San Diegans to journey with him across the border to work side by side with the local community to create a school where mosaic artworks were embedded into Hubbell’s architecture. 

In 1994, James began his most ambitious work, Pacific Rim Park, which to date has built eight parks adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in seven cities. Hubbell sees the ocean as a way of connecting many cultures in ways that transcend political and economic boundaries.  Each park was built in just 30 days from design to completion where James collaborated with building professionals including long-time friend and architect Kyle Bergman, and created an indelible mark on the lives of hundreds of international architecture students. That same year James partnered with his son Drew to create Hubbell & Hubbell Architects which allowed the father-son team to design and create projects together.

Throughout his career James was a hands-on project leader, and a collaborative mentor.  An inspiring and capable teacher, he invited students to dive head first into the journey of art and embrace the mysteries of the process. By working with James, many artists say that they found their own creative voice and courage to devote their lives to making art. 

Other high points of his career include being invited to speak at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/ National Portrait Gallery Library. His oral history is included in the Archives of American Art Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. He has spoken in forums around the world, and is widely written about and featured in films, articles, blogs, and design forums. His historically-designated home and art holdings are preserved and managed by the Ilan-Lael Foundation. 

James Hubbell in 2023. Photo by John Durant

James Hubbell passed in May of 2024. It was his wish that Ilan-Lael — his home and the magnificent studios where he created his artworks — continue to inspire future generations of budding artists, architects and builders. Donations in his memory be made to the Ilan-Lael Foundation ℅ The James Hubbell Memorial Art Fund.

Epilogue

The interconnection with all life is not a random thought.  To me it is a fact. To say that we are more alike than different is true, as human life was formed from stardust, the explosion of stars to form supernovas that create and cast all the elements of the planets and all life in the universe.

It gives me comfort to know that life has this continuity. We are born containing these starburst elements, and these particles and energy remain, even after death. 

My fantasy is thus:

Upon death, my ashes will be scattered from the hillside chapel of our property that faces southwest toward the San Dieguito River. Water from Volcan Mountain follows this river about fifty-five miles before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. My ashes containing my life’s elements will thus be united with the Pacific.

From here, I’ll be taken on a long journey, swirling past islands and eventually being swept along the Kuroshio Current into the East China Sea toward South Korea’s Jeju Island with its scent of mandarin oranges in the balmy air. It is here that my elements will linger, finding a new place on this planet under the sea below the snow-capped volcano, Mt. Hallasan. 

Then, one warm subtropical day, one of the island’s Sea Women, called Haenyeo or Pearl Divers, will put on her wetsuit and attach a green net bag to a large orange float. She is searching for sea urchins and red sea cucumbers. She swims out past the seaweed-covered basalt rock; she’ll free dive ten to twenty feet under the turquoise water. 

After several half-minute dives, she surfaces to find herself surrounded by a pod of dolphins. Startled at first, she soon feels a kinship with their playfulness and considers this a good omen. 

The girl pulls the now heavy net to shore and is greeted by other divers who are anxious to see what she has found. Among the urchins and sea cucumbers, there are a couple of abalones, and a singular oyster shell. She carefully pries the shell open with her knife. There is still life within the crusty exterior. Deep inside the oyster, her knife tip releases a luminous round pearl that, unknown to her, contains the elements of my ashes. 

There, the circle of one life is complete.

—James T. Hubbell