A Life Centered On Beauty: Part 2

David Bardwick is the owner of David Alan Collection in Solana Beach and a long time supporter and friend of Ilan-Lael Foundation. Make sure to read the first part of our series  “A Life Centered On Beauty: Part 1”

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What about James Hubbell and his works speaks to you?

Jim and I always felt a kinship. For me it was like he was my mentor. I never spoke to him in that way, but he was my kind of ideal man. A Renaissance man. Whatever art and beyond art he touched, he did something beautiful with.

Knowing him gave me a kind of permission to return to writing poetry, doing watercolors, and brush and ink, and so on. His stained glass. His architecture. Everything was an inspiration to me. My background was in art in college — Ripon College, Wisconsin. James was not only an artist, but a man who was so effective out in the world as well.

I admired Jim’s many interests. You don’t really have to specialize. He was shy but fearless! I had always thought that if I really focused on something I would get really good at it, but I never had the interest in being the best at anything. Life is to play, experience lots of stuff. And Jim was a model of that.

In high school I thought I would be an architect, but I didn’t get to design and build my first home until 20 years ago in Bali. And this month I finished my most recent one. I have the most fun designing, building and furnishing homes, sculpture you can live in … which is what Jim does. My [habitats] aren’t anything like his, except they’re also all about beauty. And it’s so much fun. In Bali we have amazing craftsmen, and custom building is reasonable there.

Did your most recent home depart from the traditional architecture of Bali?

My designs aren’t truly Balinese. They have doors you can close … but I’ve never once closed them! They are always open to the outside. My houses there do not look Balinese, although one has a roof line that could be from Java. A lot of my inspiration comes from Craftsman Era architects Greene and Greene. I love their work, especially the Gamble House masterpiece in Pasadena. Here in San Diego we so love Torrey Pines Lodge, which echoes the Gamble House’s design and craftsmanship. I eat there often just to be in the building.

I did have a builder (who is also an architect) work with me. Her mother was Balinese, her father a New Zealander. When we began, I asked her, “Have you ever heard of Greene and Greene?” She said, “I did my Masters on Greene and Greene!”

In our “Hidden Leaves” interview, you talk of going to build a Pacific Rim Park in Vladivostok with him and the team. It sounds like a somewhat spur-of-the-moment decision. What convinced you to join in?

People want to do something for, and with, Jim! It’s a magic that he has. 

What do you wish for the future of I-L and the future of Jim’s life and work?

If there’s a single word that my life has centered on, it’s beauty. I would say the same for Jim. Anything that we all can do to inspire more beauty in the world is important.

It’s very clear to me that being surrounded by beauty alters us fundamentally: what we do, who we are. Ilan-Lael fosters that, making it more available. Monday I’m closing our business early and taking everybody at David Alan Collection up there for a private tour and a dinner. The guys are so excited. They have a sense of what I-L is and they know they won’t walk away unmoved. Nothing else opens possibilities like I-L. Whatever you can dream is possible, and that space “screams” that — it gently screams [David whispers]… “You can do anything. You can create anything.”

The allure of I-L goes beyond being multilevel. The story of how James and Anne showed up there in the ‘50s and started building a home from nothing. This was a big part of the post-war generation: the dream of getting out of the metropolis, Jim captures a generational ethos. But will that play in today’s world? Our children’s children are now in their teens and beyond. Do they see I-L as  a symbol of being able to do anything? That you can build your life in a place where you can be surrounded by beauty? I hope so. Yet how does I-L fit into the context of today, when up and coming generations deal with screen time and all, and a possible disassociation with nature?

It’s tough. As deep as the younger generation is into technology, their phones and social media, as far as I can tell they’re still human. And being human means being able to react at a cellular, genetic level to beauty. I believe you can’t help it. In the same way we’re not inured to vibrations. A place in nature like I-L makes us feelsomething…just by being there it feels different than other places. It cannot not affect you.

I’d love to see I-L field trips for art students, younger people any age from about 12 up. I would be very happy if my support helps make that easy, makes it possible, for whatever it takes to set these [programs up]. It takes manpower up there….

He’s altered tens of thousands of lives. And this is at the core of James: making beauty available and accessible.

What in your life inspired you to connect with Eastern art and become a gallery owner?

When I was 19 I suddenly became interested in the East. I was taking Eastern literature courses — Japan, India, and more — and the world of the Far East was opening up to me. At first it was a combination of art and spirituality. That has continued. Bali is also an amazing place to create things. The craftsmanship! And the materials are available. It’s not surprising that art became the focus of the David Alan Collection; first from Bali, then different countries in Asia. Along the way I added art from Japan, Thailand, Nepal, and certainly India before them all:  the country where my wife was born and started her PhD in molecular biology (which she finished at University of Wisconsin).

So we return to the Far East yearly. It’s in my blood. I am clear that this connection is in my previous lifetimes, my personal heritage. When I’m in India, Japan … I recognize places and realize that I’ve been there before. I have chanted with monks without knowing anything about their chants. It’s deep in me.

So 20 years ago when it was time for a change, my wife and I sold everything except this building and a house in the mountains. We said, What’s next? We wanted to do most of what we most loved in life, which has to do with traveling in the Far East, traveling, and exploring the architecture and arts of all these cultures.

But my life is also open ended. I can be anywhere, doing anything, as long as life is about beauty. Sharing love and compassion, allowing each other into our lives, connecting with each other:  this is our human birthright. This is where the very best of life happens.

But my life is also open ended. I can be anywhere, doing anything, as long as life is about beauty. Sharing love and compassion, allowing each other into our lives, connecting with each other:  this is our human birthright. This is where the very best of life happens. 

David Bardwick non-profit foundation in Bali supports and honors those in need. For information and/or to make a donation, write IGNITE: A Foundation for Learning, 241 S. Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach, CA 920175.

Or visit David Alan Collection in person. 

David’s book “The Unseen People of Bali: An Inspirational Journey Honoring Those In Need” is a beautiful photographic journey to Bali’s hinterlands. Another book authored by David, the inspiring “Monster and Me: Conversations, Adventures and Love,” features his journal-entry conversations with an inner “monster” that opens his mind to true possibilities in life. Both books are available at David Alan Collection in Solana Beach.

 

Read “A Life Centered On Beauty: Part 1”