A Life Centered On Beauty: Part 1
Ilan-Lael supporter David Bardwick seeks and shares beauty in all forms
By Peter Jensen, Ilan-Lael Board of Directors
Polished tree trunks stretch 15 feet or more toward the rafters. Kimonos hang in rows of regal splendor. Rustic jewelry glimmers from vitrines and display shelves. Ancient and new Balinese artworks crowd the floor, showing astonishing craftsmanship as well as a spiritual and devotional sensitivity rarely seen in an industrialized, tech-heavy world.
Most dominant: dozens of Herculean slabs of polished wood with live edges (bark still intact) awaiting a new life as grand, very grand, dining or meeting tables that often weigh over a thousand pounds.
David Alan Bardwick, owner and founder of David Alan Collection in Solana Beach, surrounds himself with three floors of this beauty, as well as his more personal art collection in a comfortable and very calming office. He gathers his store’s treasures on his many trips to countries throughout the Far East. In the last two decades, he has made over 50 trips to Bali alone, where he spends a month or more each time. He and his wife Amita have a home there, and David has built and designed others.
Life is not focused on acquisitions and commerce, however, for David and his wife Amita (pictured above in the Solana Beach store). In Bali, David supports an all-volunteer effort that has delivered thousands of food-and-necessities packages to the rural poor. He began this effort with a friend and Bali resident, Tony van den Hout, about a year into the first Covid epidemic. In India, where she was born, Amita recently spent a month training teachers at the couple’s school in Delhi. (Having just returned from a long flight, she was unavailable for this interview.), She opened the school 20 years ago, and it is also funded by the couple’s non-profit foundation.
Recently the Bardwicks included Ilan-Lael in their estate planning, earmarking $1 million to help fund our youth-oriented art programs. They feel it is a good—and personal—fit for their philanthropic plans. We began our conversation by asking how he met James Hubbell.
“I’d certainly heard of him. A mutual friend was looking for a private home that could host a fundraiser to benefit Ilan-Lael Foundation’s Pacific Rim Park project in Vladivostok. The evenings we and other volunteers spent with Jim while planning the event were just wonderful. We hosted it in our home in Rancho Santa Fe. Amazing! Several bands, even a gospel group, and lots of volunteers.
“Afterwards, I felt I simply had to go with him and others to Vladivostok. We felt a kinship. For me, it was as if Jim was my mentor. I never spoke to him in that way, but he was my kind of ideal man: Renaissance, who created beauty in whatever art and ‘beyond-art’ that he touched.”
David soon came to know his mentor better, both on the trip and after, and realized that he admired the way James did not specialize.
“I had always thought that if I really focused on something I could get very good at it, but I never had interest in being ‘the best.’ Life is to play, experience lots of stuff, and Jim was a model of that.”
We asked if Jim had a mentoring style, knowing that a hundred or more artisans and artists—accomplished or green and searching for direction—had worked on “Hubbell Hill” (James’ home and studios in Santa Ysabel) and many park projects around the Pacific Rim.
“I loved that he was shy and fearless! When we got to Vladivostok I asked him ‘What do you want me to do?’”
“I think you should meet as many artists within 100 miles of here that you possibly can. That’s your job.”
“I thought it was an incredible gift,” said David. “He thought that I might buy pieces, support the artists, and see if something good would happen. At that time it was still difficult to deal with Russia.
“I bought a lot of art. Many pieces were by artists who had never sold a piece because they were in disfavor with the government and weren’t even allowed to sell works. It was a tough time [sighs]. The Russian empire had fallen apart. There was no money. Vladivostok was the home of their Pacific Fleet and every ship was rotting, rusting. They didn’t, apparently, even have money to paint their ships to preserve them.”
So you were an ambassador of sorts? we asked. Without outright saying so, David tacitly approved of our assessment, while deferring to James.
“Jim being Jim, he somehow knew everybody. The admiral of the Pacific Fleet took us out on his craft. Every evening there was a performance for our little group, the Pearls of the Pacific volunteers. It was something we will never forget.”
Thinking about the future of Ilan-Lael and how the Bardwicks’ donation might best be used, David said, “If there’s a single word that my life has centered on, it’s beauty. I would say the same for Jim. So anything that all of us can do to inspire and bring more beauty in the world [is vital]. I’m sure that being surrounded by beauty alters us fundamentally. What we do. Who we are—on a cellular and even genetic level.
“Let’s make beauty more available, help people get up there, use it. I’d love to see our donation make it easier to host field trips for students, and that means more staffing and programs. And I want the donation to live and create more support.”
We found a line in a book David wrote in 2020 titled “Monster and Me: Conversations, Adventures and Love” that provided his viewpoint on the same matter long ago:
“I seek and share beauty in all forms … it’s the truth at some level, but it’s not the truth. The truth is unknown. If you figure it out, wait and tell me in my next life. I’m already thoroughly in love with this life the way it is.” Enigmatic, eloquent, seeking, puzzled, fascinated, knowledgeable … two kindred spirits, James Hubbell and David Bardwick, bent on giving life and others their full measure.
