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J. MORGAN PUETT: I'm not sure exactly what it
is when people first come to Mildred's Lane
and-- there are such a range of emotions,
from an urban raised person suddenly being
in a wild, little bewilderness of a landscape like this,
to people who just love people, because the place itself
is about people.
It's not a residency.
It's not a retreat.
We're all working.
We're researching.
We're active.
Every aspect of life is a rigorous engagement
with the banal.
So at Mildred's Lane we make that a creatively
charged practice.
From washing dishes out in the landscape
to cooking a meal over an open fire
to learning how to clean out a toilet properly,
everything is rigorous, whimsical, fun, engaged,
and we do it together.
Mildred is one of nine children that grew up
in this house we call Mildred's house from the years 1902
through about 1987.
When I arrived into this landscape,
it was so manicured by a little old man who
was Mildred's nephew, it was as if Mildred just
walked out the door and went down the road.
I fell in love.
I fell in love like people fall in love with each other.
I fell in love with this landscape.
I've grown up as an installation artist
my whole life, studying all disciplines,
from painting, sculpture, filmmaking,
but it was this place that really took my heart away
as an installation artist.
I think of it as a 96 acre installation project.
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