0:00:32.643,0:00:34.473
I build tree houses.

0:00:37.467,0:00:40.279
I came about it from my childhood.

0:00:40.279,0:00:43.115
You know, my brothers and I [br]would climb up into the trees -

0:00:43.115,0:00:44.838
I grew up in Seattle -

0:00:44.838,0:00:47.209
and we would look out[br]over the Puget Sound,

0:00:47.209,0:00:50.514
and that's where I would go[br]to just find mystery,

0:00:50.514,0:00:52.632
create, you know, scenarios.

0:00:52.632,0:00:54.627
One day I was a pirate;

0:00:54.627,0:00:57.115
the other day I was in a spaceship.

0:00:58.155,0:01:01.222
The first house I'd like to talk about[br]is the third house I did.

0:01:01.402,0:01:04.220
It's called Casa del Sole a Mezzanotte,

0:01:05.160,0:01:07.544
which means "The House[br]of the Sun at Midnight."

0:01:07.544,0:01:10.069
My Italian's horrible - sorry.

0:01:10.799,0:01:14.448
You can see here - there's the lake,

0:01:14.448,0:01:17.951
and I always wanted the tree houses[br]to fit in with nature.

0:01:17.951,0:01:22.241
I build with 100% salvaged[br]and reclaimed wood.

0:01:22.241,0:01:23.821
I will go into the forest,

0:01:23.821,0:01:25.984
I'll find fallen trees,

0:01:25.984,0:01:29.417
I'll bring them to the mill,[br]and then I'll have them cut,

0:01:29.417,0:01:32.666
and then eight months later,[br]I'll build with them.

0:01:32.666,0:01:35.540
So, I just love this lake.

0:01:35.540,0:01:37.016
There's a little close-up shot.

0:01:37.016,0:01:40.696
You can see how it, hopefully,[br]is fitting in with nature.

0:01:42.326,0:01:43.891
This is funny.

0:01:44.901,0:01:47.946
"Uova strapazzate"[br]is what the Italians called me

0:01:47.946,0:01:50.197
because it means "scrambled eggs"

0:01:50.787,0:01:56.494
because they just figured I was insane,[br]which is pretty much true.

0:01:57.574,0:02:00.415
There's the house there,[br]and the tree coming down,

0:02:00.415,0:02:02.192
and you see the stone wall.

0:02:02.192,0:02:05.918
When I first found this, you know,[br]there's 1,000 acres that I had to walk.

0:02:05.918,0:02:07.810
They said, "Oh, go find your tree."

0:02:07.810,0:02:09.385
I'm like, "Okay."

0:02:09.385,0:02:11.198
So I walked 1,000 acres,

0:02:11.198,0:02:15.338
and it was a villa[br]and a beautiful vineyard,

0:02:15.338,0:02:17.073
and it's in Tuscany.

0:02:17.333,0:02:23.633
But I realized that the tree itself,[br]its roots were being eroded by the lake,

0:02:23.633,0:02:25.373
but that was my tree.

0:02:25.373,0:02:27.174
I had to build in this tree.

0:02:27.174,0:02:32.700
So what I did in the winter[br]is dove down with little goggles on

0:02:32.700,0:02:36.768
and, you know, my surf shorts -[br]which also they thought was hilarious -

0:02:37.297,0:02:40.944
and built a wall[br]12 feet down into the lake

0:02:40.944,0:02:43.672
and then another 10 feet up.

0:02:43.672,0:02:45.984
And so I saved the roots[br]from being eroded,

0:02:45.984,0:02:48.315
and then I knew[br]I could build this tree house,

0:02:48.315,0:02:50.301
which - I was so happy.

0:02:50.551,0:02:53.176
You can see, like, yeah, I was insane:

0:02:53.176,0:02:54.263
strapazzata.

0:02:54.263,0:02:56.384
It's like they weren't wrong there.

0:02:56.538,0:03:00.234
A much younger me up in the tree house.

0:03:00.775,0:03:03.319
You'll see that there's the copper roof.

0:03:03.319,0:03:05.857
That's also salvaged copper.

0:03:05.857,0:03:09.814
So, we bought bulk copper[br]that was taken off of churches,

0:03:09.814,0:03:14.344
and we cut it, and we banged it back out,[br]and we pieced it together -

0:03:14.344,0:03:17.108
kind of like doing a quilt, but of copper.

0:03:18.338,0:03:21.315
Here you'll see across from the lake.

0:03:21.315,0:03:22.463
This is interesting

0:03:22.463,0:03:25.512
because I hadn't noticed this[br]until I was looking in my journal.

0:03:25.912,0:03:28.896
You'll see how the tree house is,[br]and then the tree comes down,

0:03:28.896,0:03:32.000
and then there's the wall,[br]and then there's the mirror reflection?

0:03:32.000,0:03:35.772
Well, the clients[br]were very, very into yoga,

0:03:35.772,0:03:37.281
which I am too,

0:03:37.281,0:03:41.804
and, again, they also loved[br]just the ahimsa of my work,

0:03:41.804,0:03:44.054
meaning "non-harming."

0:03:44.404,0:03:46.841
So it looks like tree pose to me.

0:03:46.841,0:03:47.850
(Audience) Yeah.

0:03:47.850,0:03:51.671
I just saw that like last week[br]only because I was doing this.

0:03:51.671,0:03:56.732
So then, the client[br]is Sting and Trudie Styler.

0:03:57.412,0:03:58.878
I had them dress up like this;

0:03:58.878,0:04:00.341
I had to

0:04:00.681,0:04:05.452
because it was like opening night,[br]and I was into this whole Druid folklore,

0:04:05.452,0:04:09.662
and so they were very happy[br]to dress up like that.

0:04:09.662,0:04:11.496
All the kids did too. It was great.

0:04:11.496,0:04:14.809
The fun thing, you know,[br]about all the tree houses

0:04:14.809,0:04:17.083
is that they have stories,

0:04:17.083,0:04:20.401
and the thing is that each one[br]has its own story.

0:04:20.401,0:04:21.779
The wood has story.

0:04:21.779,0:04:24.156
The children have their stories with me.

0:04:24.566,0:04:26.746
The parents have stories with me.

0:04:26.746,0:04:28.579
And that all comes together,

0:04:28.579,0:04:31.001
and then I put that into a journal,

0:04:31.001,0:04:35.128
and then that's my way[br]of being able to reflect back

0:04:35.128,0:04:37.326
and go, "Oh, yeah, that's what happened."

0:04:37.326,0:04:39.610
Because it's easy to forget, you know.

0:04:39.610,0:04:41.440
So, okay, so we'll move on.

0:04:41.900,0:04:43.655
Petra Cliff House.

0:04:44.674,0:04:47.063
This is great because[br]my daughter's name is Petra

0:04:47.063,0:04:49.906
and my great-grandmother's name is Petra.

0:04:49.906,0:04:52.259
And it was named by the client.

0:04:52.259,0:04:58.575
The client is Val Kilmer -[br]very sweet, hilarious person.

0:04:58.575,0:04:59.796
One of the funniest -

0:04:59.796,0:05:02.015
well, he is the funniest guy[br]I've ever met.

0:05:03.075,0:05:05.449
Again, when I got there, he left a note -

0:05:05.449,0:05:07.295
it's in Pecos, New Mexico -

0:05:08.685,0:05:11.873
and the note said, again,[br]"Go find your tree."

0:05:11.873,0:05:13.936
But he has 6,000 acres.

0:05:13.936,0:05:15.491
I was like, "Oh, my God."

0:05:15.491,0:05:17.975
So I walked for six days.

0:05:17.975,0:05:19.780
(Laughter)

0:05:19.780,0:05:22.424
There were, seriously,[br]hawks hovering around me;

0:05:22.424,0:05:24.353
they were going to kill me.

0:05:24.353,0:05:26.518
And being a vegetarian,[br]I thought it was funny

0:05:26.518,0:05:27.774
because then I had a club.

0:05:27.774,0:05:30.689
I was like, "This thing's going to -[br]I'm going to get killed."

0:05:30.689,0:05:33.004
But whatever, so, I didn't, obviously.

0:05:34.530,0:05:38.037
So you can see how it's resting[br]into the middle of this cliff,

0:05:38.037,0:05:43.582
and the concept was that possibly[br]the house was maybe from the 1870s -

0:05:43.582,0:05:46.144
was up on the cliff,[br]and then a storm knocked it over,

0:05:46.144,0:05:48.640
and it got impaled into these trees.

0:05:49.090,0:05:50.819
And that was my concept.

0:05:50.819,0:05:52.525
That's what I went with.

0:05:54.255,0:05:57.012
Here you'll see the siding.

0:05:57.012,0:05:58.032
What happened here

0:05:58.032,0:06:02.174
was once I found the trees in the cliff[br]and I got my story going -

0:06:02.174,0:06:03.636
because it always is that -

0:06:03.636,0:06:06.675
and then I drove around.

0:06:06.675,0:06:09.123
I was in Pecos, New Mexico,[br]kind of by Santa Fe,

0:06:09.123,0:06:11.274
and I would drive and drive and drive,

0:06:11.274,0:06:14.515
and I found a barn, the barn I had to buy.

0:06:14.515,0:06:17.208
I loved this barn;[br]I was like, "That's my barn."

0:06:17.208,0:06:19.212
And so I went to talk to the family -

0:06:19.212,0:06:22.750
because it was like getting destroyed;[br]it wasn't really a functional barn -

0:06:22.750,0:06:25.977
and I said, "Can I buy your barn?"[br]and they said, "No."

0:06:25.977,0:06:27.123
I was like, "Rrrr."

0:06:27.123,0:06:28.742
So I went back the next day,

0:06:28.742,0:06:31.193
and I said, "Can I buy your barn?[br]Please, please?"

0:06:31.193,0:06:32.374
They're like, "No."

0:06:32.374,0:06:35.613
So the third day, I went back[br]with like a six-pack of beer,

0:06:35.613,0:06:38.619
and we sat down on their porch,[br]and I talked more.

0:06:38.619,0:06:40.032
They still said, "No."

0:06:40.032,0:06:45.701
By the seventh day - kind of Biblical;[br]I didn't think about that either -

0:06:45.701,0:06:47.724
they said, "Yes," and I was like "Ahh."

0:06:47.724,0:06:52.380
They said, "But you have to take[br]every single piece of wood and take it out

0:06:52.380,0:06:53.960
so we can put our trailer there."

0:06:53.960,0:06:55.482
And I'm like, "Done. Great."

0:06:55.482,0:06:58.581
So you really can see how the wood is.

0:06:58.581,0:07:01.253
It's just burnt, you know;[br]it's just amazing.

0:07:01.253,0:07:04.473
There were gnarly pieces[br]that the sun must have twisted.

0:07:04.473,0:07:06.753
It was so much fun to work with.

0:07:06.753,0:07:10.719
Again, 100% reclaim, salvage, you know.

0:07:10.909,0:07:12.773
And that's really, for me,

0:07:12.773,0:07:15.644
it's like can you imagine [br]like building a tree house,

0:07:15.644,0:07:17.174
working with nature

0:07:17.174,0:07:20.771
and then contributing somewhere else[br]to some sort of deforestation?

0:07:20.771,0:07:22.495
Just seems wrong, right?

0:07:22.495,0:07:25.555
It would be like buying[br]plastic bottles of water

0:07:25.555,0:07:26.652
or something like that.

0:07:26.652,0:07:28.732
It's like, where's[br]that plastic going to go?

0:07:28.732,0:07:30.874
Probably into the ocean, you know.

0:07:30.874,0:07:34.018
So everything has to be recyclable;[br]everything has to be reclaimed.

0:07:34.018,0:07:35.315
It's really important.

0:07:35.315,0:07:39.337
It's how we vote[br]is where we spend our money.

0:07:39.337,0:07:44.900
So I like this image because[br]it's like it shows how the Pecos River is.

0:07:44.900,0:07:49.380
And so the house itself[br]is 70 feet above water level,

0:07:49.380,0:07:51.567
so when you're in it,[br]you're just like, "Wow."

0:07:51.567,0:07:53.924
You really feel kind of like,[br]"I'm way up here."

0:07:53.924,0:07:57.431
But actually, you have to walk down[br]from the cliff, so ...

0:07:58.541,0:07:59.627
"Everyone smiles."

0:07:59.627,0:08:00.650
This is totally true,

0:08:00.650,0:08:02.684
because what happened was

0:08:02.684,0:08:08.145
in the end, I brought the family[br]that I bought the barn from,

0:08:08.145,0:08:10.367
and I brought them to the tree house,

0:08:10.367,0:08:14.549
and it's like here's Val[br]and me and my crew

0:08:14.549,0:08:16.831
and here's this family.

0:08:16.831,0:08:18.784
And they smiled,

0:08:18.784,0:08:20.947
but like three of them started crying

0:08:20.947,0:08:25.658
because they had no idea[br]that I would take this structure,

0:08:25.658,0:08:28.374
reconfigure it and put it into this cliff.

0:08:28.374,0:08:29.656
It was amazing.

0:08:29.656,0:08:33.736
And then we all went back to their house[br]and drank more beer.

0:08:33.736,0:08:35.698
(Laughter)

0:08:36.358,0:08:40.528
I want to touch on this, and I don't want[br]to fast-forward through this.

0:08:40.528,0:08:42.655
I really want to explain.

0:08:43.475,0:08:45.102
What's going on here is

0:08:45.792,0:08:50.313
I heard that there were these kids[br]that lived on the streets in Tangier,

0:08:50.313,0:08:55.760
and they would run along with the trucks[br]and try to get themselves under the axles

0:08:55.760,0:08:57.107
and hide there,

0:08:57.107,0:09:00.509
and then that truck[br]would get onto the ferry

0:09:00.509,0:09:03.792
and then go to Spain -[br]right? - across the strait.

0:09:03.792,0:09:10.364
And most of them, I guess, get hurt a lot.

0:09:10.364,0:09:12.058
And then they would get into Spain,

0:09:12.058,0:09:13.834
and then the police would catch them,

0:09:13.834,0:09:17.218
and then they'd beat the heck out of them[br]and send them back to Tangier.

0:09:17.218,0:09:22.434
So they tried to build tree houses[br]to get off the street.

0:09:22.434,0:09:28.084
And I had fallen about 40 feet,[br]and, thankfully, survived.

0:09:28.084,0:09:31.551
And when I heard about[br]this story from my friend,

0:09:32.321,0:09:34.613
I realized, like,[br]I've got to go over there.

0:09:34.613,0:09:37.542
Like, I've got to go help these kids[br]learn how to build safely

0:09:37.542,0:09:39.063
because they built a tree house,

0:09:39.063,0:09:40.963
but they were up there kind of smoking,

0:09:40.963,0:09:42.522
if you know what I mean,

0:09:42.522,0:09:44.644
(Laughter)

0:09:44.644,0:09:46.980
and they started a fire[br]and the thing burnt down,

0:09:46.980,0:09:48.979
and they all collapsed out of it.

0:09:48.979,0:09:50.811
And I was like, "Oh, my gosh. Okay.

0:09:50.811,0:09:53.451
One, you know,[br]there's fire hazards there."

0:09:53.451,0:09:55.478
And so I went over.

0:09:55.478,0:10:00.611
I called my friend Russell Simmons,[br]I called Sting, I called Donna Karan,

0:10:00.611,0:10:03.673
and within two hours, I had 60 grand,

0:10:03.673,0:10:06.254
and I got the guys on a plane[br]and we went over there,

0:10:06.254,0:10:09.513
and we spent a month[br]doing a tree-house workshop

0:10:09.513,0:10:14.381
where we taught these kids[br]that were from like the age maybe 8 to 15.

0:10:14.381,0:10:17.097
They have to leave the orphanage at 16.

0:10:17.097,0:10:21.237
And so it was just incredible.

0:10:21.237,0:10:23.579
See, that's the view from the tree house.

0:10:23.579,0:10:25.340
It's like -

0:10:25.340,0:10:26.581
It was amazing.

0:10:26.581,0:10:28.348
And there's Spain, you know.

0:10:28.348,0:10:30.570
So it's like that's what they want:

0:10:30.570,0:10:34.172
they want to go find their dad,[br]you know, they want to go to Spain

0:10:34.172,0:10:36.203
because they think that's the golden land.

0:10:36.203,0:10:38.322
And they were like, "We can't get visas."

0:10:38.322,0:10:40.931
And I was like, "Well,[br]you don't need a visa

0:10:40.931,0:10:43.217
to go somewhere in your mind.

0:10:43.217,0:10:48.876
Like, find your home here in Tangier,[br]and, you know, make a life of it.

0:10:48.876,0:10:51.333
You're like beautiful kids."

0:10:51.333,0:10:55.441
And 15 out of those 16 kids[br]all are apprenticing carpenters

0:10:55.441,0:10:56.675
in Tangier now,

0:10:56.675,0:10:58.918
which is amazing.

0:11:00.698,0:11:03.973
Being over there, I love the lanterns.

0:11:03.973,0:11:06.456
So I love those -[br]you know the Moroccan lanterns

0:11:06.456,0:11:09.678
that have that copper underneath[br]and the copper above?

0:11:09.678,0:11:12.891
Well, so I figured out I could build one.

0:11:12.891,0:11:18.259
And so the idea was, okay,[br]there's copper below, copper above.

0:11:18.259,0:11:19.952
It can't be that difficult.

0:11:20.442,0:11:21.973
Lot of glass.

0:11:21.973,0:11:24.008
And so the next house that I did

0:11:24.008,0:11:27.436
was inspired by my experience[br]with those kids

0:11:27.436,0:11:29.299
and my experience in Tangier

0:11:29.299,0:11:31.833
and how welcoming they were.

0:11:32.273,0:11:34.894
It was just, you know, it was after 9-11.

0:11:35.394,0:11:37.629
I ate dinner with so many families there.

0:11:37.629,0:11:42.018
We went to the orphanage,[br]and they put on concerts for us.

0:11:42.018,0:11:43.718
It was like phenomenal.

0:11:43.718,0:11:46.781
So, yeah, that's another image of it.

0:11:46.781,0:11:50.365
It shows all my weaving of the branches.

0:11:50.365,0:11:52.174
Again, copper is recycled,

0:11:52.174,0:11:54.274
again, from a church or a synagogue.

0:11:54.274,0:11:58.753
And there's an internal shot[br]for that glow.

0:11:58.753,0:12:01.890
So like during the day, it glowed inward,

0:12:01.890,0:12:04.600
and then at night, it glowed outward.

0:12:04.600,0:12:07.582
So just like a lantern will.

0:12:08.782,0:12:10.829
Up in here, going through the branches -

0:12:10.829,0:12:14.480
I like to create these situations

0:12:14.480,0:12:17.830
where when you're walking up,[br]you have to get a little small,

0:12:17.830,0:12:19.013
like in your mind

0:12:19.013,0:12:22.770
you've got to get back[br]into that childhood thing,

0:12:22.770,0:12:25.400
so I always create them[br]smaller and smaller and smaller,

0:12:25.400,0:12:27.473
and then you finally get up there,

0:12:27.773,0:12:29.174
and then you're up there.

0:12:29.174,0:12:34.174
Because, I mean, for me,[br]the tree houses are like a porthole;

0:12:34.174,0:12:38.673
they're a porthole[br]to a memory of your childhood.

0:12:39.183,0:12:43.721
It's a porthole[br]to reunite you with nature.

0:12:43.721,0:12:47.900
And also maybe it's about, you know,

0:12:47.900,0:12:51.249
as an adult, reconnecting[br]with your own child,

0:12:51.249,0:12:53.114
your child or your grandchild.

0:12:53.114,0:12:56.624
It's a place where you can meet[br]and have a common ground

0:12:56.624,0:12:58.300
even though you're up in the trees.

0:12:58.300,0:12:59.875
Ha ha. That's funny.

0:12:59.875,0:13:01.495
(Laughter)

0:13:02.375,0:13:03.682
There I am.

0:13:03.682,0:13:08.369
What we're going to do now[br]is just talk a bit about my process.

0:13:09.299,0:13:11.950
I have always been an artist;

0:13:11.950,0:13:13.887
I've been an artist since I was a child.

0:13:13.887,0:13:16.678
I've never not known an artist's life.

0:13:16.678,0:13:20.793
So these are initial drawings.

0:13:20.793,0:13:22.359
This is how I start.

0:13:23.200,0:13:24.973
This won't make sense to you,

0:13:24.973,0:13:28.335
but what it is,[br]it's two eyes on a waterfall.

0:13:28.775,0:13:30.641
And I did make that house.

0:13:30.641,0:13:34.528
And this is another night[br]of trying to figure it out.

0:13:34.528,0:13:36.224
This is about, you know,

0:13:36.224,0:13:41.167
you create the triangle,[br]and the problem is two-thirds solved.

0:13:41.397,0:13:44.159
Pythagoras said that;[br]I didn't make that up.

0:13:44.159,0:13:45.999
(Laughter)

0:13:46.779,0:13:50.850
A lot of what I'm doing[br]is based on my studies,

0:13:50.890,0:13:57.637
say, on Patanjali and yoga sutras[br]or alchemy or the Kabbalah.

0:13:57.637,0:14:00.583
These are probably[br]my three main influences.

0:14:00.583,0:14:04.558
And so I try to just mix it all together[br]and throw it into a pot

0:14:04.558,0:14:06.356
and see what comes out.

0:14:07.126,0:14:08.591
That's a good example of that:

0:14:08.591,0:14:09.929
that's alchemy.

0:14:09.929,0:14:14.591
This is a stained glass design[br]based on Druid folklore.

0:14:16.161,0:14:19.398
This is my studies of anatomy.

0:14:20.568,0:14:22.259
That's how I write.

0:14:23.962,0:14:26.975
Again, this is Sanskrit here.

0:14:26.975,0:14:29.946
Over here, we have the cube and the star,

0:14:30.446,0:14:32.704
which is Kabbalah.

0:14:35.492,0:14:38.610
And in the end, it is for the children.

0:14:38.610,0:14:42.635
But again, is it for the children only?

0:14:42.635,0:14:43.823
No.

0:14:44.573,0:14:47.576
The adult always says,[br]"Oh, I want a tree house for my kid."

0:14:47.576,0:14:50.268
And I'm like, "Okay,[br]I've heard this before."

0:14:50.268,0:14:52.025
(Laughter)

0:14:52.025,0:14:54.892
Because in the end, the adults move in.

0:14:54.892,0:14:56.177
The kids are there.

0:14:56.177,0:14:57.445
They have movie nights.

0:14:57.445,0:15:00.176
There's a time when they[br]just smoke cigars on the porch,

0:15:00.176,0:15:02.442
and then there's sometimes[br]it's a big picnic.

0:15:02.442,0:15:06.113
And then it's a big sleepover[br]for all the neighborhood kids.

0:15:06.113,0:15:08.818
Again, it's, you know,

0:15:08.818,0:15:12.674
maybe you can't get your childhood back,

0:15:12.984,0:15:16.812
but maybe you can get[br]that sense, you know,

0:15:16.812,0:15:19.961
that when our imaginations were flowing

0:15:19.961,0:15:24.792
and we weren't just so locked down[br]with the mundane life,

0:15:25.252,0:15:26.747
that is what you can get back

0:15:26.747,0:15:29.400
and that connection with your family.

0:15:29.400,0:15:30.596
Thank you.

0:15:30.596,0:15:32.103
(Applause)