IN THE last few hours of 2015, I made my way up a familiar winding hill into Altadena. The main road up to Zorthian Ranch is lined with single-family homes with sumptuous and busy gardens set back from the road. Suddenly though, as the rise gets steeper, your ears pop and you realize that you’ve attained some very real altitude. You are now out of gentle, rustic suburbia and are now snaking up into the wilds.
I turned onto the cut-out and drug across the dirt path and parked my car. In the distance, I could see the profile of the NOMAD and I realized that this would most likely be the last time I’d get this beautiful view of Dominique Moody‘s mobile workshop in the form of a residence.
I’ve been following her process for a few years now. I’ve watched the NOMAD go from a blueprints, to conceptual model, to a beautifully appointed residence which will now allow her to move through the world and interact with her surroundings.
We had a light brunch and talked about what awaited her on the open road.
Her first stop is Joshua Tree, where she will continue to tie up lose ends, but most important, will make a visit she’d been intending to for years. The artist Noah Purifoy has been one of her important influences. An assemblage artist as well, he worked with found objects that also (like Moody’s work), force the viewer think twice about what we define as “throw-away.”
What’s in store for her, she doesn’t know just yet. And that’s the goal. This first step however was a necessary “conversation” she had to have. This first pilgrimage is a way to connect with the impulse and memory of an important “spirit guide.”
I’ll be checking in on Moody in the coming weeks to see how this trial run is going and where serendipity leads her creatively.
–-all images by Lynell George
native to the place 