Jay Nelson Builds Dream Houses | Working Title

Bay Area artist Jay Nelson has always been into building tree houses, and now he does it for a living. Starting a few years back with a couple of installations in local art galleries, Jay, who has no formal carpentry training, taught himself how to build the imaginary structures that were floating around in his head. We talked to Jay about how he has been able to turn his passion into a business, learning more about his philosophy of life and his definition of success.
This is the pilot episode of "Working Title," a collaboration between KQED and Little Paper Planes, hosted by Kelly Lynn Jones of LPP and Andrew Martin Scott, co-owner of Needles and Pens. Through this program, which will include videos, interviews, articles and essays, we will explore how local artist entrepreneurs are re-inventing the American Dream, creating alternative economies and redefining success in the Bay Area. Stay tuned.
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[@24tanglewood]

wow.. I really love his lifestyle, living near the seashore area. It's really amazing! He creates incredible artworks through his own skills without even like taking a course. Cool!!!

[@tylenolx]

so inspiring

[@dianerota]

If you lived in a small space, it may be less expensive. Rather than a desk and books, use a handheld computer and clipboard. Take your work anywhere, such as the beach. An office may not be needed.

[@dianerota]

Salvage materials can spur creativity, but certain aspects need to be addressed, such as screening for windows, opening windows, cross ventilation and the view from the window.

[@gordonquigg9389]

In this argument about whether or not a person can just choose to be an artist, and then struggle to try to make a living at it, I think is the wrong way to look at it. It's like any difficult art form that is saturated and yet hard to do. You either are a genius, and a workaholic obsessive builder, or you are not. You can't force the issue, unless you are a ripoff artist. The world is too full of plagiarist business wizards. They are aggressive business people who steal any new idea they can get their hands on and market it quickly with an underpaid disadvantaged labor force, and eventually put the inventors out of business. Jay on the other hand is such a genius at building things, that others can barely comprehend, and would be almost impossible to mass produce, that his unique one-off art forms are safe from the sharks, and all he has to do is get up and satisfy his insatiable urge to build his art, and it's so arty and attractive that the people are just drawn in and have to be part of it, and once the money follows in, his art building supports itself. Not all art forms are that safe from this great age of plagiarism.

[@dianerota]

Custom work can be very expensive even if it's a treehouse.

[@dianerota]

Another video shows him working in a surf board shop.

[@dianerota]

I agree with Jay. It just takes hard work. I know of a wonderful artist, but he's extremely disorganized and not very ambitious.