The Tile House

The sweet face that greeted me upon arrival.

The longer we live in the desert, the more opportunities I have to see the infinite wonders of this place. Last weekend, I was privileged to be the dinner guest out at the Tile House in Wonder Valley, CA. (Wonder Valley is about 20 minutes east of Joshua Tree on Highway 62.) I always love driving out to Wonder Valley. It has a vastness to it that I find powerful and grand.

Artist Perry Hoffman started covering the surfaces of his desert house with mosaic tile about twelve years ago. I have never seen anything like it. Both interior and exterior walls have been lovingly re-surfaced with colorful tiles. A little help from Kickstarter this year has propelled him forward. What an incredible work in progress!

The View from the patio

Dining area

Hoffman told me he took a class in San Francisco from a friend to learn how to do mosaic tile, and that was where is all started. Now, Hoffman teaches classes in mosaic tile when he isn't working on this phenomenal house. Hoffman is also a photographer, works in clay, and has recently begun painting in acrylic. Some of his clay pieces end up in his mosaics.

This is the section he had been working on the day I visited. 

In the kitchen

The back of the house is not tiled, but the colorful stripes danced with many of the same colors in the mosaics.

We had a wonderful night of pizza, dog petting and art talk. I am so fortunate to meet so many creative people. To find out more about the Tile House and see some more of Hoffman's work, you can click here to visit his website. A big thank you to Perry, for inviting me to visit!