This is truly amazing! No designer involved but it’s all about design, nevertheless!
Eliphante was created near Sedona, inover 28 years by Michael Kahn and his wife, Leda Livant. The Residence that drew my attention through its originality was built until a progressive brain disease killed Mr. Kahn this December (71years old).
Eliphante, The Handmade Home has a 25-foot ceilings and incorporates rocks and scraps from construction sites, stained glass, pottery and wood and it was turned into a nonprofit arts organization in the late 1980s.
And it’s not only the Eliphante with the fascinating history. The couple who built it also has one. Ms. Livant was 45years old, married with two children and living in Westport when she met Mr. Kahn.
My husband and I went for a vacation on Cape Cod, and I met Michael, who was an artist there. He showed me one of his large canvases, a dark blue abstract painting with a small rectangle of light. What I saw in that particular painting was an image that invoked fear in me. I thought, there’s another world I have to explore. I knew I had to open my eyes to the rest of my life.
Three months later, Ms. Livant left her family and went to live with Mr. Kahn.
People said, ‘Leda must have gone crazy,’. It wasn’t craziness, it was like a rebirth. Within three weeks of my moving to Cape Cod, I got pneumonia and almost died, I was in such mourning for my family and so vulnerable, and the sadness of having left my kids has never left me.
Nine years later, the couple moved to Sedona, where two business people offered them three acres rent-free. The lack of money never disarmed the two artists who added Hippodome to Eliphante, as the residence of Ms. Livant.
The main concern is the endangered Eliphante that’s being planed to deed by her landlords. Even if the original couple had a Smithsonian evaluation for conservation purposes, they never received the $28,000 calculation.
I guess that makes Eliphante a uniquely styled mansion handmade by two lovers connected beyond ordinary understanding endangered by very ordinary reasons – money.
Why does art in its pure form must disappear like that? Can’t we do something? At least have an opinion?
If you want to read more about this story, you can try the nytimes.com and eliphante.org.
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6 comments ↓
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. The beauty of this all the love, the art, the hard work, the passion, the beauty of it all it brings tears to my eyes. It is -at least to me- something that brings up real emotions.
[...] who aren’t afraid to make every dream come true. And it’s the second example of what a great house love can build that I give [...]
i love your style. I am a starving artist for my ideas are much like your own. I can build anything out of concrete! holler at me if you know anyone that needs a builder.
Very personal visions either work or don’t work when relating to the public at large. This one doesn’t work. And there is nothing romantic about abandoning your children. that is not love.
@Adriana Indeed it’s beautiful and emotional. Unusual things always catch my attention so you can be sure I’ll share with all of you!
@jeremy kulmer marked down! ;)
@Arligoth Who are we to judge people’s passions or choices? When over half of the general population is living a dull, passion-less life either because they are frighten or they just don’t live up to that level of emotion, or just too conventional, these too have chose to embrace a controversial destiny implying sacrifices and solitude. Imho, this woman didn’t abandoned her children (or not only) but a way of life. Something that wasn’t her anymore (like choosing between life and death - how could she ever preferred death?).
that’s a pretty chill place ya got there
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