Michael Davis
Kevin Neirman and Dave Larsen
Husbands for more than 25 years, Kevin Neirman and Dave Larsen inhabit an airy, mid-century post-and-beam Paul Trousdale home in Palm Springs. Built in 1952, the stunning home and garden includes a casita where Orson Welles used to stay, and an attached studio space. Kevin is a noted California studio ceramicist who came up during the California counterculture and anti-war movements of Berkeley, California. Having moved south, he now works in a light-filled space overlooking the pool and colorful back garden. Dave is a retired senior marketing executive who worked at Xerox and Apple and is a great supporter of Kevin’s art career. The couple love to entertain, and the backyard easily accommodates tables, chairs and umbrellas for outdoor dining under the desert stars. Kevin and Dave have filled their home with an extensive collection of important historic and contemporary ceramics, including examples of Kevin’s own playfully colorful and sensually organic works. Desert Magazine sat down with the couple to find out more about their story and their art-filled life here in the California desert.
DM: What’s your favorite thing about living in the California desert?
Dave: We have found SO many things that we love living here in the Coachella Valley. The warmth, the abundant sunshine, the vibrant art scene, the medical resources and many of our friends that have moved here from the SF/Bay Area. The restaurant scene is so vibrant as well (speaking as a “foodie”). Living in the Coachella Valley is like having all the resources of a large city with a small-town feel. We LOVE it here!
DM: Tell me a bit about your collections.
Kevin: We have a large collection of Native American pueblo pottery, including pots from the San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Casa Grande and Zia pueblos. Most of the contemporary works we have collected are from California artists like Nancy Selvin, Robert Brady, Kay Sekimachi, Akio Takemori, Betsy Strange, Sandy Simon and Bob Stocksdale. We have traveled extensively over the years and have also acquired several pieces from Japan, Bali, Papua New Guinea, Africa and Turkey.
Dave: I have been fascinated with all things Japan since my parents took me on a 4-month trip around the Pacific Rim when I was 16. Part of that fascination is my sake cup collection – now numbering 85+ pieces. Most of them are from Japan, both gallery pieces as well as humble restaurant (traditional wood) service vessels. Others are gifts from artist friends and other sources (e.g. Tokyo department stores’ gallery levels). I even have a couple of hand-blown pieces from a street artist at the base of Giza. Apparently, sake cups are an international fascination.
DM: How did you find your current house and what do you love most about it?
Dave: During one of our early visits to Palm Springs, Kevin went for a walk to pass some time while I was on a business call. When he returned, he said I had to come and see a house on “the wash” that had a for sale sign on the lawn. We bought it the next day on impulse. When approaching our retirement, we considered Mexico (Ajijic), Sonoma and Marin. We decided on Palm Springs for the warmth and sunshine, after spending many years in the colder SF Bay area, as well as our mutual upbringing in the cold Midwest.
Over the years, we bought three properties in the desert as investments after visiting several times. We loved Palm Springs as a vacation destination. We rented out all three properties as long-term rentals. The first property we bought is now our current home. We love our location on “the wash,” with the unobstructed views of the mountains to the south and the west, and that it is part of the midcentury development (Tahquitz River Estates) by Paul Trousdale. We are proud we were able to update the house to a more contemporary style while retaining Trousdale’s original intentions. And, of course, to the original custom design by the celebrated actors/owners, Akim Tamiroff and his wife Tamara Shayne. During our remodel, we left the casita bathroom mostly intact to honor Akim & Tamara’s best friend’s memory, as he was said to visit them here many times. We have named it the “Orson Welles Casita.”
DM: How did you meet?
Dave: Well, I’m going to age us here! When we met, 25 years ago, there was no such thing as internet dating or matching sites. Kevin and I were in different worlds. I was in hi-tech (Palo Alto) and Kevin was a working artist in Berkeley. He was very busy with his business, Kids ‘N Clay Pottery Studio, and his own work, and I was working and traveling globally non-stop. There was no way we would have met in any environment (bar/restaurant/friends). Fortunately, we both signed up with a professional matchmaker in San Francisco at about the same time. There were several failed matches on both sides, but when we first met at Kevin’s house in Berkeley, it was an immediate connection. After spending some quality time together on a sailing ship cruising the Greek Islands, we committed to each other during a romantic dinner cruise on the Bateaux Mouches in Paris on June 17, 1997, just 4 months after we first met. We were eventually legally married in 2008, just before Prop 8 was passed in California (which made us co-litigants in the historic OBERGEFELL ET AL. v. HODGES, ruling).
DM: Dave, your mother was an artist, how do you think your mother’s appreciation of the arts affected you?
Dave: My mother was a painter when I was young, and then later, her large (city block-long) gallery/frame shop/art store in downtown St. Paul was a big influence on me. As a teenager, I worked in the art supply store and helped her with the lighting, hanging and catering in the gallery to mount her large gallery openings. As she was the principal gallery representation of Warren McKenzie (and several other prominent ceramic artists in the upper Midwest), I was introduced to some of the best ceramic artists in the country. I’m not an artist, but I think being exposed to her circle, as well as my father’s work for the top-level midcentury architects in the Midwest (Elizabeth & Winston Close and Ralph Rapson), I developed a “good eye” and a refined sensibility for art and design. I started photographing everything in sight when I was 10. It led me to becoming a professional photographer, running a “carriage trade” portrait and commercial photography studio in St. Paul. After a career change that was facilitated by my use of early Apple II+ technology in my business, I became a Marketing Executive in high tech (XEROX, Apple & ADP). That early exposure to the arts served me well to manage marketing operations in a larger venue. It is certainly kismet that I came full circle later in life to have a celebrated ceramic artist as my partner in life and retirement.
DM: Kevin, tell me a little bit about your creative process.
Kevin: The first thing we did after remodeling the main house and casita was to build out my studio. Living in the desert with these expansive mountains full of textures and boulders inspired me to build large spherical forms. Perhaps because of the abundance of light here I began painting my pieces with bold bright colors, all new to me. I am now working more with vessel forms and my colors/glazes (which I make from scratch) are grounded with the rich shadows and subtle shades of the mountain light. Having the studio on-site is wonderful because I can immediately respond to an inspiration I may have and can go to work anytime, night or day, without traveling. Art is my life and to have the studio so close and immediate fulfills my passion! And, from a technical perspective, it makes it easy to check on how the clay is drying and whether it needs to be wrapped to keep it moist. After our two-mile walk each morning, I go to my studio. I spend a few weeks coiling, building and shaping several pieces and then bisque fire all of them. The next few weeks are spent breaking, painting and firing shards. It can then take a whole day to glue a single piece together to create the final object.
Kevin’s work available at Janssen Art Space gallery in Palm Springs. Janssenartspace.com
