Lifestyle
His playful wood furniture is more like functional art
Walking through the garden of designer and sculptor Vince Skelly’s Claremont home is a distinct local sensory experience. Following a decade living in Portland, Ore., “I just want it to feel like Southern California,” he says as he grazes a palm over a salvia plant, releasing its aroma. Since returning in 2021, the self-taught artist has been expanding his practice and nurturing a connection to his hometown, colloquially dubbed “the City of Trees and PhDs.”
Skelly’s foray into wood sculpting began in 2017, when after spending his days tied to a screen as a graphic designer he’d fire up power tools in his Portland garage. He began by exploring “the limitations of what I can lift into my car, and [using] one chainsaw and tools. Those led to the vocabulary of forms I’m known for.”
Learning about legendary woodworkers such as George Nakashima and JB Blunk in particular, featured in the 2010 book “Handcrafted Modern,” was revelatory. “I was surprised he did all that with a chainsaw because his sculptures felt so refined — these abstract forms out of redwood and cypress,” Skelly says of Blunk. “A chainsaw is such an aggressive tool, and using it in a thoughtful, considered way to create form and shape intrigued me.” Then scaling down to using other analog devices yields nuance and detail.
Furniture made by Vince Skelly, with clay paintings by Dino Matt above.
Artwork made by Vince Skelly.
Vince Skelly holds his 10-month-old son, James Barron Skelly, in the backyard of the family home.
Within a few short years, he was brainstorming ideas and taking commissions from Off-White brand founder and LVMH menswear artistic director Virgil Abloh via DM. The largest prototype project wasn’t fully realized as planned before Abloh’s death in November 2021, but these exchanges “made me realize it’s great to dream big and take chances.” Skelly’s goods being recently installed in the Burberry store on Rodeo Drive is another sign the fashion world appreciates his point of view.
Some details shift, but the core challenge remains: namely, how to take raw timber and apply “the least amount of modification to turn it into a finished piece.”
Benches, chairs, stools, tables and sculptures straddle functional and decorative purposes. Unstained and waxed logs retain their intrinsic qualities yet are transformed in ways that honor their origins. Smooth bench surfaces sit atop hulky rounded bases, and smaller tactile sculptures result from Skelly’s reductive process. Human intervention is evident yet humbled by a certain primal resonance.
Like his heroes’ output, no two pieces are identical. What he describes as “an index,” however, has evolved for clients who want sculptural furniture that retains nature’s imperfections and quirks — but not flop-on-the-sofa comfort. For much of his work Skelly sources specific lumber with the end product in mind, knowing that each undertaking will still take on its own character.
Minimizing waste is a key precept. “I have a hard time throwing away scraps,” he says with a laugh about the shards and wedges that litter the edges of his backyard and the floor of his nearby studio in La Verne. He repurposes offcuts into smaller experiments, including rhythmic, polychromatic wall-mounted pieces hanging in his own home; one is above the white oak fireplace mantle he hand-chiseled.
“Using found wood to dictate new forms” remains a generative exercise, especially when preparing for shows with curator and gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker of Tiwa Select, who organized “After the Storm” in L.A. in 2022, which showcased pieces made from salvageable debris in the wake of that year’s windstorm. What Skelly will present with Tiwa Select later this year in New York City doesn’t have an “end client, so I can just do whatever I want,” he explains.
Detail of a fireplace mantel made by Vince Skelly.
Vince Skelly gets a record from his collection while his wife, Jessica Barron Skelly, plays with the couple’s 10-month-old son, James Barron Skelly, on the floor of their home in Claremont.
The sensitively updated home where he lives with his wife, Jessica, and their infant son is a laboratory for living with these objects. So far, the presence of a crawling baby has led to only minimal adjustments and aesthetic intrusions.
Rather than function as austere showpieces, Skelly’s creations blend into this welcoming home environment full of earthy colors and personal treasures, which include a beloved rocking chair inspired by Claremont-adjacent master craftsman Sam Maloof that Jessica’s father crafted in the 1970s. It’s an ideal companion piece to the site-specific daybed Skelly made to best enjoy the view from the sunroom’s expansive windows, where dappled light filters through an outdoor screen of towering bamboo.
The Skellys are proud stewards of the midcentury property that holds a convergence of Claremont heritage. While waiting for the right house to come around to plot their move back, they were thrilled to hear about the modest two-bedroom home of former California Botanic Garden director, author and professor Lee Lenz. In the late 1950s, the accomplished botanist and conservationist became the second owner of a spec house for an unrealized cul-de-sac development of concrete masonry residences.
Lenz lived in the property situated within view of his workplace until his death in 2019 at the age of 104. Over the decades, this corner lot became a site for the scientist to apply his expertise, establishing a fantastical, idiosyncratic sanctuary populated with extensive plantings. It’s also a stone’s throw from the studio of seminal mosaic artist and architectural designer Millard Sheets (now home to Claremont Eye Associates).
Given Claremont’s tightknit community, Skelly surmises Lenz and Sheets knew each other. The turquoise mosaic tiles that clad concrete pads in the yard, for instance, perhaps came as surplus from Sheets’ workshop. The inspiration felt immediate.
“It’s a visual city [with] a lot of art. We left our back door and we were in the campuses, climbing on sculptures and seeing Millard Sheets’ mosaics,” Skelly recalls. “I grew up going to the [California Botanic] Garden — then fast-forward to this house.”
Detail of a wood mosaic outdoor shower made by Vince Skelly.
Detail of backyard native plants and outdoor artwork made by Vince Skelly.
Vince Skelly and his family sit outside in the backyard, where handmade artwork and native plants decorate the space landscaped by design studio Terremoto.
Reimagining the backyard in collaboration with David Godshall of noted landscape design firm Terremoto simultaneously pays homage to Lenz and reflects a vision for this young family. California native plants, hardscape additions and meandering paths provide a perfect backdrop for Skelly’s exterior works.
Skelly disassembled Lenz’s old-growth redwood bird cages and repurposed them into a deck. He also installed an original “wood mosaic”-adorned outdoor shower — a sly reference to Sheets. Plenty more remnants remain for potential future use.
His personal and professional life are inexorably tied to the town where Skelly’s artist parents originally moved to attend school at Claremont Graduate University. He’s eager to make his mark through a public art commission that involves producing a bench from another casualty of the 2022 windstorm, and to develop more found-material carved sculptural seating with students as part of a pilot program at Pomona College.
“We know how special it is because of people like Millard Sheets and Sam Maloof who left their fingerprints on the public art scene and the architecture,” he reflects of Claremont. Being outside of L.A. proper has other advantages too. “It’s more accessible to do the things you want to do in a small town.”
Singer Joe McDonald sings during the concert marking the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival on Aug. 15, 2009 in Bethel, New York. McDonald has died at age 84.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
Country Joe McDonald, the singer-songwriter whose Vietnam War protest song became a signature anthem of the 1960s counterculture, has died at 84.
McDonald died on Saturday in Berkeley, Calif., according to a statement released by a publicist. His health had recently declined due to Parkinson’s disease.
Born in 1942, in Washington, D.C., he grew up in El Monte, Calif., outside Los Angeles, according to a biography on his website. As a young man he served in the U.S. Navy before turning to writing and music during the early 1960s, eventually becoming involved in the political and cultural ferment of the Bay Area.
In 1965 he helped form the band Country Joe and the Fish in Berkeley. The group became part of the emerging San Francisco psychedelic music scene, blending folk traditions with electric rock and pointed political commentary.
The band’s best-known song, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” captured the growing anti-war sentiment of the Vietnam era. With its ragtime-influenced rhythm and sharply satirical lyrics about war and political leadership, the song quickly became associated with protests against the conflict.
McDonald delivered the song to some half a million people at the 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York. Performing solo, he led the crowd in a form of call-and-response before launching into the anti-war anthem, turning the performance into one of the defining scenes of the festival.
Country Joe and the Fish released several recordings during the late 1960s and toured widely, becoming closely identified with that era’s West Coast rock and protest movements.
McDonald later continued performing and recording as a solo artist, recording numerous albums across a career that spanned more than half a century. His work drew variously from folk, rock and blues traditions and often reflected his long-standing interest in political and social issues.
Although he became widely known for his opposition to the Vietnam War, McDonald frequently emphasized respect for those who served in the U.S. military. After his own service in the Navy, he remained engaged with veterans’ issues and occasionally performed at events connected to veterans and their experiences, according to his website biography.
Maren Morris to Trump Voters
You Got Bamboozled!!!
Published
Country music star Maren Morris is speaking her mind about what she sees as the failures of the Trump administration, and she doesn’t care if she loses fans over it.
According to Maren Morris, if you supported Donald Trump in his presidential elections, you voted for a “dementia ridden, diaper clad, cornball” and “you got bamboozled.”
Not only that … she doesn’t feel bad for the MAGA faithful who may feel disillusioned by their leader.
In a TikTok posted Friday, she said, “The is literally the result of ploying and voting for losers.”
Morris has expressed her dismay at music becoming so political since she’s jumped onto the scene — something she’s benefitted from due to songs like “My Church” — but she’s clearly not shy about her views.
“If you don’t agree with me … you can’t enjoy my music because of my viewpoints? You’re absolutely allowed to do that,” she said. “But I am only here for an iteration of revolutions around the sun, a couple, and so I do feel like I have sacrificed a lot of my mental health, my financial standing, my family, just because I am so deeply concerned and uncomfortable with the weird status quo of country music.”
Jean, 72, a Chinese opera performer, poses for a portrait before performing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Annice Lyn/Everyday Asia
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Annice Lyn/Everyday Asia
March 8 is International Women’s Day — a date picked in honor of a remarkable Russian protest.
During World War I, women in Russia went on strike. They demanded “bread and peace.” Among the results of their four-day protest: the Czar abdicated and women gained the right to vote.
This bold strike began on Feb. 23, 1917, according to the Julian calendar then used in Russia. That date translated to March 8 in the Gregorian calendar that much of the world uses. So that’s the day chosen for this celebratory event.
True to the spirit of those Russian women, the world pauses on this day to celebrate the achievements of women. This year to mark International Women’s Day, the United Nations is calling for “Rights. Justice. Action. For all women and girls.”
Sometimes, the true achievements are the ones that we barely see. The photographers at The Everyday Projects, a global photography and storytelling network, have shared portraits of women who in ways large and small are determined, like those Russian women over 100 years ago, to improve the lives of women and to build a better world.
Singing with strength
Kuala Lumpur-based photographer Annice Lyn likes to highlight the strength, resilience and the stories of women who are often overlooked.
That’s the inspiration for her portrait of Jean, 72, as she prepares for a performance of Chinese opera at Kwai Chai Hong, a restored heritage alley in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown in August 2024.
Such performances, typically staged during festivals and temple celebrations, combine singing, acting, martial arts, elaborate costumes and symbolic makeup to tell classical stories from Chinese folklore, history, and literature.
“Performers like Jean often dedicate decades of their lives to mastering this art form, preserving techniques and stories that are centuries old,” says Lyn. They told her that they may encounter negative reactions — questions like “are you wasting your time” or simply indifference.
“Sustaining a centuries-old practice in a modern urban setting requires both resilience and passion,” says Lyn, who made this picture minutes before the performance. “I wanted to give Jean the dignity she deserves through this portrait, a strong, intimate image that acknowledges her beauty, her discipline and the life she has dedicated to Chinese opera. I hoped to make her feel seen and heard, capturing not just a performance but a living cultural legacy.”
Dreaming of a toilet
Nkgono Selina Mosima, a resident of Thaba Nchu, Free State, South Africa, has hoped for years that she could afford to dig a pit toilet in her yard.
Tshepiso Mabula/The Everyday Projects
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Tshepiso Mabula/The Everyday Projects
The subject is Nkgono Selina Mosima, a resident of Thaba Nchu, Free State, South Africa, a region where poverty is rampant, Mosima is one of many residents who lack proper sanitation, says Tshepiso Mabula, a photographer and writer based in Johannesburg. Her wish was to hire someone to dig a pit toilet in her yard – in which human waste is collected in a pit and allowed to break down naturally over time – but she couldn’t afford the cost. The alternative is open defecation – finding a secluded place despite the personal risks and the potential health consequences of untreated human excrement.
“I was drawn to Nkgono by her unrelenting faith and positive outlook; despite her difficult circumstances, she constantly reiterated her hope that things would improve,” says Mabula. “This inspired the framing of the portrait: the bright colors, her headscarf and the belt around her waist all serve to highlight her strength, optimism and faith.”
The picture was taken in 2020. Today, Mabula says, many women still lack safe and effective sanitation options. Nkgono was a powerful voice for action and change as she eventually could afford to dig a pit toilet on her property.
Russian footballers
These women from Voronezh, Russia, participated in the country’s short-lived but intense American-style football league. They’re hanging out in the locker room.
Kristina Brazhnikova/Everyday Russia
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Kristina Brazhnikova/Everyday Russia
It seems improbable — starting an American football league for women in Russia. Not soccer but football. That’s what Portugal-based photographer Kristina Brazhnikova is documenting in her project “Mighty Girls,” which she shot between 2018 and 2021.
Any Russian woman could join, regardless of age, body type or level of training, she says. Coaches from the U.S. women’s national football team participated.
In the photo, the girls from the Voronezh team “Mighty Ducks” (Gabi, Katya, and Olesia) are in the locker room of a training camp preparing for practice. Team members came up with the name, she says.
“Everything was built on enthusiasm, so the players had to study the rules and playbooks on their own. Some women were invited by friends, others were drawn to the unusual nature of the sport, and some simply wanted to improve their physical fitness,” says Brazhnikova, who is Russian herself.
After the first practice, many women decided the game wasn’t for them, she says. It requires not only strength and endurance but the ability to memorize complex plays. Players had to buy their own protective gear, pay for field rentals and cover their travel expenses to competitions in other cities.
“Those who stayed, however, found a new family,” says Brazhnikova — and a new form of expressing emotions, including aggression. The women told her that playing American football made them braver and more decisive. They allowed themselves to step outside their comfort zones and push beyond the limits of their usual lives. They changed jobs and left relationships that had run their course. And the sound of pads colliding on the field became their favorite,” she says.
The league ceased to operate in 2022.
Hunting for missing loved ones
Hilaria Arzaba Medran of Mexico stands with tools she’ll use as she searches a clandestine burial site for the grave of her son, Oscar Contreras Arzaba, who disappeared in 2011 at age 19.
James Rodríguez/Everyday Latin America
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James Rodríguez/Everyday Latin America
Hilaria Arzaba Medran, 57, is no stranger to loss. Her son Oscar Contreras Arzaba disappeared on May 22, 2011, at the age of 19. A resident of the Mexican state of Veracruz, she’s a member of Solecito, an organization whose 250 members go out and look for their missing relatives on a regular basis. Holding tools in this photograph taken in Feb. 20, 2018, she searches for her missing son and other victims in a location known to have served as a clandestine grave.
“This collective is primarily led by women, and I was awe-struck by their determination to find their loved ones despite horrific violence and real-life threat to their own well-being,” says photographer James Rodríguez.
On this occasion in 2018, Rodriguez and others in the group had received an anonymous tip of a possible clandestine cemetery on the outskirts of Cordoba. She went searching with several other collective members, digging tools in hand. “We went into an isolated rural field that felt macabre in itself and [we] had no sort of security personnel with us. I was truly astounded by their conviction and courage,” he says.
A demand for housing
Janaina Xavier, a community leader, holds her son in a building in São Paulo, Brazil, that was occupied by people without housing in 2024.
Luca Meola/Everyday Brasil
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Luca Meola/Everyday Brasil
Janaina Xavier, a community leader, holds her son while looking out the window of the building where she lives with six of her 10 children near the Cracolândia district in São Paulo, Brazil, on April 23, 2024.
She currently serves as a council member for the Coordination of Policies for the Homeless Population and advocates for the rights of people living in and around Cracolândia.
“I’ve known Janaina Xavier for many years, since I began my long-term work documenting Cracolândia in São Paulo. She has long been involved in struggles for housing rights for people living in this highly stigmatized region of the city,” says photographer Luca Meola.
This photograph was taken inside a building being illegally occupied by Xavier and dozens of other families – a way for them to secure housing in the city center.
“For many low-income families, occupying empty buildings is one of the only ways to remain in the central area and access essential services and work opportunities,” Meola says.
In 2025, the city evicted Xavier, her family and the other residents.
The mother leaders of Madagascar take charge
In the Grand South of Madagascar, women known as “reny mahomby,” or mother leaders, perform a welcoming dance before starting a session to teach women in the community how to improve their lives.
Aina Zo Raberanto/The Everyday Projects
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Aina Zo Raberanto/The Everyday Projects
In this photo from the Grand South of Madagascar, in Amboasary Sud, women known as “Reny Mahomby,” or “mother leaders” perform a welcoming dance.
The “mother leaders” inspire other mothers in the community to make changes in their lives – to improve hygiene, to educate their children, to start small businesses, says photojournalist Aina Zo Raberanto, who lives in this African island nation but had never before visited the Grand South.
The dance took place at the start of a training session, says Raberanto. In this photo from November 2021, she says. “These mother leaders welcome us with a traditional dance from the region. I was deeply moved by their commitment to their community.”
The mothers of Madagascar “are the pillars of the household while sometimes facing difficult realities such as violence or early marriage,” she says. “I took this photograph to show both their strength, their dignity, their joy for life and the warmth of their welcome despite the hardships. Behind their smiles and movements lies a great determination to continue supporting their families and to build a better future for their children.”
Marching for their rights
Members of Puta Davida, a feminist collective advocating for the labor and human rights of sex workers, take part in a march during Carnival in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 14, 2026.
Luca Meola
/Everyday Brasil
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Luca Meola
/Everyday Brasil
This photograph was taken during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro this February.
“I have been accompanying the collective Puta Davida for about three years. [It] works to create public debate around sex work, advocating for the recognition of sex work as legitimate labor and for the protection of sex workers’ human and labor rights,” says photographer Luca Meola.
The Puta Davida is a feminist collective from Rio de Janeiro created in the early 1990s by the sex worker and activist Gabriela Leite, a historic figure in Brazil’s movement for sex workers’ rights.
“I have been accompanying the collective for about three years. [It] works to create public debate around sex work, advocating for the recognition of sex work as legitimate labor and for the protection of sex workers’ human and labor rights,” says photographer Luca Meola.
In 2026, one of the community organizations that prepares music, dance, and large performances for Carnival parades chose to dedicate its parade to sex workers
Meola, who photographed the members of this group as they marched, says: “For me, what is powerful about this moment is how these women reclaim visibility in public space. Through political organization, performance and collective presence, they challenge stigma and assert their rights — which I believe strongly resonates with this year’s theme [for International Women’s Day] of justice and action,” says Meola.
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science and development and has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on X @kamal_t
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