Do you know the connection between swell and really creative fence building? Well, I'm going to tell you, we are going to start having live swell sessions come January. And when I was doing a location scout for our Los Angeles launch, I discovered a really cool space. It's called Art and Space LA. But in doing so, I discovered a really cool family that are the proprietor of the space. But their story in and of itself is really worth a swell interview
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:26
My first question has to do with the history of your family. I have a photo here of you and your dad. Can you talk about growing up in Santa Fe and being sort of an apprentice to your dad's furniture building talents and how that shaped you and how your family decided to move to Los Angeles? Just give us a background so we can kind of get a sense of where you've been and how you got here. Bye
Arian Harwell
@artandspacela · 2:37
But anyway, did that for a long time and then we just built this whole line of different stuff, started getting into fencing and arbors and gates and stuff like that. This is like 25 years ago, right? So anyway, I grew up as a musician, which also was why I created the space the way it is. You can see it's all set up amazing. So I'm really excited about this event you got coming up
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:37
Wow, Ariane, it's so amazing how playful your response was. And then you ended with this whole 15,000 square foot Playland. I mean, it's so rare that people get to enter a career through this lens of joy and abandon and sort of the delight in the risk and the tree climbing and stuff. And then to be able to create a space that you're going to share with others, where we can be in that space too. It's like the gift that keeps on giving
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:32
It. Can you talk a little bit about art and function? Because I think it's really fascinating. Because you've built furniture, you've built a lot of fences, and they're all functional, but there's a lot of artistry in them. How do you strike a balance between going really wild in the art but really making sure that it's functional and that it does the job it's supposed to do? What's that creative process like for you?
Arian Harwell
@artandspacela · 1:37
How you would tone things down and not going over the top too much is just color schemes and keeping things flowing. Right. When you have multiple pattern turns in the same area, it's going to be distracting to the eye, but it's beautiful if you do it right. So it's funny that you asked that question, because it's exactly what this place is. It's over the top, but kind of toned down at the same time. So thank you
Arian Harwell
@artandspacela · 1:11
It. Oh, yeah. I really like that you posted that photo of the crazy artwork with the willow. See, that was back in the day. As I told you, we did go really over the top. That stuff is still there. It's in this place called Rinconada. It's actually 50 minutes away from Santa Fe. And I spent most of my time in Taos. It. I went to school in Taos
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:40
It'll be the first one in the country, and we hope to expand into other cities. Can you just talk a little bit about your vision as an events producer and somebody who really values the kind of things we'll be doing with swell?
Arian Harwell
@artandspacela · 2:00
The place is so unique that I want to have, like, corporate parties here and attracting high end big corporations to come here because the place is so unique and fun and the lighting at night is incredible. So I can't wait for everybody to check it out. It
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:17
How many things are firing in our brains because it's just audio and what that opportunity is. So it's no accident that you love podcasting and you love audio engineering and creating music. I'm super psyched. So thank you for just spending time here on Swell. I hope it becomes a home to report on different shows that you have
Arian Harwell
@artandspacela · 2:07
So I changed my pattern right then when I said that earlier, because that night I had a Christmas party to set up for. Here I am in Lowe's right now. Sorry it's a little bit loud, but we got this thing going and man, my dad and I spent 2 hours setting up Christmas lights. Actually, they were led lights, and they could sync them all up to your phone. And each individual one, you could change the color. So it was really fun
