Mariah Nielson is a curator and writer whose design sensibility was fostered in the iconic Blunk House — the Inverness home hand-built by her father, the late artist JB Blunk. As Director of the JB Blunk Estate, Mariah serves as editor of the JB Blunk monograph and curator of Blunk Space, a gallery connecting her father’s legacy to contemporary artists. After meeting Mariah at the gallery, we caravanned up the winding roads of the Inverness ridge to her family home where she and her son are temporarily residing. Grounded and warm, Mariah walked us through the property, including JB's studio, the house and the garden, all of which are still very much alive and fostering the spirit of creativity.

You established the JB Blunk Estate in 2019 and published the JB Blunk First Edition in 2020, after years of sorting through your father’s archive. What drew you to formalize his legacy as an artist in this way?

I began working with my father’s collection and archive in 2006, including the Blunk House and studio. Over time, there was a growing interest in his work and in the home itself. By 2019, I was spending several months each year in Inverness, hosting visitors –curators, artists, and collectors – and organizing exhibitions with museums and galleries. After the publication of the JB Blunk monograph in 2020, it became clear that I needed to formalize and support this growing body of work. Establishing the JB Blunk Estate created a framework for that effort, which has since expanded to include Blunk Space and the Blunk Shop.

Your father often traded works with other artists, so it seems fitting that you have evolved his home and studio into a place for artists to live and work. Can you share a bit about this program and some of the artists who have participated in it?

In 2006, I established the JB Blunk Residency in collaboration with the Lucid Art Foundation. Over the course of the program, 22 artists lived and worked in the Blunk House and studio for two-month residencies. It was an incredibly rich exchange. Participants included Max Lamb, Gemma Holt, Jay Nelson, and Rachel Kaye. When I moved to London in 2011, the residency came to a close. More recently, through Blunk Space, we’ve revived that spirit by hosting exhibiting artists at the house. Their time here allows the work they develop for the gallery to be shaped by JB’s practice, the home, and the landscape of the Inverness Ridge. Recent artists include Alana Burns, Martino Gamper, Adam Pogue, and Daichiro Shinjo.

Not unlike your father's work, the Blunk House very much embodies the irreplaceable quality of handmade objects and a reverence for raw materials. Has the experience of growing up in a space like that influenced your own approach to curating a home?

Everything I’ve done – architecture, writing, curating, and now running a gallery – has been shaped by my upbringing in the Blunk House. Most significantly, the seamless merging of art, design, and craft into a way of life. My father didn’t distinguish between these disciplines, and that has deeply informed how I curate exhibitions and how I think about my own home as a cohesive, lived environment rather than something divided and isolated.

You recently moved back to Inverness and are temporarily residing at the Blunk House once again – has returning to your childhood home as an adult and a mother inspired or changed your own creative practice in any way?

Since moving back, I’ve developed my own creative practice (stone carving). Returning to the Blunk House has been deeply generative. It’s hard to live here and not make something – the creative energy is insistent and irresistible.

When did you begin carving stone? What first drew you to this practice and what are you working on now?

Two years ago, I discovered a stone yard in Desert Hot Springs that changed my life. I had just returned from London and was feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Encountering the work and materials of sculptor Roger Hopkins – his collection and off-cuts – prompted me to start working with my hands. I began making furniture and sculpture, and more recently plates and wall-mounted pieces. My work responds to the landscape around the Blunk House and continues a dialogue with my father’s practice.

Who or what most inspires you at the moment?

Stones – their color, density, and presence. I’m drawn to how the material transforms through cutting and polishing. There’s something deeply humbling about working with such an old and dense material.

Inverness and nearby Point Reyes Station are so quintessential to the beauty of Northern California – as a longtime local, what are your favorite places to visit or things to do?

My favorite place to eat is Marshall Store and Limantour Beach is my favorite place for a long walk. My favorite shops in Point Reyes are Coyuchi (for organic bedding), Point Reyes Books and Monk Estate (for antique and vintage jewelry).