[music playing] J. MORGAN PUETT: I'm not sure exactly what it is when people first come to Mildred's Lane and-- there are such a range of emotions, from an urban raised person suddenly being in a wild, little bewilderness of a landscape like this, to people who just love people, because the place itself is about people.

It's not a residency.

It's not a retreat.

We're all working.

We're researching.

We're active.

Every aspect of life is a rigorous engagement with the banal.

So at Mildred's Lane we make that a creatively charged practice.

From washing dishes out in the landscape to cooking a meal over an open fire to learning how to clean out a toilet properly, everything is rigorous, whimsical, fun, engaged, and we do it together.

Mildred is one of nine children that grew up in this house we call Mildred's house from the years 1902 through about 1987.

When I arrived into this landscape, it was so manicured by a little old man who was Mildred's nephew, it was as if Mildred just walked out the door and went down the road.

I fell in love.

I fell in love like people fall in love with each other.

I fell in love with this landscape.

I've grown up as an installation artist my whole life, studying all disciplines, from painting, sculpture, filmmaking, but it was this place that really took my heart away as an installation artist.

I think of it as a 96 acre installation project.

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