Jon's Shanty-Venture: Artist Reclaiming the American Dream

hi, I'm Jon Chapdelaine. A 23 y.o. visual and interdisciplinary artist based out of Detroit MI and I'm currently artist in residence at the Blue House Residency in Detroit.

I create art from salvaged materials I find in and around Detroit from blight, illegal dumping sites, dumpsters, demolitions, railroads, the streets, and where ever else I can scrap from. My art ranges from wall art installations, cairns from rubble, outdoor structures, graffiti, 35mm slide projection design, Recycled Glass Art, native ecology landscape design, and dance. I strongly believe in the intersections and crossover from artist disciplines. By absorbing the unique vantage points to reflect and study humanity from, you also find how they all share the same essence of conscious/unconscious humanity, just in unique dialects we speak through. This fascinates me a lot.

The Vision-

By May 2025 (this year), I will build and live in my towable tiny house (The Shanty-Venture) utilizing these skills I've developed as an interdisciplinary artist and carpenter. Thus Reclaiming the American Dream for myself by owning my own home that brings freedom to practice what I love, the arts.

The design itself is heavily inspired by my love of fantasy and the Shire from the Lord of The Rings and will so far include:

How your support will help-

From what I cannot find I will have to purchase, such as...

And as a low income performing artist and carpenter, this is where I will need your help to get me started on this Adventure!

The first thing I need to buy is the trailer, the foundation I start building upon. While I would love a solid new trailer specifically designed for tiny homes, they cost upwards of $8000 and that is a lot of money to raise. At the lower end of $2500 I could buy a junk trailer and a welder to overhaul and fabricate a custom tiny house trailer (with the assistance of my best friend welder artist Claire Kelly). And this is just the foundation, with building costs from electrical being around $3000, composting toilet being around $2000, rain collection systems being around $1000, propane tank installation being around $500, and other utilities that require new materials that can cost serious $.

The dream would also be having solar panels and batteries to make the Shanty-Venture a complete sustainable energy structure that can live off the grid, but that can cost around $6000.

The backbone of my project is Utilizing Salvaged Materials to Salvage from the spirit of the American Dream, looked at through the lenses of today. Being an American artist that's creating work relevant to the housing struggle my generation is facing. Building an identity of being a young American Artist of this era, centered around developing my best/most honest self that then builds strong art centered community. With your financial help, you can make this next big leap in my artistic endeavors happen along with me. So please help me build this stepping stone on my life journey :)

A Note-

I believe in the revitalization of these materials I use, the city I live in, and in humanity across all borders. The Cracks, Scars, and Breaks tell a meaningful story that no new thing ever could, and I value the genuine experience these "imperfections" all tell. Find the functional beauty in it all. Create your dream to chase because that is what will give you meaningful, life energy!

Thanks for listening to what I dream of!