Kaldari:

Unique Blend of Concrete Yields Unlimited Potential

Juliet Farmer,ConcreteNetwork.Com Columnist

Leave it to Gary Simpson to compare concrete mix to fast food. "My mix has more ingredients than Col. Sanders chicken," he laughs. And that mix, blended with Simpsons' artistic ability, has served the Orange County and Los Angeles areas well.

Simpson, a lifelong resident of Laguna Beach, Calif., received his art degree from California State University at Long Beach in 1971. He began his art career in 1972, exhibiting at the Sawdust Art Festival in Laguna, and he has participated in the Festival of Arts juried exhibition since 1999.

Simpson, who has worked with cement as a medium of artistic expression since 1986, started his company, Kaldari, in 1995 as an extension of his artistic expression. Kaldari offers homeowners in areas such as Orange County, Westside, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Rancho Santa Fe the most cutting-edge countertops and concrete furniture available.

Kaldari countertops are natural looking and integrate well with wood, stone, steel and brick. They are also lightweight, almost seamless, and can be formed into almost any shape imaginable with limitless colors and textures.

Simpson spent months researching and working with formulas to produce a virtually crack-free countertop. While some say hairline cracks are inevitable in a concrete project, Simpson disagrees. He has been watching a countertop he installed in Laguna Beach several years ago and has yet to see a crack.

His mix holds up so well, Simpson has had success shipping concrete counter tops to Indiana. He also sent a shower enclosure to Palos Verdes, and installed an 85-foot bar in a Long Beach restaurant.

Simpson's mix includes acrylics, white and dark cement, and additives to reduce the amount of water and air, all resulting in stronger concrete. "Typically, the concrete is two inches thick and comes in large, seamless sections," he says regarding what the mix he has been using since 1997 produces. "My concrete is an engineered mix of concrete, and many different factors that allow the mix to be light, strong and flexible."

One project that benefited from Simpsons' concrete countertops was the extensive remodel on the home former NBA-player Wilt Chamberlain owned. The new owners of the house wanted to remodel several rooms, including the kitchen, so Simpson created about 80 feet of precast concrete countertops with integral green hues for the homeowners.

"Precast gives me the ability to construct in my own environment rather than outside...I can control my environment," Simpson explains of his technique. Although Simpson can control his own work environment, he acknowledges that the outside world is out of his control – for now anyway.

While he attempts to turn the world's chaos into beauty, don't be surprised if Simpson one day accepts a Nobel Peace Prize for his other passion, Common Ground 191, a very large Fresco installation. His vision involves creating 196 abstract panels, one for each of the 191 nations on the planet as well as five discretionary panels. For this endeavor, each panel will be about 42 inches by 42 inches square, and when assembled 50 feet by 50 feet.

To prepare each piece, Simpson intends to collect soil or sand from each of the 191 nations. This mixture will then be incorporated in the texture of the total. The collection process is already underway. He's looking for sponsorships and says that all it will take is one big sponsor and then he can be more aggressive in the collection process. "Right now we're researching the best candidate to sponsor it...(we're) looking for a multi-national company to sponsor it," he explains.

Since each piece would include a part of each country, Simpson likens the whole installation to the Earth itself, with visible masses floating on tectonic plates, converging and diverging. "But the magma on which they all rest is common ground," he says. "The individual pieces will reflect the identity of each nation, but the implication of the whole is that there is an underlying unity. Just as plate boundaries don't always correspond to continents...and just as the geography of the Earth has changed and is changing through plate tectonics, this project expresses for me the necessity of change and the unifying 'wisdom' of the process."

Simpson began the undertaking at the beginning of 2003, but admits that the wake of 9/11 had a great influence on the work. "Although I thought of doing something large scale in the past, it was after 9/11 that this came together," he adds.

Whether Simpson is working on Common Ground 191 or creating a concrete countertop for a client, his passion is palpable and it shows in the work he produces.

Kaldari
Laguna Beach, CA
(949) 494-3046
(949) 376-3912 FAX
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www.kaldari.com

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