Petaluma artists building giant temple for Burning Man

Michael Garlington isn’t exactly religious. However, the Petaluma artist, who described himself as an atheist who believes in the power of nature, was drawn to churches while on an earlier trip to Europe.

Garlington and his partner, Natalia Bertotti, are building a chapel of their own. While it’ll feature a spire and confessional booth, it will be anything but traditional. Christening it the Totem of Confessions, the artists have been working at least 12 hours daily since spring to build the chapel in sections at a warehouse off East Washington and Weller streets in Petaluma. When its completed, they plan to haul it off to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, assemble it and torch it for the Burning Man festival.

The confessional already is covered with gold-painted plaster skulls, shells, teapots, crosses, pistols, melting Buddhas and religious busts. Interior walls feature collages of lion, yak and albino alligator saints - made from photographs taken by the artists.

“We could add to it and bring humor,” said Garlington, 38. “We’re not constrained by the Church.”

The couple also gathered driftwood along beaches to decorate the altar and used antlers as handles to the massive chapel doors. Bertotti, 30, said they wanted to bring in natural elements throughout to keep with the totem pole concept.

“Every inch of this is covered. We’re trying not to let any plywood show,” she said. Black and white photographs of her decorated the exterior of the structure.

Friends have stopped by over the months to lend a hand. On Wednesday, Sonin Johnson, who lives nearby, helped put lace and other trims on exterior art boxes. “They’ve done almost all of this by themselves. It’s mind-blowing,” she said of Bertotti and Garlington.

Johnson, whose uncle David Best, a Burning Man luminary, worked last year with a crew of about 100 volunteers to design and construct the Temple of Grace for the festival, said she was impressed with Garlington’s design.

“There’s this seriousness about his work and there’s whimsical quality,” she said, adding that some of her friends from Colorado will be getting married in the chapel during Burning Man.

Garlington and Bertotti will be spending two weeks in the desert assembling the chapel like a giant puzzle before the start of the festival on Aug. 30. Garlington said it’ll be lit up on Sept. 5, right after the burning of the Man.

“Before it loses its beauty, it’ll burn away,” he said. “(We’re) putting our heart and soul into it and letting it go.”

They’ll also be putting Timothy Leary’s ashes in the five-?story chapel, Bertotti said. An image of him hangs in the altar.

Not all will be lost when the chapel goes up in flames, though. Garlington said they’ll be remove some of the gold-painted plaster figurines and medallions that adorn the doors and exterior and give them away to people in the crowd.

It’s not the first art piece he’s made for Burning Man.

Garlington, a 1994 Petaluma High graduate, built a chapel for Burning Man two years ago. He covered the 44-foot-tall structure with black-and-white images he had taken, including some made while setting up for previous Burning Man festivals.

In 2012, he worked with Nicasio artist Laura Kimpton on a sculpture that spelled out EGO. The three block letters were built out of wood and covered with 4,000 handmade, gold-painted plaster objects, including birds, clowns, crosses and pistols.

Bertotti said they received a $37,000 grant from Burning Man for this year’s project. She said it’s estimated to cost $80,000 to build, so they had to raise money through sites such as Indiegogo.com.

She hoped the project will inspire others to pursue art, which she considers a form of religion.

“It’s so fulfilling,” she said. “It gives me direction.”

You can reach Staff Writer?Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.