Drunk on Freedom and two pints
The Art Farm is a place in France which calls itself a community of artists, musicians, and eco-builders. I went there thinking that i would learn a bit of organic farming, and would participate in a workshop in cob building. I was wrong. There is one guy with a dream and a huge sex drive. Today I cut my losses – a dear thousand dollars, nearly – to get the heck out of there. The Art Farm takes WOOF-ers – people who work on organic farms in exchange for lodging and instruction. There is no organic farm here, but i did find two woofers who, like me, were not impressed with the weirdness going on. By weirdness i mean the owner (who says it is not his place but everyone’s place) sleeping with at least two of the four girls who were there with me. Everything was a sexual innuendo; his way of scoping out his chances. He was also talking astrology, numerology, and other quack stuff and Wayne Dyer was on the stero telling me that I am God and to imagine the sands of time wiping away my name written in the sand. I could deal with that, except it was incessant, intermixed with very loud repetitive music. I had no time to think my own thoughts. To boot, the mood of the place was largely dependent on the owner’s emotional state. He would go from dressing up and dancing around like a child to brooding to flirting and taking off for secret quickies with one of the girls. He wanted us to discover what the mountain wants us to build: but when i had any opinions different from his it became clear that the mountain has his voice and he is not happy when anyone challenges or questions him or the mountain. The three other girls seemed all into it; yelling at flowers, contemplating suicide, dancing in circles and singing songs, playing imaginary card games and having imaginary ice cream fights; I had to get out of the mess.So the two Irish boys and I packed our bags and left this afternoon. I slipped out the back door and ran up the mountain, through the thistles, with the theme of the great escape running through my head.We hitched a ride to the nearest town and promptly ordered two rounds of pints to celebrate our return to sanity. Now I will make my way to Nice until Sunday when i return home. I feel I have survived something strange and am glad to be out with a few lessons learned. I am not giving up on permaculture or cob building: i am giving up on the idiotic idea that you somehow have to be outside the system of normality to be creative and connected to life and creation and beauty. My eyes have opened. Do not go to the Art Farm.NB Very seriously, this place is unhygienic, unsafe for single travellers, isolated, and not at all as advertised. I’m up for creative adventures of the alternative sort, but this was beyond that. I can smell a quack and a fraud, and this place reeked of it.
Tags: Ardeche, Art Farm, France
blueskies
Hello there
Your write beautifully.
I came across your blog while researching Johnny Grant and his Art Farm. What a fraud. He took hundreds of pounds from me earlier this year. I wanted to buy one of his antique baths. It has never arrived, and he doesn’t do refunds. Two other women who responded to his ads for baths received the same treatment. And he doesn’t just target bourgeois women looking to renovate their bathrooms. He’s also taken money from students for courses which were cancelled without refunds. I hope you don’t mind me posting a link to my blog http://theartfarm-beware.blogspot.com/ . I’m trying to publicise the way he operates so others don’t fall into the same trap. best, Juliette
I just got accepted to this internship program at the Art Farm. I haven’t paid anything but the application fee, yet. What should I do?
Don’t send them any money!! This is a huge scam. They’re next project appears to be the eco village. Its a chateau in france that you live in “rent free” and restore. Kate Marsh and Johnny Grant are the culprits. Stay clear.
I hope you didn’t send any money because this guy is a complete fraud, and has some serious pyschological flaws.
Amazingly I found out the beware blogspot that kate marsh is now heavily involved with this. I was therewhen she arrived and I specifically remember me and my friend telling her to be careful and wary of Johnny Grant. She actually had a magazine called permaculture 101with her so I guess she was ripe for manipulation.
So does anyone know what has happened since??? Has the whole thing been shut down?? I hope so because is an unbelievable fraud.Steer well clear.
I was one of the Irish boys referred to in the blog, luckily I was only volunteering but the whole set up was unbelievably bizaare.
i just found this blog and wow! i experienced this place back in the summer of 2006. 6 weeks of hell. i had to make a decision to either go along with his bullshit or run away through the countryside. it was very complicated and dangerous…and i had to be there till the end of the trip.
he is probably in Australia and taking advantage of more woman and artists. he is terribly sick.
I have been looking at places to visit on my trip to Europe and it seems there are not many places where what they offer is what you get. Wwoofing has become a hit and miss experience. I wonder why you stayed for 6 weeks if the place was that bad and if you had to pay anything.
Hi S, I’m guessing K was in the same situation as me (as many WWOOFers are): you plan ahead and when you show up in these very remote places (having prepaid or not budgeted for having to get out of town again), you are at the mercy of the farm. It was actually difficult for me to even get to a main road from where I was, and I simply hadn’t the money to pay a cab (and didn’t have access to a phone to summon one!). I’d recommend only going to a place which is recommended to you by someone you visited. AND always have lots of emergency cash…just in case.