I am a containerist.

My name is Terry Herb and I am a containerist. What is a containerist? It’s a moniker I created for a person who lives inside a container home or at least has the desire to do so (such as myself). Why do I want to live in a container home? It seems to me that there is a statement to be made by living in one–similar to hybrid cars and wind farms. It’s a cool thing which impacts the environment in a beneficial way.

I am an artist and I have been one all my life. I have sold art work to the public since 1999. If I had to guess, I would say that I have sold around 2500+ works of art ranging from simple pencil sketches on paper to a 7ft tall metal sculpture I welded from scrap metal. Creating and tinkering comes pretty easy to me and I do consider myself a visionary in many ways. I currently live in the south bay area of Los Angeles and work as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Upon writing this bio of sorts, I am finishing up a children’s book for an author far away from me.

The port of Los Angeles pictured above  is a merely minutes from me. Yes, I am near a mind-blowing sea of shipping containers which seems to cover tens of square miles of precious port property–one of the busiest in the world! Although intriguing, this area is not where I wish to call home. I’m not a concrete jungle kinda person. It’s an inspiration zone for me because I strive to leave it all behind for greener pastures (grass and shrubbery may be optional). Living in a tiny apartment and being stuck in traffic isn’t my cup of chai tea by far. I have lived in the desert community of Joshua Tree here in California for a number of years and I know positively that a home in the country is for me. I need my elbow room. I need a place to create the biggest art sculpture of my life–a container home. It will be liberating in so many aspects.

My goal is to take an acre (or more) of generously gifted land in either southern California away from the city or (ideally) beautiful Arizona and drop down some used shipping containers atop some freshly cured concrete footings, weld it all together and call it my home. Simple enough conceptually, but it has to be a coordinated effort between me and a lot of generous, earth-conscious, green-thinking organizations, businesses and people who wish to see an important project go from dream state to reality. Why important? Because it will set an example of what we can do with the surplus of containers across the world. There is a tasteful approach to utilizing a container which has already served its intended purpose. I am by no means an innovator when it comes to using containers as a place to call home, people are already doing it across the globe, some on a major scale; but this opportunity is for average people from all walks of life to take part in something interesting, challenging and meaningful.

I will use my blog as a vehicle to bring the average person into a creative process which they may not normally have an opportunity to be a part of in their every day life; I foresee that many will want to get on board with my project as a way to make a statement of their own, be it big or small scale. There will be lots of pictures and videos to keep all those involved within the loop of the project’s progress.