OJAI MAGAZINE | SPRING 2021
LIVING
sane
“To try to understand yourself, you have to look at your dark side, which has a lot of meaning.” — aubrey balkind
aubrey balkind knows how to use an artfully designed threeletter word and a question mark to jolt people out of complacency. Before Balkind moved to Ojai in 2014, he was an influential advertising executive and designer from New York City. Founder of the advertising firm Frankfurt Balkind, he helped design Time Warner’s annual report for 1989, the year Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications. The 60-page report which won design awards and merited a New York Times article, broke all the graphics rules. Its cover featured a bright ’80s glowing green background, printed with six colorful abstract rectangular images of a globe, lips, an eye, an ear, a bald head and a hand. In the middle of the page was the phrase “WHY?” in black capital letters. The design inside was daring as well, resulting in a magazinelike publication that shareholders probably actually read vs. the usual staid corporate missive. Thirty years later, Balkind has created an equally bold design, again featuring short all-caps words and a question mark, to make a point. But this time his goal is to help people live saner, healthier lives through selfhealing, reconnecting to nature, and
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by KAREN LINDELL photos by BEN HOFFMAN
recalibrating our relationships to the earth, technology and one another.
Balkind knows he doesn’t have all the answers.
In 2016 Balkind opened the Sane Living Center in downtown Ojai on Matilija Street, a community meeting space that offers holistic lifestyle activities, retreats, film screenings, performances, lectures, private events and more.
GOING SANE
Outside the center is a stainless-steel sculpture, co-designed by Balkind and artist Ray Cirino, in the shape of a giant question mark lying on its side. Titled “EVO 3,” the sculpture, about 9 feet high and 20 feet long, artfully depicts the world’s three evolutionary eras, which Balkind refers to as nature, or BIO; sapiens, or EGO; and artificial intelligence, or ALGO (short for “algorithm”). Or put another way by Balkind, the three epochs are “the emergence of life (plants, animals, rivers, mountains, etc.), the rise of humans, and the creation of artificial intelligence.” Although these eras emerged in linear fashion, he said, they now co-exist, and how they interact “could result in positive existential treats, leading to growth, or in negative existential threats, possibly leading to the destruction of life on our planet.” The sculpture is shaped like a question mark to stimulate dialogue, because
To be sane, healthy and in tune with nature, Balkind said, people need to focus on four areas: food, movement, detoxing and de-stressing. “If you get those four things right, you will heal quickly,” Balkind said. Balkind’s quest for wellness goes back to his childhood, at an age when most people are not thinking about diet and health. At age 4, he said, growing up in South Africa, he almost died from typhoid disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, typhoid is not common in the U.S., but is a serious health concern in developing countries, especially for children. The life-threatening disease is caused by bacteria transmitted through contaminated water or food or through close contact. Balkind overcame the disease over the next few years, he said, not through medication, but by eating a wholesome diet and learning to calm and strengthen his body. He’s kept up the same healthy habits ever since. “When you can really feel what’s going on in your body, and you’re feeling good, you see how other stuff is hurting you, and you start to change,” he said.