Dominique Moody's Incredible and Artistic Tiny House

Artistry in a Tiny Space

This tiny house design has a story to tell. Los Angeles artist Dominique Moody lives inside a work of art that she built with salvaged building materials without her eyesight. If you are in Los Angeles, you may even pass by it someday. The tiny house is made of mainly upcycled building materials with the walls of the tiny house design made from pieces of steel that overlap each other in waves of rusted color, repurposed washing machine doors that act as unique portal windows and sunbeams peek through a skylight. Many people have closets that are larger than Moody's entire home, but she loves the tiny house that she's created for herself. She does at times feels like she's living in a fishbowl or is on display because of all the people who are curious to look inside. It's understandable why people are so interested in her unique small house plan as it's quite a sight to see.

A Journey of Resilience

The tiny house building is a seven by 20-foot tiny house, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in character and charm thanks to Moody's creative talent and imagination. As a child, she was one of nine children, and her family didn't have a lot of money. The family frequently moved in and out of neglected old houses, packing and unpacking their items over and over again. To cope with their constant moving, Moody and her siblings developed an explanation for each new batch of classmates, saying that they were nomads. The title stuck, and so did their way of life.

Embracing Mobility and Heritage

Moody has moved around over the years from Brooklyn to San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and other places in between. She also found out that her family are descendants of Africa's Fulani tribe, the world's largest pastoral nomadic group. So the California License plate on her tiny house on wheels reads NOMAD 45. She has been in Los Angeles for the last ten years though, and she has lived in Altadena's Zorthian Ranch, an artists' in the San Gabriel Mountains. She is also legally blind, but she hasn't let that stop her from her artistic pursuits. It's lead her to have a different approach to her work as an artist and to life itself and to sense the beauty in the world in other ways. Her tiny house on wheels is proof of that.

The Freedom of Tiny Living

The unique tiny house design was completed in 2015 after three years of work. Moody characterizes her tiny house as also being a studio turned inside out. The artist moves the tiny house wherever she needs to, creating artworks with found objects at each site. Here, Moody takes the artist's path of freedom to its fullest, inhabiting that in-between area that allows her creativity to flourish, without being tied down to a system that imposes self-limiting rules. Moody believes that tiny homes which have a rich history in the United States and abroad, have much to teach people. In living smaller and more efficiently, she feels that her life is also aligning with the needs of the Earth. You can donate to support the work Dominique is doing through her website and you can follow her journey on Instagram and Facebook.