CREATIVE STUDIO
A Civilization of Beauty
Founded by artist and curator Kira von Heuer, House of Sea is a creative studio exploring the human experience, particularly our relationship with vitality.
The practice is drawn to the most enduring of human inventions: romance, ritual, imagination, beauty. We have long created these for one another. House of Sea directs them toward nature instead, and asks whether this shift, in which nature becomes the recipient of our devotion, might be the very thing that makes us feel more alive.
In the spirit of surrealism, these familiar gestures are placed in unfamiliar territory, so that both they and the natural world might be seen anew. It is an invitation to a more reciprocal relationship with nature, and a quiet reordering of what we value.
This curiosity takes form through large-scale installations, immersive experiences, objects and curatorial projects.
The studio’s current focus, Love Letters to the Ocean, is an ongoing social art practice exploring romance as a way of relating to the natural world.
LOVE LETTERS TO THE OCEAN
Love Letters to the Ocean is an ongoing social art practice exploring whether romance can transform our relationship with the natural world.
At its heart is a simple gesture: writing a love letter.
Here, romance is more than a feeling. It is a way of relating, rooted in attention, reverence, imagination and reciprocity. The practice asks whether a shift in affection might bring about a shift in how we care for the living world.
The ocean is where the correspondence begins, but the invitation reaches beyond its shores, toward our own private mythologies: the memories, relationships, places and imagined worlds that shape our experience of being alive.
The work takes three forms:
I. Large-scale art installations
II. Intimate 1:1 immersions
III. Collective participation and ritual
THE BOXED SET
An invitation to create your own ritual of romance with the natural world.
Each set contains a curated collection of objects to guide you through writing a love letter and creating a personal ritual: writing prompts, water-soluble paper, a candle, perfume oil, tea and other sensory elements that invite you to slow down and connect with nature.
Write a letter. Create your own ritual. Carry your words to the water.
Made for solitary moments or shared gatherings, the sets can mark life’s celebrations and transitions, from weddings and new beginnings to honoring a memory, a friendship, or simply the pleasure of being alive.
Each ritual is yours to interpret. All that’s required is a willingness to fall in love.
2022
Puerto Escondido, Mexico
2024
Ischia, Italy
2025
Aviemore, Scotland
Last Updated 24.10.31
FIG. I · Louise Dahl-Wolfe, for Harper’s Bazaar, June 1944. Shown as reference.
01/ THE JOURNAL I'm Beginning to Think Consciousness Loves SurrealismAnd why I think the eccentric ones were wide awake.
I just read Water Moon by Samantha Sotto while on a water bathing immersion in Ischia, staying inside a castle that housed both an art gallery and artist studios. Which, in retrospect, feels like exactly the kind of setting this book was meant to be read in.
The novel begins inside a pawnshop that is actually a portal into another world, and without giving too much away, Samantha’s imagination carries you into places that feel both fantastical and strangely emotionally true.
READ MORE
02/ THE JOURNAL In The Presence of Red Lipstick
A Mini-memoir and historical
sharing of what I believe red
lipstick to be: A Threshold
I remember the exact moment it happened. It was cellular—an undeniable turning point in how I would move through this life.
I was eleven years old, standing in front of the mirror, studying my reflection and contemplating how one might uplevel a Catholic school uniform. I had been at St. Hedwig’s for about a month—my new school, chosen by my parents for its “better education,” though there were other, very practical motivations at play. Namely: the promise of one outfit a day, every day. No more morning rituals of me perched on my bed while my Dad held up clothing options like royal offerings, waiting for my verdict...
READ MORE
03/ THE JOURNAL Cocteau’s Secrets of Beauty
A selection of declarations from
Jean himself
I’ve been going down a beauty rabbit hole lately and let’s just say — I have no interest in climbing out. At this point, I’m digging deeper.
I’ve been immersed in Secrets of Beauty by Jean Cocteau. A marvel. In Pierre Caizergues’ foreword, he reminds us of Jean’s book about Jean Marais, with the lines below.
READ MORE
04/ THE JOURNAL Normalazing L’dance
Filed under things that make you feel alive
I come from people who dance.
A mother who was an artist and a dancer.
A father who is always the first one on the dance floor at weddings. I call him the man that returns to joy fast and this is a perfect example. He comes from Alice and John, who, among other notable attractions, found their romance on the dance floor. This was back when romance still felt innocent, when you went down to your local Elks Lodge in the early 1920s
READ MORE
05/ THE JOURNAL Reimagining What Deserves Ceremony
Deepening our relationship with the ordinary
It’s summertime, and I’ve let my lackadaisical ways linger a little longer.
I’ve decided reading poetry is one of the boldest things one can do if your intention is to slow down. I almost think of it as tai chi for the mind.
After my morning meditation, I’ve started spending twenty minutes with a single poem. Well...I’ve managed it three times in the last couple of weeks (small steps).
READ MORE
06/ THE JOURNAL Conversation Canopies
On meaning, stories and the
architecture of an inner life
For the last few months, I have been carrying around a single sentence from Muriel Rukeyser’s poem The Speed of Darkness:
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.”
It has become one of those sentences that can shapeshift a life. Well, that is the sensation I experience when I say it over and over again.
READ MORE
01/ THE JOURNAL A Letter to Old Friends and New Ones
Hello there…Some of you are new here, and some of you have been here for a little while.
And some of you may remember me from a newsletter I wrote over a decade ago through my glassware company, Bib & Sola. Back then, I was writing about many of the same things that continue to captivate me today: beauty, water, art, nature, atmosphere, and the small rituals that make a life feel more alive.
READ MORE
INSTAGRAM@house.ofsea
HOUSE OF SEA
A Civilization of Beauty
LOS ANGELES MMXXVI
CORRESPONDENCE
© 2026 HOUSE OF SEA