Bringing Home Brush Creek

Greetings everyone!  We're back from our residency at Brush Creek....refreshed and revitalized...what a great experience! As I said somewhere to someone, I was able to relax and feel like myself again...only more so.  The gift of time and space in such a beautiful setting was the perfect recipe for rediscovering who I am as an artist.  As all of you followers know, I have been hard at work in the studio over the last year and a half since I started my Etsy shop, but I've also been on a fast-moving treadmill and although I only make pieces that are one-of-a-kind, I was clearly in production mode. At Brush Creek, I slowed down to a pace that allowed me to see things differently and opened the path for a new kind of work to emerge.  I don't have any images yet, but will shortly. Mostly, I just wanted to share a few more pictures and to let you know that there are some shifts in my thinking and in the way I'm going to go about my life, so that I will feel more balanced.

I will continue to make work for MissouriBendStudio, but I'm going to spend more studio time on other bodies of work that will be featured on my website, robertspizzuto.com  I want to focus more on what I think of as my "other" work, which comes from a deeper place and has more to teach me about living a mindful life. I've come to realize that for me, art making is a spiritual practice and making work for the "marketplace" has a way of short circuiting the exploration that is necessary.  I don't want anyone to think I don't love the work I make for my shop, which will continue, although at a less frantic pace.  There will surely be crossover, but the work on my website will be more involved and slower in coming.
I'll keep you posted here about all the work in the studio and let you know where to find it.

View from the studios at Brush Creek

One of the ways to break with my old mode of operating is not to even touch the computer until after lunch.  As most of you probably know, once you get on the computer, it's nearly impossible to get off.  One thing leads to another and especially if you are involved in Etsy, there are countless ways to spend time online....not a bad thing necessarily, it just has a tendency to eat the daylight hours.  It worked today....I didn't even open the lid of this laptop until 1:00....and guess what, it felt great!!  I feel balanced and more centered....a sure sign that I'm operating in line with my heart and my values.

The back/side of the studio building (contains 4 artist's studios)

with a view to the residences and the schoolhouse, which is 

a restored 19th century school house/home that serves

as a composer's studio and a charming community event

gathering spot.

A section of Brush Creek

Another little view of Brush Creek

I got a lot done at the residency, including some finished pieces and a number of others still to be completed.  I was totally fascinated by the rocks....the rock is everywhere and it speaks quietly of deep time and slow change.  Despite how it seems, our place as humans in the universe is small...we are just individual links in the evolution of life, newcomers really....and yet, each of our lives is so vital and oh so fleeting.  These are the things I'm exploring in the new work....through the rocks that will outlive us all.

See you next week....enjoy the weekend!