Back to the Practice or, Some Things Are Not For Sale

Greetings friends....hope you are enjoying the start of December. Here in South Dakota, where one might expect winter to be in full swing, we are enjoying a sunny day with 59 degree temperatures...what gives? I am NOT complaining about this and am hoping that the winter weather holds off for us until after Christmas travel....so far, it's working!

So....I've been thinking....and coming to some realizations. Maybe many of you who have read past posts on this blog are clued into the ambivalence I feel about making art "for" the marketplace or making art which entails marketing it afterward. I started the daily drawing practice in early January of this year, which became a new Etsy shop, MissouriBendMusings and I kept that up pretty well until October of this year when a number of events coincided, including a case of burnout. I stopped making the "dailies" for many reasons and nothing new has been posted in that shop in quite some time. While I took the time to regroup, I began making other work and have felt less and less inclined to add them to the Etsy shop and have just put most of these latest new pieces on my website. I did find that I missed that daily practice and what I began to understand was that I had heaped the marketing and selling on top of a practice that was based in all things opposite, one that was more spiritual in nature. For me, a daily practice is about quiet moments, about the joy of making and about leaving a trace of having been. The joy was/is indeed in the making and in the ritual, while the photographing, the posting, the marketing became a chore. There are nuances here that are important, because it's easy to fall in step with that constant drumbeat to brand, brand, brand and market the work on all possible sites. Lots of people enjoy that process and I applaud them, but it's not so much a part of me, it seems. What I do enjoy is the sharing and the conversation and that's what I'm doing here on this blog....yes, there's always been a bit of marketing, but this blog is about sharing the work and enjoying the friendships I've made with people across the globe.

There's a new daily practice taking shape and I'm happy to share them with you, but they aren't going into a shop or on a website....they are quietly making a stack on the table in my studio, the date of their making written in pencil on the back.....here is a week's worth of 3x3" daily collage pieces.

I'm just quietly gluing bits of paper, most of which are Japanese paper of various kinds. There is a tiny leap of joy to see what happens when one piece of paper covers another, creating a layering and a muting of color....sometimes the brightly colored bits are on top, but sometimes there is more beauty in the layering that creates subtlety. The pieces are tiny and fit just so perfectly in the palm of your hand....I'm happy to make them and not have to market them. I'll share them with you here from time to time, but not on a regular basis....this is about the practice.

But, I do have a few other new items to share and these can be found either in the MissouriBendStudio shop or on my website. If there is a link underneath the image, it will take you to the Etsy shop, otherwise if you would like a better look, please feel free to visit my website: www.robertspizzuto.com

Meditation no.5

Meditation no.6

The pieces above are the latest in the Meditation series, where I am again making use of the layering. The tiny bits of text from books are glued to the sheet of Japanese paper underneath the beeswaxed sheet. The red fragment of paste paper is stitched to the top. I think no. 5 measures approximately 15"x 9" and no.6 is about 8"x8". Somehow my ruler has taken a walk and I can't measure them at the moment!

The Pairing

I found a couple of pieces bristol board with the teabags adhered to them, so this piece came about from some fragments of earlier pieces that didn't get finished. Actually those little cups were initially part of a side panel on the latest Ancestors piece, which I'll show you next, but in the end, that piece became much more spare and the cups found a home here! Almost forgot that newest Notes from the Ancestors piece, no.13, which can be found on my website.

Notes From The Ancestors no.13

I'm trying to simplify life a bit, so I can spend more time in the studio, reading books, and getting back to reading other blogs. So many interests to pursue! Always glad to hear from you with questions and comments. Wishing you a happy, safe holiday season....I'll be back before too long.....until then, enjoy!