Sense of Place

Dust to Dust, no.10

Dust to Dust no.10 (detail)

Hello from the banks of the Missouri River in the last hot days of summer! My posts are rather infrequent these days, but am so busy during the day at my job at the library that my blogging life has suffered. As everyone knows, it is extremely hard to keep up with everything and we all must make choices. My friends here in cyberspace are still very important to me and I hope you will all understand my absences. 

I'm very busy at the public library creating a whole slate of new adult progamming, which is very exciting, but keeping up with all the threads of contacting folks, publicizing and marketing on top of my regular tasks, is keeping me more than engaged each day (well, 4 days of the week). It is bringing out my inner list maker, that's for sure! I'm exciting to be involved in this community building effort here in our small town. And now, to talk about this newest work from my studio.

As those of you who have followed my work for some time may have guessed, these are a continuation of the the Dust to Dust series. My reading and study of the history of the grasslands, the prairie and plains continues, enriching my understanding with each new book. There seems to be an inexhaustible amount of material and I find it all fascinating. The threads are all so interwoven, like a tapestry. The selling of the plains to folks from the east as an agricultural paradise and then the subsequent turning of the grasslands, which evolved over millions of years, into fields for planting....well it's a very long, complex story, still unfolding today. All the reading and ruminating finds its way into the work as I try to make sense of the history of the land and my place within it. 

Dust to Dust, no.11

Dust to Dust no.11 (side view)

Dust to Dust no.12

Dust to Dust no.12 (side view)

Dust to Dust no.13

Dust to Dust no.13 (side view)

These pieces are made on cradled panel or canvas with layers of acrylic and ink. The top piece, no.10 is 8" x 24" and the others are all 8" x 8". For me they are about the trace of buried civilizations, the bittersweet history and memory of those who have come before. Even as a relative newcomer to South Dakota (8 years),  my own history is steeped in this part of the country, as my parents were born and raised in Glendive, Montana, a town in the eastern part of the state on the Yellowstone River. My great grandfather, a French Canadian, was one of the first settlers there, having gone out with the railroad in the late 19th century. So much history to mine in this land. I think we all searching for identity and a sense of place. I would love to hear your stories of finding a connection to place and to the land.

Three new pieces in the Dust to Dust series are currently underway! Look for all the pieces in the series, along with other recent works (Notes From the Ancestors, Celadon Suite and more!) on my website www.robertspizzuto.com

See you again soon....look forward to hearing from you to share ideas and conversation!

Timeless Prairie

Hello again from the now the waning days of summer....do I detect a shift in the air and is there a sense that fall is around the corner? Except for the weeds, out of control in the front and just barely under control in the back, the garden beds are looking rather fine. We are in need of rain though and are looking to the skies for moisture coming our way. Tomatoes seem slow to ripen, but I think that seems to be the case everywhere in this area, given the late start to the season with all those winter storms until mid-May! My days are busy, as are yours I'm sure, between my life at the library and my life at home and in the studio. I've been concentrating much more on larger panel pieces, rather than work for my Etsy shops and have been listing the newest Dust to Dust works (8" x 8" on 1 1/2" deep cradled panels) over on my website. I'll show you the latest finished pieces here and hope you'll visit the website to see the rest. They all deal with the disappearance of the prairie in the westward expansion and the history of the land....the memories and artifacts that lay buried in strata that speak of time passing. Our histories too will become part of the earth....all these ideas about the trace of memory still fascinate me....always so much to explore.

Dust to Dust no.7

Dust to Dust no.8

Dust to Dust no.9

Still doing a lot of reading, watching ideas cross paths with each other as I explore several books at the same time....well, not in the same sitting! Here's what I'm currently reading:

Prairie: A Natural History by Candace Savage

Beautifully written, full of fascinating information and beautiful photographs, this is a must-have book for those interested in the prairie.

The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit

One of my favorite writers....all nonfiction, but her writing and the weaving of ideas will take your breath away.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

Delightful reading....visual artists, writers, composers, etc.....so many ways to live the creative life!

Hope you are all enjoying the season, scanning the horizons for new and creative possibilities!