Adventures at Artis Living

The focus of Artis Living is to bring art and living back into a holistic environment. It is typically one thing to study pottery and another to study painting and another to study cooking and another to study the finer points of laundry. That's just pure silliness and leads to an impractical, disconnected and unbalanced view of life. Certainly compartmentalizing has its uses and purposes, but focusing as we have on specialization, the big picture has been lost. As a result we are all drifting rather aimlessly to work every day wondering, "Will I ever actually fit in?

Looking at the big picture it becomes clear that in the process of painting a pot one will become both dirty and hungry. So there will no doubt be the necessity of having to clean up and eat as well as understanding the pot you are painting, since if a pot has no meaning, then why paint it? And where did the pot get its meaning? From every hand that has touched it. Many of those hands belonged to people whm knew nothing about pottery or painting or laundry for that matter, and yet they imbued it with meaning. As an artist you can choose to overlook this rich and expansive depth of beauty or you can embrace it and give it voice.

Here at Artis Living we want you to find your voice, and to find connection, and bring the big picture to life. In so doing you will bring connection and voice to the world. We favor no medium and embrace them all and extend them into each other's once private realms. The walls are coming down.

Adventures in Art

Classroom Remodel

In this Free Adventure In Art, you will partake in the art of building community by building a common space. There are no prerequisites except a desire to participate. We will work with you to find a level and mode of activity that is suitable to you.

Food will be provided by participants and cooked over an open fire. Feel free to bring a guitar, drum or flute and entertain. Camping is also permissible. This will be occurring March through May of 2007 and will occur jointly with Bread Oven Sculpting.

Bread Oven Sculpting

Another Free Adventure In Art, this project will be commence simultaneously with the Classroom Remodel. When complete we'll have a place for creating our meals: breads, soups, roasts, cookies. Once completed the oven will be a central focus of every workshop. Around it we will gather and in it will we prepare our daily sustenance in a manner that will allow the cooking of a multitude of different dishes to accomodate various diets. The oven itself will be a wood fired sculpture made from cob. During this workshop there will be extensive community building. You will learn to make cob and how to build with it as well as how to build an oven. Food will be provided by participants and

Raku Pottery

One of our favorite Adventures in Art and the Adventure we began with last year, Raku Pottery is an absolute blast. During this one day Adventure, we provide a pot thrown by Master Potter Brian Sommers, for you to decorate as you see fit. An introduction to Raku is given by Mr. Sommers and you are provided with a series of glazes and the promise that you will not get what you expect. That is the first lesson of life and of Raku and that is what makes Artis Living a unique venue for learning. You are discovering yourself here. You are creating yourself here and you can have fun doing it. Extra pots are available.

ACE Your Relationships

Learn how to improve your relationships with others. Learn the secrets to successful communication. How can I ask for a raise? How can I strengthen my relationship with my significant other? What is it that makes a relationship strong? It also covers relationships to things, your house, your body, your company, our planet. Is that relationship significantly different? Certanily, but you will see the ACE system illuminates the dark corners of life and allows you to build healthy relationships with everything and everyone.

This course will be touched on in the Free Oven Building and Classroom Remodel Workshops, and will be fully delivered once the classroom is complete. Sign up now to reserve your spot.

Art for Pleasure: Unleashing Creativity

Art is an experience that everyone can participate in. You don't have to be a Rembrandt to paint. You just have to enjoy it. You don't have to be Rodin to sculpt, you just have to want to get your hands dirty. So what if it only looks like a rock, you still made it, and now you as the artist get to decide what it is. You, the artist, get the opportunity to make it the solution to all your problems or the encapsulation of your dreams or the purging of your fears or the hope of peoplekind.

Along the course of this Adventure, you will find a medium that talks to you, and you will learn to talk through it. As you are enjoying this solitary pursuit of self-discovery, you will also find yourself engaging and bonding with others on a new level as you prepare meals together and entertain or be entertained.

Food will be provided by participants and cooked in our sculpted oven, over an open fire, or in the kitchen. Feel free to bring a guitar, drum or flute and entertain us. If you are exceptionally entertaining and able to involve the group, you can expect something in return. Camping is also permissible. This will be occurring at various times May through September of 2007 once the classroom is complete.

Kiln Building Adventure

This will come in two flavors: the first is a caternary gas-fired kiln and the second will be a wood-fired kiln. In the process of building the kiln you will learn about kilns and what it takes to build one as well as the accomplishment of having built one. Participants will also get to fire their pots in the kiln.

Tools for Art

As an artist you are typically doing things that haven't been done and so quite often require things that don't exist or are too expensive to buy. This workshop tackles the issues of designing and building adequate cheap tools to accomplish your purposes.