After high school, I chose to escape some substantially unhealthy surroundings and joined the military. After numerous deployments, many moves, many losses, hurts, and heartaches, we longed for peace, stability and joy in our lives. After 21 years, a debilitating injury forced me to medically retire from the military. Shortly after retiring, I took a job in healthcare. Very soon after taking the job, the COVID19 pandemic hit and, again, I was devastated by more losses, hurt and heartache. I longed- ached to my soul- for peace. So, I left healthcare in search of who I was on a deeper level. To get very personal and be very blunt, mental health matters. PTSD, depression, and anxiety are very real and are suffocating when left untreated. I will be the first to say that suicidal thoughts and ideation are very real and very scary- for the individual and those that care for the individual... if you are having them, you are not alone; please, please seek help. For me, had it not been for my amazing wife and my service dog, I do not know, nor do I wish to know what I would have done. So, we began "throwing darts" at things that could be the next "thing". Maybe welding? Perhaps bicycle mechanic? Perhaps HVAC school or maybe going back to finish graduate school or nurse practitioner school? All of them sounded feasible, but none of them really moved my soul. Then one day, after leaving a retail job, we went to a woodworking store and saw some demonstrations on a lathe and I was in absolute awe. It was like a lightning strike. We bought a lathe and I began turning scrap wood in the garage and pouring epoxy for practice (fun!) I have since spent hundreds (likely thousands) of hours learning to turn and have received scholarship to the John C. Campbell Folk School to study under some incredible and renowned artists. My wonderful wife and partner, Lovisa, helps with and does epoxy projects and will begin studying ceramics in May 2024 and we cannot be more excited! Trying to decide on our company name, we realized that all things come from the earth- from mother nature- and all we need is a little mud and a lot of peace and we can create art with love.
Together, we are Mud & Peace Creations.
Peace and Love ~ Rob & Lovisa