New Harmony Utopia

My time spent so far in New Harmony has been incredible. Mostly, it’s the type and pace of work I’m doing that is having a completely positive affect on me. If you’ve never visited New Harmony, IN, let me just say, that it’s a historically intriguing place. (I’m including an article that can help to bring you up to speed if you’re interested.)  

During the early part of the 19th century, New Harmony was the site of two attempts to establish Utopian communities. The first, Harmonie (1814-1825), was founded by the Harmonie Society, a group of Separatists from the German Lutheran Church. Led by their charismatic leader Johann Georg Rapp, they left their first American home in Harmonie, Pennsylvania, and established a second community on the western frontier of Indiana, where they acquired a much larger tract of land.

During the 10 years in which they cultivated the new town of Harmonie, the Harmonists, with their strong German work ethic and devout religious rule, achieved unheard of economic success and the community became recognized as "the wonder of the west." Slightly more than a decade later, however, they sold the town and surrounding lands to Robert Owen, a Welsh-born industrialist and philosopher, for his communitarian experiment. The Harmonists then returned to Pennsylvania to build a third town, Economy, near Pittsburgh.
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Robert Owen's ambition was to create a perfect society through free education and the abolition of social classes and personal wealth. He encouraged world-renowned scientists and educators to settle in "New" Harmony. With the help of his partner, William Maclure of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the Owen/Maclure community introduced educational and social reforms to America.”
 http://www.newharmony-in.gov/about_new_harmony.php

http://www.labyrinthos.net/harmonist.html

The environment in New Harmony has changed since 200 years ago; there’s a great coffee shop, several art galleries, local breweries and a wine shop, so you can see why a potter might have a nice time here. ;)

​Yet, there is still a vibe you can get from this town, that I feel is what results from the attempts at "utopia." Many places still exist in this town as means of meditation, like the various labyrinths in New Harmony. Here's a picture of the an "architectural drawing of what is presumed to be the 2nd Harmonist labyrinth. 

This has been the best thing for me here, having time to reorient and meditate on what's important in life. I initially felt so indulgent, guilty almost, for having this uninterrupted schedule for making my work. I keep having these moments of anxiety, because I'm just so used to feeling stress when I need balance 10+ things to get everything done. The real mental challenge has been teaching myself what it feels like to work at a steady pace and accomplish my goals without those negative emotions.

So the first month here was spent making, but also cleansing my mind. That’s why I’ve been quiet on the blog front. I felt it was important to separate myself from all the things I was socially engaging in and balancing, in order to isolate myself in the studio. For that time, I have taken lots of “unplugged” walks (aka, intentionally leaving my cell phone behind) and unfortunately, tried to pick up some old habits of taking on too much responsibility, but I’ve had some great people to remind me of why I am here and help me refocus. I can’t express how grateful I am for this chance to focus on my work, and I feel as if my head is a lot clearer, so I’m really excited to jump back into this blog and start discussing all the nerdy clay discoveries that I’ve had with my work so far. I’m looking forward to more regular posts, and so I will leave you this time with a few photos of my residency landscape.