Brown with Envy

Today I find myself in an amazing log home on a private lake in Brown County, Indiana wondering how it all came to be. Indoors I am surrounded by profound pieces of original artwork by a pair of the country's best-selling artists and outdoors, I am feeding foxes and raccoons and chipmunks. I begin each morning here by sitting on a calm lake under a canopy of lush maples thinking about very little. I find myself anxious by the evening to return to the same spot to do the very same thing, even though by day's end I justly consider it my day's "reflection". What absolute bliss to consider that my mind is simply "airing" out after way too long of a time. I have expressed to the home's owners, who are currently in Sante Fe, that they will need a crowbar to wedge me out of here when they return! I am not going anywhere. (Seriously, I am not!!)

So what is it about this place, Brown County? Coming from the great urban landscape of Chicago as my hometown I wonder how rolling hills and pastoral meadows make me feel more at home and in my element than anywhere else I can currently think of. One thing I realize is that this place allows me to be one with myself; at peace with myself. The "pieces" around me right now contribute to a greater sense of "peace".

I love the faded barns and side-of-the-road quick stops selling everything from rusty tractor parts to fresh strawberries in season. As I relate it to my effort with the Lost and Found shop, it makes me think of a little seed of an idea I had several years ago. At that time I had considered opening my own fine art gallery in Chicago's River North Gallery District. I had toyed with calling it "Peace by Piece". Clearly it would have had some upgraded graphic design associated with it, as to not be confused with an upscale bakery purveying fine pieces of chocolate cake (ahhh, peace by "piece"...of cake)!

Anyway, as I have explored the local venues of Brown County into Bloomington and all of the other way nearly out to Seymour (well truthfully, in that direction I was looking for a sighting of John Mellencamp, but even seeing a little pink house in a rural Indiana landscape would have been pretty nifty!) - what I love is that this area promotes stories. The scenery, the activities, the people and culture, and the collectibles. The distressed tables, weathered architectural elements, vintage clothing items, aged mirrors that are crackled and unclear - they are all so real. They are real. Things here are created, not produced...not mass-produced to be specific. I see wonderful items and I immediately find myself wondering where they have been: what's been their passage of time and their course of events. It's such a pleasant experience as opposed to simply coming upon something and being stuck in thought: where's this going to go?

So my hope is that the Lost & Found shop is seeding itself to be such a place rich in inspiration and story and vision. It's a twist on my urban inspiration from years ago: peace by "piece". I know this is quite a lofty ambition and I am not the pioneer of the movement in re-claiming, re-using and re-newing. Yet we all have our part in going green, and my visit to a county called Brown has only deepened and expanded my passion for this mission. For some time to come, when I think green, I will remember Brown....