January 15, 2015

FOCUS ON A BRIGHTER FUTURE

NEW CAREER GOALS TO PUSH US FORWARD


In the time since the fire, our primary focus has been recovering a place to call "home" the best way we could, while trying to stay true to a vision of what it could be. A desire to be financially free from a mortgage has us building this home slowly, through bartering and in cash.  Changes in career, financial constraints along with the passion to utilize the trees has us taking a seemingly long route to get where we want to be. 


It has been almost a year since we moved into the house and there are still many unfinished projects that we need to complete to make it a more comfortable living space- primarily insulation. Even with all of it's unfinished state, we love it, and love that we have made it this far in accomplishing our rebuilding goals.

The choices we have made along this journey continue to challenge us in new ways for new purposes, and have ultimately led us to a new artistic endeavor doing the work we love, clay sculpture- and for now, right up in the middle of our unfinished home. This shift in focus to new career goals will hopefully propel us financially to complete our home sooner rather than later.

After the fire Rob quit his career in the medical field, and for two years while working on our home, he worked at the local sawmill that has assisted us in processing the wood.  While there, we helped our sawyer friend, develop Star of Texas Casket Company. This experience and exposure to the funeral industry gave us insight into a changing industry where consumers attitudes about life and death are changing, and traditional customs are evolving; cremation services are set to cater to the modern family, their financial concerns, environmental concerns and their mobility away from family birthplaces.


Rebecca Ann
By the end of February 2014, we had completed enough of our new home to move into it....two weeks later, our joy turned to sadness and loss again with the passing of Rob's mother on March 10th. The family had a small private gathering and a couple weeks later a small package arrived by post containing her cremains. Rob's mom, Beckie, had a great artistic influence on him growing up and her talents fueled his love for creativity.

He spent years as a child helping his parents and grandmother in their family-owned gifts and ceramics shop in Houston. As an adult, Rob found naturally found his artistic niche in clay sculpture. Faced with needing a proper memorial for his mother, Rob knew that he must sculpt for her a unique urn that would reflect her passions and personality- a most fitting memorial for her.

The need to produce this tribute for mom had us reflecting on a figurative ceramic urn we created in 2006 for a friend. A Vietnam Veteran Marine and avid fisherman with a big personality, we created for his widow a wall-mounted big mouth bass fish. To this day it hangs at her country home and she finds great comfort in it- From her experience, we knew that our art served well in this function and it touched us greatly to honor his spirit with our craft.

The collective experiences of industry exposure and personal loss had us looking further into the urn market to see if our ideas for cremation vessels were available. What we found is a market that is saturated with imported products that lack artisan charm, personality or essence of character. Of the thousands of products online, we see a gap in finding cremation vessels which have a figurative form and style in function...namely breaking out of the traditional vase/box form. It can be challenging to find a cremation vessel for an exceptional individual whose memory just does not resonate with a solemn vase or box on the shelf. Our goal with YURNS by MorzArt is to create memorials that are statuesque in finish, and possess a unique, unpretentious nature...urns that are honest in form, but discreet in function. In other words, urns that don't look like urns and have a down-to-earth quality. 


For more information please visit our gallery at: www.awesomeurns.com and follow us on Facebook.