Structure, not focus.

My name is P-R Blackman. I grew up in Torrington, where I live now. I have lived a life of adventure and fulfillment and here is part of the story. My entire life I’ve been a musician and artist. At the age of five I started playing the violin. A year later I started playing the piano. I eventually moved in to drums and percussion. I never let go of that.

I’ve been an avid athlete my entire life, playing baseball, basketball, soccer, wrestling, snow boarding, cross country track, mountain biking, skateboarding. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I was really ever good at any of those, but I live it and I tried hard.

I started actually working in the trades when I was 15, going to odd jobs, cleaning up where I could. Leaning how to install commercial flooring, when I was 19 I took a very long class called adventure education and I became certified as ropes course instruction. That was pretty awesome. At the age of 21 I started collecting a paycheck professionally doing tree work. Now keep in mind along with music and acting in the theater, I have always been incredibly curious and creative. and I guess at some point it led to me becoming an artist.

So now I do the work to do the work to support the art to do more work and I’m truly grateful just to be able make people happy with my craft. So if your kid is out of control, they want to do everything all the time. Don’t tell them to focus, give them structure they need to compartmentalize their thoughts in the most productive and efficient way possible.

Support the atypical, support the neurodivergent. Help with structure. Focus is not a thing that we lack.

I cut the tree down, I milled the timber myself. with the help of some friends I was able to get it into perfectly dimensional lumber. And then I made the corbels and I finished the mantle. Start to finish, this was a project that took months and months and months.