We recently connected with Daniel Arabella and have shared our conversation below.
Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
My parents, like all faliable humans do all sorts of things right and wrong. Most of us, as I am a parent now, really try to create and raise successful adults out of our offspring.
Its easy to critique the past but impossible to change. I am sure my mom would have loved to change my dad’s constant distractions from his priorities as a “father”. If I was an adult during the 80’s I would whole-heartedly agree. If she was granted her wish, then I would not have experienced half of the world that was shared with me by my father.
Never were we told he wad not available because of priorities or because of work. Always he was bold enough to treat the city around is as a forest for exploration. We would learn about the lifecycle of frogs in the culverts of southern california where I grew up. We would spend endless hours searching through dumpsters for items discarded but not trash. The bowels of an industrial park were always a place to meet bums and learn about all the various trades that people do for work. Building models and creating from clearance art scraps opened our medium to anything we could find or procure from the hobby shops. He would inspire and lead all the kids in the large apartment complex we lived in, into playing long sessions of ball-field games.
As the list goes on, its easy to see how I was either genetically given or nurtured i to a life of creativity and thinking outside the box, but he also had a deeper nurturing.
Some went deeper and had a greater impact on the creative work I am doing. When I was an older child into early adulthood, my dad encouraged me to tackle all challenges myself, such as building our neighborhood skate ramps, or replacing parts on a car in order to get to work the next day, even telling me he will not loan me money. These are times I know are hard, but those boundaries he set with me at that age were not with life threatening issues, but issues that I learned to think of ways to solve. Either by fixing it myself or convincing myself that I did not need to buy it. We dont have a mainstream voice of reason that says we can go without, or portray what “healthy suffering” looks and feels like.
I am grateful for all of this. In the past 2 decades, I have bee able to experience the joy of accomplishment after a season of “healthy suffering”, and there is very rarely a joy as great as this.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a stonemason and an artist. I am a writer and philosophizer. I think its important for humanity to understand how small we are and that we need to be part of something outside of our “self”.
I mostly design and build amazing stone sculptures and pragmatic objects for the landscape in homes and public spaces. Between that, I run several crews for the state’s most influential landscape construction co.
My main draw is for people who see the value in building something for our culture and future generations, not just something that fits with their plastic ideology of what looks good or the newest trend.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I would create loose connections with people online or at industry events. From these initial connections I would invite further dates in which we could share with each other more about our views and in kind, would share with them my work and the value I bring to the industry. I found the industry is starved for good craftsman who can also perform like a business. Follow through has been everything. Honesty, setting good limits, and be a professional.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
You can do all things if you just work hard at it or put your mind to it.
Recently I have realized that my brain can push harder than the body and now middle aged, I had just taken on too much and did not know how to stop to limit myself. Instead my body did it for me and through several years of insane stress, my body was suffering. I now have a sign on my desk that says “take on no more responsibilities” in addition to taking a sabbath and switching to decaf, my life is now working hard to take serious the limits of a normal human should be doing.
Contact Info:
- Website: Arabellastone.com
- Instagram: @arabellastoneco
Image Credits
Me