Primitive Arts Collective

Hello everyone! I hope this newsletter finds you all well and in good spirits. Its been a while since I have posted so I wanted take a little time to let everyone know what Primitive Arts Collective has in store For the remainder of the year and beyond.

First off I am very excited to announce I have finalized plans for the “6 week Art of Primitive Wilderness survival class”. This class has been a long time in the making and I can’t wait for it to start. The class will be held in the Cincinnati/NKY area. Please check the link above for all the details!

On  October 29^th I will be running a  “Water Gathering and Purification” Class hosted by the Cincinnati Nature Center.  Click the links above for more info or to register for any of these classes.

I will soon be announcing the dates of my class with my father, Tom Brown Jr. at the Tracker School in New Jersey. It has been over 2 years since I have taught at Tracker school and needless to say I am looking forward to teaching in the pines again with my dad. The class title is “Hunt Tracker” This class will center on tracking and movement for the primitive hunter. It will be a four-day class and will be held in both New Jersey late this fall, as well as in California early next year. My father and I are in the final stages of planning as I type this. I will be posting a more detailed description as well as dates and cost in the very near future.

As for the future I am currently in the process of planning classes in Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Louisiana to name a few. I will also be going international in 2012 with classes in Quebec, Costa Rica, And Sweden.

I have also (Finally) begun writing the first in a series of books. I am trying to write anytime that I can spare which isn’t much these days but I hope to have something worthy of publishing mid-summer.

Thank you all for your continued support. Please keep any eye on my website and Facebook pages for updates on classes, lectures, and other appearances.

Hello all! I know it has been a while since I have written a newsletter so being that it is spring I think the time has come.

Spring is a time when the earth wakes up from its winter slumber, a time of rebirth. Being out of doors these days you can feel the energy surging through all the beings we share our surroundings with. You don’t need to go far from your door, even in the city to see the magnificent changes that are happening all around us. Birds are nesting, snakes are coming out of their long winters sleep, and countless insects are hatching to name just a few.  All these creatures are participating in a cycle that has been going on for eons.

For us humans it is a time of movement. In the spring our ancestors would emerge from long days spent in the shelter having spent the winter crafting and repairing tools, making new clothing and preparing for the flurry of activity that accompanies the warmer times of the year. There were shelters to be mended, things to be collected, and crops to be planted. It was also a time of great thanksgiving for having made it through the winter and excitement for the warmer months to come.

Spring makes me think of the power of the East, one of the four sacred directions. Here is the prayer as passed down from grandfather stalking wolf,

“Power of the East, power of the rising sun that drives away the ignorance of darkness. Teach us the power of the wingeds, to fly high above ourselves and look down, seeing how insignificant our personal problems are as compared to those of the earth”.

One of the things this prayer teaches us is that it is the season of the caretaker. A time when we attempt to watch our actions and make sure that whatever we do has a positive impact on our surroundings. Whether it’s collecting a sapling to craft into a bow or helping to build community in your neighborhood, we want each step we take to lead us forward in a positive direction. I truly believe that on of our many purposes on this planet is to leave any thing we come into contact with better then when we found it. This holds true for people, places and things.

Speaking of caretakers, I want to take this time to honor the passing of a fellow warrior of the light.

On March 31^st My dear friend Bradford Bacon was killed in a tragic accident in Riverdale, Maryland. It has been a week since his passing and those of us who knew him are still in shock. Brad was truly one of a kind. I met Brad in the spring of 2001 shortly after we both moved to the Washington D.C. I was coming out of a very dark time in my life and it is amazing how just when you need something or someone positive in your life the universe gives you just what you need. Brad was it. He was truly a free sprit and had a light radiating from within him that was overwhelming at times. Brad showed me so many amazing places and introduced me to so many people who to this day I call dear friends. In fact I can tell you that if not for Brad the last 10 years of my life would have been completely different.

His passing has been hard on all of us, especially his parents Charlie and Anna, his sister Jess, his son Emery and his girlfriend Deborah. We all take some solace in the fact that he is now omnipresent, watching and guiding all of us.

Fare thee well, my brother, I love you.

Schedule

Moving forward I want to talk a little about my spring/summer schedule. I am currently still booking dates through the fall so you will see more classes pop up from a week-to-week basis.

There will be a ton of day classes in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area as well as classes in South Dakota, California, Oregon, Washington, and Arkansas to name just a few.

My next two classes will take place in the Boulder, Colorado area from April 25^th till- May 1^st. First up will be “Primitive Hunting Techniques” followed by “The Sacred order”. I will also be giving a 2-hour talk on applying Primitive living principles to modern life on the 25^th from 7-9pm. For more info on all of these events click here…

On May 19^th-22^nd I will be teaching at the 10^th annual Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills Gathering, also known as the MAPS meet. MAPS is an amazing primitive skills gathering in Maryland that attracts some of the finest practitioners and teachers of the primitive arts in the country. I will once again be teaching the Throwing Arts and Stalking, Movement, and camo.

For more info on MAPS click here…

To read an article on last years MAPS meet click here…

Memorial day weekend I will be doing Primitive Arts demonstrations and workshops all weekend at Summer camp 2011. Summer camp is a large music festival held yearly in Illinois. Should be a great time so come on out!!!

May you all have a wonderful spring!! Any questions please feel free to ask!!!

You can contact me here…

Give Thanks,

Tom Brown III

Happy New Year to all! I hope you all have a wonderful, prosperous 2011.

The last month has been busy for me.  Starting with a handrill class on 12/18 followed by a trip down to Sigma III Survival in Huntington, Arkansas.

My good friend Mike Flew in from NYC for the handrill class to shoot some video for a living documentary on the Primitive Arts Collective. Mike is the founder of Crackerfarm and is known not only for his amazing photography, but his video work with bands such as the Avett brothers, Langhorne slim, and Jessica Lea Mayfield to name a few.

You can see the video he shot at the class here.

Late in the afternoon on Christmas day I left on the long drive to Arkansas to teach a primitive hunting class. Having only travelled through Arkansas before I was looking forward to exploring a new landscape. After my time there I can assure you that Arkansas is one of the hidden gems of our great land. The class exceeded my expectations and all the students were eager to learn through cold temperatures and rain. I wanted to take a moment to thank Jerry Ward for coming out and teaching for a while on modern trapping. It was a huge education for me, as I do not have any experience with modern trapping gear. We even managed to trap two beavers.

Many thanks as well to Robert from Sigma III for hosting me.  I will be booking several classes in Arkansas for 2011. The dates and subjects will be posted soon.

To see some video that was taken in Arkansas click here or visit the video page.

As the snow falls outside my window I am preparing for the first of three classes I am doing for the Cincinnati nature center.

On 1/29 I am doing a coal burned containers class. For more info click here.

In February I will be doing an Animal tracking class, as well as a nature observation and awareness class. You can find link to those classes on my schedule.

Many thanks and blessings to you all for continuing to support my vision.

Walk good this new year.

I am always left to wonder this time of year how the seemingly simple choices I have made have brought me to this point in space and time. It is easy to look back and see how the major choices have directly effected the present, what is more difficult however is seeing the ramifications of the small choices we carelessly make many times a day. Choices of action and choices of words. It is these that form the invisible web of your life’s path. These seemingly insignificant choices can not be taken back, yet they can be reflected upon and learned from. This just so happens to be one of my biggest issues.

My personal prayer for this new year is to learn  from my past. Repeat the good, toss away the bad and pursue my vision keeping in mind the feelings of others who orbit my station in life. It does not matter if you are living your vision if those around you are being affected in such away that does not allow them access to theirs…

On the lighter side, Welcome to the new Primitive Arts Collective website! It is so much nicer then the sub-standard website I had before. I once again want to thank Mark Apgar for all his help on getting this up and running. I am no longer embarrassed to share my website with people!

Now that I have a new site I feel I can really start taking PAC (Primitive Arts Collective) to the next level. Its not that things have been bad, Its just that I have not been operating at the level at which I should. It has been a year of extreme learning for me when it comes to being a business owner. Now that I am feeling a little less shaky on the business side I can focus more on booking classes. I want to take a minute to thank all the folks that hosted me for classes this year. Many great relationships were forged and I look forward to working with all of you again this year. To see the classes I have left this year please click here.

The future is definitely bright for PAC. I am in the process of designing a 6-week program for the Cincinnati/NKY area. This class will run 3 hours one night a week and 3 full Saturdays. It will cover many areas of primitive wilderness survival as well as tracking, awareness. I am in the beginning stages of putting together the schedule for this year so if you think you would like me to come to your area to teach or do a lecture please feel free to email at any time. To hear about classes and get updates you should sign up for the mailing list, or checkout The PAC facebook page here.

As always if you have any questions feel free to email me. I love to hear form you!

Once again thank you all for your support! Have safe Happy Holidays and a blessed new year!

Hello! This is a big day for me and Primitive Arts Collective!
FInally the new website is up and running. I still need to ad some more photos, content and a few minor tweeks, which are much easier to do with wordpress. I am very excited to have a much more interactive website. Many thanks to Mark Apgar for doing this for me. Mark, I owe you big time! thanks for all the help you continue to give me with my web presence! I also wanted to take a minute to thanks all of you for your continued support. I hope to see you all at a class sometime soon!

The new site is up!