Community

Bronte Nelson, Lisa & Loren Skyhorse

KEY WORDS

artist residency, Portugal, quaint village, quiet space, creative insights, community interaction, old soul, shared experiences, technical skills, family values, judgment, awareness, professional legacy, artistic process, personal growth, gratitude

Lisa and Loren Skyhorse:
We are Lisa and Loren of Skyhorse Saddles, a husband and wife top custom saddle making team. For more than forty-five years we've been working together to create the finest custom saddles available. Each of the more than 1,100 one-of-a-kind saddles made to date provided our clients with attention to detail, options, and aesthetics rarely found in the industry today.

A bit about Bronte, from Bronte:
Art and creative expression has always been my way of escaping and making sense of my reality, feelings and the world around me. I aim to translate the nuances of my lived experiences into a visual format.

This conversation took place in November, 2025 in Messejana, Portugal.

So, we're all artists in residence at Buinho Creative Hub in Messejana. Maybe we should start with your question at the dinner table last week, Loren, about what you each were expecting coming here, versus the experience itself, once you arrived. Do you want to talk a bit about that? Arriving in Messejana, being roommates, and where you all came from?

For myself, I made sure I didn't have expectations because I really didn't know what this artist residency was going to be like. I loved the fact that they were so receptive to us immediately. I didn't know what to ask, but every time I thought of something, Monica got back, and that was good.

As far as arriving goes, Lisa and I did a pretty smart thing. We booked an eight day tour around the Lisbon area of Portugal, to get the feel for Portugal and to listen to how our tour guide talked about the Portuguese culture and people and everything. That kind of set the stage for us arriving in Messejana.

Once I had eight days in Portugal with a tour guide, I wasn't shocked about Messejana. I was kind of thrilled and pleased. It was such a quaint...I kept calling it a village, and other people would correct me and say it's a town, but then once I got here, I realized I was right, it's a village.

Those are my general first feelings.

Similar. I had no expectations because I had absolutely no idea. I had done minimal research. I just pushed that residency button and assumed the universe wanted us to be here, which I'm sure it did. It's so completely different than anything we've ever done. We usually do things more communally on our trips. The quiet space here was a delight. I don't know if we've ever been this slow and dropped down as we have been, and it's been a gift in its own way.

Creatively, it hasn't been particularly overly insightful, but the quietness has been really wonderful, surprisingly. Even the church bells chiming, you know, the first couple of days, I'm thinking, oh, there is no way that every half hour I'm not going to want to kill somebody. But the truth is, now it's not annoying. It was kind of an epiphany, you know? Oh, just embrace it and use it as a reminder that time is passing. It's inevitable. There's nothing you can do about it except embrace it. I kind of made it my friend.

That's interesting. I can just see us now in the future, when some repetitive thing is beginning to annoy one of us, the other person's gonna say, ‘it's just the bells.’ We're gonna have an expression.

Yeah, but it's sweet. Loren and I love these small, more intimate things. I think I expected a little more interaction with the community. But now we know the shop people, and I have a new best friend, Lucia. It's been a very welcome surprise.

All you other residents have been a huge gift in every way, being able to tap into your young, passionate creativity. It's still shocking to me that even though there's a 50-year difference, I feel dovetailed to you guys. Our conversations and our creativity and everything has been super, super special. I have loved that. Living with Bronte has been really fun, especially how we get each other's jokes and have philosophical conversations. You know, Loren and I haven't had a roommate in half a hundred years. It's been totally fine and easy. 

I feel like it was no expectations for me as well, but in a different way. I was coming from living with four other people and my dog, and this big change was going on at home with people moving, different people coming through, which was great. But here, I was like, I am gonna have zero expectations because I just don't want to be disappointed at all. I just want to go and see how it is. I was burnt out and overwhelmed. I was keen for nothing. I didn't know what it was going to be like to live with two older Americans, as an Australian. I just, you know, the ignorance in me was, like, I don't know Americans, are they going to be intense? Am I going to be overwhelmed?

It's been the opposite. I heard the big knock when they got here, and I was like, Oh, fuck. Then over the door, I just see Lisa's beaming face and I was like, I think I'm gonna be chill. I think it's gonna be okay. And then I was seriously asking myself, will they be refined or whatever? And then we had one conversation and I was like, Oh, these guys are…

“ I was burnt out and just, overwhelmed. I was keen for nothing. I didn't know what it was going to be like to live with two older Americans, as an Australian. I just, you know, the ignorance in me was, like, I don't know Americans, are they going to be intense? Am I going to be overwhelmed?”

– Bronte Nelson

‘they're not refined at all.’

*laughs*

And that's a compliment from me because, as a younger person, like 25, I've never been uncomfortable around older people or felt like I can't be myself, but I was really hoping they weren’t annoying. Then I met them, and they're the opposite. They see me for me, and they don't treat me like a younger person. It's weird, I keep going on about the age thing, but as soon as we actually started talking to each other, it was not a thing anymore.

Well, in my opinion, you're not a young person. You're kind of an old soul. You have a lot of wisdom and a lot of ways of approaching things that I admire. So that really helps me. If you were just simply a young person, I might feel different, but I don't feel that way at all. Yeah. I feel like you're a genuine old soul.

I agree. Thank you. In the three of us meeting, coming from very different places, we somehow found an immediate common ground. I just met them, and I was like, it feels like we've known each other for a long time or some shit.

Well the thing that blows my mind, and again, the age thing, I hate to keep bringing it up, but I have to. Well, I don't have to, but every now and then I'm like, fuck, I’m 50 years older and we shared all these experiences, these insights, the drug experience, you know? I guess it's growing up. I guess it's just being a conscious human being and evolving, but still. Sharing roots with all you artists, that's been amazing. Even though we don't necessarily have a tonne in common, there is a passion there. There is a kernel of passion that is essential as human beings. And having a shared experience, no matter how different it is.

I love that. I was just having a conversation with a friend, Raf Reza, on lineage and mentorship, that it goes both ways. Traditionally, or more conservatively, when there’s an age gap, people tend to think there is only one way knowledge can transfer: from the older person to the younger person.

What's beautiful about this experience is that it feels like we're all learning from each other. Even though, Lisa and Loren, you have so much lived experience from being on this earth longer than us, and traveling so much, you also acknowledge that, though we might have less, there's still a lot you can learn from us, too. I feel like this creates such a beautiful exchange, which is really special. It just makes every group conversation we've had so open, and I think it makes people more comfortable to share, too.

Also, I think because it's been such a slow unfolding, we've had so much time. In normal life, you never have this much time. Maybe you'll have a few hours over dinner, and then you'll take a walk. This has been three weeks of nothing but time, nobody in a hurry, and it's allowed us to dig deeper and open up to each other, and that's been really special.

Do you have a first memory of art, or have you always considered yourselves artists?

I think from elementary school, I definitely remember making things, my mom taking me to special classes. I remember my first sculpture project. It was always around horses. I have always loved it and connected with it. And then from college on, it was definitely front and center in my life.

I was never an artist, and I think I am still not an artist, but I have sensibilities that can appreciate the art I see around me. I have other talents. I don't think they fall into the classic line of arts. My mind is good at analyzing things and repairing things, and I like getting my hands involved in things. I love doing what I call my ‘chores at home.’ And I love supporting my wife, who's really the true artist. I support her from, you might call it a technical side, because that's the way my mind works.

My mind is pretty male and linear, kind of a line, you know? I shoot with a single bullet, and she's like a scatter gun. She's got 100 ideas coming out all at once. And then she's learned to access my talent to help her figure out, which one of these little BBs is the right one to follow? As a team, I feel like we're three times stronger than just two people, we really are.

It's easy for me to admit that I'm not an artist in that way but I have been able to develop some sensibilities, like I said a minute ago. I see things in tones and colours, in a way that I never used to, because I work with the oils and the dyes and the tones. It's very specific. It's a small thing, but it also helps me look out in the world and see things in tones and colours that I wouldn't have had I not been working alongside a true artist for these 50 years.

Personally, I'm a pretty sensitive person. I cry easily and so forth, and I have also been very moved by this experience. I wanted to mention this because the stories that I've heard about these young women, and they've all been young women except me, but the experience that I've heard about them, why they're artists, the way that they are artists, has really moved me. I've been really moved by the tragedy, the turmoil, the difficulty of all of you growing up as young women in today's society. It has filled my heart and broken my heart at the same time.

I think it's fascinating to hear that you don't consider yourself an artist, because from my perspective, I see both of you creating what you do. Maybe this is just my broad perspective of art because I haven't learned from a textbook or whatever, but think the way you ask questions about people, and specifically their art and what they do in their process, is in its own way an art form. There's a way that you ask very specific, thoughtful, thought-out questions. You'll be like, I’m gonna ask a question, and I'm like, okay, here we go.

It makes the artist think about their own art. Without that kind of questioning, does an artist exist, or are they just yelling into the void? You know what I mean? It's like a tug of war, I guess. I think it's the two of you who make the saddles and the artworks together. On a surface level, maybe painting is what you consider art, but then behind the scenes, I think it's combined. It's playing to your strengths. I think you're an artist in a different way.

“ My earliest memory of using my talent, if we want to call it artistic, I was six-years-old and I made my first crossbow. Yeah, then I'd go out hunting mice or whatever, with my little crossbow. I was technically inspired by the construction of the device.”

– Loren Skyhorse

“When I directed a play I had an appreciation for what people perceive as the artists, which are the actors, but then holy shit. The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes that people don't see, I consider that mind- blowing artistry.”

- Bronte Nelson

I agree that all things in life can be great and at the level of being an artist. I guess I didn't mean that I'm not clever and inventive. I'm also an observer. I observe things well. I do have those kinds of talents, and maybe they are my art form. But in general, in the definition of being an artist, I don't consider myself an artist like that.

I don't know if I've ever considered myself an artist. I don't know, it's an interesting thought. My joke is when people ask me, What do you do? I say mixed media. But it's not just mixed media. I use wood and paint; I've gone from theatre to acting and directing, to making music, drawings, and tattoos. But there's no specific time I've been like, I'm an artist. In some capacity, there's been creation going on.

For the youngest memory I have, I was always doing some kind of imaginative thing. When I was a kid, I had a massive imagination. I would be playing out full movies that I made up by myself. I guess those are the youngest memories of creating, in a way. I feel like an artist is the title, and what you do is creating.

My earliest memory of using my talent, if we want to call it artistic, I was six years old, and I made my first crossbow. Yeah, then I'd go out hunting mice or whatever, yeah, with my little crossbow. I was technically inspired by the construction of the device. If I were a tattoo artist, I couldn't draw the figure that I was going to transfer to the flesh. I would probably get off on what's the best way, or the best technique, to transfer to the flesh, and then I would really get off on how well I use the gun. My approach would be the technical application of the art.

From my perspective, I consider both facets to be art. Especially having done theatre and seeing the technical side behind the scenes. When I directed a play I had an appreciation for what people perceive as the artists, which are the actors, but then holy shit. The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes that people don't see, I consider that mind-blowing artistry.

You'll be talking to someone, and somehow they can decipher your weird, disjointed ideas and what you're trying to portray. They're like, yeah, I can do that in a green, yellow tint or something. And I'm like, oh, what? Cool. I consider AV stuff art too. It's technical, but it's kind of a blend of viewing things creatively and mechanically. I couldn't find a better word than mechanical, but get what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. I agree, it’s all the moving parts to the thing. I really like this analogy from Stephen Attong’s interview. He was saying how, like you said in theatre, the audience often thinks the actor or the actress, or whoever's the ‘star’, is the glue of the show, but if you're in AV, then you think the AV person is actually glue because you know that craft. In reality, everyone’s the glue. You're all in service to craft. And so, when I think about Lisa and Loren’s saddle making, or whatever the work is, you're each in service to the thing that you're creating, and the way that each person is contributing looks so different, and it’s all art. The craft could even be the conversations that you have along the way, too, which can be really beautiful.

Yeah, bouncing ideas off each other. Well, Loren and I have a classic story about what art is. One day, I was snarky. I'm like, hey, if it wasn't for me, all our saddles would just look the same, same, same. He's like, hey, if it wasn't for me, you'd be neck deep in unfinished projects. Which we've talked about that in this whole three-week session. You can make art all day long, you can visualize it, you can dream it, you can paint it, and then what are you going to do with it? Which doesn't negate the fact that it's still a meaningful process, but at some point in the here and now, it does help to materialize your work and do something with it.

“ I guess fundamentally all people are just trying to make something and be understood, but being open and fluid to ideas and the world and not knowing what the hell is going to happen next. You can plan it out to a degree, but at the same time, you can't, because you might get thrown a curveball.”

– Bronte Nelson

That just reminded me of the role that sharing your work has for everybody, whether that's important or not.

Who or what would you say you bring forward with you in your in your life and work?

I guess, to sum it up in one word, it would be to try and take a lesson from it and bring that lesson forward, not to necessarily preach it on to other people, but just be like, yo, this is what I did or this is what I learned. Maybe that'll help someone else or help me in general.

Also bringing forward the ability to have your ego checked, if that makes sense. I guess fundamentally all people are just trying to make something and be understood, but being open and fluid to ideas and the world and not knowing what the hell is going to happen next. You can plan it out to a degree, but at the same time, you can't, because you might get thrown a curveball.

Maybe what I bring forward will change in four years’ time, but at the moment, I'm in my learning phase. I hope to inspire at some point, but I feel like I'm at a point where my ego can't be that big. Realistically, in the grand scheme of my existence timeline, I'm in the era where I'm like, you gotta chill. I can be proud of myself, but I can't be too proud of myself, because I have a lot to learn. Does that make sense?

No. It makes perfect sense, and I feel the same way. I feel like I'm ridiculously proud of myself, but now I have such a perspective of life and the universe that my being proud of myself is such a speck in the cosmos. I'm proud, but this is not the universe, you know? The big universe. This is just my life, my decisions, my luck along the way, and, of course, my partnership and what's important to me.

Really, the ultimate, biggest deal is how I influence my family, how I love them, how they love me, and how my kids and my grandkids are going to be able to look back and go, it was a life well lived. They just did their best. Whether it mattered or not, it kind of doesn't even matter anymore. That's it.

We’re very lucky that with what we do, not only is it functional, it’s super archival. You can now find a saddle that's hundreds of years old, so it's really archival, and I think we have brought a beautiful, contemporary, meaningful twist to them. Most of our saddles tell stories, and they're really unique. But like I said, because of my age, I have a better perspective of how important it is, how important I am, not very, but I still embrace our success.

My philosophy in life is that you can't reach out and do what you want with other people until you do it to yourself. I also believe that being proud of who I am as a person and what I do as an occupation generally is important because that teaches me how to go forward, and that's what I bring forward. I bring forward the fact that I am proud of who I am, but that also means it's easy for me to be proud of other people. I don't judge myself because I don't like judgment, in general terms. Judgment, to me, is one of the most awful parts of the human endeavour. So if I don't judge myself, I'm better at not judging other people. I find it very offensive when I see other people judging each other. They haven’t walked in their footsteps. I was kind of an outcast as a child, and so I was judged by my peers, and I was treated a certain way by my peers, and it made me grow up with the attitude that I need to walk in someone else's footsteps before I can judge who they are.

Now, how does that refer to this? What this brings forward in me is this very same thing, like I said a minute ago. My heart is broken, but also fulfilled and moved by the stories I heard from the young women artists. I was able to hear all that and feel that with no judgment at all. Because I don't want to judge. I mean, I can't help it sometimes. I suppose I do, but I don't like myself when I do. What am I bringing forward? I'm bringing forward the fact that I can immerse myself for four weeks with all women around me, and I'm comfortable in your presence.

I was just reading a book on judgment, and this writer was saying how judging is actually such a big protection mechanism. It also helped me contextualize people who judge a lot, that there's a lot of hurt that triggers judgment, and whatever it is a person is judging is mirroring something that triggers them. It stems from a lot of pain. I think knowing that shifts how you perceive people who are quite judgmental. It's like, oh, you're maybe just really hurt, or, whatever it is, you know?

Yeah, there's a classic writing by Hyemeyohsts Storm named Seven Arrows, and it's all about judgment. Hyemeyohsts is a Native American Shaman, and that whole book is filled with exactly what you just talked about, judgment and what it does to people, how to handle it, and how to recognize that everything that you see, the reaction you're having to it, is a mirror. A mirror is a big thing in Seven Arrows. Everything's a mirror.

“ Lisa will just drop that she's made a fucking guitar strap for Bob Dylan like it's nothing, but the way she talks about how they made a saddle for their granddaughter, that goes above Bob Dylan, it's beautiful. ”

– Bronte Nelson

I see that question as two different things, and maybe it’s since meeting Lisa and Loren. When they talk about their family, it's so interesting. Lisa will just drop that she's made a fucking guitar strap for Bob Dylan like it's nothing, but the way she talks about how they made a saddle for their granddaughter, that goes above Bob Dylan, it's beautiful.

I feel like they inspire me to be the kind of ancestor they are for their family. It was like day two, and they were like, Oh, you're our granddaughter for the trip. And I was like, damn, cool. 

Realizing the importance, holding value to that kind of thing, prioritizing those people you feel connected to and giving those people the time and the effort they need is the kind of ancestor I want to be on a creative and human level, too. As humans, they're both independent individuals who have taught me a lot. It's so interesting to talk to both of them because they challenge each other. In a way, that's the kind of ancestor I want to be, too, someone who cares about family and the people you love, but not ignorant at all. Loving and valuing the people you love and value, but not living in a tiny little bubble.

I'm still in the lesson phase, so I feel like I can't answer that fully right now. I have to wait a few years to be able to answer that question. Same with the archaeology one. For me, I see that in a professional way. Again, I still feel like I'm in the learning stage, but I hope to be someone who inspires my family, and on a professional level, facilitates other people and helps them create what they want to create, and in turn, become the kind of ancestors they want to be. I don't know if that's too floozy, but yeah. I might come back to that question. I feel like, for me, that question has to be revisited in like 10 years’ time. I'm doing a lot of soul validating, not necessarily searching, because my self has always been there, but I’m just reminding myself right now.

I'm totally touched by what Bronte said, which made me cry. Just to add some levity to this, you will love this quote that I saw on a telephone booth, because we've been philosophizing this whole time. It says ‘art is a great way to waste time before dying.’

I mean, our saddles are mildly archival, you know? Even if they last 200 years, here we are in a house with a foundation that's 500 years old. I think at my age as a grandmother, which kind of dovetails into what Bronte said, and I wouldn't have completely had this perspective 50 years ago, but it really matters to me how we feed our kids and our grandkids so that they become the nurturers for their kids and their grandkids. I think that's the only way we can evolve as a human race, you know? Because, politically, it comes and goes. But as human beings, we have to keep feeding that love and nurturing and support. So in my phase of life, because I'm 75, that, to me, is major priority.

From an archaeologist's point of view, we are all as important as Picasso. Because what did Picasso do? You know, he came out of the Romantic era, all those romanticists, they were basically, in my opinion, what's the term when you just copy someone else's work? Illustrators. They all had small, different techniques with the brushes, and the theme was pretty much the same, and then here comes Picasso. It's like, wow. Skyhorse Saddles is kind of like Picasso in the saddle world. You're presenting something different from everyone else in that similar realm, in that world. So from an archaeologist's point of view, every one of us is like the Picasso of the time.

I read today about a banana being taped on the wall and sold for $6 million. Now, do I think a banana taped on the wall is any form of art? No, not really. But as the guy who bought it said, it's really not about the banana taped on the wall; it's about the conversations it provokes. Now, I don't know how much I agree with that, but at the same time, an artist did that, and I would say, in the right circumstance, he was the Picasso of what was happening. He presented something that everyone else stopped and thought about, just like the guy that you know peed in the jar with the crucifix and stuff.

Well, then you've got to give Sotheby’s credit too for not going, are you kidding me? I'm not gonna auction that thing off!

*lauhgs*

As far as what I leave as an ancestor, again, I want to be remembered by my family and by my friends and my associates and even Lucia or anyone else who might meet me by happenstance, as a kind, non-judgemental person. I guess the ancestral thing for me was a little bit more of a larger picture, who I am on planet earth, not just my family, but anyone that I come in contact with. I guess it’s kind of hard to describe.

I do hold my family very valuable, and I am proud of the way we raised our family. Back to the whole judgment, or how you treat someone, attitude, Lisa and I did a very good job raising the kids from this perspective. We never even gave them a curfew, but we made them make their own curfew, and then we either agreed to it or didn't agree to it. But there had to be a discussion around that. It couldn't just be, we'll go do whatever you want and show up whenever you want. No, that was not it, but it was also not 10 o'clock and one minute after, and I'm going to whip you, you know? No, it wasn't that either. It was instead, what do you think is reasonable? Tell us what you're going to do, what's reasonable, and we'll listen to you, you know? Yeah, and that's the way we raise the kids. And they're great, they're great kids.

Final question, is anything on repeat in your mind right now, quote, book, phrase, song?

“ I wouldn't have completely had this perspective 50 years ago, but it really matters to me how we feed our kids and our grandkids so that they become the nurturers for their kids and their grandkids. I think that's the only way we can evolve as a human race, you know? Because politically, it comes and goes. But as human beings, we have to keep feeding that love and nurturing and supporting. So in my phase of life, because I'm 75, that, to me, is major priority.”

– Lisa Skyhorse

I’m trying to think. The song that keeps repeating is Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd. I don't know what the lyrics are off the top of my head, but it always comes on and I'm like, fuck yeah. For me, it's usually a song, within the sound, how it makes me feel more than specifically the words. It comes on and I'm like, this is the perfect song for this time, in this moment. And then, talking to Lisa, Pink Floyd is one of her favourite bands. That's why I think that song just keeps popping up. Maybe because we keep talking about Pink Floyd. So my phone is just going off, but yeah, I don't know. It's about learning to fly, which I feel, you know, I'm embracing the inner cringe of songs like that and allocating them to times of your life. But I'm just like, yeah, that's me learning to fly.

I just shared a meme with somebody yesterday, and it's one of my favourites. But it's about experiencing ego death, and it’s like, once you've accepted your cringe, you're free to become your full self. So all those moments, yeah, feel so cheesy or whatever, but that is what you feel right now. Just like, give yourself permission.

And if you can't appreciate your own cringe, it's the judgment thing. If you judge yourself and you don't have self-respect, then you judge and you don't respect others. It's interesting.

Well, I have a bunch of things that popped up in my head, but my favourite one from this trip is a Camus quote because it embodies so many things. Plus, Bronte and I crack up over the same stuff. It was, ‘Should I kill myself, or should I have a cup of coffee?’ But my favourite all-time quote is from Tom Robbins, and it's been my favourite quote for 50-some years:

Nothing is real. Everything is sacred. Nothing is sacred, everything is real.

And that works for me in every situation. And I love that quote, but my new favourite one is, Should I kill myself?

“ One can say everything happens for some reason, or it's all completely random. But one can also say that, even luck, you have to work at.” 

– Loren Skyhorse

My repeating thought here has been waking up every morning and being proud of Bronte for her sobriety. I have thought a lot about that because I have struggled with it. It makes me remember my sobriety as well. So anyway, that's sort of my everyday consuming thought here.

Generally in life, my everyday, consuming thought is project-oriented. What's my next project? What am I going to do next? That's just who I am, the way I think, the way I go through life. It's, you know, as much as I've enjoyed being here, I'm also going to enjoy being home and picking out a project that needs to be done. You know, I’m very proud of our property and our home and everything. And every once in a while, I pick out a project around there that really needs to be done, and I immerse myself in it, and it keeps the place up. Our place is neat and tidy, and something to be proud of, which doesn't look like a junkyard, and I have just enough equipment back in one place that I can always go there and get something to remove snow or dig a hole or whatever I have to do. That sounds like a silly materialistic thing, but in fact, it's sort of what drives me, kind of keeps me happy.

Yeah, and for better or worse, Loren totally grounds me. You know, I'm like a helium balloon, and if you cut the string, I'd be gone. Loren’s holding the string, but he's not popping the bubble. So it's important. It's yin-yang.

Yeah. I mean, I think for all of us getting to witness your relationship has been really beautiful throughout this trip, too. It’s been healing. When you talk about your home and everything, it doesn't feel materialistic at all, because it's what you've built together. They're not just things. It's your family and life. As you said earlier, this trip's general vibe has been family. I think if it were anybody else in any other circumstance, maybe it wouldn't have happened that way. But it just feels so natural and yeah, like family.

It has been very serendipitous.

One can say everything happens for some reason, or it's all completely random. But one can also say that, even luck, you have to work at.

For me, just to use sobriety as an example, at my stage of it, it's something that's within my control. So that's something that's my responsibility. I came here and I was like, Ah, this is gonna suck being sober. It's gonna be something I'm gonna have to work hard on, blah, blah, blah. And then the universe gave me Loren and Lisa, and Loren’s sober. And I was like, Huh? It reminded me of what you just said. Because sobriety is something, at least from my perspective, that looks different for everyone. It’s a working on. Always working on.

The universe just sprinkles something in when you really need it. It gives you a good bit of chocolate when you might be going too savoury. It evens it out. I'm not really someone who's that spiritual, but sometimes, when it's shit like that, it's nice having the universe send me signs, not as a reminder to be sober, but just to remind me, you can do it.

Remember, it's about loving yourself, too. That's exactly what I meant. You could believe it's all the universe, but it isn't all the universe; it's also what you do with it when you're handed it. You could have refused to do anything with it, refused to mention it, you could refuse to do anything, but you didn't. You were open and upfront about it, and so you took advantage of something that had occurred. You had no idea you'd end up with Grandma and Grandpa here.

Absolutely not. And then, from Lisa, as a separate example, I feel like it's important to note, as someone who's quite a hyper-independent woman, it's really easy to be like, I don't need a man to do that. I can do it myself. But, you know, you want to have a boo or a lover or whatever, someone who cares about you to help you. Sometimes it's hard to imagine anyone who can be that without compromising your independence.

Well, there is always an element of compromise. I mean, even with us living together, there's always an element of compromise.

Yeah, it's really inspiring to see a woman with her life partner who is still very much herself. 

You know, we talked about luck and serendipity. People come into our space, and go, Oh, look at this, you guys are so lucky. And we always go, we have worked really hard to be this lucky. Not to discount the element of luck, and I don't want to call it karma, because that always sounds too punishing if shit happens. But, I mean, we haven't gotten hit by a car, struck by lightning, you know? So there is also an element of that.

I haven’t fallen more than four steps on our ladder.

“ I agree that all things in life can be great and at the level of being an artist. I guess I didn't mean that I'm not clever and inventive. I'm also an observer. I observe things well. I do have those kinds of talents, and maybe they are my art form.” 

– Loren Skyhorse

I mean, it's so nuanced and complex, and I very rarely forget to be grateful for all this complexity and the way it's been able to mesh together and work or not work, and then you move on.

Yeah, as you’re speaking, I was thinking about the importance of gratitude and how having that awareness just really creates a presence in life. Is there anything you want to add before we wrap up?

This has been really another beautiful, insightful moment of this whole thing, taking the time to communicate.

Yeah. I think it's also worth noting that it's nice that you're creating a curiosity of wondering and asking, and like being the facilitator, it’s really a gift.

I’m so grateful, also, for your openness. These conversations don't happen with just anybody.

Well, it's a beautiful culmination of this whole slow process and really paying attention, which just doesn't happen all the time in this busy world with our lives and fast pace.

“ I guess it's growing up. It's just being a conscious human being and evolving, but still, you know, sharing roots. That's been amazing with all of you artists. Even though we don't necessarily have a tonne in common, there is a passion there. There is a kernel of passion that is essential, yeah, as human beings and having a shared experience, no matter how different it is.”

– Lisa Skyhorse

BRONTE NELSON, LISA & LOREN SKYHORSE 

Lisa and Loren Skyhorse:
We are Lisa and Loren of Skyhorse Saddles, a husband and wife top custom saddle making team For more than forty-five years we've been working together to create the finest custom saddles available. Each of the more than 1,100 one-of-a-kind saddles made to date provided our clients with attention to detail, options, and aesthetics rarely found in the industry today.

A bit about Bronte, from Bronte:
Art and creative expression has always been my way of escaping and making sense of my reality, feelings and the world around me. I aim to translate the nuances of my lived experiences into a visual format.