The Philosophy of Puzzle Making
#83 Wisdom Gates: Paradox, Care and Discovery with Puzzle-Maker Jasen Robillard
every community is an invitation to care about something together, but what?
Can serious play be a portal to wisdom?
Holding Paradox Through Play and Embodied Practice: This is an episode about puzzles and care. Andrea has a conversation with puzzle maker Jason Robillard (StumpCraft) about how puzzles cultivate new ways of being and seeing, holding paradox by repeatedly joining opposites only to realize they were never quite opposites but mirror-like pieces of a coherent whole. Robillard describes his wooden, laser-cut puzzles built from Canadian fine art, with uniquely drawn organic pieces, symbolic elements, sensory “shock,” and sometimes multiple valid placements that challenge assumptions of a single solution. He connects puzzling to embodied experience, attention, OODA loops, cognitive biases, and navigating complexity through “alternating base camps” and Goldilocks destabilization, relating this to career upheavals and identity change. The conversation emphasizes care as community glue and highlights values embedded in his work—curiosity, creativity, integrity, and generosity—plus a resonance with David Whyte’s poem “Start Close In.”
In play there is something “at play” which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action. All play means something.” Johan Huizinga
00:00 Paradox Through Play
02:36 Podcast Intro Puzzles Theme
07:54 Meet Jasen And His Work
09:20 Puzzles Holding Paradox
11:38 Designing Artful Wooden Puzzles
14:47 Embodied Senses And Touch
16:58 Career Shift Into Puzzles
23:24 Serious Play And Homo Ludens
25:50 Moving Childhood And Safety
31:57 Base Camps And Destabilization
34:30 Polarity Recipes Beyond Flatland
38:47 Designing Paradox Puzzles
39:48 Many Solutions Mindset
42:54 Puzzles as Conversation
47:53 Liminal Times Need Puzzles
56:00 Sensemaking and OODA Loops
01:00:22 Home Gifts and Community
01:03:17 Four Values in Design
01:11:29 Start Closer In Practice
01:13:39 Care Belonging and Vulnerability
01:18:52 Where to Find Jasen
01:19:57 Closing Poem Reading
StumpCraft Amazing Instagram Photos and Videos of Games
Jasen’s writings: Releasing the Muse
Jasen on LinkedIn
OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act)
Homo Ludens by J. Huizinga
https://lovephilosophy.substack.com/p/communities-are-invitations-to-care
“StumpCraft is a jigsaw puzzle workshop based out of Calgary, Alberta. They design and locally craft laser-cut, heirloom-quality puzzles showcasing the best of Canadian fine art. StumpCraft started making puzzles in 2017 and has been steadily growing ever since.
They view puzzles as:
a vehicle for widespread art appreciation;
meditative downtime from a distraction-heavy culture;
brain exercise; and
most of all fun!
Art for StumpCraft puzzles is selected in collaboration with local artists across Canada, as well as estates, museums and art galleries with a deliberate focus on Canadian fine art. Puzzles are then designed and crafted to enhance patrons’ puzzling experience through the use of premium puzzle materials, printing technology and a carefully considered proportion of contextual whimsy pieces.
Care for the pieces - focus on the whole.
Challenge chaos with creativity, generosity, wonder and integrity.
Find your piece of the puzzle.
About Jasen, the Founder
Jasen Robillard was always a closet creative: piano lessons from age 5, art projects galore through high school and eventually an interest in digital photography through early fatherhood. He long denied the creative muses, focusing instead on a “secure” engineering career until it dried up in 2017. As is often the case, necessity proved to be the mother of invention…
When his professional hours began to dwindle in 2016, Jasen started designing and prototyping his whimsical puzzles which were inspired by other wooden laser-cut puzzles he had enjoyed years earlier. He noted a lack of wooden puzzle availability in Canada, as well as a severe lack of deliberate focus on Canadian fine art. After a year of playful prototyping and a clear end to his engineering-focused career, Jasen decided to launch StumpCraft formally in 2017.
Since the formal launch, StumpCraft has experienced growth and praise as more and more fans share their love of puzzles with friends and family members. StumpCraft observed a noted jump in market exposure in 2019 via market attendance outside Calgary, namely very warm receptions at Circle Craft in Vancouver and Signature’s Butterdome Christmas Market in Edmonton. Despite our inability to attend more shows in 2020 and 2021 due to covid-related restrictions, the puzzle craze expanded our community of fans even more. StumpCraft was also the recipient of the 2021 Made in Alberta Award in Games & Leisure, exposing us to an ever more rapidly expanding fanbase.
Jasen personally uses his craft as a way of learning more about Canadian fine art, history and the subject matters underlying the themes of the puzzles he designs. He is also passionately committed to using StumpCraft as a catalyst for generosity. Ultimately as an artist and puzzle designer, his aim is to expose puzzle fans to more Canadian art, to provide great moments of engaging contemplative low-tech activity, and to provide a vehicle for social connection between friends and family.
FEATURED ARTIST COLLABORATIONS
StumpCraft works with artists to bring their works to life. Some of the artists we have worked with in the past have included: Kari Lehr, Reilly Fitzgerald, Lori Anne McKague, Pam Weber, Sharon Lynn Williams, Julie deBoer, William Flett, Steve Driscoll, Sam Millard, Mandy Budan, Amy Shackleton, Janet K. MacKay, Steve R. Coffey, Kim Smith, Tom Thomson, Travis Anderson, Roland Gissing, Serge Dube, Monique Munoz, Melissa McKinnon, and plenty more.”
“We make the future in the present, when we show up. Don't surrender it to those who would destroy it.” Rebecca Solnit