Trimmings

This fall I've been hit with the almost manic surge to prune things: branches, life clutter, and even some beautiful things where I have to stop, breath in courage over fear of loss and think before I cut.   "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater".

In real time it's been 6 recent weeks of more intense culling than ever.  I'm "listening" and re-focusing. Part of that is going through my "Artist's Way" workbook  again.  It's building on last year's nine month 12 step program called Freedom Sessions, which rocketed me into both clarity about my three main passions (music, art and specialized kinesiology) and the mystery of seeing them each become decidedly dormant.

I've frequently felt like apparently foolish Noah building an ark where it's never rained as I continue to chip away at these three passions.  They are definitely "out of season". Still, most of the time I see no reason to stop investing in them.  For one thing, each of these passions continues to receive tiny nightlights of encouragement along the way from people I respect. For another, these interests just won't go away, despite many prayers to the contrary in darker times.

For the first time in my life I am mostly quiet-hearted about the whole "no obvious success" thing. Something is being secretly grafted into my soul.  My value does not lie in what I do or love. I'm curious, though, what springtime might look like.

You're a lot more creative than...

Lots of notable and quotable things here on creativity.  I want to re-watch it myself to write things down but here it is for you all.

Keith Richards Part 2

I've just finished reading Keith Richards' "Life".  It's like saying goodbye to a friend I've never met.  Here are some more quotes.

Pg. 468 On songwriting with Mick  "We always come up with something when we're together.  There's an electric spark between us.  There always has been.  That's what we look forward to and that's what helps turn folks on."

Pg. 491  "The grind is never the stage performance.  Once we're up there doing it, it's sheer fun and joy."

Pg. 491   "The only way I can sustain the impetus over the long tours we do is by feeding off the energy that we get back from an audience. That's my fuel."

Pg. 491, 491    "All I've got is this burning energy, especially when I've got a guitar in my hands.  I get an incredible raging glee when they get out their seats.  Yeah, come on, let it go.  Give me some energy and I'll give back double.  It's almost like some enormous dynamo or generator.  It's indescribable....If the place was empty I wouldn't be able to do it...It's like sitting on top of a rocket."

Pg. 522  "Aside from poaching, which I haven't done since then, I lead a gentleman's life.  Listen to Mozart, read many, many books....I've always got some historical work on the go."

Pg. 546  "But I'm not here just to make records and money.  I'm here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation. "Do you know this feeling?" "

Pinocchio

This is a quick entry.  I've just finished a 9 month twelve step program that pretty much leaves no stone un-turned as far as forms of denial go, how I've been hurt, whom I've hurt, how to fix what I can, and how to live and think in more healthy ways.  In many senses I don't know yet what, if anything, has changed in me.  One thing that seems to have, is me being more open and honest (or are those the same?).  It's come out unintentionally in some large artworks I've done for my church this year. Really uncanny for me how many people in the last months have been magnetically drawn to these over-sized pictures I've poured my soul into and have come to tell me so.  I even got a card in the mail yesterday thanking me for the current display.   I don't know what it is.  It's as if the art now has a soul.  Like Pinocchio becoming a real boy.

An unexpected reward for willingly trudging through this 12 step program though it seemed to almost kill me at times. (It's called Freedom Sessions, by the way) Still not sure how to deal with all the responses but I'm starting with thank you's.

Keith Richards

As part of my rock star reading I'm plowing through a 500 plus word autobiography of Keith Richards called "Life" which has no boring parts.  Happy to discover another famous British musician who knows how to write.  Lots of interesting stuff in there but I'll focus on some quotes for this post.

About songwriting:

    pg. 240 "These crucial wonderful riffs that just came, I don't know where from.  I'm blessed with them and I can never get to the bottom of them."
    pg. 277   "So what makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's heads.  You want to plant yourself there, or at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you're playing.  It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people..."
    pg. 309  "Great songs write themselves...you're just the conveyor."
    pg. 310  "When I first knew I could do it, I wondered if I could do another one.  Then I found they were rolling off my fingers like pearls.  I never had any difficulty writing songs.  It was a sheer pleasure.  And a wonderful gift that I didn't know I had.  It amazes me."

About playing and recording:

   pg. 243  "It's what you leave out that counts."
   pg. 244   "Rhythm really only has to be suggested."
   pg. 306   "With a great band you only really need a little sparkle of an idea, and before the evening's over it will be a beautiful thing,"
   pg. 241   "The big discovery late in 1968 or early 1969 was when I started playing the open five-string tuning.  It transformed my life."
   pg. 244    "Five strings cleared out the clutter."
   pg. 315    "For me there is no such thing as time when I'm into recording.  Time changes."

Nordic

Recently I've developed a craving for things Nordic and Viking. Odd after so many years.  I was born on the coast of a Scandinavian country, lived there for a few years and went back often in summers into my teens. Didn't much appeal to me at the time.  So many hours driving through trees or seemingly passing the same scene over and over of yellow flowered fields and blue lakes with little else in between.  I think I was tainted too by the isolation my transplanted mother felt in those early years.  Apparently, though, my little kid self at least outwardly fit in pretty well back then. I was even tri-lingual for a while.

Lately I've been looking up a lot of old Scandinavian craftsmanship on the internet.  Especially silver jewelry and wood carvings.  And a friend got me listening to Icelandic minimalist composer Olafur Arnald and the group Sigor Ros.  I'm hooked.  Something has changed in my brain and associations and it's appealing now. Beautiful.  A part of my history that I'm ok with and more now.

It's expanding my creativity.  These weeks I'm working on a textured wall art project with a bit of a house theme and the details are all emerging with a Nordic twist.  I hope to take some photos of that for another blog entry.

By the way, the sweater above was handmade for my dad 50 years ago. It lives in my closet now.  Nothing like scratchy wool and pewter to bring back Scandinavia.  

Sir Ken Robinson - Escape Death Valley

The delightfully British, witty and inspiring teacher of education with a 2013 Ted Talks talk.  I especially liked his comment about the arts reaching a part of children's being that other disciplines can't.