Winter Trees

                         A couple pictures I did for a foyer for this past December.  Painting still doesn't flow as easily as sketching for me.  It felt awkward "drawing" on such a big scale with a brush instead of my humble but favorite tool, a black ball point pen.  

Mark Applebaum: Mad Scientist of Music

Mark starts by asking: Is it Music?  Through his witty, far fetched  and provocative presentation he brings the audience to the fact that the question for him instead has to be: Is it interesting?  He challenges listeners to reconsider the fundamental questions they ask about their discipline and where it might cross over to other realms.

Supporting Role

    This morning I'm thinking about people who support artists.  My husband is one of them.  He's not artistic  and has very little interest in creative things.  He won't be found reading books called "Imagine" or listening to pod casts about people who make things.  He does, however, value and enable those who are artists, especially in his immediate family.

   For my many music practices and events he has always been open to releasing me to do what I love the most.  When I've covered the dining table and kitchen island  in paints, fabric or pieces of plants or if I'm hammering nails into walls for decorative experiments he is blissfully tolerant.  When it's drama season for daughter number one he patiently works later to be there for her practice pick ups and attends as many performances as he can, even of the same show.

   To be honest there are times I envy artists who are married to creative people.  Just this weekend I sang with a music team that included 3 other couples who do music together.  But though I feel creatively alone at home,  I'm starting to think that maybe there's purpose. That maybe these are the circumstances I've needed to develop my artistic backbone and my own creative identity.  And without these circumstances maybe I wouldn't have gone as far to collaborate with other creative people who enrich my artistic world and my life.

   

The Power of Introverts

A Ted Talk for Introverts, Extroverts and Ambiverts.  Susan Cain, bookworm and introvert, explores how the 20th century redefined and redirected introverts in the classroom, workplace and N. American society, and what introverts really have to offer the world.

to quote Shakespeare

   I just finished an entertaining and informative book by Bill Bryson called Shakespeare, which wittily explored "centuries of mysteries, half-truths and downright lies about Shakespeare.."  Bryson writes that ," It is because we have so much of Shakespeare's work that we can appreciate how little we know of him as a person."

   What especially interested me was that William S. invented a lot of words and phrases, many of which we still use today.  Some first words found in his writings are: antipathy, critical, frugal, dwindle, extract, horrid, vast, hereditary, excellent, eventful, lonely, well-read, zany, and, says Bryson, countless others, including countless.

    His particular gift was creating memorable phrases which entered the common language.  Among them:
one fell swoop, vanish into thin air, bag and baggage, be in a pickle, budge an inch, cold comfort, to thine own self be true, salad days, flesh and blood, blinking idiot, with bated breath, pomp and circumstance, forgone conclusion, and many others.

    The end of the book describes anti-Shakespeare "experts" who claimed that Shakespeare was actually not himself.  I was amused by Bryson's debunking commentaries, saying of one that he proved Shakespeare's actual and other identity "to his own satisfaction" and of a countess believed by some to be the great bard "all that's missing to connect her to Shakespeare is anything to connect her to Shakespeare."

 

Djembe Blues

    The shorter the rest of my life gets, the less I hesitate to try new things.  What can I lose?  Face?  Hmm..sometimes.  Mostly privately if it happens.  I do know that I have to keep trying new stuff.

     Before I tell you about a recent attempt that bombed, I'll start with successes.   I played bongos for a small music event for the first time in November. It was ok enough.  I acted like this was normal and went for it. Then I played drums for the first time in public for another small music event with a forgiving audience.  Not terrible.  Kept mostly in time and even threw in a few fills.  My dignity remained in tact.

    The fail happened when I asked my daughter's group fiddle teacher if I could try the djembe as class accompaniment.  She already has a guitarist.  No problem, she said.  I told her, and she the guitarist, that I was pretty new to this and the damage was done.  The guitarist was openly skeptical even before I began.  He and his daughter, a fiddler, looked at me during the class and exchanged glances.  Afterwards I asked the teacher and guitarist for feedback.  No issues, said the teacher.  So I wasn't annoying or overtly bad.  Then to the guitarist with his highly doubtful expression.  "You won't be able to keep up later with the faster songs and complex rhythms..blah, blah, blah....".  His vote sunk me.  The fiddle teacher later agreed with me later that he'd decided against me before I began because he's a "professional" and knew I was not.

   I was miffed.  I recovered.  I pondered how to recycle this into something useful and non toxic.  What did I learn, I asked myself?

   1.  Don't dismiss newbies without an objective chance. Even two or three.

   2.  Perfectionists can be jerks for their own art.  Keep your standard but be kind. Try flexibility.

   3.  Don't lie but try to find at least one encouraging thing to say to a newbie about their effort. 

Creative Houses from Reclaimed Stuff

    Here's another Ted Talks video, this time by Texan recycling builder Dan Phillips.  I found his repurposing  surprisingly appealing and his philosophy "smartly" conveyed.