Party Time...
An image from my series of experiments this year. Working the River - an Exploration opens Saturday, 5 November, from 6-9 at In Bocca al Lupo Fine Art. November is my birthday month so this is my First, Last and Only birthday party - cake and everything. The best present is seeing old and new friends so I hope you can drop by. I'll be sharing an exciting new direction for the gallery that night.
Music Education...
Thinking Out Loud...One of the scores on the November concert program for the JCO is in Russian, however, everyone speaks the same patois when it comes to music so performance of charts conceived in any language is possible. Music is a universal communicator.
Recall the many ceasefires on Christmas day in 1914 when the Allies and Germans met in No Man's Land to sing carols and exchange holiday greetings in the middle of a vicious war.
I wondered this morning if the universality of music and art, with the resulting power and positive energy, is one of the unacknowledged reasons music curriculums are being cut from so many schools? If we can't speak music, we become more manageable and ethnocentric. Since music uses all of the brain, if we are not challenged to think to our highest capacity, we more readily accept isolation. We have a potential to stop caring about our world family. I hope we find a way to incorporate music training into our lives. I used to think only children could learn a musical instrument, cultivate a voice or creative practice. It's never to late to begin.
Drive By...
Driven by demons...
"An artist is a creature driven by demons. She doesn't know why they choose her and and she's usually too busy to wonder why," With apologies to William Faulkner for the gender reassignment of his statement.
Finally finished...
Detail from a recently completed piece, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, oil.