Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

Seventeen days ago... that was my last post. There are a couple important reasons for that. First, my computer crashed. And second, once that happened, I began reassessing some things. I have decided that I truly do not like computers. I know they are necessary for keeping your art out there, maintaining websites and online stores, promoting your work, and also for staying in touch with some distant friends. But oh my gosh, I do get tired of working at the computer, especially during the warm weather months when I'm much more inclined to create and to be outside, gardening, harvesting, playing with the dogs, or just bird- and lizard-watching. I know that the more time I spend on the computer, the less time I am actually creating and being present in the lives of my family and friends. And I do not want a machine to control how I spend my time.

So I have been doing more creating, more song-writing, more music practice, more reading, and more of almost everything else over the past couple of weeks. I haven't checked blogs (and honestly, there are some that I have really missed!), I haven't made treasuries on Etsy, I haven't listed too many things in Etsy, I haven't posted much on Etsy team threads or on Facebook, and I haven't sent many emails. Have I suffered much from that? Nope. Not really. It's true that I haven't made many online sales either. But I haven't had much luck in that area all year, really.

How I will use this lesson I am not sure yet. I know that when winter rolls around again, I will probably hibernate more and thus spend more time with online friends via emails, blogs, FB, treasuries, and threads, but for now, I think I will try to limit my computer time to an hour or so a day. And that time is just about up for today.

But before I sign off for the present, here are some images to prove that I actually have been working on art, both visual and musical, although I can't show you the musical work here (you'll just have to trust me when I say there are several songs at various points in progress). The painting above had been sitting in my studio, half completed for quite some time. So I finally got around to finishing it up and listing it on Etsy. And below are the newest scrimshaw pieces. A couple have been listed; the others will be soon.

Under the Sea bookmark, complete with fun lampworked glass fish and disc beads...

Dance of Life necklace with beautiful boro glass bead in garden colors, on leather...

Flutterbys and Ferns pendant, on flexible black wire with freshwater pearls and crystals...

Butterflies bookmark with aqua lampworked glass bead...

Ear Birds earrings, on sterling silver with autumn-colored lampworked glass beads and Swarovski crystals...

Sing to Me bookmark with aqua and brown porcelain bead and river stone lampworked glass bead...


Be patient with me... if you're looking for blog posts or if you're looking for my comments on your blogs. Trust me when I say that I value my online friends and that I think of you often, because I truly do. And when time allows, I will be visiting your blogs and I'll be adding new posts here. Until then, hug the ones you love, dance in the candlelight, sing a little song, and breathe the fresh air. That's what I'll be doing.

Summer Songwriting

Sometimes songs come easier than others. Sometimes a song begins and then lays dormant... the words stuck on the paper, unwilling to grow. But songwriting means working on those lyrics, playing with phrasing, switching lines around, allowing the words a chance to rise up and call out to others and allowing the songwriter a chance to meet the challenge head-on, pencil in hand, guitar on lap.

Such has been the case with one song I started about two weeks ago... a song about the river and living in the here and now. The first verse came quite easily, along with the chorus. The second verse followed fairly nicely, but the third? After leaving the song for a couple days, I came back to it. And I spent almost two hours on four lines! And I'm still not sure if I am satisfied with the lay of those lines. So I set it aside and made dinner. And a few days have passed since, while I have had band practice and singing with the old folks and playing in the Winston-Salem Shuffle on Saturday night. That turned into a very late night for this old gal, and so yesterday, I was fairly good for nothing.

Here are a few photos from the Shuffle. I asked my mandolin-playing friend, John Hartman, to share the stage with me, which he graciously agreed to do. Our first song was Marlboro Man, which is on my CD. Our second song, which is the one during which these photos were shot, was my brother's song, When You're Alone, which I absolutely love singing and will perhaps put on my next CD (yes, I'm planning on a new one!). And best of all, it uses a kazoo, which my husband agreed to hold hidden in his hand until the appropriate time. It got much laughter and applause! Our final song was a new song I finished up about two months ago called A Little Mercy, and which, by the way, came easier than some... thanks in part to its rhythm.




So this morning I took an early morning walk with my three adopted dogs (I'll be dog-sitting this week), and the air was cool, there was fog lying low on the mountain, and there was a freshness all about me. And lo and behold, new lyrics came rushing into my brain. Not for the above-mentioned river song, but for a brand new one. I love it when that happens. It's often unexpected but oh so welcomed! So as soon as I could, I got the words on paper (in a nifty little journal that I bought from phofun on Etsy) and got out the guitar. I think it will be a traditional sounding song, full of fun rhythm and fun rhymes... a song of summer, a song of love... "c'mon, darling, come on home."

Stay tuned... literally and metaphorically.

Back in the Saddle Again

Did you think I was going to blog about riding a horse? Nope... this is all about music! After a couple weeks of not being able to sing much because of a cold or some virus that managed to create shortness of breath, wheezing, and a dry cough, I am thrilled to be able to sing again! So this week has pretty much been devoted to musical art rather than visual art, though I did make one new necklace... which you may have seen in my earlier post. It's now finished, but not photographed yet.

This photo is of my dear, dear Guild... circa 1974, a D-35... which means a dreadnaught guitar, nice and hefty. I've had her since 1976; she was a high school graduation gift from my parents, interestingly enough, purchased way back then from my bandmate, Trey! So now you know how old I am and how long I've played music with Trey, though fortunately the two of us have come a long, long way since then... musically and in other ways as well! Over the summer the Guild had a little work done... a new bone bridge and nut installed, some fretwork and new pins, and man, oh man, I love the way she sounds now! Rich and true, a little bright, but not too bright. I'm sooo pleased. Of course, the right strings help and those that are on her now, Elixir Nanoweb Light Phosphor Bronze, are just perfect... they'll be my staple from now on.

So I'm thinking about the originals I'll be putting on my first CD, and the order they'll be in, and I've been working on those songs, polishing them up a little, fine-tuning and such. But I've also got two new ones that my bandmates haven't heard yet, one that I wrote this week, and yet another one in the works. My songs tend to reflect my mood, of course. They are sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, sometimes silly, sometimes happy and bright... love songs, songs about loss, songs about the current state of affairs, songs about growing old, and even one song about murder! Some are story songs (I love the story-telling Texas songwriters!); some are not. Sometimes my songs start from a word that I love or a phrase that sticks in my head. Sometimes from a conversation with my husband or from a story I've read in the news or an experience someone has told me about. Sometimes they come from a feeling that is so strong I can't see past it.

Sometimes people ask why I wrote a certain song, and sometimes people assume that every song is true. Well, of course not all my songs come from personal experience. In that sense, they are not all "true." But in some way, they all start from a thought I've had, or a story I've heard or read, or even an image I've seen. But you can't listen to a song and assume it's something the songwriter has experienced. If that's the case, I'd probably be in jail or dead since I wrote a song, told in first person, about first degree murder!

Songwriting is all about word play, enjoying the sound of words, of rhymes, of being very intentional with your word choice and the mood you want to set with your words. And you have to think about rhythm and melody, pacing, and for me on guitar, whether the song will be strummed or picked. It's not unlike painting in which you take a blank canvas and add color, texture, patterns and lines, foreground and background to create an image that speaks of an emotion, a story, or a vision.

Next week, perhaps I'll get back in the painting studio where there is a half-begun canvas waiting for me. And plenty of blank ones as well. But when the song-writing mood hits me, as it did the other night 'round midnight and I had to get out of bed and write down some lines so I wouldn't forget them, I have to follow through.

The Land of Silence

"Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation... tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation." ~Jean Arp

I have spent this week at home, trying to get over a dreadful cold, and I have enjoyed the quiet of my country life, but that is nothing new for me. Here I have no sounds of city streets, no industrial noise, no slamming of doors, no bulldozers or construction chaos. I have, instead, birdsong, the wind, an occasional rooster, and the barking of my own dogs. Yesterday that barking alerted me to a family of four deer in the front yard at the pear tree. They stood, so quiety and observantly, listening to the muffled barking, their heads inclined toward the house. I watched them for as long as they stood there, and then they ambled back towards the woods and the dogs become quiet again. It was a wonderful five minutes.

This silence is meditative and does wonders for my soul. It allows me to wander through my thoughts, digging at the soil in my brain, rooting through the tangled brush, to find ideas that culminate in songs and paintings. And I fear it is something that far too many people cannot or do not enjoy. It is a necessary thing for me, this silence, as much a part of me as my breathing.

I would suggest that you spend 30 minutes each day in total silence, or in the silence of the woods, if that is at all possible for you. I promise that it will open you to your own feelings, to new perspectives, to a reflection that will bring you to a different place... whether one of joy or sorrow, peace or turmoil... only you will know, but it will be a place where you need to spend some time in order to truly appreciate who you are and the life you live, and to make the most of it.