Happy Spring!

 

Hello out there! Spring has sprung in Virginia and I am pretty happy about that.  I love the return of the green and flowers and the sound of birds everywhere. Spring is also a busy time for music. I am now playing percussion in 4 bands!  I play traditional percussion (snare drum, auxiliary percussion) in Second Wind band at The Center at Belvedere. Then I play conga and Latin percussion in The Flashbacks band, also at The Center. I recently joined a Steel Drum band and that is a lot of fun and I play weekly at Unity of Charlottesville church. 

Spring means spring concerts ! Our concert at The Center for Second Wind band and The Flashbacks happens on Saturday, May 18th at 3:00. We have a lot of great music planned for you! Our former band director was a percussionist, which means all of the songs feature just about every single percussion instrument from the gong, siren, wood block, bongos, congas, timpani, mallets and yes, you guessed it cowbell! :) 

In addition, I am loving my work playing guitar for hospital and hospice patients. It is quite an honor to have the job I have. 

My photo today is of my newest collage which is my first attempt at a mountain scene. I made it with new beautiful paper I got recently. I am pretty excited with new colors and textures to work with. 

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a very Happy Spring! 

Combating gloom with color and light

 

Hello everyone! I don’t know about you but this winter gloom and days of constant drizzle and clouds can really get me down.   That’s where music and art can come in and uplift us.   I spent all day reworking and old collage I made from a recycled painting. The result is above.   How is that for a change in mood?!  That is where making art can be so therapeutic. We can use our imagination to create change for ourselves. 

This piece I did very intuitively. I just started putting down random colored tissue paper and not icing the lines and rhythms they made.  One of my mantras while working on a piece is, “stop trying to make sense!” I get stuck sometimes when I think a mountain has to be blue or the grass can’t be purple, etc. Instead I think of lines and shapes and colors and how they intertwine. 

Maybe that is a good way to view a problem we have. We often overthink things as to why they happened and it is all a mental exercise to attempt to solve the problem. Instead, why not embrace the mystery a bit more? Does it really help to know the whys of things? Instead of whys, how about being wise? Following our inner voice and letting the colors of our moods and actions take shape. 

I find that combining a sense of the abstract with realism brings me a satisfying feeling. Nothing is perfectly symmetrical or logical in life. Art helps me to see that. 

I hope seeing this piece of art today brings you some cheer. I have not named it yet - any ideas for the name of this?  Send me your ideas! Thank you and keep on plugging away. The gloom will give way to spring soon enough.  

Pondering Music

 Hello everyone! I hope your 2024 is going well so far!  This year has started off with a lot of art and music! The attached collage is my newest creation made from a salvaged discarded painting. As you can see by the title and musical notes, I have been pondering music a lot lately. Which brings me to my next update… 

My bands started up again this year and I am learning to play the drum set again! It has been over 40 years since I last played drum set for a band. We worked on a Buddy Rich tune called “ Groovin’ Hard”    A really cool song from a favorite jazz era. Our next concert is in May, so that gives me time to get my chops back. 

In addition, I have joined a steel drum band. They are big metal melodic pan drums and it’s a lot of fun. So far we have mastered an arrangement of the gospel song, “Amen.” 

I continue to love playing for my hospital and hospice patients and composing music in Dorian mode for them. I am loving Dorian mode because it is the perfect tonality for those in distress or transition. It gives a twinge of mystery and uncertainty which matches how one would feel in the midst of a healing journey. 

That about updates me and I thank you for stopping by today. Hope you are staying warm in your corner of the world this winter. 

Happy Holidays to all !

 

Hello and happy holidays to all!  2023 was quite a year for me!  This year I shared a lot of my art in several art shows and galleries. That was quite a surprise I did not see coming. It started out by being asked at my church to display my art (collage) in a show and from there, more opportunities and invitations came. 

Last spring I also became a Hospice volunteer and joined the Music at the Bedside team playing for hospice patients. It is some of the most rewarding work I have ever done in my life. 

I also learned to play the conga drums in my jazz band and that has been so much fun! In addition, I joined the percussion team in the Second Wind Band at the Center of Belvedere here in Charlottesville. We did a few concerts this past year and they really brought me a lot of joy. 

I celebrated my 19th year working as Musician-in-Residence at UVA hospital in November. It is definitely my favorite job I have ever had! 

I returned to the stage in a few performances this year as well and probably my favorite was at Rapunzel’s Christmas party. The photo (photo credit: Norm Carter) was from that special evening. Though I look serious in this picture, my friend and I did a comedy routine! It was a routine we did over 20 years ago at First Night Virginia and other places. It’s where we take one Christmas Carol and sing it to the tune of another.  Here is a link for that.  

I wish you all much peace, joy, prosperity and good health in the coming year and always!

As always, thank you for your support of me and for stopping by! 

An unexpected occurrence

 

Hello and welcome! Today I am sharing one of my journal entries I wrote about an experience that happened to me at the hospital where I play music for patients. The photo above is a new postcard I made- enjoy! 

Today I had an extraordinary experience at the hospital where I play music for patients. It was near the end of my shift and was I playing at a nursing station when I was approached by a young girl around the age of 12-13. She was very excited to see me playing the guitar and I asked her if she played too. She said she was a singer and she wanted to sing with me.  So we sang a couple of songs we knew together like, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Here Comes the Sun.” 

Then the girl suggested we make up our own song. So I started playing a chord progression in the key of G. Then with the voice of an angel, she made up a beautiful song for her father who was in the room behind us. She was singing, ‘If you feel sad and down, I am always around.. .I am here for you, here for you, here for you..” She swayed as she sang and was very expressive and I was just blown away by her! 

At one point I worried that we were a getting a bit loud near the nursing station but no one seemed to notice. If they did, I’m sure they were enjoying it. Finally, during another original song her mother called her into the room and brought our impromptu collaboration to an end.  I find myself still thinking of her. That girl has a real gift!

Twilight’s Guardian

 

Hello and Happy October! “Twilight’s Guardian” is a title of a collage I donated to the Wildlife Center of Virginia to raise money for their annual fundraiser. The money goes to help the center for costs of caring for injured animals.  There are lots of great items for sale on this online auction and you can view the list at this link.   My collage is item # 228.  All funds go to a good cause! 

In my musical news, I have been enjoying learning more tunes in Dorian mode. It is such a beautiful tonality to listen to and I find it to be a refreshing blend of mystery and melodic presence. I recently purchased a lovely book by fellow Certified Music Practitioner, Karen Peterson titled, "Enjoy the Dorian Mode."   It is written for the harp but you can also read the melodies on guitar and other instruments. It's a great book that I recommend! 

Virginia is starting with the beautiful fall colors and I am happy because the fall is my favorite season. 

thank you for stopping by and Happy Autumn to all of you! 

 

Hello and Happy September to all! I am looking forward to the autumn season. It has been quite a good summer. This fall I will go back to playing percussion in a local concert band at The Center here in C’ville. I will play snare drum and bass drum and congas and whatever else is needed. It is great fun playing concert band music as that was my first musical experience playing percussion in high school band 50 years ago. I will also continue playing conga and auxiliary percussion with The Flashbacks - also at The Center here in town. 

In addition to music, I continue to do my collage art as well. Attached is a new postcard I made for the “Year of the Rabbit.”  I also recently finished submitting a project to an online artist community called Personland. This show is called, “The Strangers Show” and we signed up and were matched to a random partner to collaborate with. My partner, Fallen Pen is from India . We really enjoyed working together on our project which is titled, “Ancient Future.” You can see the show here. Our piece was an example of combining my old school art method of collage work with Fallen Pen’s futuristic digital art. I had the idea of using one of my Native American totem pole art as that would also be an image of old, historic ways .  Fallen Pen took my Native American image and blended it with a mesmerizing space background. If you look at this show - you can’t miss our piece! 

As always, I continue to enjoy playing therapeutic music for hospital and hospice patients on my guitar. I feel very fortunate to do the work I do. I hope you are all doing well and thanks for stopping by!