May | 2018 | The Direction of Intention

Prayer [on DR Thursday]

Posted on May 17, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Naming paintings is problematic for me. I’ve never been good at it. Sometimes I bristle at it. People project their own meanings into the images I paint (as it should be) and sometimes the name I’ve given the piece gets in their way. A favorite quote from a Joseph Campbell lecture: “If the artist doesn’t like you he will tell you what the painting means.” At openings, when people ask me what the painting means, my standard response is, “What does it mean to you?” I like most people though most people dislike my standard response.

Nowadays Kerri helps me find names. I ask her what she sees. We talk about the paintings and usually a phrase or name that I like floats to the top.

This one is simple and obvious. Prayer. One who looks inward and entreats.

PRAYER gifts and cool stuff like wall murals

buy the original painting

read Kerri’s blog post about PRAYER

www.kerrianddavid.com

prayer ©️ 2017 david robinson & kerri sherwood

prayer – designs & products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: acrylic painting, art, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, entreaty, in sight, inner peace, inward looking, Joseph Campbell, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning making, names, naming paintings, prayer, praying, quiet, society6.com/davidrobinson, spiritual, spirituality, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

Say, “Oopsies!” [it’s Flawed Cartoon Wednesday]

Posted on May 16, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Working with fabric is and always has been a mystery to me. My grandfather had a sewing machine repair business so you could assume that sewing machines are in my blood. They are not. Among the stranger episodes of my life was my unsolicited acceptance into a graduate program for costume design. They liked my drawings and offered me a full ride. I actually went and provided hours of amusement and a lifetime of what-was-he-thinking stories for my professors and peers. I can draw anything. Just don’t ask me to sew it.

This Flawed Cartoon might be autobiographical. Although it is possible that I never sewed myself to a garment [‘garment’ is a word I use to betray my status as a costume shop veteran], it is also possible that I did. Happy Flawed Cartoon Wednesday.

SEWING OOPSIES gifts and cool stuff

read Kerri’s blog post about SEWING OOPSIES

www.kerrianddavid.com

sewing oopsies ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

sewing oopsies designs & products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Random, Uncategorized | Tagged: accidents, costume design, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fabric, finger sewing, flawed cartoon, Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, oops, oopsies, sewing, sewing machines, SMU, society6.com/flawedcartoon, strange episodes, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

In Beauty I Walk [it’s Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 15, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

flower experiment jpeg copy 3

“I am only so beautiful as the character of my relationships, only so rich as I enrich those around me, only so alive as I enliven those I greet.” ~ Derrick Jensen

I know many many artists who do what they do for love; their motivation is intrinsic. Their work is beautiful. I don’t mean their finished pieces (although they, too, are beautiful). I’m referencing their relationship to their work. It is lively, mysterious, expansive and generous. And, in order to stay healthy, they’ve long ago abandoned the notion that they might make a living through their artwork. Some do. Most do not.

I know many many artists who no longer do what they used to love to do. In the absence of an extrinsic reward (money), they began to see their love-work as worthless. They reduced themselves to a monetary equation and found themselves lacking. Considering their love without value, their well went dry. Their muse withered.

In our confused times it is the fortunate person who understands value as something greater than dollars and cents. Love, beauty, joy, family, generosity, learning, community, surprise, mystery…all words of relationship, all valuable beyond measure. All defy easy quantification.

From studio melange on Two Artists Tuesday, a gentle reminder to look to the space between, to value the process of living, the right-now-relationships where beauty is always to be found. Walk there.

IN BEAUTY I WALK gifts and cool stuff

read Kerri’s blog post about IN BEAUTY I WALK

www.kerrianddavid.com

‘in beauty i walk’ image & products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, artistic life, beauty, community, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, family, generosity, health, in beauty i walk, intrinsic value, joy, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, meaning making, mystery, process, relationship, society6.com/twoartists, Two Artists Tuesday, value, worth | Leave a comment »

Find Your Poetry Tree [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on May 14, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

I stood before a school board and found myself defending daydreaming. I’d piloted an experiential learning program in the district and the board wanted to ensure my students would be “nose-to-the-grindstone” every moment of every day.

Learning (a creative process) has nothing to do with grindstones. Constant activity, rote exercises and busy-work-for-the-sake-of-busy-work may give the appearance of learning but that’s about it. People learn when in the pursuit of something real and my students were making movies, writing plays or starting businesses. Staring out of the window, I explained, was not only valuable but necessary. I wasn’t making excuses. I had brain science and learning theory to back me up.

There are very good reasons that most “aha moments” happen in the shower, while driving, or, like my students, staring out a window. Inner-space and quiet are necessary ingredients for insight. A good gaze out the window is, in actuality, an inward look, it’s a mental walkabout, a mind-stroll that allows a noisy brain to take a breath and let the logjam of thoughts to relax and flow.

Quinn used to tell me to cultivate my serendipity. He meant that I should open myself to insight, to make myself available to surprises and possibilities, to the utter magic of “where did that idea come from?” Opening yourself requires a good window or, like Chicken, a special poetry tree. On this Chicken Marsala Monday, get your nose off the grindstone, find your poetry tree, and allow the insights to find you.

POETRY TREE gifts and reminders

Read Kerri’s blog post about FIND YOUR POETRY TREE

www.kerrianddavid.com

find your poetry tree ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

find your poetry tree designs/products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: aha moments, chicken marsala, Chicken nugget, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, daydreaming, flow, inner peace, inner space, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, mental noise, monkey mind, poetry, poetry tree, serendipity, society6.com/chickenmarsala, studio melange, the melange, window staring | Leave a comment »

Design A Single Week

Posted on May 12, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

This image took my breath away when Kerri showed me. And so, we decided to share it.

A brief explanation: many weeks ago, standing amidst the stacks of music, paintings, cartoons, and designs that we’d created, work that populated proposals & submission after submission after submission but had yet to find an audience, we decided to create our own channel to share it. We called the channel “the melange,” a medley, a daily offer of a design, cartoon, painting or piece of music and the thoughts they inspired in us. We launched it 14 weeks ago.

And, because we are artists trying to make a living, we established a product line through society6.com for each day of the melange [if a painting is out of reach perhaps a cool tote bag or fine art print is more accessible]. This morning, as we prepared the multiple sites and completed our writing for the upcoming week’s melange, Kerri showed me a compilation image of all the products she’d designed just THIS WEEK!

Look at this image and multiply what you see by 14 weeks. Breathless. And so much fun.

ROOT IN LOVE product line [chicken marsala monday]

SHINE product line [two artists tuesday]

SO MUCH POSSIBILITY product line [flawed cartoon wednesday]

CLOSELY I WILL HOLD YOU product line [dr thursday]

FISTFUL OF DANDELIONS product line [ks friday]

www.kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, DR Thursday, Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, KS Friday, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: cartoons, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, designs, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, music, paintings, product designs, products, prolific, society6.com, society6.com/chickenmarsala, society6.com/davidrobinson, society6.com/flawedcartoon, society6.com/kerrisherwood, society6.com/twoartists, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

Give Them Dandelions [on KS Thursday]

Posted on May 11, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a mother’s day gift from studio melange on ks friday.

jacketffodjpeg copy

Some things need no interpretation and this song, going into Mother’s Day, is one of those. So, from studio melange, a gift-song from a mom, Kerri, to mothers everywhere.

FISTFUL OF DANDELIONS available on iTunes and CDBaby

FISTFUL OF DANDELION gifts and cool products

read kerri’s blog post about FISTFUL OF DANDELIONS

www.kerrianddavid.com

fistful of dandelions ©️ 1999 kerri sherwood

fistful of dandelion designs and products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: KS Friday, Love, Uncategorized | Tagged: david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, KS Friday, mother's day, mother's day songs, motherhood, parenthood, society6.com/kerrisherwood, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

Hold Them Close [it’s DR Thursday]

Posted on May 10, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a painting morsel for your DR Thursday from studio melange.

For the entire span of my artistic life I have painted mother’s holding their children. I don’t know why . Once, years ago, I set up the many mothers-and-children paintings that lived in my studio and sat for a long time pondering them. I liked them all. As Horatio has said about my work, they were/are motion in stillness. Beyond that, I have no words. Most of the important stuff, I’ve learned, lives beyond language.

Kerri chose this morsel in honor of the coming of Mother’s Day and calls this morsel, “Closely I Will Hold You.” From studio melange, a quiet nod of gratitude to moms everywhere.

I Will Hold You In The Storm, mixed media 29.75 x 39.25IN

CLOSELY I WILL HOLD YOU gifts & products

read kerri’s blog post about I WILL HOLD YOU CLOSE

www.kerrianddavid.com

Closely I Will Hold You – designs & products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: acrylic paintings, Closely I will hold you, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, DR Thursday, I will hold you in the storm, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mixed media paintings, mother and child, mother's day, motherhood, mothers, motion in stillness, paintings, parenthood, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio melange, the melange | 2 Comments »

GPS [on Flawed Cartoon Wednesday]

Posted on May 9, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Flawed Cartoon from studio melange to lift your Wednesday.

When my pals gather and drink wine on Sunday evenings we often talk about the trials and travails of having aging parents. The stories are often hilarious and painful collisions of will. I am the most fortunate in the group. My parents are still positioning themselves. However, that does not prevent me from having another glass of wine. I know what’s coming. I also know my pals and I are not so far from our own days of willful insistence.

On this Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, a loving nod to caregivers and receivers alike, a toast to all involved in the life-dance of positioning and re-positioning services.

GRANNY GPS gifts & products

read kerri’s blog post about GRANNY GPS

www.kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: aging, caregiver humor, caregivers, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, flawed cartoon, Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, granny gps, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life, society6.com/flawedcartoon, studio melange, the melange, wine | Leave a comment »

Shine! [it’s Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 8, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a heart bump from studio melange on this Two Artists Tuesday.

Once, many years ago, I participated in my first street painting festival. I drew in chalk on the street a large 8′ x 12′ image. I loved it. The entire day flew by in what seemed like seconds. Roger later told me he loved watching me draw because it was what I was meant to do on this earth and, in doing what I was meant to do, I was shining.

Like Roger, I love watching people do the thing they were meant to do. When Kerri composes, she shines. I often recount the first time she played her piano for me. I was astounded. Something enormous came through. It was blinding.

Everyone shines. Everyone is capable of shining. And, here’s the thing I love the most about shining: it warms other people. Doing what you were meant to do, allowing yourself to shine, is life-giving and shine-inspiring. Shine. Or, if your day is troubled and cloudy, find someone who is shining. Their shine is guaranteed to dissipate your cloud.

SHINE designs, gifts, and cool stuff

read kerri’s blog post on SHINE

www.kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Energy, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, gift, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life gift, life giving, purpose, shine, society6.com/twoartists, studio melange, the melange, Two Artists Tuesday | Leave a comment »

Root In Love [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on May 7, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

from studio melange, a quiet suggestion for the start of the new week.

For me, this Chicken Nugget falls into the category of what-more-needs-to-be-said. And then I hear the chorus of voices blaring from my past work-life that would call this Nugget idealistic pie-in-the-sky blather. “We live in a dog-eat-dog world!” they cry. “It’s survival of the fittest!” To that chorus I need to say more. Dog-eat-dog is a belief system, not an inevitability. Survival of the fittest is a harsh lens and there are, in fact, other lenses available. It’s possible to learn the distinction between human nature and acculturation. Through a different lens all of life is cooperative.

The noise of our airwaves, the chatter of our day is most certainly rooted in fear. It may not seem like a choice but the fear-root is an unnatural selection. People have to work hard to hate. Sadly, I admit, division sells, so the hard work of fear is routinely justified and rabidly defended.

Human nature rises through the noise and becomes visible when disaster strikes. Love is what we see when the hurricanes hit, when the forest fires rage. People running into fire to help. People risking their lives to save others because, in those moments, the truth is out: there is no separation. The political blather drops away. The moralistic chiming rings hollow. It is human nature to reach, not reject. To help, not to hurt.

It’s obvious and all around us if we take off the fear lens and look. Root in love. What-more-needs-to-be-said.

ROOT IN LOVE gifts & reminders