28 years ago, on this day, Kerri’s older brother, Wayne, died of lung cancer. If you want to know how she feels about it, you need only listen to LAST I SAW YOU. Grief made utterly beautiful in its yearning.
It is the gift of the artist to transform, to turn the darkest day, the breaking heart, into something bearable. It is the gift of the artist to communicate what cannot be captured in language, to transport us, in a safe way, into and through the hurt so we might touch the unfathomable depth of love. It is the gift of the artist to open new pathways and possibilities, to guide communities into and through impossible conversations. To point the way to a new story, a new perspective growing from an old and ancient root.
In my mind it is the greatest loss when an artist turns against their artistry. The entire world loses on the day an artists says, “Why bother.” There’s no money in it. The artist loses most of all because they’ve bitten the poison in the American apple. They wither and die. Not everything is or should operate like a business. Education is not nor ever should be a business. Worship is not a business. Healthcare is not nor ever should be a business. Run them that way and the priorities flip. The greater is lost in the lesser. When making money becomes more important than health or care or spirit or the expansion of minds, we lose our way. We send our kids back to school during a pandemic to open the economy. Sacrificial lambs. Throw them into a volcano to make it rain.
What we value in this nation is abhorrent.
And then there is Kerri. What a gift. What a loss. She read today that someone is now making silverware out of old CDs. “Look,” she said, showing me the article. “We have a basement filled with CDs! Maybe we should have gone into the silverware business!” Proving to herself once again that her gift is less than worthless. Worth less gift. No business.
Great! I thought but did not say. A world filled with forks but void of your music. No one to lead us through the dark, no way to reach the truly beautiful.
“My paintings,” I said, feigning alliance, “are destined for a thrift store.” I’ve given up the fight with her (though, by this post you can see that I am a liar).
I continue to paint with no illusion about “sales” or “showing” or the other necessities of “business.” It’s for me, now. Transformation of dark to light can be selfish, too. Personal. After all, for me, it’s always been a spiritual path. Business necessities pale in the comparison.
If you want to know what I [and Wayne] feel about Kerri turning her back on her artistry, you need only listen to LAST I SAW YOU. Listen for the strings. It will break your heart.
LAST I SAW YOU is on the album THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY
read Kerri’s blog post about LAST I SAW YOU
last i saw you/this part of the journey ©️ 1997 kerri sherwood
meditation ©️ 2015 david robinson
Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, business, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, healthcare, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, loss, pandemic, Sacred, value, values, worship |
The Direction of Intention 
“Throw [sacrificial lambs] into the volcano to make it rain.”
You’ll get no argument from me on that one.
Nor this.
Down through the years I’ve been privileged to meet many hundreds of otherwise very ordinary folks who are monstrously talented artists and artisans. Yet they remained renowned and celebrated only by small community of family and friends. Their work rarely received any sort of public recognition–prizes, awards–and even more rarely monetary compensation.
I’d say most (though certainly not all) seemed content with their lot despite it not being more widely praised or at all lucrative.
It has taken me decades to come to understand those contented souls were more dedicated to making a life than a living from their unique talents and dispositions.
Once values become too tightly twisted with value we are well on our way down a slippery, slippery slope.
If I were religious I’d say “Amen to that.” So, as a non-religious blog-responder, I can only reply “Yep.” We are, as usual, in total agreement in the value/values slippery slope. It’s best to make a life and love the art.