Art | The Direction of Intention

KS Friday

Posted on April 6, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” ~Pablo Picasso

Every artist knows that technique is necessary but artistry is not the application of technique. Artistry is transcending technique. Technique is tangible. It is possible to practice scales and study color theory. It is possible to grasp that different brushes do different things. There are bottom lines in technique, reductions and rules and complications.

Artistry is intangible. It is flow. It is expansive. It is simplicity and simplicity is so hard to achieve. It is one of those paradoxes I love to write about, the zones where truth bubbles precisely because it cannot be contained.

The first night we met Kerri played her piano for me. I will never forget it. This slight woman stepped up to her piano (she rarely sits when playing) and all reality shifted. She grew. She filled the room. I swear I saw her send an energy-root into the earth and she opened. What came through was…enormous. What came through was simple.

This lullaby, Kerri’s original piece, I Will Hold You (Forever & Ever) from her album AND GOODNIGHT, could certainly be played by a technician and you would appreciate it. Now, for your KS Friday from the melange, listen to what an artist can do. Sit back and give over to the simplicity.

I WILL HOLD YOU (FOREVER & EVER) from AND GOODNIGHT (track 25) iTunes

also available on CDBaby

And because she couldn’t resist designing with this title for babies or weddings or anyone you love, I WILL HOLD YOU (FOREVER & EVER) products.

‘forever and ever’ leggings

read kerri’s blog post about I WILL HOLD YOU (FOREVER & EVER)

kerrianddavid.com

i will hold you (forever & ever), and goodnight ©️ 2005 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: and goodnight, artistry, children, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, expansive, flow, forever and ever, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, lullaby, lullaby album, marriage, music, simplicity, society6.com/kerrisherwood, technique, the melange | Leave a comment »

KS Friday

Posted on March 30, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Always With Us (track 14)

Kerri and I had a few days off. I’d never seen Door County so we jumped in the car and headed, as the folks around here like to say, “up north.” On our way back we stopped to say hello to Hans the music producer. Kerri and Hans have been for years dancing around producing an album together. Hans is also an amazing cellist. He gave us a tour through his recording studio and invited Kerri to give his studio piano a try. She sat and began to play. He sat at his cello and joined her. My mouth dropped open and I started to cry. Artistry, when it is pure, does that to me. I found myself standing in a sacred space created by two consummate musicians who were simply doing what they were born to do. They had no idea I was stunned to tears. They were playing around. They were having fun. They played together for about an hour, Hans dashing in and out to get different instruments to noodle around with, Kerri playing whatever came through the channel. I sat in the corner and tried to keep breathing.

Always With Us [solo piano version, track 2]

No recording exists of that day. I would listen to it every day if it did. It was spontaneous and as holy and temporary as a sand painting. On the drive home I tried to describe my experience to Kerri and asked her why she and Hans had never recorded together. “It costs a lot of money to record, ” she said, adding, “and, nowadays, with people streaming music instead of buying it, there’s almost no way to recoup the investment. It’s better to enjoy the process, to have fun playing with someone like Hans.”

I remembered that day with Hans when we chose Always With Us for this week’s melange. It turns out that our melange conversation this week has been all about artistic process: stepping blindly, having faith, landing in pot holes, making bold offers, capturing moments, and most importantly, treasuring the relationship with “something bigger” that comes through when the artist(s) step out of the way and something sacred happens.

ALWAYS WITH US from the album AS IT IS (track 14) iTunes

ALWAYS WITH US from the album AS IT IS (track 14) CDBaby

ALWAYS WITH US from the album ALWAYS WITH US (track 2) iTunes

ALWAYS WITH US from the album ALWAYS WITH US (track 2) CDBaby

PURCHASE THE PHYSICAL CD: ALWAYS WITH US v. 1

KS DESIGNS on society6.com

read Kerri’s thoughts on ALWAYS WITH US

kerrianddavid.com

ALWAYS WITH US from AS IT IS, ALWAYS WITH US v.1 ©️ 2004 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: always with us from always with us v.1, always with us from as it is, artistic process, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hymn album, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, music, musicianship, process, Sacred, sand painting, society6.com/kerrisherwood, spirituality, the melange | Leave a comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on March 29, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

There is a lesson for me in this week’s morsel. It is a lesson I’ve learned over and over again. It is a basic, a fundamental and perhaps that is why I am once again revisiting this lesson: Focus (perception) is like a narrow flashlight in the night. Where you point it will determine what you see. And, most important, you choose where you point it. And, even more important, what you see is narrow, what you don’t see is vast.

Kerri chose this morsel. I marvel at what she sees and what she chooses for our melange and how it blows back and impacts what I see. This morsel, she calls it, “held in process,’ is a snippet of a painting-in-process. At Skip’s prompting a few years ago I started taking process shots and nowadays Kerri regularly dashes into the studio to make sure I’m taking my shots (“What do you have for me?” she asks, striding down the stairs). I delight in this particular morsel because, when seen in the greater context of the finished piece, it captures perfectly the lesson. It is like a popcorn trail of perception, an exercise in focus-choosing. Enjoy this morsel from the melange. Follow the trail to the final piece. Have fun shining your light on the morsel, Held in Process and on Earth Interrupted II.

the beginning layer, the under painting.

the second layer

pix#1 pix#2

next layers – my favorite: paper sack!

the finished painting: Earth Interrupted II, mixed media 48×34.5 in

HELD IN PROCESS merchandise

II earth interrupted FRAMED ART PRINT copy

wall art

kerri designs all of our leggings and apparel

okay, so, kerri designs ALL of our products. Cool iphone cases…

…and throw pillows! and more….

read Kerri’s thoughts on Held In Process

kerrianddavid.com

held in process/earth interrupted II ©️ 2018 david robinson, kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistic iterations, artistry, creative process, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, design, earth interrupted, earth interrupted II, Held in process, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, morsel, painting morsel, process, product design, society6.com/davidrobinson, society6.com/kerrisherwood, technology, the melange | Leave a comment »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on March 20, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A thought for your Tuesday from studio melange

The dividing line was approximately around the age of 40. It was a figure drawing session and those of us over the age of 40 came to the studio carrying pads of newsprint, drawing boards, pencils, pastels and vine charcoal. The artists under 40 came with a computer and stylus. It was a beautiful collision of the first order, both sides of the divide saying to the other, “I could never do that.” The younger artists referred to us seasoned (covered with charcoal dust) artists as ‘vintage.’

I am vintage. For me, making art is a physical activity, a full body dance. I need paint that splashes, brushes that drag across a surface, the smell and feel of the process. My canvases have always been large simply because I need to move. Art making, for me, is necessarily kinesthetic. It’s like splashing in puddles and playing in mud. The virtual equivalent is not visceral enough.

As vintage I will never be efficient or fast. I’ll never have the variance or range that digital process allows. That’s okay with me. I was born and oriented into the artist’s way looooong before digital wizardry. My parents provided me with a large wall and buckets of paint. That wall was a magic place, the portal to another dimension. Unlike the younger artists in the figure drawing class, I find a stylus and tablet physically limiting. The action is too small. What sets them free feels like a shackle to me. I love the dance, the mess, and the danger of not being able to insta-correct or click back to an earlier version.

To my digital descendants, my dust free successors, I AM the earlier version. We enter our magic place through different doors. And, that’s okay with me.

I AM A VINTAGE TYPE merchandise [leggings, totes, pillows, mugs, gift cards…]

read Kerri’s thoughts on I AM A VINTAGE TYPE

kerrianddavid.com

i am a vintage type ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Art, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art making, artistry, classic, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, digital, earlier version, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, old school, rough draft, society6.com/twoartists, the melange, Two Artists Tuesday, vintage, vintage type | Leave a comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on March 15, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

thoughts from the melange to give lift to your thursday

THISquarterearth interrupted I sharpened copy

this is a morsel of the painting Earth Interrupted I. Kerri calls this morsel Quarter Earth

I’d completely forgotten about this painting. It is so utterly different from everything else I’ve ever done that after I painted it I rolled it and never showed it. In truth, it was an experiment, something I didn’t at all take seriously. At the time, I was discontent with my paintings. I was bored and uninspired. I’ve worked long enough to recognize that my discontent signals an empty tank, a need to rejuvenate. Rest and refill the creative tank.

Earlier in my artistic life, these periods of emptiness caused me to panic. What if that’s it? What if I’ve lost my muse? What if my creative well is permanently run dry? In my panic I’d try and force things to happen, which you can imagine, served only to magnify my empty-discontents. There’s nothing like a good panic, a deep investment in creative-lack-theory, to generate a serious case of artist block. It took me a while to learn that I run in cycles, just like the seasons, that my creative spring ebbs and flows. Blocks are not necessary.

Now, when I hit one of ‘winter’ phases, in addition to taking it easy, I’ve learned the best thing to do is play. Experiment. Loosen the grip, spin the dials, re-open the eyes. Leave the studio and pretend I’m Andy Goldsworthy, stack rocks, arrange leaves, take walks and photograph random textures. Make snowmen. Scribble with crayons.

The morsel for today’s melange is an ancient map of my long-ago play. Paper sacks and paint and palette knife scribbles. I usually throw these things away or paint over them. But, this painting, so utterly different, created so many years ago, must have whispered, “Wait. Just put me aside and wait. I have something for a future you.” I’m so glad I listened. At this very moment, drying in the studio, is Earth Interrupted II. Earth Interrupted III is on the easel and already Earth Interrupted IV is calling me.

Earth Interrupted I, mixed media 48″x 53″

QUARTER EARTH MERCHANDISE

read Kerri’s DR Thursday thoughts

purchase the original painting, Earth Interrupted I

kerrianddavid.com

earth interrupted I & quarter earth ©️ 2012, 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: Andy Goldsworthy, artist, artist's block, artist's nature, creative energy, creative process, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, earth interrupted I, experiments, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, nature and art, play, scribble, society6.com/davidrobinson | Leave a comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on March 8, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

This is a confession: for these blog posts, for these DR Thursdays, I’m finding the morsels of my paintings – a slice, a small detail – infinitely more interesting than the full painting. It’s not that I don’t love the whole painting, I do. But the morsels are helping me to see the original painting anew. The detail is illuminating the whole. Also, the morsel is spinning my artistic dials. I suspect my visual exploration is about to jump the fence into new pastures.

Kerri calls this morsel Cityscape. It comes from The Bass Player, a painting pulled from the deep recesses of my archive. It comes from a time when I was in love with vibrant color and the work of David Hockney. The Bass Player has lived in galleries, and coffee shops. It hung for many years in a now defunct bar in downtown Seattle. More people have inquired about this painting than any other horse in my stable but it’s never found a forever home. I’m delighted that through this morsel, Cityscape, my colorful Bass Player has found another moment to step into the light. Who doesn’t need some color-pow! on a Thursday in March?

The Bass Player, 24″ x 48″

CITYSCAPE merchanise

THE BASS PLAYER reproductions

Purchase the original painting

read Kerri’s thoughts on Cityscape

kerrianddavid.com

cityscape ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

The Bass Player ©️ 2002 david robinson

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, artistry, cityscape, david hockney, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, paintings, Seattle, society6.com/davidrobinson, The Bass Player, the melange, vibrant color | Leave a comment »

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on February 26, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

If blocking your creative arteries is the goal then there is no better illusion to consume than trying to be perfect. Eating the idea that you can be free of flaws or experience mastery without mistakes is guaranteed to clog your capacity to move. Notions of perfection turn the imagination toward the fear-monsters and breeds an especially severe inner critic. Perfection is like the Medusa, give her your gaze and she’ll turn you to stone.

Imagination, creativity, learning, growing,…are words of movement. They are experiences of free flow. If investments like perfection crimp flow, then granting simple graces like trial and error, or “seeing what happens” will inevitably open the channel. Creative flow, like profound learning or wild imagination happens when inner-judges retire; it happens when nature is allowed to take its course. Nature is movement. Falling down is a necessary form of movement. Perfection is about appearances. Learning is about process.

From studio melange on this Chicken Marsala Monday comes this simple reminder. Try. Remove failure from the gallery of options. Get on the bike and ride. Expect to fall down. It’s the only way to learn how to stand up.

FALLING DOWN IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF LEARNING merchandise

kerrianddavid.com

check out Kerri’s thought’s on this Chicken Marsala Monday

Filed under: Art, Chicken Marsala Monday, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, creative flow, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, failure, falling down, flow, grace, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, movement, natural process, perfection, process, society6.com/chickenmarsala | Leave a comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on February 22, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Nap on the Beach, mixed media, 22.25″ x 55.5″

“I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary.” Pablo Picasso

I’ve been selling my paintings from my studio, un-stretched and unframed. When potential buyers come to my studio they view the raw canvas tacked on the wall or spread on the floor. Many of my pieces are big. It’s how I like to paint: big canvas stretched and tacked to the wall. These days when I ship paintings to another state, when I ship paintings to those courageous people who take the leap of faith and buy an expensive (and very personal) painting based on an image from the internet, I roll them. They receive the piece in a tender unembellished state.

There are practical reasons for my seeming-shoddy showmanship. It saves my customers money to stretch and frame the canvases themselves. The cost of shipping a large framed canvas is breathtaking! If I stretch or frame it myself, if I sell a painting through any gallery, online or brick-n-mortar, the cost is easily inflated by 70%.

But, that’s not why I show the unfinished edges. Before moving from my Seattle studio I had studio open houses. People inevitably drifted to the paintings stapled to the wall. They touched the edges. They asked me about the drips and marveled over the charcoal lines. They gently brushed the bumps of paint. They entered the story and became a part of it, they took on a role greater than witness. Instead of approaching art – my art – as an untouchable abstract thing, they engaged with it, questioned it, touched it. I loved it. Art is supposed to be accessible. It is supposed to open and say, “Follow me.”

Recently a client slid this painting, Nap on the Beach, from the pile of paintings stacked on the ping pong table, touched its complex surface, and, with Kerri, he held it by the corners saying, “Oh, this canvas is heavy! This one makes me yearn for summer!” And then he asked, “Did you take a nap on the beach? Is this about something you did?”

Yes. And yes again.

On DR Thursday, on your visit to the melange, I hope this painting inspires you to embrace the raw edges, the drips and bumps, and perhaps give over to a quiet mid-winter yearning for sun and sand and a spontaneous nap.

A NAP ON THE BEACH reproductions

framed art prints

canvas prints

A NAP ON THE BEACH original

read Kerri’s thoughts on DR Thursday

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art prints, artistry, artists, autobiography, beach, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, kerrianddavid.com, nap on the beach, pablo picasso, raw edges, society6.com/davidrobinson, story, the melange, unframed | Leave a comment »

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on February 19, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

High atop the list of obstacles we erect on our creative life path is this: I don’t know how…. As a coach, I heard it daily from clients. As a consultant, I heard it regularly from business leaders and educators (the pronoun changed: we don’t know how…) Artists regularly lock up in the face of a monstrous HOW?

When I was a young erector of massive obstacles in my path, Quinn would smile and say to me, “Nobody knows how. Just start.” I thought he was being flippant with encouragement but lived my way into recognizing that his advice was not only sound but it was sage.

Knowing how to do something is never a prerequisite for action. It is, however, a really good excuse to prevent action.

Knowing how comes second. Always. It comes after the fact, after the experience of trying and adjusting and learning. It comes at the end of the day, looking back. That’s when “how” becomes visible. Today’s Chicken Nugget via the studio melange is timeless and simple advice. It would make Quinn smile: sometimes the best thing to do is start.

SOMETIMES THE BEST THING TO DO IS START merchandise

kerrianddavid.com

check out KERRI’S thoughts on this CHICKEN NUGGET

Filed under: Art, Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Uncategorized | Tagged: action, artistry, blocks, changes, chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, chicken nuggets, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fear, how, innovation, inspiration, just do it, just start, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, life, obstacles, Peter Block, process, society6.com/chickenmarsala, the answer to how is yes, the melange | Leave a comment »

KS Friday

Posted on February 16, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

It is one of the great pleasures of my life to be down in my studio painting when Kerri, upstairs in her studio, begins to play. I always stop and appreciate how rich, how utterly fortunate I am. There is more than just music in our house. There is a source, an amazing composer, a gifted musician. She plays like most people breathe and I marvel at the enormity and ease of her gift.

From the melange on this Valentine’s week comes a Slow Dance. It is from Kerri’s album As Sure As The Sun. Friday belongs to Kerri’s music. I am particularly fond of Slow Dance. It is visceral and reminds me of a summer evening, sitting in the adirondack chairs in the front yard, sipping wine and talking. We were listening to music and without really intending it, we began to dance. Fast dances, silly dances, rowdy-run-around-dances, and finally, laughing and exhausted, there came a slow dance. The neighbors still talk about it….

Slow Dance from AS SURE AS THE SUN

KERRI SHERWOOD

[a note to consider: the links will by default take you to apple music – apple’s streaming service. With respect to artists everywhere, please consider downloading your music on itunes rather than streaming your music. It requires one additional click. Downloading means the artists get paid for their work. Streaming guarantees that they don’t.]

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Art, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: as sure as the sun, dance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, gift, in the middle of the night, itunes, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, KS Friday, love, music, musician, recording artist, slow-dance, the melange, valentine, Valentines Day, yamaha, yamaha recording artist, your work, your work in the world | Leave a comment »

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