Creativity | The Direction of Intention

Believe In The Impossible [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on September 3, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

All of my life I’ve been surrounded by people who believed in the impossible. At a school for developmentally disabled children, there were therapists who believed against all odds that they could help a child catch a ball. And, one day, after ten thousand tries, extraordinary therapies on frozen muscles, endless encouragement for the child and for each other, those little hands closed around the ball at just the right moment. A catch. Cheers, celebration dances and tears erupted, this feat greater than winning a Super Bowl. The impossible became possible. And then, as if there was not a moment to waste, the next impossibility was named: ball catching could become routine!

Artists, who go day after day to the studio or the stage, their lives an impossibility of economic headwinds and community disinterest. They create. They find a way. They keep the doors of deep humanity open, mythology alive. In this age of dedicated differences and echo-chamber-information, they reinvigorate the experience of a shared story. The impossible becomes possible, even if only for a moment. And the next day, they do it all over again, refreshed with inspiration and improbability.

Teachers who walk into classrooms every single day, their budgets cut, their student load swelling, their hands tied with standardized-testing-madness, and yet they reach. They try. They inspire. Like icebreakers, they cut new paths through impossibly frozen circumstances to locate and nourish the minds and hearts of their students. To free them from disbelief. To embrace the challenge of an obstacle. To encourage discovery of self and other. The impossible becomes possible. And, the next day, they do it all over again.

Inspiration. It’s all around us. It makes people do crazy things.

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inspiration makes people do crazy things ©️ 2016/18 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Edges, Possibility, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, artists, classrooms, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, hearts, impossible, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, minds, obstacles, opportunity, society6.com/chickenmarsala, studio melange, teachers, the melange, the possible | Leave a comment »

Stop At The Beginning [on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 30, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Aqua Agua Mit Rouge

Aqua Agua Mit Rouge. Kerri laughed and clapped her hands when she named this morsel. It is a process snapshot of the early under-painting, the base layer of what would become Earth Interrupted VII. It is loose, fluid and free. It is a special layer – a visual marker of what happens before my thinking mind kicks in. Free. Fluid. Loose. Flow. For me, the first moments of painting are all intuition.

More and more I am learning from these morsels. I’ve spent countless hours gazing at finished paintings asking myself how I might grow, become a better painter. Reach into deeper pools of experience. It is only recently – because of the morsels – that I am spending time gazing at my process, the previously unconscious parts, and asking the same questions. How do I grow? Become better? Become more Fluid? Loose? Free?

The answer of the moment is as funny as it is clear: stop at the beginning. See through the eyes of intuition, feel your way forward. Stop before that talky brain weighs in with all manner of blah blah blah.

earth interrupted VII, mixed media, 48 x 36IN

STAY TUNED! The FALL VIRTUAL GALLERY SALE starts this weekend. An announcement is coming!

read Kerri’s blog post about AQUA AGUA MIT ROUGE

www.kerrianddavid.com

aqua agua mit rouge/earth interuppted vii ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Edges, Uncategorized | Tagged: big brushes, creative process, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, earth interrupted, flow, fluid, free, intuition, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, loose, morsels, painting, process, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Pivot [on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on August 28, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

I learned many things following Skip through the curious world of technology entrepreneurism. Peculiar terms like ‘incubator” and “accelerator,” once reserved for premature babies or the gas pedal in my car, were reassigned to ideas: ideas in need of nurturing or, more remarkable, ideas pumped up with steroids and released ravenous upon investors (who were also ravenous but more composed by virtue of their power position).

Among the most important lessons was this: despite the best incubation, even with warp speed acceleration, the best idea, the best product, was probably obsolete the day it hit the market. Someone, somewhere in the world, had already improved upon it. A better mousetrap has little or no shelf life. And so, I also added to my vocabulary a new understanding of the word ‘pivot.’ I love how similar an entrepreneur’s terminology is to a ballet dancer. Pivot, move, fluid, flow, swivel, turn, revolve. Keep your center. Keep your eyes on the spot or you will grow dizzy and fall. The spot is not the individual product, the single idea. It is the business spawned from the idea. It is the ongoing relationship with relevance/obsolescence.

Those in my age group are distinguished by our dance with obsolescence. Graphic designers, publishers, musicians, educators,…artists. We are distinct in having one foot in an analog world – I prefer easel and canvas to stylus and computer screen – and the other foot in the digital tsunami. The art is innate. Relevance is another story entirely. Reinvention (another word for pivot) is a necessity. Entrepreneurs and artists are not so different.

After seeing our melange post on Surfing Uncertainty, Master Marsh reflected that surfing uncertainty was more than a design, it was my credo. Horatio jested that I was either a dilettante-from-hell or a bodhisattva. I laughed. Illumination seems a bit out of my reach. I think technology makes dilettantes of us all!

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read Kerri’s blog post about ART ALREADY IN ME

www.kerrianddavid.com

i was came into the world with art already in me ©️ 2016/2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Art, Business, Creativity, entrepreneur, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: accelerator, artist, business, center, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dilettante, entrepreneur, ideas, incubator, investors, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, new ideas, obsolescence, pivot, society6.com/twoartists, studio melange, the melange, Two Artists Tuesday | Leave a comment »

Open, Open, Open [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on August 20, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

“I found that I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” ~ Georgia O’Keefe

The first time Jim, one of the most brilliant actor/directors I have known, played the role of King Lear, he told me that he didn’t have enough colors in his paint box to do the role justice. He had more to learn.

It is the common thread and what I love about all the great artists. mentors, and teachers that have had so much impact on my life – they know there is always more to discover. They know that ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is – is unachievable. So they look, engage, experiment, play, expand, reach, open, open, open…. Artistry is a life-long practice. It is a relationship with life.

“No one sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t got time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” ~ Georgia O’Keefe

read Kerri’s blog post about THERE AREN’T ENOUGH CRAYONS IN THE WORLD

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there aren’t enough crayons in the world ©️ 2016/18 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, artistry, artists, beauty, chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, Chicken nugget, colors, Crayola, crayons, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, expression, Georgia O'Keeffe, heart, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mentors, relationship, seeing, society6.com/chickenmarsala, studio melange, the melange, time | Leave a comment »

Sandcastle With Me [on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 16, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

MorselSandcastle withMe copy

My favorite ongoing series of paintings is called The Narrative Series. I’ve been adding to the series since 1989. It is my least popular series if sales are the determining factor of popularity. Mostly people respond with, “I don’t get it.” When I painted my first, I loved it and thought to myself, “I don’t get it.” So, I’ll spend my life trying to get it, all the while, knowing that it is impossible to get. However, when I birth another in the line, I know it is the closest I come to the center (whatever that means). These paintings are stories in broken time or, in the cubist frame of reference, they are stories in multiple time.

A few years ago I attended a lecture series featuring Brian Greene and Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicists. They have two different theories of multiple universes and it was mind blowing to try and grasp both theories (who am I kidding, trying to grasp one was mind blowing). Brian’s was all about strings and Stephen’s was all about bubbles. The math works for both and I left the lecture with eyes crossed and reaching for sense. And I was thrilled. That day they were narrative painters, too.

Sandcastles and Me is a morsel of a recent addition to the narrative series, titled Spoons & Sandcastles (though you’ll find it in the Beach series folder on my site). If after looking at the morsel and the full painting you find yourself thinking, “I don’t get it.” Take heart. You are in good company.

Spoons & Sandcastles, acrylic on canvas 28 x 57.5IN

read Kerri’s blog post about SANDCASTLE WITH ME

www.kerrianddavid.com

sandcastle with me/spoons & sandcastles ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Edges, Uncategorized | Tagged: Brian Greene, broken time, cubist, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, narrative, narrative series, society6.com/davidrobinson, Stephen Hawking, stories, string theory, studio melange, the melange, theoretical physics, time | Leave a comment »

Count On You [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 10, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

count on you song box copy

Occasionally we’ve intentionally organized our weekly melange around a theme. Mostly, however, we choose the individual pieces according to a scientific method, a very precise criteria. It’s called ‘Oh, I like this one. Me, too.” And, sometimes our very precise criteria bumbles into a theme that we only notice when building the web page. That was the case this week. This is called the ‘happy accident’ method.

Our happy accident reads like a self-empowerment seminar: unleash the power of your crayon, living without fear, break away from the flock, pray in the field of opposites, and today’s KS selection: count on you. Kerri told me that this song was not her favorite and I reminded her that no artist likes all their work. She scowled at me and nodded her head at the same time.

It is especially difficult for an artist to reach back almost two decades and appreciate, let alone recognize, the work they did at another time, during another era of exploration. I famously look into my archives and grimace. A very few pieces stand out, the connection still strong, the exploration still alive and vital. The rest look foreign like someone else created them.

But this is what Kerri knows and always tells me when I am in full artistic grimace. The pieces serve as markers, important reminders of where you’ve been, reminders of how far you’ve traveled. And, as the artist, it is never my place to decide for others what is best and what is not. It’s the artist’s job to share. And so, in a grand moment of blow-back, I reminded Kerri of her own words when she grimaced at this song.

Blow back has blow back. No one ever accused me of being smart. It is not by intention that I now find myself sharing the crate with dogdog as I introduce to you this song of wise reminders. It’s a marker of Kerri’s past but her message is never dated.

COUNT ON YOU on the album SURE AS THE SUN available on iTunes & CDBaby. You can buy a physical CD here.

read Kerri’s blog post about COUNT ON YOU

www.kerrianddavid.com

count on you/as sure as the sun ©️ kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: archives, artistry, as sure as the sun, count on you, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, happy accident, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, markers in time, reminder, society6.com/kerrisherwood | Leave a comment »

Pray In Opposites [on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 9, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Prayer Of Opposites, acrylic on panel, 48 x 48IN

I love this painting and for some reason have never included it in a show. An early version of it hung for a few years in the undergraduate offices of Antioch University, Seattle. After returning from Bali I took it down, hauled it back to the studio and repainted it.

On my gallery site I wrote about this painting that paradoxes and oppositions are lively topics for me. Truth is always found in the “in-between” spaces. Truth is connective tissue.

Separation is only the beginning of the life-story. The rest of the story is a search for connection. It is lived as a quest to find the common center – through a prayer of opposites. As the Balinese would say in shorthand, many faces, one god.

read Kerri’s blog post about A PRAYER OF OPPOSITES

www.kerrianddavid.com

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a prayer of opposites ©️ 2002/2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: Bali, common center, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life story, meditation, oppositions, paradoxes, polarity, prayer, presence, quest, society6.com/davidrobinson, story, storytelling, studio melange, the melange, truth | Leave a comment »

Unleash Your Crayon [on Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on August 6, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

“…art is a staple of humankind – never a by product of leisure or elitism – and so urgent, so utterly linked with the pulse of feeling that it becomes the singular sign of life when every other aspect of civilization fails.” ~ Jamake Highwater, The Language of Vision

Many years ago I was excited to move into a new studio. Many people in my circle responded to my news in the same way: “Oh God! That’s too much pressure! Now you’ll have to use it!”

I wish I could say that I was dumbfounded by the common response but I wasn’t. As a coach, I wish I could count the number of clients I had who spent many hours and huge dedication of resources to fulfill their dream of having a studio – only to fear walking into it. They thought the lack of a studio was the obstacle and discovered that the real challenge was the banishment of their imagination, the leash they’d placed on their full expression.

Taking off the leash is a daunting affair. It means facing the reasons the leash seemed necessary in the first place. An imagination placed on a leash does not go away, it turns to dark imaginings. It eats itself. It separates. It isolates.

Art is not something that can be approached through reason. It is much more essential, much more primal than intellect alone can reach. It is accessed through the heart door. The intuitive knowing. Yoda would call it the force.

So, thankfully, the leash cannot be taken off by thinking about it. Experience. Express. Follow. Listen. Feel. Breathe. Reach. Do. And, feel some more. In feeling, in an unbridled imagination, there is connection. There is possibility. There is expansion of spirit and capacity. There is – and this is the power of art – the force that creates community.

read Kerri’s blog post about UNLEASHING THE POWER OF YOUR CRAYON

www.kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Art, Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Power, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, artistry, chicken marsala, Chicken nugget, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, essence, essential, expression, freedom of expression, intuition, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, power, primal, self-expression, society6.com/chickenmarsala | Leave a comment »

Look Close-In [on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 2, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Georgia O’Keeffe was a master painter of paradox. Her paintings open the expansive universe by focusing close in, approaching the mystical, the sensual through the minute. She expressed so much through minimal strokes. I suspect her paintings are an expression of how she lived. Standing still in the arroyo, listening. Moving inward to reach the outer spaces.

I am a artist of a by-gone century. While I appreciate the digital world (you would not be reading this without it), I love the visceral, the deep inner driver, the instinctual. I am tactile. I am fed by the feel of the brush moving across the canvas, the smell and splash of the paint, the dance. A world of possibilities and paths open when mistakes are not easily erased. Kerri calls this analog.

This is a morsel, a close-in crop of my painting, Earth Interrupted VII. Look closely and you will see the meeting ground of the methodical and the spontaneous, the controlled and the improvisational. I am learning from looking close-in. I see forces merged that used to be at odds, now good dance partners. Compliments. I, too, am learning to stand still, not in the arroyo but on the shores of Lake Michigan. Visceral. Listening. Moving inward in the hope of reaching the outer spaces.

earth interrupted VII

read Kerri’s post about this MORSEL

www.kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Seeing, Uncategorized | Tagged: analog, artist, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, detail, earth interrupted, energy, forces, Georgia O'Keeffe, instinct, instinctual, intuitive, inward looking, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, listening, morsel, mystical, sensual, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio melange, tactile, the melange | Leave a comment »

Read The Back [on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on July 31, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Nothing I paint on the front side of this canvas will be as interesting, as vital, as curious, as the note that Duke scrawled on the back. It’s a mystery story. Duke has been gone for a few years now and his son, our dear 20, brought Duke’s canvases to me. Treasure upon treasure. For some reason, one day, Duke dipped a brush into black paint, flipped his canvas around and left us a note. An impulsive celebratory act on New Years Eve? Or, perhaps, in a moment of disbelief of world events, he scribbled his note in sarcasm?

Of course, there’s another possibility- and this is my bet – ‘Welcome to the 21st Century’ was the name he gave to his painting, the image that he created on the front side. He didn’t like it so he painted over it. He returned the canvas to white space, opened it to new possibilities.

That leads to an even greater mystery. After scrubbing the image, he flipped the canvas around, dipped his brush one last time into the white paint, scrubbed the date (3/93) but left the title. And in quick broad strokes for emphasis, framed his title, transforming it into a note. The back of the canvas becomes the front. A title transformed into a message.

I feel as if I’m having a conversation with Duke. The painting I created on the front side, on the white-space-possibility that he reopened, is one of my Earth Interrupted series, number 7. It is ironic or, perhaps, poignant? Put his title and my title together: Welcome to the 21st Century: Earth Interrupted. Apt, yes?