KS Friday | The Direction of Intention

Persevere [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 30, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

holdingsteadfast songbox copy

To me, the album cover is like a time capsule. The woman who would become my wife looking through a camera lens into a future unimaginable. Over twenty years later, I look back, peeking through that triangular keyhole, the impish woman, the near smirk. Does she know the path she will walk, the mountains she will climb? The falls she will take? The sturdy resilient woman she will become?

The impishness remains intact. The brat with the wicked laugh I adore even when – especially when – I am the object of her rascal-nature. The kind of perseverance developed over a lifetime. Clinging to the cliff, against all odds, holding steadfast through the storm. This mettle must have already existed in her blueprint! And, look what life built from that blueprint! A ferocious and very kind soul. An artist.

HOLDING STEADFAST from the album BLUEPRINT FOR MY SOUL is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about HOLDING STEADFAST

gate f8 website box copy

holding steadfast/blueprint for my soul ©️ 1996 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Edges, Emergence, KS Friday, Love, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, blueprint for my soul, brat, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, holding steadfast, imp, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, perseverance, rascal, resilience, soul | Leave a comment »

Posted on August 23, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

the way home songbox 2 copy

In mythic journeys, coming home, arriving back at the place where the adventure began, is sweet and sour. There is nothing better than returning home to comforts, patterns, and relationships that previously provided solid identity and definition. However, no one goes on an adventure without being changed by it. In other words, you arrive home but you are not the same person who left. Home didn’t change. You did.

Today, so far from home, navigating the dark woods and dark forces that come with every adventure, I especially appreciate Kerri’s gorgeous composition THE WAY HOME. It reminds me that the gift of the adventure is to open my eyes, to feel and revel in the ocean’s spray as we sail toward the edges of the earth. The dark woods, the unknowns, the trials and tribulations, are, after all, the transformers. They are the agents of change. To step beyond a comfort zone, to seek adventure, is to invite…discomfort (I know, a no-duh).

In our uncharted waters I am, on this day, most grateful for my wife’s captivating and inspiring reminder that, even this shaky-ground-discomfort, is a solid step on THE WAY HOME.

THE WAY HOME on the album THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about THE WAY HOME

the way home/this part of the journey ©️ 2000 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Edges, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: adventure, change, comfort zone, dark woods, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discomfort, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, the way home, this part of the journey, transform | Leave a comment »

Taste The Dream [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 16, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

each new day songbox copy

I just finished reading The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai. There is an image in the book that I adore. A fish dreaming of a root beer float. In fact, the root beer float is the fish’s greatest dream, a seemingly impossible one to achieve. A little girl offers a solution. The fish should be in the root beer float, eating the dream from the inside.

Living inside the dream rather than chasing it. Language matters. Dreams are notoriously ethereal, very difficult to grasp. Impossible to chase. Wrap your fingers around a dream and it changes shape.

But, to stand within the dream, to live inside it, savoring each moment lived as a bite from life. A taste of the dream. No chase necessary. A fish in a root beer float. Each new day a bite to be relished. Each new day a taste of the dream.

EACH NEW DAY on the album RIGHT NOW is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about EACH NEW DAY

each new day/right now ©️ 2010 kerri sherwood

Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dreams, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, language, moments, presence, rebecca makkai, studio melange, The Hundred Year House | 1 Comment »

Harness The Energy [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 9, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

boundaries song box copy

Lately, in my new role as co-managing director of a performing arts space, I find myself repeating the same simile/metaphor over and over and over and over… (insert Kerri’s eye roll). This week, my favorite-simile-repetition goes something like this: communication is like a river, it needs proper banks if it is going to flow. Without banks, it spills out all over the place flooding basements and creating havoc.

Needless to say, our job thus far is largely about placing proper banks on this flood plain of communication. Placing proper banks, at first, creates consternation and resistance. No one likes a limit until the limit works in their favor, until the constraint makes life easier.

Boundaries. Limits. Constraints. It is what I adore about the arts: freedom of artistic expression is the result of discipline, technique, and practice. And, the heart-desire of discipline, technique and practice is unfettered play. It is a paradox. It is boundaries placed on a rushing torrent so it can flow. The harnessing of creative energy. Communication is an intentional art and art is communication with an intention.

Kerri’s BOUNDARIES is a bubbling brook, bright with the morning sun, tumbling and playful within its banks. It seems so easy, her flow. But I know the truth. This ease and flow, this call to put your feet in the brook and rest for awhile with the sun on your face, comes from the years and years of hours and hours and hours of practice. Boundaries. A riverbank, a limit that will work in your favor. It is the creative flow through a heart that desires to play and play and play.

BOUNDARIES on the album RIGHT NOW is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about BOUNDARIES

boundaries/right now ©️ 2010 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, artistry, boundaries, communication, constraints, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discipline, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, limits, paradox, play, practice, right now, studio melange, technique | Leave a comment »

Play Again Please [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 2, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

nurture me songbox copy

I just broke the first rule of the melange. I peeked over Kerri’s shoulder to see what she was writing. It’s true, she misses her piano. It’s true, last night, as we were closing the theatre, after a day of high anxiety, she walked onto the dark stage, opened the 9 foot grand piano delivered for the chamber music festival currently performing from our TPAC, and began to play. I sat in the dark and listened. Her anxiety and frustration transformed. She nurtured herself into artistry. And, once again, as I always do in these moments, I thought what a pity it is that I am the only person on this planet privy to the full breadth and depth of her artistry.

Streaming services, although great and free for listeners worldwide, have filled artists like my wife with a gigantic Why Bother. The streaming services are making a great living off of her music. More than a million people each year listen to Kerri’s compositions. She profits not at all. The streaming services stand between her and the money her music produces. They toss her less than a bone.

She just wrote that she misses her piano but I think it is more than that. I think she misses the vitality, the good heart that grows inside an artist when they produce, when they challenge themselves, when they explore new territory and bring what they find back for the rest of us to hear. It nurtures the artist. It nurtures the audience. Left unexplored, an artist’s heart fills with anxiety and depression, it closes against the pain.

Last night, after the chamber music had died, in a dark theatre, I listened to a second concert. It was more powerful than the first because it was pure. It was an artist talking to herself, reaching through the Why Bother door and touching, even for a moment, the answer: because it nurtures you to play. It nurtures you to create. I know it nurtures me to listen.

NURTURE ME on the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about NURTURE ME (and don’t tell her I peeked)

cropped head kiss website copy

nurture me/released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Business, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, nurture me, nurturing, released from the heart, society6.com/davidrobinson, streaming services, studio melange | 1 Comment »

Enjoy Your Dance [on KS Friday]

Posted on July 26, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

sweet ballet songbox copy

Standing on the deck, looking out over the water at the setting sun, he said, “Why is it that you have to grow old before you realize that life passes too quickly? You’d think that would be important to know when you were young.”

These days we’re hanging out with lots of parents whose children have grown up and flown the coop. Kerri is one of those parents. The conversation always includes a variation of this phrase: it went by so fast.

A little girl in a ballet class. Not just any little girl. Yours. Learning how to lean into her dream and bumping into a funny adult words: practice. Repetition.

This ballet is indeed sweet. And, as I’m learning, the dance is over in the blink of an eye.

SWEET BALLET on the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post on SWEET BALLET

sweet ballet/released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Gratitude, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: ballet, ballet class, dance, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life dance, life lessons, Life time, parenthood, released from the heart, sweet ballet | Leave a comment »

Hold Hands And Skip [on KS Friday]

Posted on July 19, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

kindredspirits song box2 copy

I’ll never forget the moment.

Stepping off the plane, walking down the concourse, filled with curiosity and a bit of trepidation. I was about to meet someone for the first time, someone I’d been writing to everyday for 6 months. We had two phone calls. I knew her voice but had never before seen her.

We didn’t intend for our email conversation to be ongoing. It began as business. A response warranted a reply. And another. And a week of exchanges somehow became a month of deep-diving, heart-opening communication and then many months. A business trip across the country afforded us the opportunity to meet.

I stepped out of the concourse. Standing in front of me was a woman dressed exactly like me. Black sweater. Blue jeans. Boots. We laughed in recognition. We said hello. We held hands and skipped out of the airport. Kindred spirits…away.

KINDRED SPIRITS…AWAY on the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post on KINDRED SPIRITS…AWAY

kindred spirits…away/released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood

Filed under: KS Friday, Love, Uncategorized | Tagged: connectivity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kindred spirits, love, studio melange | Leave a comment »

Intend The Mess [on KS Friday]

Posted on July 12, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

scattered songbox copy

I suspect Kerri chose SCATTERED because it is how we feel right now. A new place. New work with no definitive direction. We will create direction and intention later. Our job is to watch. To listen. To study. To learn a culture and all of the layers of relationship and nuance that implies.

I was encouraged when I listened this morning to SCATTERED. It is hopeful. Bright. Playful. It is filled with determination, like a child racing through a spring meadow. It lifted my spirits and encouraged a good old fashioned exploration trip.

The first really fun step in making any good puzzle is to scatter the pieces. To make an intentional mess, a deliberate challenge. That is the sparkling theme driving Kerri’s spirit-lifting composition, SCATTERED.

SCATTERED on the album RIGHT NOW is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about SCATTERED

Filed under: KS Friday, Metaphor, Possibility, Uncategorized | Tagged: david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, intentional mess, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, piano composition, puzzle pieces, right now, scattered, studio melange, uplifting | Leave a comment »

Love The Journey [on KS Friday]

Posted on July 5, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

tpotj song box copy

This morning, sitting on the steps off the back deck, sipping coffee, DogDog sniffing around the yard, I watched the eagles fly across the bay, dodging seagulls protecting their brood. I fell into one of those moments, those precious few moments, of profound appreciation for my life. This part of my journey is surprising and as orienting as it is disorienting. Both/and.

I like to travel precisely because it throws me off center. Even the simplest things require attention. Which side of the road am I supposed to drive on? Oh my god, where is the corkscrew? What did I just order (I couldn’t even pronounce it)? Once, in a barter culture, I failed miserably because I bartered myself to a higher price. The merchant and I laughed until we cried and then he patted me on the back and only accepted half of my money. Laughter was my coin. That part of my journey changed the trajectory of my life entirely.

Read the order of the tracks on Kerri’s album, THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY, and you notice that the final two titles on the album are This Part Of The Journey followed by The Way Home. She is hyper-intentional so I believe she did that on purpose. Sitting on the deck this morning, I knew without doubt that this part of the journey, no matter how complicated or lost-feeling or unnerving or uncomfortable…or peaceful, is a great gift. It is a step on the way home. And, it will someday make for the best stories, perhaps the best part of my story.

THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY sparkles like the sun on the lake. It is as abundant as DogDog’s curiosity on his discovery trip around the yard. It is as full of laughter as a merchant in Bali who, to this day, tells the story of the tourist who had no idea what he was doing.

THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY on the album THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY

Filed under: Gratitude, KS Friday, Story, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, Both/And, change, curiosity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discomfort, disorientation, Gratitude, home, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lost, new beginnings, orientation, story, this part of the journey | Leave a comment »

Get Connected [on KS Friday]

Posted on June 28, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

connected songbox copy

I climbed a mountain many years ago and stood on the summit just as the sun was rising. I’ve never felt so…connected. So alive. I suspect that all of the truly peak moments of life are moments of connection.

We look forward to connecting to our loved ones. We pursue dreams and crackle with quiet fire when we reach them. When I am in the studio, deep into a painting, time and troubles and other forms of division simply vanish.

I love those moments in the theatre or at a concert when everyone – the audience and the performers – unite. When the connection is pure. A singular moment. A single heartbeat. Peak. Connected.