KS Friday | The Direction of Intention

Give Optimism [on KS Friday]

Posted on December 14, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

this season song box copy

Margaret has always been an inspiration to me. She is an artist, a maker of quilts. She is one of those rare and gifted people who enter the room and immediately all hearts are flooded with sunshine. Even on my greyest day she has invoked lightheartedness in me. When I see her and I smile.

Yesterday we received her Christmas card and letter. I can’t wait for Kerri to meet Margaret. She is a bit like Kerri’s mother, Beaky. Bright light, teller of stories. In her letter, Margaret wrote of optimism and enthusiasm, of recognizing early in her life that she’d been given those two important gifts and how they had many times carried her through her challenges.

Kerri’s THIS SEASON could be Margaret’s theme song. It is a stroll of window shopping optimism. It is a quilter making a warm and giggle-inspiring quilt for her grandson. It is a mother’s anticipation of visiting her children. Listening to THIS SEASON I am warmed with a quiet enthusiasm. What could be better gifts to give or receive?

THIS SEASON on the album THIS SEASON available on iTunes and CDBaby. Better yet! Kerri is having an ABUNDANCE SALE of THIS SEASON. She is selling the CD for $5 to the first 100 people who order. Go here to grab your copy

read Kerri’s blog post about THIS SEASON

this season/this season ©️ 2005 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Gratitude, Heroes, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: christmas, christmas music, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, holiday music, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, margaret miller quilter, music, society6.com/davidrobinson, society6.com/kerrisherwood, this season, this season the album | Leave a comment »

Hope [on KS Friday]

Posted on December 7, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

hope song box copy

Somewhere in my reading I came across this notion: discontent is the source of all creativity. Hope must be like that, too. Yearning. Expectation. Desire. To want something or someone who is not there. It is sweet and bitter.

Anyone who tells you that life cannot be simple and complex at the same time has not loved or aspired to dream. Don’t believe them. The simple desire to know never leads to a single answer but it does open greater and greater vistas. Ask a physicist. Or a mystic. Or someone in love.

Particle or wave?

Hope maybe despair re-imagined. It may be a left hand path calling. A dream that seems too big to consider. For a moment today, listen to Hope. Pull up the anchor and follow the wind. Listen. Close your eyes and see where Hope might take you.

HOPE on the album THIS SEASON available on iTunes, CDBaby. CD’s available at Kerri’s store.

read Kerri’s blog post about HOPE

hope/this season ©️ 2005 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Awakening, Emergence, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: complexity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, desire, discontent, dreams, expectation, hope, hope on the album this season, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, simplicity, society6.com/davidrobinson, society6.com/kerrisherwood, studio melange, the melange, this season, yearning | Leave a comment »

Wait Here [on KS Friday]

Posted on November 30, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

waiting song box copy

Last night when we came out of rehearsal it was snowing, just barely. There is something immediately meditative about a gentle snowfall. We stopped and stood for a moment watching the flakes flutter like tiny feathers to the ground.

Sometimes snow stops time. Or, better, it interrupts the rush through life and drops us into time. It drops us into the present moment. No other place to be. Nothing more important to do.

Kerri’s WAITING has the same power as a gentle snowfall. It calms the rush and quiets the noise. It opens the door into this moment, the present moment, and asks nothing more from you than be witness to the stillness, the silent emergence of those tiny flakes traveling through infinite space to the place on earth where, at just the right moment, you happen to be standing. Just in time.

WAITING on the album JOY – A CHRISTMAS ALBUM is available on iTunes & CDBaby

to find all of Kerri’s Christmas albums, go here

KS Designs! Pillows, pillows, and more pillows

read Kerri’s blog post about WAITING

waiting/joy-a christmas album ©️ 2004 kerri sherwood

ks designs/products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Awakening, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: christmas, christmas albums, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, inner quiet, joy, joy - a christmas album, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, presence, silence, snow, snowfall, society6.com/kerrisherwood, stilness, waiting, witness | Leave a comment »

Be Grateful [on KS Friday]

Posted on November 23, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Grateful. The perfect word to carry into the season. Today, the perfect word has a soundtrack. Enjoy it with your family and leftovers.

GRATEFUL on the album AS IT IS available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about GRATEFUL

grateful/as it is ©️ 2004 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Gratitude, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: AS IT IS, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, family, grateful, Gratitude, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, leftovers | Leave a comment »

Hear It [on KS Friday]

Posted on November 16, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

When I was sixteen years old, a new driver, I made a left hand turn in front of a delivery truck that I did not see. I’m not sure how it missed me. At the time I had the illusion that it went through me. I saw the grill, felt the rush, and watched as it skidded to a stop in the turn lane I’d just vacated.

After college I went to Europe with my pal, Roger. I was penniless (almost) when we flew back to the USA. We landed in a snowstorm. Roger’s connecting flight to California left without a hitch. I missed mine to Colorado. I was stranded and desperate, knowing I didn’t have the resources to get home. A man standing in line behind me heard my plight and told me of an announcement – a limited number of cheap fares. I raced across the terminal and bought the last ticket, flying the next morning. I had the EXACT amount of money in my pocket. I used my last penny. Literally.

I have thousands of these stories. As, I believe do all of us. I suspect they happen every day, though go largely unnoticed. A single moment this way or that…a stranger’s hand that pulls us back to the curb. A generosity. A gut feeling. An inspiration. A knowing. A calling. A touch. Sisu.

In a world with no compartments, no division between life or death, fall and winter, it’s all divine intervention, isn’t it? Life? Helping hands are everywhere. There’s no need to believe in a god with a big G or small to appreciate the quiet magic of it all. The scope and mystery of being. The assistance from ‘beyond.’ That’s what Kerri captures in her Divine Intervention. It’s there if you can hear it.

DIVINE INTERVENTION from the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about DIVINE INTERVENTION

divine intervention/released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Energy, Gratitude, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: being, composer, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, divine intervention, helping hand, helping hands, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life, magic, mystery, released from the heart, solo piano, unexplainable | Leave a comment »

Sail The Silence [on KS Friday]

Posted on November 9, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Albert used to come by my studio each evening and pick me up. He knew me well and feared my studio solitude. He’d take me to a coffee house and sit with me until I recovered my capacity to converse. He’d wait until I was capable of crawling out of my silence. We’d laugh when I finally “returned.”

He was right to fear. I didn’t know at that time that the work of an artist – the real work – is to comprehend and navigate their silence. To sail the immensity. We live in this odd age of the individual so an artist’s life is often like solo spelunking. So many get lost in their caves – as I almost did – or their fame (same thing).

My brother-from-a-different-mother recently directed a play. It was a great success. He wrote in the midst of his play’s triumph to tell me how hard he has to work at giving himself any credit. He wrote, “It’s amazing to think how *surprising* that might be for non-artists…” Silence, as he knows, is vast. It is bigger than any single person. When a work of art comes from the vastness it is nearly impossible to claim it. I didn’t tell him that his wrestling match is the mark of a mature artist. How do you claim the ocean or the universe? Success for an artist, unlike the success of a dentist or business person, is an infinite game.

Kerri’s SILENT DAYS could be the soundtrack for the infinite game, sailing into the immensity of the silence. She knows its yearning and awe and brings it back to share with us. I tell myself that she composed SILENT DAYS so others, unfamiliar with their silence, might catch even a small glimpse of life in the boundless places.

SILENT DAYS from BLUEPRINT FOR MY SOUL available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about SILENT DAYS

silent days/blueprint for my soul ©️ 1997 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, artistry, blueprint for my soul, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, music, silence, silent days, society6.com/kerrisherwood, solo piano, success, vastness | Leave a comment »

Figure It Out [on KS Friday]

Posted on November 2, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

figure it out songbox copy

Sometimes I am surprised at the memories a piece of music evokes. While listening to FIGURE IT OUT I was propelled way back in time into a specific moment, an acting exercise Jim Edmondson led with actors in the company at PCPA Theaterfest. It was an exercise in belief. He told them to imagine that their toddler had wandered away on the campus and was lost. “Find your child.”I watched Lisa, a terrific actress, tear across the campus calling out her child’s name. Searching, desperate. She was so committed that campus security came. People left their administrative offices to help with the search. She created belief. She brought us into her play. Jim stopped the exercise before the search for the imaginary child got out of hand.

It is the power of the artist. To pull us into a common story. To propel us into our distant past. To open possible paths forward, to stand in a shared vision. To help us across the boundaries of time and space and belief.

FIGURE IT OUT will propel you. The only question is where Kerri, through FIGURE IT OUT, will take you?

FIGURE IT OUT on the album RIGHT NOW is available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about FIGURE IT OUT

figure it out/right now ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, belief, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, figure it out, imagination, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, pcpa theaterfest, right now, studio melange, the melange, the power of art | Leave a comment »

Hear The Whisper [on KS Friday]

Posted on October 26, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

hear you whisper song box copy.jpg

One of my favorite books is John Irvings, A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY. The narrator of the book, after losing his mother, tells us that when we lose someone we lose them in pieces, not all at once. A birthday comes. A holiday. A graduation day. The absence is acute, fresh.

Kerri told me that when she listens now to HEAR YOU WHISPER, she hears it differently than when she wrote it. Distance and time have transformed it. The experience of loss that inspired this song is mostly remote, with the exception of a few notable days when she discovers another piece. Like the song, distance and time – and the experience of loss – have transformed her.

Early in my career in the theatre I had the opportunity to assist old warhorse directors in auditions. They’d watch an especially talented actor do an especially polished and heartfelt audition and afterwards say, “They were great but they haven’t lived enough life yet. They are operating out of an abstraction.” Artistic depth comes from experiences and many experiences are painful. It takes artistic heart to walk into the hurt, take hold of the tender pieces and rather than wallow in them or add yet another layer of armor, work an alchemy and share them through image or dance or song.

Give yourself a gift on this KS Friday. Let this huge artistic heart work her powerful alchemy on you through her song, HEAR YOU WHISPER, so you might transform your life experiences, your pieces, from base metal into life’s gold.

HEAR YOU WHISPER on the album AS SURE AS THE SUN available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about HEAR YOU WHISPER

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: alchemy, artistic depth, as sure as the sun, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, grief, hear you whisper, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life experiences, loss, society6.com/kerrisherwood, studio melange, the melange, transformation | Leave a comment »

Look Back [on KS Friday]

Posted on October 19, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Every artist has a root. They stand firmly on the shoulders of other artists that inspire and inform their work. They have experiences that color their expression. Every artist walks a seeker’s path. They, of necessity, stand at the edge of their village so they can 1) see clearly the machinations of their community, but more importantly, 2) they serve as a bridge to help their community across boundaries of time and space, providing necessary access to the unseen world, the greater things that cannot be grasped in law or calculation or bought with currency. Inspiration. Ancestry. Purpose. Love. Soul. Aspiration. Perspective. Hope. Possibility.

It is a happy accident that for this week’s Studio Melange Kerri shared a new piece of music, YOU’RE THE WIND, a song never before recorded, while also choosing this piece for KS Friday, WHERE I’M FROM, recorded over 20 years ago. It traces her path. It speaks to her sources.

WHERE I’M FROM is an appropriate title. It is a reaching back, recorded before Kerri met broadcast constraints and the squeeze of the music industry’s labels (New Age) expectations. It radiates innocence. It took me back to my childhood, transported me to carefree days in the sun, mountain meadows, games of four square with the neighborhood kids, my dad teaching me to ride a bike. She took me across the boundary of time, she helped me touch my source, a visit to where I am from.

Take the time to let this artist hold your hand and take you across the boundary, back to your source, to touch for a moment the greater things that live beyond the day’s achievements. Let her remind you of all that truly matters as you turn and look back and visit your mountain meadow and perhaps, as I did, appreciate the riches of the life that you’re living.

WHERE I’M FROM on the album BLUEPRINT FOR MY SOUL available on iTunes & CDBaby

read Kerri’s blog post about WHERE I’M FROM

Filed under: Art, Creativity, KS Friday, studio melange, Uncategorized | Tagged: ancestry, artistry, blueprint for my soul, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning, origins, purpose, society6.com/kerrisherwood, solo piano, soul, sources, Where I'm From, yamaha artist | Leave a comment »

Appreciate It [on KS Friday]

Posted on October 12, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Yesterday we drove the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive to see the fall leaves. It was our anniversary gift to each other. A day off. A day away. A conscious decision to step out of the busy-list of to-dos, the concerns and stresses, the tug and pull and demands…. What could be a better gift to each other than presence with each other. Time less wandering with intent to appreciate.

Every Breath could be the soundtrack of our gift-drive. The crisp air, the glow of the leaves (“Look at that hillside!” she gasped). An utter appreciation of all things passing. Every Breath.

On another note, if the cello line in this piece doesn’t kill you, then you need to take the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive and wake up. Kerri’s compositions were made to be played with the rich depth of a symphony. Every Breath will make you catch your breath. It’s gorgeous like the leaves.