Two Artists Tuesday | The Direction of Intention

A Sap Older Than Memory [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 30, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Look, we don’t love like flowers with only one season behind us; when we love, a sap older than memory rises in our arms.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke

If I knew then what I know now. The younger version of me had love all wrong. It was something I chased, pursued. Why does it take so long to understand that Love is something I give? It’s what I bring to life rather than something I get from it.

Maybe my younger self tried to squeeze love into a too-small-box. The Greeks understood the word “love” to have 4 different meanings. The young seeker of romantic love, Eros, eventually arrives at the doorstep of Agape, unconditional love. Self-Less. It takes some life experiences, some serious folly and shedding of skin to approach the house of unconditional Agape.

Maybe I didn’t have it wrong after all. Love has age-and-stage progressive revelations. Agape rarely opens its door to the young. “Go out and play!” Agape instructs the young-and-wild-at-heart. Love is an ancient actor that wears many masks.

“Do not divert your love from visible things. But go on loving what is good, simple and ordinary; animals and things and flowers, and keep the balance true.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke

It rained all day. Not a pitter-patter rain but a raucous downpour. After – or in between the waves – I can’t remember, we went out back to check the garden, to upright the tomatoes. The air was clean and humid-heavy; a paradox. Dogga grew damp from inspecting the grasses. Kerri bent close to the flower to capture the raindrops resting on the purple petals. Superbells. Plum made more plummy.

It was like a light going on or, yes, a door opening. “I” disappeared, “I” burst like a soap bubble, and for a moment there was only this. Agape. Love.

“Trees do not force their sap, nor does the flower push its bloom.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke

read Kerri’s blogpost about SUPERBELLS

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Filed under: Love, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: agape, artistry, balance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, eros, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, Rainer Maria Rilke, story, studio melange, the melange, unconditional love | Leave a comment »

Simple And Innate [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 23, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Dogga is a master digger. Mostly he digs to produce cool dirt to lay on; a heavy black coat in the heat of the summer months requires cooling ingenuity.

Originally, we tried to stop his innate digging abilities. Then we realized that he’d already worn several serious velodrome paths in the yard from his enthusiastic circle-running, so what possible damage could an unsightly hole or two do to our backyard aesthetic? Besides, his efforts have a delightful side benefit: they create the perfect bird-dirt-bath dirt. Everyday the neighborhood birds flock to the Dogga-dirt-spot like Romans to the baths.

Lately, since he is grown wobbly in his old age, I periodically fill-in the canyons-he-creates so he doesn’t accidentally swing wide in his circle-running and trip in a hole-of-his-own-making. Besides, it gives him more cool dirt to excavate.

It’s the pure joy he experiences in a hole-well-dug that makes us smile with every new crater. Dirt flies, he occupies his new cool dirt mat, and revels in deep Dogga-Dogga satisfaction.

Sometimes I am astounded at what actually fills me with love and appreciation for life. It’s not complicated. It’s simple – and innate – as Dogga digging a hole.

read Kerri’s blogpost about DOGGA-HOLES

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Filed under: Love, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dogga, innate, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, simplicity, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Perhaps The Sun [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 16, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

These soft petals belie the harsh thrumming that they survived. Most of the peonies did not fare well in the wave after wave of storms. Petals on the ground, stems and leaves drooped, heavy from the rain. It was mere happenstance that this peony was a late bloomer. Unlike its fellows, it opened to the world in the aftermath. The sun returned and it stood tall and responded. A single witness to the wreckage. Compassion made it gentle.

We took a walk in between the storms. Most of the neighborhood was out, ostensibly to survey the damage but I know better. Storms bring people out. People who ordinarily do not think to stop and talk will spend hours after a storm or quake comparing notes, sharing experiences. Witnesses to the wreckage, many people in our neighborhood, people we did not know but who seemed to know us, stopped us to expressed condolences for our tree. We swapped stories. We expressed concern for each other. “Do you have power yet?” Politics were nowhere to be found. Compassion made us a community. Gentle. Caring.

When we arrived home I asked Kerri, “Why does it take a storm to bring out the best in people?” Like me, she had no answer. I’ve experienced this tiny miracle before, after 9/11, after the Northridge earthquake…many times. It is in our nature to help one another when mother nature shakes us awake.

But what of the times when we wreak havoc on each other? The same rule does not apply. The daily mass shootings divide us. Our leaders offer empty thoughts and prayers. We make war on each other; is that not an unnatural disaster worthy of bringing people to the streets? Ukraine. Palestine. The Sudan. On and on and on. Age after age. Man made disasters seem to anesthetize us or at the very least to confuse us. They evoke the opposite response: they numb us. Divide us. Instead of compassion they conjure antipathy. Madness. Is that in our nature or is it unnatural?

It seems we return to our senses when the scale of our man-made disaster takes on the scale of a storm sent by mother nature. Is it the scale of destruction that at last wakes us up? An earthquake or tornado is out of our control: is that why we soften and take to the streets to find each other? Wars and guns and supremacy-fantasies are within our control: is that why we harden and turn our backs on the pain until the wreckage is so undeniable that we are forced to say, “Enough!”? We awake, at least for a short time, from the fantasy?

Doesn’t it feel as if this nation is at long last waking up? Is it finally – finally – too much? Perhaps the sun is calling us out of the maga-fantasy-storm, to witness the wreckage, to reach out our hands and ask, “Are you okay?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE PEONY

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Filed under: Identity, Metaphor, Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, community, compassion, concern, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, division, human nature, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, nature, story, studio melange, the melange, unity | Leave a comment »

Having Enough [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 9, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

When we are in need of a quick and easy sunset getaway, a mental and emotional break from a hectic day, we drive 15 minutes south to Winthrop Harbor and slow-walk the boardwalk that runs along the marina. The sound of the gulls, the rhythmic clang of buckle-on-mast, the quiet plop of a line cast by someone fishing from the dock, the breeze off the lake…it quiets the mind. On the weekends, bands play from a small stage to people sitting on the grass adjacent to the boathouse where Harbor Brewing runs a pop-up beer garden throughout the summer months. It sometimes feels old-worldly: people gathered together to drink a beer at sunset, tapping their feet to music from a local band. Some folks surround fire pits. Others sit in fold-up chairs, blankets at the ready in case the wind shifts off the lake. The siren-smell of brisket and burgers wafts over the gathering.

It is enough. It is more than enough. Simple people enjoying their simple moment.

Last week Kerri wrote a post that hit-the-nail-on-the-head. She asked, “What’s missing?” in the hearts and minds of the republicans and the administration currently robbing the country blind. Her answer? Reverence. In this cohort there is no reverence for nature, for people, for ideas, for science, for the future, for the past. There is only insatiable hunger for more, more, more. They are hungry ghosts. “In Buddhism…These beings are depicted with scrawny necks, tiny mouths, and huge bellies, representing an eternal, painful inability to satisfy their desires.” (Wikipedia) We are subjected to a gaggle of people who live in the existential emptiness of “never having enough”.

Reverence. Awe. Wonder. Veneration. These are born of respect. They require a certain humility that comes from knowing-to-your-bones what it is to “have enough.”

If a picture paints a thousand words then all we need to truly understand what’s happening in this republican administration is Paul Cadmus’ painting, Gluttony.

Morbidly wealthy. Hoarders. Absent of reverence. Completely incapable of understanding what makes (or will make) this nation great: simple hardworking people who believe in equality and fairness, gathering together to share the fruits of their labor, the deep satisfaction of neighbors playing music, of the sun setting over the harbor, enjoying a meal or buying a beer for friends. Slow-strolling the boardwalk. Knowing to their bones the enormity of appreciation that comes from having enough.

read Kerri’s blogpost about SUNSET AT THE MARINA

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Filed under: Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, gluttony, hungry ghost, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, paul cadmus, republican, reverence, story, studio melange, sufficiency, the melange, veneration | 1 Comment »

The Force of Flowering [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 2, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

If you’ve been following our posts you will have noticed – as we have noticed – that we are lately schizophrenic in our writing. One day we are blistering critics of the abuses of the current administration while the next day we write about the peace and presence of our lives. Utter discontent and sublime contentment all in the same week. I doubt that we are unique in our split personality. I believe we are reflecting the split-personality that is contemporary life in these un-United States. It is my bet that you are as whiplashed by the struggle for equilibrium amidst the daily dose of chaos as we are.

What we write is supposed to come from the image at the top of the post, thoughts inspired by a photograph. Lately, however, what we write depends often upon the circumstance of the moment. For instance, last week we sat down to write and Kerri said, “Before we start I have to read you something.” What she read to me was so upsetting that I wrote a rant about what she shared – and found a way to sense-squeeze it into the photograph.

This morning we laughed at our schizophrenic writing. And, we acknowledged that it is exactly what this autocratic administration desires to create: a populace that is reactive and so under assault that it doesn’t know where to look next.

During COVID we intentionally transformed our backyard into a sanctuary. In an unsafe world we needed a place where we felt at peace. This spring, although we haven’t discussed it, we are doing it again, we are creating a sanctuary, cultivating beauty and quiet, we are creating a space where we can rejuvenate, where we can unplug from the brutality. A space to breathe.

We’ve been watching the peonies bud and are taken by the sheer force of their flowering. You can almost see the pressure building in the bud, ready to burst into blossom. It has become for me a harbinger of hope. It is the same pressure I see gathering in my friends who, like me, have had enough of the chaos and corruption. It is the same energy that fills our conversations when we talk of voting in the fall. It is the pressure-driven transformation changing reactivity into intentional positive action: the reclamation of democracy and decency and sanctuary, a safe and productive home for all.

read Kerri’s blogpost about PEONIES

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Filed under: Metaphor, Perspective, Possibility, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, decency, democracy, force, intentional, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, peony, reactive, sanctuary, story, studio melange, the melange, writers, writers process | Leave a comment »

And We All Know It [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 26, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” ~ Mark Twain

The boats are slowly returning to the marina. The beach at Eichelman Park has been combed. Signs of summer’s onset. The Saturday Farmer’s Market moved from its winter quarters and has returned to the mall in front of the museums, running all the way to the Tap House. Signs of normalcy. The people are leaving their houses to purchase flowers and vegetables and mingle in the public square.

Yet, amidst the signs of normalcy, everything is different.

There is so much that the republicans claim to know for sure that just ain’t so. Despite what they espouse, despite what they “know for sure,” the 2020 election was not stolen. Our elections to this point in time are not and never have been rigged or corrupt. The January 6th insurrectionists are not innocent and they are not victims of the justice department. The president is not of sound mind. He is not innocent of his enumerable crimes. His cabinet is not competent.

They want us to believe what they know for sure, that this is normal – but it just ain’t so.

And now they wonder why they are in trouble. They’ve ridden a herd of lies for a decade. They ask us to not believe what we see. And now their only route to holding power is to gerrymander. While currently holding all the cards-of-power they claim to be the victims in this hot mess that they’ve enabled. Midwives to autocracy.

It’s their insistence upon the lie, even though stripped bare-to-the-bone and completely exposed, that is the most troubling. For years we’ve asked what might be a bridge too far for these lemmings in cowboy clothes, these guys and gals that swear they are cleaning the swamp and representing the common folk, all the while engorging their morbid wealth by sucking the lifeblood from the people they pretend to defend. Vampires all.

It’s what we know for sure. It is so. We can see it. And no amount of gaslight can obscure what we see. Afraid of their constituents, they cancel their town halls, they flee the capitol rather than vote to intervene in the criminal-in-chief’s latest war-of-choice.

The boats slowly return to the marina. The beach at Eichelman has been combed. Signs of normalcy in a time when nothing is really normal. This would-be-despot and his party-of-pretenders are naked and corrupt – and falling apart. And we all know it.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE BEACH

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Filed under: Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, autocracy, cowardice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, despot, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lies, Mark Twain, normal, normalcy, republicans, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Furtherance [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 19, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.” ~ Lao Tzu

Breck-the-aspen-tree is our backyard living monument to perseverance. She survived and now thrives despite a multitude of obstacles, least of which was…us.

We plucked Breck from a grocery story in Breckenridge, Colorado. She was an impulse buy and came in a little pot that barely fit in the back of our car. Breck’s branches had to bend a bit to make the journey. She survived the roadtrip home and struggled mightily after being replanted into an enormous clay pot. She lived on our deck for the first three years. We talked to her throughout the summer. We wrapped her pot with blankets to keep her roots from freezing during the winter months.

Each spring we watched for signs that she survived and each year she rewarded us with fragile buds and minimal growth. We knew we needed to plant her in a permanent spot and our first choice nearly killed her. Within weeks she dropped all of her leaves and turned a sad shade of grey. In desperation we dug her up and moved her into another more sunny spot and waited. With no signs of life for the rest of the summer season and throughout the fall, we were certain that we’d killed her. But, she persevered.

The next season she recovered, produced a host of oddly outsized leaves, and grew a foot. The next year she grew another foot and leafed like a normal aspen tree. The year after that she boomed.

Breck is now taller than the garage. She’s no longer a backseat traveler. Instead, she is hostess to the birds who frequent our yard. We stand at her base looking up and marvel at the new growth. She is nearly a foot taller today than she was a month ago. She is a masterful quaker, playing the breezes, and has no problem bending with the wind.

We regularly stare at her and utter, “I can’t believe it. Look at her.”

Here is the full quote by Lao Tzu: “Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.”

I looked up the word “furtherance”. Lao Tzu uses it often. It seems central to his philosophy and I was taken by his definition, “Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just”. Furtherance: the act of helping something advance, develop, or succeed. Now, isn’t that a timely and profound sentiment? Helping something (or someone) advance, develop or succeed is a coming together (an agreement) of all that is fair, deserved, morally right (just).

Wouldn’t it be profound if we could look at each other and say of ourselves, our community and nation, that we have succeeded by bringing together all that is beautiful, that we persevered through a dark and ugly time, arriving at last at a dedicated furtherance, helping each other develop, advance and succeed?

Do you see the loop? Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the act of helping each other and our planet succeed (the coming together of all that is beautiful). Perseverance leads to the sublime. Breck is our constant reminder of all that is possible if we just keep trying.

read Kerri’s blogpost about BRECK

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Filed under: Identity, Possibility, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: actions, advance, artistry, beauty, community, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, furtherance, justice, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Lao-tzu, perseverance, possibility, story, studio melange, sublime, success, support, the melange | 1 Comment »

Take A While [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 12, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.”

~ John O’Donohue

Even now the cardinal is singing. The early sun warms the quilt covering our feet as we write. Our morning practice of writing blogs together is never rushed. We tease that the editors are tapping their feet, unhappy with our dedication to meditative process evolution. Since we both seem to have issues with authority it is among our favorite games to torture our imaginary editors who are terminally deadline-driven and burdened with our snail’s pace, our too-generous-very-slow writing practice. The editors hate that I stare out the window and daydream. They roll their eyes when Kerri says, “This may take a while.” They desire us to be more “nose to the grindstone”. And isn’t that a happy phrase!

She tells me that it is impossible to get a good photograph of the white trillium unless it is in the shade or the day is cloudy. The sun bounces off the white petals and blows out the image. The day was cloudy so she was excited to find the perfect trillium. While she knelt to take her photograph I closed my eyes and stood still. It is what I do now when we stop for a photo op. Listen and feel. It is good advice to take refuge in your senses; to open up.

Though I adore his poem I imagine that John O’Donohue had it backwards. The soul does not come to take you back. I imagine it has been there all along, waiting. It knows that sooner or later we stop trying to find “it” in some distant future or some grand achievement. Soul waits for us to stop running. It waits for us to stand still enough to recognize that “it” never required a chase or proof-of-worth or acquisition. We at long last stop and take it back.

It’s hard to see anything with your nose to a grindstone – except a grindstone. The last time they were pushing me to hurry-up-and-finish I told the editors that the words “puritan” and “punitive” sounded remarkably similar. They “blew a gasket.” My soul smiled. I closed my eyes and felt the sun warming the quilt covering our feet. I asked Kerri if she was ready to read and she said, “Not yet. This may take a while.”

***

“You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.”
― John O’Donohue

read Kerri’s blogpost about WHITE TRILLIUM

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Filed under: Awakening, Language, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, connection, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Gratitude, John O"Donohue, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, presence, refuge, senses, soul, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Can You Imagine? [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on May 5, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Jim told me that people go to the seashore to touch the eternal. For me, often, all I need do is look to the sky. I wonder if people really understand what they are witnessing when they look at the stars in the night sky? I don’t believe that they do because, if they did, the religions of the world would never claim to that their way was “the only way”. In the face of infinity can you imagine a grander statement of hubris?

One of the astronauts, I can’t remember which one, while in space, looked back at Earth and marveled at the very thin, very fragile layer of atmosphere that makes all life on this planet possible. I wonder if people really understand what they are witnessing when they look up at the blue blue sky or the myriad cloud formations marching overhead. I don’t believe they do because, if they did, they would stop pouring methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the face of tenuous existence, can you imagine a greater statement of arrogance?

I just read this phrase: a fatal overstatement of one’s own importance. It is a snippet of the definition of hubris, a word originating in ancient Greece where it meant “defying the gods.” It is the path to another cautionary word: downfall.

I wonder if people really understand what they are witnessing when they peer into the daily news. I don’t believe that they do because, if they did, they would stop spinning reality and, instead, start dealing with it. A world order is collapsing. An entire political party with the assistance of the court Supreme and a propaganda machine is enabling a megalomaniacal criminal to destroy the promise of a nation. They look across the beautiful colorful diversity of this nation and somehow desire to reduce it to a few shades of bland white. In the face of humanity’s potential, can you imagine anything more heinous?

Hubris. Arrogance. Denial. Downfall. We don’t need to imagine it. Reprehensible.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SKY

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Filed under: Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: arrogance, artistry, atmosphere, carbon dioxide, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Diversity, eternal, hubris, infinity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, methane, potential, story, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

What The Hell Are We Doing? [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on April 29, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Sometimes it pays to look up. Cutting the tall grasses, cleaning and preparing the flower beds, I was hyper-focused on the task at hand. A distant rumble caught my attention so I looked up from what I was doing. Dark dragons were flying around in the sky. They breathed lightning, a flash followed by thunder. I dropped the metal clippers and headed inside. I thought it best to finish my task another day.

Once seen, the dragons in the sky were obvious. The lightning they breathed was unmistakable and dangerous. The action I took – dropping the lightning rod clippers and exiting the scene – seemed prudent. Easy and clear choices.

This morning I heard a distant rumble and I peeked at the news. The danger to our nation is obvious. A single delusional man, a retribution dragon encased in sycophants. A convicted felon, found civilly liable for rape. Does anyone really believe that he does not figure prominently in the Epstein Files? The Supremes granted him absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for all official acts and one wonders why grift falls under the umbrella of official acts. Is insurrection an official act? Is obstruction of justice an official act? Is threatening an entire civilization with annihilation an official act? Is falling asleep on the job or slurring speech or incoherence covered under the umbrella? They’re not crimes but would certainly be grounds for removal from any other job.

One wonders when the republicans will stop pretending that the sky is blue when they can see – as we do – that it is filled with a dangerous swirling delusional dragon? Will they drop their clippers in time or will they continue to hold tight to their metal rod and wave it at the lightning-filled-sky? You’d think they’d have the good sense to head for the door. You’d think that they might consider that the lightning they tease could be – will be – the death of us all. One wonders what must be lost, what lightning must strike, what line must be crossed, before they ask themselves, “What the hell are we doing?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about STORM CLOUDS