The Direction of Intention

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 »

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on March 19, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Chicken Nugget from the melange to help you start the week

I appreciate the Chicken Nuggets – especially today’s – because I know the back story. Without knowing where these drawings with words came from or why we took the time to develop them, they could be tossed off as so much fluff. A nice sentiment. But.

What is it to stand in another person’s shoes? To understand the feelings of another? An other. Not me. Nice sentiments are rarely easy when put into practice.

There is a direction in Empathy. It is a reach toward an other. To reach out. To reach across a boundary, seen or unseen. To try. The direction is important to grock. ‘To understand’ is a fundamentally different thing, a radically different direction and intention than ‘trying to be understood.’ It suggests an openness to possibility, a willingness to consider. A shedding of the armor. It unlocks the magic of “what if….”

There is a big drum banging the opposite narrative – closed doors, closed ears, closed eyes. It is easy to believe that we-the-people are incapable of listening, that we are unwilling to consider and are only adept at shouting each other down. Putting each other down. Closing off. Closing down. But.

Take a walk today. Count the moments of generosity that you see. Count the times that others reach. Count the times that you reach. You might be surprised how different your actual experience is from the prevailing narrative. Human beings are, for lack of a better analogy, a pack animal. We run together. We die when we close-off. We wither when we turn in. No human being, if we are honest with each other, knows who they are absent of relationship with others. We know each other together. Reaching is what we most naturally do. We reach when we see others hurting. We open doors. We run into burning buildings, not for ourselves, but for the sake of others. It is infinitely more common to reach than to withdraw. Fear may demand a narrative of opposition, of irreconcilable difference, of standing alone in singularly righteous shoes. But, to believe it, you’ll have to close your eyes. You’ll have to disappear in the corridors of your busy, busy mind.

Today, do what is most natural. Open your eyes. Reach out. See what they see.

TRY TO SEE WHAT THEY SEE merchandise like gift cards, wall art, apparel,…

read Kerri’s thoughts on Try To See What They See

kerrianddavid.com

try to see what they see ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, Seeing, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, Chicken nugget, consider, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, empathy, generosity, heart opening, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kindness, listen, open heart, open mind, Opposition, reach, reach out, see, see what they see, society6.com/chickenmarsala, the melange | Leave a comment »

KS Friday

Posted on March 16, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a musical t.g.i.f. lift from studio melange!

I’m beginning to believe that high atop the list of human fears-that-lead-to-foibles is the fear of ambiguity (I seem to be writing a lot lately about ambiguity). We want our world to be clear cut, black and white. We want the line between right and wrong to be definitive across all circumstances. We want a ‘normal’ that is one-size-fits-all. We want our word and our book and our laws and our rules and our values and our virtues and our morals to be simple and straightforward and, most important, to be defined by how I define them, not how YOU define them. We want to know what to do. We want to know where we are going. We want to know why we are here. What. Where. Why. Quinn used to call these the BIG three.

We hardly ever know what to do. We choose a path based on what we know at the moment. Choices that are based on ideals, imaginings and sometimes a gut feeling. And, where are we going? Where are you going? Do you know with certainty where this day will take you? Can you possibly know why you are here? What if there is not merely one purpose or one reason? What if that “knowledge” is something you can only see clearly when looking back on your life?

Ambiguity makes space for grace to enter. ‘Not knowing’ is the path that leads to all growth and discovery. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people because no one is all good or all bad. Isn’t it often true that the things that seemed like obstacles in our lives one day down the road began to appear as great blessings?

It’s probably comfortable to think that this messy life is only black and white. But a comfortable thought is all it is. On this melange KS Friday, take a moment and step into the ambiguity known as music. Let Kerri’s gorgeous piece, It’s Not Black & White, buoy you on a river of grace to the space between rules and lists, the subtle-spirited place where life is lived & experienced and quite simply refuses to be boxed in the fear of artificial certainty.

IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE from the album RIGHT NOW (track 11) itunes

IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE from RIGHT NOW (track 4) on CDBaby

PURCHASE THE PHYSICAL CD. RIGHT NOW

read Kerri’s thoughts about IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE

NEW! KS DESIGNS

life: it’s not black and white [merchandise]

kerrianddavid.com

IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE from RIGHT NOW ©️ 2010 kerri sherwood

Filed under: KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: ambiguity, black and white, blessings, certainty, choice, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, discovery, fear, grace, It's not black and white, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, KS Friday, learning, normal, not knowing, obstacles, purpose, right and wrong, Right Now by kerri sherwood, society6.com/kerrisherwood, the melange | 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 »

Flawed Cartoon Wednesday

Posted on March 14, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Your daily dose of chuckles from the melange on this hump day.

I have a symbolic suggestion or perhaps a suggestion on symbols. I think we ought to drop the donkey of the Democrats and the elephant of the Republicans and replace both with a single, more hopeful and less arbitrary symbol: the pushmi-pullyu. One animal, two opposing points of view.

More and more I feel as Doctor Dolittle must have felt. I understand less and less of the contentious conversation playing over the human airwaves. It seems like so much bad theatre. Antagonism for the sake of antagonism. It makes for good ratings, I suppose. It is so much noise!

A good talk with the animals is certain to be more fulfilling. A turn toward nature is always good for clearing the head of made-up-thought-clutter and punching through the madness. Maybe a better symbol, the pushmi-pullyu, would remind the makers-of-law (and the rest of us) that they/we share a single heart, that sometimes it is necessary to be the side to walk backwards if progress is going to be made – and that requires some serious collaboration. I push, you pull. I pull, you push. In either case, collaboration or contention, the reality, regardless of symbol, is that we end up together in the same place.

EYE TO EYE merchandise///I TO I merchandise

society 6 info jpeg copy

[don’t be confused! we had so much fun with this one that Kerri created two different product lines. poke around on society6 and you will find both]

read Kerri’s thought’s on this Flawed Cartoon Wednesday

kerrianddavid.com

why is it that we never see eye to eye on anything ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Identity, Perspective, Uncategorized | Tagged: antagonism, collaboration, contention, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democrats, divides, doctor dolittle, flawed cartoon, Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, politics, pushmi-pullyu, republicans, society6.com/flawedcartoon, symbols | Leave a comment »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on March 13, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Your daily blend of good brew from the melange on this Two Artists Tuesday

I love watching Kerri when she goes into design mode. My normally ADD wife enters a super-hyper-focus. The entire universe collapses into a single action. She creates. Time disappears.

I watched the quick birth of this design. She moved on to the next but I lingered with it for a while. I liked it immediately because, to my eye, it can be read in two ways: Be Relentless or Relentless Be. The first is an ambition. It is to pursue your dreams without end. To honor your yearnings as an imperative. The second is a beautiful yet simple understanding of existence. Your heart beats relentlessly. Your relentless inhale and exhale of breath is the movement of life. It is like the tides. You are like the tides, not “a thing” but a continuous movement, an ongoing expression of life.

Either way, a thought to ponder from studio melange on this Tuesday: be relentless be.

BE RELENTLESS merchandise

society 6 info jpeg copy

this one cracks me up!

Be Relentless leggings

read Kerri’s thoughts about Be Relentless

kerrianddavid.com

be relentless ©️ 2016 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Energy, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: alive, ambition, be, be relentless, cycles, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dreams, existence, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life, life cycles, movement, movement of life, society6.com/twoartists, the melange, Two Artists Tuesday, yearning | Leave a comment »

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on March 12, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Chicken Marsala thoughts from the melange to help you start your week:

Almost every spiritual tradition offers a form of this thought: make no assumptions. Sometimes it is called ‘detachment.’ Sometimes it is called ‘the middle way.’ Often, it is referred to as ‘presence.’

It sounds so simple. Be where you are. Be here now. Aspirations always sound easy but are never easy to realize.

In my past life as a consultant/facilitator I regularly issued two “caveats” prior to beginning the work of the day. The first was, “Have the experience first, make meaning of the experience second.” The idea of opening to an experience, that they might actually be capable of stepping out of their roiling story of assumptions, was a revelation to my clients.

And, that’s the point. The revelation, the insight, the heaven-that-you-seek is just on the other side of the story-fog that obscures your experience of life. That is why it shows up so often in all-practices-spiritual. Quiet your mind. Make no assumptions. Open to what is there beyond what you think is there.

However, we are human. That fast running inner monologue, that incessant storying of experiences, pre-and-post occurrence, is what we do. So, a good first step toward the quiet mind, toward the suspension of assumptions, is to make life-giving assumptions. Our runaway minds chug down a track so why not put that train on a generative track: assume awe.

ASSUME AWE merchandise

metal wall art

read Kerri’s thoughts about Assuming Awe on Chicken Marsala Monday

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Awakening, Chicken Marsala Monday, Uncategorized | Tagged: assume awe, assumptions, awe, chicken marsala, Chicken Marsala Monday, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, detachment, inner monologue, inner peace, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, presence, quiet mind, society6.com/chickenmarsala, spiritual, spirituality, story, storying, the melange, the middle way | Leave a comment »

KS Friday

Posted on March 9, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Meander. A gentle word, that brings to mind a slow stroll through a sunny day with no place in particular to be. It is a word without to-do lists and achievements.

Kerri’s composition and performance of Meander invariably opens my heart/mind to a slow stroll through memory, a warm gallery of small hopeful moments. A barefoot walk in a mountain stream. A sunrise, that moment that the warmth hit my face. A meteor shower and the scent of sage at midnight. The puppy smell of Tripper Dogdog when he first came home.

On this KS Friday, from studio melange, give over to Meander. Let this amazing piece of music inspire you – as it does me – to step out of the race and take a stroll, real or through memory, to those rich and sunny fields beyond hurry-up and go-go-go.

MEANDER from the album AS IT IS (track 3) iTunes

MEANDER from AS IT IS (track 3) on CDBaby

read Kerri’s thoughts about Meander

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Awakening, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: AS IT IS, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, KS Friday, meander, memory, moments, peace, peaceful, piano artist kerri sherwood, stroll, studio melange, the melange, yamaha artist, youtube kerri sherwood | 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

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 »

Flawed Cartoon Wednesday

Posted on March 7, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

I am a practiced eavesdropper. And, in today’s world, who isn’t? If you are of a certain age you will remember the first time you saw someone walking down the street talking to themselves and realized that they weren’t demented but were on the phone. The world spins when old expectations meet new realities. It is now commonplace to hear private conversations in a public space. You are considered demented if you don’t carry a device that makes you appear to talk to yourself.

This Flawed Cartoon Wednesday from the melange is a celebration of the misalignment of expectations. How many times have you heard the request, “Text me when you land.” Well, what if…?

TEXT ME WHEN YOU LAND merchandise

Acrobats framed print copy