That Morning Someday [On KS Friday]

Posted on April 27, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A sunrise for your KS Friday from studio melange.

jacketblueprintjpeg copy 2I swear I knew this piece of music years before I met Kerri. I think I knew this piece years before she composed it. It is the soundtrack of a sunrise – and not just any sunrise. The Sunrise. Many years ago, on a California beach, wrapped in a blanket, after a night of revelry and playing in the surf with friends, I walked by myself toward the sunrise. I was utterly filled with peace, completely quiet inside. Content. It was a rare and precious moment and so distinct that it was forever burned into my memory. That morning changed me. I revisit that moment often. I revisit that sunrise when I need a touch of peace.

When I first listened to this track on Kerri’s album, Blueprint For My Soul,  my mouth dropped open. “I know this piece,” I said. “I know it.” She smiled, “It’s possible.”

Yes. Possible. That Morning Someday is like a sunrise. It is about the quiet entrance of vast possibilities. Take a moment on this KS Friday, and give yourself a rare and precious moment. Revisit your sunrise. And remember what peace feels like.

THAT MORNING SOMEDAY from the album BLUEPRINT FOR MY SOUL (TRACK 11 ) iTunes

THAT MORNING SOMEDAY also available on CDBaby

THAT MORNING SOMEDAY/RIGHT NOW products we designed are sold at society6.com

someday product box bar jpeg copy

read Kerri’s blog post about THAT MORNING SOMEDAY

www.kerrianddavid.com

that morning someday/blueprint for my soul ©️ 1997 kerri sherwood

that morning someday/right now product designs ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood

 

Filed under: Awakening, KS Friday, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Look For The Mountain [On DR Thursday]

Posted on April 26, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A mountain morsel for this DR Thursday from studio melange.

Kerri laughed her most devious laugh when I asked, “Where does this morsel come from?” I didn’t recognize it as a slice from any of my  paintings. I usually know immediately where the morsel comes from. This one baffled me.

“Guess,” she said, laughing that laugh again. I knew I was in trouble.

Usually, when I hear this particular devious laugh, I look behind me. Or, I check to see if she is clutching cleverly concealed water balloons. DogDog knows this laugh, too. It means he will have to work very hard, go through all of his tricks, probably twice, before getting the cookie that she holds just above his reach.  He always looks to me for support and I tell him, “You are on your own, Dogga.”  I know better than to redirect her brat impulses on to me.

And so, like DogDog, I guessed. And guessed again. And again. I did tricks. I searched my folio site. With each wrong guess, her pleasure at my bewilderment increased, her laughter goading me on. I looked to DogDog for help. He dropped to the floor and pretended to be sleeping. I was on my own.

Finally, exhausted, beyond begging, she dropped a tiny hint. The painting no longer exists.

Thanks to Skip I’ve made it a practice of taking process shots which means Kerri has made it a practice of mining my process shots. Many of my paintings don’t make it to the finish line. They are either not composed well, are ill conceived from the start, or I overwork them and have to scrub them and start over. Sometimes they serve as rough drafts and i abandon them when I see the better path. This morsel comes from one of those – a painting that did not make it. It was poorly laid out. It broke the rule of thirds (and I didn’t want to cut the canvas to correct the problem).

Kerri jumped up and down with joy when I put it together. She knew that she was going to re-introduce a painting to me. She knew, given the right framing, I’d see the beauty of the unfinished piece. So, the morsel: Mountain in Yellow Sky. And, for my purposes, the beauty in the loose painting that no longer exists: Together On The Beach.

 

It is potent blow-back to help me see the old anew. When I said, “I think I need to learn to stop painting sooner, to redefine for myself what is a rough draft and what is not.” she laughed that laugh again. The trouble I am in is so much bigger than I understand.

 

 

 

 

 

MOUNTAIN IN YELLOW SKY products we’ve designed are sold at society6.com

mountain in yellow sky product box BAR jpeg copy

 

read Kerri’s blog post about MOUNTAIN IN YELLOW SKY

www.kerrianddavid.com

 

mountain in yellow sky/on the beach ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

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Call It In The Air! [It’s Flawed Cartoon Wednesday]

Posted on April 25, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A spot of Flawed Cartoon humor from studio melange.

MiceCheese Bigcopy copy 2

Is it a game of chance or is the toss rigged? I, too, am an idealistic, trusting mouse and never think to check the coin or calculate the odds before the toss. And, another question comes to mind: even if I know where to find my cheese, is the cheese worth the pursuit?

Existential questions from the melange to further confound your Wednesday.

 

CALL IT IN THE AIR products we designed are sold at Society6.com

MICE CHEESE product box template jpeg copy

 

read kerri’s blog post about CALL IT IN THE AIR

 

www.kerrianddavid.com

call it in the air ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

 

Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Random, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Dance [It’s Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on April 24, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

From studio melange a touch of goodness for your Tuesday.

There is wisdom in dancing copy 3

Had you attended our wedding you would have found yourself dancing. Even if you where a committed dance-a-phobe, your limbs would have over ruled your noggin and that deep river of wiggling that flows through us all would have broken through your protective surface layer and you’d have gyrated and twirled. You would have had no choice. The reason is simple. We call her Linda.

Linda is a muse of dance. A maker of enthusiastic merriment. She understands the world through movement. She understands that everything is in constant motion. The earth is moving, dancing. It IS dance and she dances with it. Academics would call her kinesthetic. Invite Linda to even the most stodgy of gatherings and soon everyone will be swaying en route to a raucous Irish folk dance. She knows how to help others dance with earth, too.

There is wisdom in dancing and it is this: it is only possible to dance WITH others – and deep down everyone wants to dance. And, in the merry motion of common movement comes laughter, surprise, and heaps of generosity. From studio melange on this Two Artists Tuesday, we offer what Linda knows: sometimes wisdom looks a lot like dancing.

 

 

THERE IS WISDOM IN DANCING – products we design are sold at society6.com

THIS dance product box jpeg copy

read Kerri’s blog post about WISDOM IN DANCING

www.kerrianddavid.com

there is wisdom in dancing ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Body, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Give Full Reign To Your Imagination [It’s Chicken Marsala Monday]

Posted on April 23, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Chicken Nugget from studio melange for the start of a new week.

give full rein to your imagination WITH EYES jpeg copy 2

Wearing her yellow flower girl dress, fresh from her triumph as flower girl at her cousin’s wedding, my niece Tory sat on my lap and told me a story. It was a deluge of imagination. A breathless tale that took me through magical meadows and soaring to great heights, like Virgil she guided me through worlds, forests, oceans and space where I met amazing creatures, tasted foods both “yummy” and “yucky” and shape-shifted to meet the necessities of the planets we visited. There was a beginning to her story but there was no end. Even after her mother came to retrieve her, Tory’s story stream gushed on, now transferred to her new audience. Her imagination, like all little humans, was boundless.

Imagination is boundless. And, it doesn’t go away. We may learn to put brakes on it or filter its color. We may fear it and drive it underground, misdirect it or malign it, but it gushes on and on. Fear the future? That’s imagination at work. Regret the past? Yep. Imagination at play. Meaning making, making meaning. The story-making-imagination is a rushing river. How often have you said or heard said, “I can’t imagine…!” Not true.

Imagining is what we humans do, regardless of age. The proof is all around you. Stand still and look. Everything you see, if it was constructed, was first imagined by someone trying to make life better. Lights, cell phones, automobiles, pencil sharpeners (pencils), purses, personal computers,…, were imagined and are, at this moment, being re-imagined. Look in the mirror. What you see is an expression of imagination. Imagination is, after all, a team sport.

imagine WALL MURAL copy

Look at the cool new wall murals from society6.com

There isn’t a moment of the day that our imaginations aren’t running apace or bursting at the gate trying to get out of the doubt-corral. Give it full reign. Give it full rein and like Tory, let it take you – and me – to new and surprising worlds.

 

GIVE FULL REIN/REIGN TO YOUR IMAGINATION gifts & reminders

full rein imagine product box jpeg copy

read Kerri’s blog post about GIVE FULL REIN/REIGN TO YOUR IMAGINATION

www.kerrianddavid.com

give full rein/reign to your imagination ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Chicken Marsala Monday, Creativity, Possibility, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

See Art Everywhere

Posted on April 20, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

50% OFF ALL PAINTINGS THROUGH APRIL 22nd

Together we read the local paper every morning. Yesterday there was an essay from the executive director of a new ‘creative space’ making a case, financial and otherwise, for why the community should value and support the arts. Everything he wrote was true. Everything he wrote has already, as Kerri likes to say, fallen into the moat.

Fifteen years ago I might have written that essay. I am an artist and need no case made for the necessity and essential nature of “the arts.” However…. In a past life I consulted with schools and many times found myself in the position of lobbying the school board to support arts programs. I jumped up and down making a case for the arts and rarely achieved my desired result. Until, one day, a word-angel grabbed my tongue and instead of using that mystical word “arts,” I replaced it with the phrase “experiential learning.” Doors blew opened. Angels sang. Kids made movies, painted paintings, held poetry slams, wrote musicals, made plays…came alive. And learned.

Our mistake is “to make a case” for the arts. Our mistake is to define it narrowly, relegate it to museums. It is not a separate thing. It is everything. It is everywhere. The design of our cars and blenders is an aesthetic as well as an engineering process. The apps on our phones (the very design of our phones) requires artistic as well as technical skill. Every piece of marketing that clogs our streams requires an artistic sensibility. We live in age of narrative, of artificial intelligence, of imagination run rampant. We story ourselves on Facebook and Instagram and share our pins on Pinterest. Step back and listen to the competing narratives we call The News. Listen not to the content of the question but how it is asked; these things are not accidental, they are designed, targeted to influence and move our imaginations. The “arts” are not lofty nor dusty, they are throbbing, vibrant, and central to every nuance of our lives. Why do we insist on  keeping them in such a tiny little box?

Stephen asked me more than once, “Why don’t people value the arts?”  He is a prolific painter, brilliant, and exhausted from living on the margins. “They do,” I’d say, “they just don’t know it.”

Kerri and I said goodbye to a few more paintings yesterday. They found their right home and that is more than gratifying.  It is the moment of completion of the painting (or the play or the composition…or the car, couch, and coffee mug) when it finds an audience or its home. It’s a life cycle, deeply connected. It is everything. It is everywhere.

Filed under: Art, The Direction of Intention, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Riverstone [On KS Friday]

Posted on April 20, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a musical lift from studio melange to get you to the weekend.

Don’t tell Kerri but this composition, Riverstone, is one of my favorite pieces of her music. It lifts me. Every time. It brings me immediately to my personal mountaintop moments, those times when I felt most alive and shouted to let the universe know it. It perfectly evokes for me that moment on a hot summer day when I waded into a cold mountain stream, my feet stinging, and I laughed at the simple joy of it.

What could be a better gift to give your self on this Friday. Step into Riverstone and let it take you, even for a moment, to your mountaintop.

RIVERSTONE from the album AS IT IS (track 4) iTunes

RIVERSTONE is also available on CDBaby

melange product BAR copy

RIVERSTONE wall art, mugs, totes, leggings, phone cases, beach towels and more. Gifts and reminders to go with the flow!

read kerri’s blog post about RIVERSTONE

RIVERSTONE from AS IT IS ©️ 2004 kerri sherwood

Filed under: KS Friday, Love, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

From A Distance [DR Thursday]

Posted on April 19, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

The first photograph of our planet Earth was taken by the crew of  Apollo 17 in 1972. The Blue Marble. Living. Vibrant. Moving. Alive. Fragile. Uncontrollable. Spiritual. Our home. Sometimes I think that the plethora of seemingly insurmountable issues that plague our discourse (our lives), divide our nations, and choke our news feeds are only possible because this photograph is forgotten. Or denied. We are the first humans in the history of humans to (literally) have this global perspective which makes us the first humans in the history of humans to ignore what we know. It’s all connected. We are all connected. It’s impossible to see from the ground but oh, so easy to see from space.

from a distance TOTE BAG copy

if you like this post, share it!

Roger once told me that, in his opinion, denial was perhaps the single most powerful force driving the human condition. Today I’d make an argument for hubris. Or, perhaps one needs to be fully steeped in denial to be so full of hubris. The very notion that we story ourselves as stewards of Earth seems misguided, arrogant – especially given our capacity to step out into space and look back at our home, our selves.  As P-Tom recently said, nowadays we measure the trash field in the ocean in units of countries (3 Frances). Stewards would, I hope, do a better job. More humble stewards might at least recognize what is apparent in the photograph: it’s all connected. We participate, we do not own.

This week marks the 48th Earth Day and what I find remarkable is the first Earth Day was celebrated a full two years before the first photograph of Earth.  I find that oddly hopeful. Perhaps we don’t need a global perspective to entertain the notion that our actions have impact.

from a distance FRAMED PRINT copyIt’s funny. I’ve coached many, many people – all searching for meaning and the desire to know that their lives and actions matter. They fear that they lack impact.  The advice I never gave (a good coach does not advise): leave the city lights so you might see the stars. Recognize what you are seeing. Recognize how small you are and how glorious it is merely to be alive. Instead of trying to distinguish your self above all others, maybe take a look at the Blue Marble and realize just how connected you already are. You are immediate, impermanent. Perhaps in that recognition you will also realize your meaning.

ALL ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 50% OFF THROUGH SUNDAY, APRIL 22ND

FROM A DISTANCE reminder/merchandise:

from a distance LEGGINGS copy

kerri’s design from my painting

from a distance MUG copy

kerri designs all of our studio melange products!

from a distance SQ PILLOW copyfrom a distance FLOOR PILLOW copy

read kerri’s blog blog post about FROM A DISTANCE

melange button jpeg copy

kerrianddavid.com

 

earth interrupted V: from a distance ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: DR Thursday, Perspective, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

When Sled Dogs Dream [It’s Flawed Cartoon Wednesday!]

Posted on April 18, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

From studio melange, a giggle to lift you over the hump and share with pals.

sled dogs dream FRAMED PRINT copy

our flawed homage to winter and its passing

Tripper Dog-Dog-Dog dreams. Late at night I hear his paws flicking the floor of his crate, the echo of his dream-bark breaks the surface as a yip. I imagine he is dreaming of chasing squirrels or racing after birds, two of his favorite real-life activities. But what if…. Maybe he dreams of having opposable thumbs, of scooping kibble from the bin whenever he wants to! Maybe he dreams of taking me on walks, and yanking my leash when I pull to greet other humans! “Sit!” he barks. “Look at me!” he commands. Perhaps he dreams of tossing me a cookie when I am good, or making me do tricks to earn my cookie!!!

And so, I imagine that sled dogs must also dream.

WHEN SLED DOGS DREAM reminders/merchandise

society 6 info jpeg copy

dream RECT PILLOW copy   sled dogs dream SQ PILLOW copy

read kerri’s blog post on WHEN SLED DOGS DREAM

melange button jpeg copy

kerrianddavid.com

 

when sled dogs dream ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Flawed Cartoon Wednesday, Possibility, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

If You’ve Said, “I Wish…”

Posted on April 17, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

50% OFF ALL PAINTINGS through MIDNIGHT APRIL 22

IMG_2751It is my favorite rituals. Just as I put the last stroke on a new painting I hear Kerri say, “I love it. You can’t sell that one.” I smile because I know she means it. Generally it takes a few days of convincing her before she acquiesces to the inevitable destiny of my paintings and we list it on the site.  Letting them go, placing them in the world, is  personal.

We take great delight when my paintings find homes with people who love them.

Soon, Kerri and I will celebrate 5 years together. A wish come true. This morning in the studio, sorting through paintings to select new morsels for the melange, we discussed how fortunate we are, how prolific we’ve been, how fast we are filling up space, how many people have said to us, “I wish I could afford that painting.” We decided that part of our celebration of the first 5 years should be a clearing of space, a nod to wish-giving (or as close as we can come to it), an invitation and welcome to the new.

It’s easy. Go to my site before midnight on April 22nd. Choose your painting – old or recent. Take 50% off the listed price (of course, there’s tax and shipping if we need to ship it to you). Send us an email through the contact page (or text or call us) claiming your painting. If it’s still available, it’s yours (our space-clearing is necessarily first come first served). We’ll contact you with the details.

Oh. And, don’t be surprised if Kerri tries to talk you out of it. She is persistent!

cropped head kiss copy 2

Filed under: Art, The Direction of Intention, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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