layers | The Direction of Intention

Layer Up! [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on January 22, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

20 and I are smack-dab in the middle of our annual winter competition: who requires the most layers to stay warm. I don’t mean to brag but I usually win. Okay, I always win. And, since we are just emerging from a polar blast, I believe that, in the past week, I might have layer-lapped him. It’ll be almost impossible for him to catch me now.

In truth, I have an unfair advantage. Kerri is the keeper of the heat in our house and she keeps it just above the frost line. That means, in addition to my base layer, I generally sport two additional shirt layers and a vest. And, that’s inside the house. Sometimes, when sitting relative to the back door, I pull on a fifth layer. Thick socks, Uggs, and my latest discovery – the Buff – assure my victory over 20. He has yet to discover Buffs. Also, he has issues with wearing gloves inside the house. Sissy. He is the keeper of heat in his own house and believes in higher numbers. That simple fact will guarantee my unbroken string of layer-victories.

I’m a skinny guy so I justify my clothing archeology by whipping up the belief that my many layers make me appear beefy. Muscled. Kerri assures me that this fantasy exists only in my mind and offers a different take: I look like the Michelin Man only with a pin head. So much for my shot at macho. I can tell that 20 agrees. When he comes over to dinner he often greets my padded machismo with a slap on the back, laughter and a question: “Are you in there?” he asks.

20 also has a handicap that he’s aware of but for some reason refuses to set aside. He has heated seats in his car. Both of our vehicles are from another era, from the time of the Flintstones. In the winter months, our seats are made of stone and require many, many more layers. That loser is dedicated to his heated seats. He has the gall to mock me and brag about the pleasure and comfort of driving to-and-fro snuggled in electric warmth. He actually sheds layers!

Sometimes I think he forgets that we’re competing! What am I missing?

read Kerri’s blogpost about WARMTH

share. like. support. comment. shivering? me, too.

buymeacoffee is like a toasty electric blanket for an artist on the verge of frostbite. It could be a lifesaver.

Filed under: Body, Merely A Thought Monday, Random | Tagged: 32 Degrees, artistry, Buff, cold, competition, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, freezing, frost bite, heat, heated seats, humor, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, layers, macho, Michelin Man, polar balst, story, studio melange, the melange, thermostat, Uggs, winter, winter humor | Leave a comment »

Add More Layers [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on December 8, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

As I write this I have my feet under a blanket. I’m wearing three layers of clothes beneath my favorite Patagonia vest and I can say with all certainty, with deepest conviction, that I am not warm. It’s been trying to snow all day. I want another pair of socks on top of the pair that I’m already wearing. Fear not! This is normal winter behavior for me. I am always cold.

The silver lining in piling on layers and layers of clothing is that I look like a bigger guy. Someone with muscle and heft. Also, my perpetually cold red nose makes me look like I’ve just come from the bar. A passerby might confuse me for someone who is raucous and boisterous instead of the meek introvert that I am. In truth, beneath all of this clothing, I am only exuberant in my writing. Corner me at a party or in the lobby of a theatre and I will almost certainly convince you that I am a nincompoop or in a whisky stupor since you’ll no doubt confuse my red nose as booze-induced. I have no reputation to uphold so I’m good with your misperception either way.

Our favorite neighbor, John, rarely wears a coat. He is in shirt-sleeves even when ice is forming on my eyebrows. I envy his inner warmth though my envy is not green but ice-blue. I consider him the 8th wonder of the world since his capacity to thrive coatless in the subarctic temperatures is a pyramid-sized-wonder. His wife, Michele (also our favorite neighbor), recently texted, “I know it’s cold because John put a coat on.” I ran out to see if it was true. John dons a coat maybe once a century. It was true. He had a coat on so as a preventative measure I ran back inside and quickly added several more layers, then dove beneath a quilt.

Kerri called this photograph, “Snow Burden”. I immediately identified with it. “That’s me!” I thought, my teeth clacking. A skinny stalk bending beneath the weight of the cold, cold snow. Leaves wilted, curling and brittle in the frozen air. Afraid to move for fear of shattering. Dreaming of the sun.

This is no joke. Kerri just had the audacity to ask, “I’m-hot-you-hot?” I said nothing, incredulous that she could look at me shivering (though beefy in my many layers) and somehow miss my crimson-red nose.

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful…”

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora and iHeart Radio

read Kerri’s blogpost about SNOW BURDEN

share. like. support. comment. bundle up. light a fire. all good things.

buymeacoffee is a warm blanket for the artists you value who are possibly at this very moment freezing in the snow.

Filed under: KS Friday, Random | Tagged: artistry, clothing layers, cold, cold nose, cold temperatures, composer, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, inner warmth, introvert, joy - a christmas album, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, layers, misperception, Patagonia vest, snow, snow burden, socks, story, studio melange, the melange, waiting by kerri sherwood, winter | 3 Comments »

Melt And Hammer [on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on August 8, 2022 by davidrobinsoncreative

We are easily entertained. Once, we nearly crashed the car laughing-so-hard at the names we gave to our alter-egos. Who drives around naming their alternative selves? We do. Sit us in a corner and we’re pretty good at finding something to do.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ~ Thomas Merton

Igneous is volcanic. Fiery. A few weeks ago we painted rocks to put on the trail. Since we’re both cycling through an artistic-growth-crisis, we painted and fantasized about our new career intentions. When Kerri suggested we call ourselves “igneous artists” I howled. The layers of meaning are too vast to count. Plus, I thought it sounded suspiciously close to “ignorant artists” and I liked that, too. “We should hang out a shingle,” she said, “For Hire!”

Igneous artists.

“Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy.” ~ Albert Einstein

Because we tend to riff on everything, while painting rocks, we rolled around our new art-moniker until we had an appropriate clever (to us) sub-phrase. “It sounds like a lyric,” I announced, mostly as enticement for my lyricist wife to spin out a theme song. She did not take the bait.

Igneous artists with sedimentary souls.

‘Layers of soul’ is a yummy image. Especially if the layers are born of elements like fire. Like all artists, we’ve been forged, melted in a hot furnace and hammered into shape. The smith hammers out the impurities. “People don’t change,” Kerri often quips, “They become more of who they already are.”

I could stand to lose a few impurities. I look forward to becoming what I am already.

“To draw you must close your eyes and sing.” ~ Pablo Picasso

read Kerri’s blogpost about IGNEOUS ARTISTS

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Identity, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor | Tagged: albert einstein, alter ego, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fiery, fire, foreged, forge, furnace, igneous, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, layers, musician, painter, Picasso, rock painting, soul, story, studio melange, the melange, Thomas Merton, two artists, writer, writers | 1 Comment »

Dress In Layers [on saturday morning smack-dab.]

Posted on February 26, 2022 by davidrobinsoncreative

I know to dress in layers. If we are going to take a drive in these cold months, or go to the store, the windows will go down. The windows will go up. Hot. Cold. Menopause, I’ve learned, is a whack-a-mole of temperature fluctuation.

I am a man – and a slow-study – but I know when I am on thin ice and writing about menopause is very thin ice. There is only one thing I will add to my dress-in-layers comment: when the heat hits her brain I have to remind her that they will punch me, not her. And, as a chivalrous guy (stop smirking), it’s my obligation and duty to stand between her and the biker-dude that she’s just called a “sissy.” I’m not much of an obstacle.

But mostly, that biker-dude wouldn’t stand a chance. She’d blow through me like a hot tornado. Windows up. Windows down.

read Kerri’s blog post about MENOPAUSE

Filed under: smack-dab | Tagged: aarp, artistry, bathrooms, cartoon, cartoon about middle age, comic strip, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, hot flash, hot flashes, hot/cold, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, layers, menopause, middle age, mini mart, rest areas, second chances, story, studio melange, temerature flux, the melange, two artists, whack-a-mole | Leave a comment »

Look Beneath [on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 23, 2020 by davidrobinsoncreative

underpainting copy

What’s beneath? It’s a question all artists learn to ask. It’s the same question good coaches ask of their clients. Seeing is not a superficial affair.

What’s beneath? What alchemy of color was brewed to make this image or that painting? What alchemy of experience was brewed to make this belief or that perception?

Sometimes “what’s beneath” supports and enlivens the surface layers. It’s magnetic and makes you stare – even if you don’t know why. Sometimes it dulls the painting, pulling the life from it. The same holds true for how a life is storied. Sense-making is as dynamic as color.

Color is a miracle. It is never passive. It is only understood by what it is relative to. That is, color, like a relationship, is fluid, moving, spirited.

What’s beneath all those layers and layers of color?

read Kerri’s blog post about UNDER PAINTING