MAM | The Direction of Intention

An Echo [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 15, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

“…repetition as a means of physically marking time, memory, loss, transformation, and ultimately, transcendence.” ~ curator’s statement for the exhibit of Idris Khan at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Repetition. A mantra. The hours of practice of a musician. A commute to work. Ritual. We walk the same looping trail again and again, season after season. The same is never the same.

We journey to the Milwaukee Art Museum to replenish our spirits. Mostly we visit Richard, Ellsworth, and Mark. I stop by and visit Georgia and Pablo. Not knowing much about him, we were for some reason drawn to the Idris Khan exhibit. Repetition. Stacked images. Words printed on top of words. Pages of musical scores layered and changed into a powerful visual statement. Symbols iterated until garbled and transformed; I leaned in close, then stepped back, again and again, becoming part of the repetition. A dance!

Such a simple star to follow, repetition. And yet…How many letters in an alphabet? How many notes on a scale? From the limited letters or available notes – symbols repeated and mixed and matched – an infinite array of possibilities. Every page of the Quran photographed and stacked. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello.

Wandering through the galleries, his work made me ponder how our inner lives are entirely symbolic. Our days stacked one upon the other. We look though the stack called our past and somehow, through the noise, believe we arrive at understanding. Meaning. An echo.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE MUSEUM

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Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Identity | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, echo, Idris Khan, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAM, mantra, meaning, meaning making, memory, Milwaukee Art Museum, repetition, story, studio melange, the melange, time, transformation, understanding | 1 Comment »

A Sculpture Worth Making [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on April 2, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

The question floated across my screen, something I’d asked a group many years ago. I don’t remember the moment so it was a blast from the past of a former me: apparently I asked, “What if no one else has your answers?”

The timing was interesting since I am currently without answers. Well, more accurately – more honestly – I’m standing still surveying the wreckage.

I appreciated my blast from the past because now, at this point in my life-journey, were I working with a group, I’d flip the equation and ask, “What if no one else has your questions?” I’m no longer a big believer in answers.

We stopped in the long hallway leading to the contemporary art collection to admire the lens. I didn’t note the title or the name of the artist so I cannot give credit where credit is due. I’ve looked at the piece before but never with the same appreciation. Never from this moment in time. It was suddenly, intensely relevant. All points bend toward a common center. A point of view that generates circles. A single intersection.

“It’s an ego,” I thought. It believes it’s the center of everything that’s happening. It made me laugh. It brought to mind the ubiquitous lesson from Quinn: “There are six billion people on this planet and you are the only one that cares what you think.” Or feel. Or see.

No one else has your questions. No one else has your answers.

Standing before the sculpture I imagined flipping the script and reversing the circle: what would it look like to genuinely care what other people think. Or feel. Or see. With no need to understand it or change it or control it. Only care about it. About them. There’s a common center available in that paradigm, too.

Now, how do I make that lens? That’s a question worth asking, a sculpture worth making.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE LENS

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Filed under: Awakening, Identity, Metaphor, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: Answers, artistry, care, caring, center, common center, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, ego, feel, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lens, MAM, Milwaukee Art Museum, point of view, questions, sculpture, see, story, studio melange, the melange | 4 Comments »

Taste The Sound [on KS Friday]

Posted on June 23, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

To walk through the exhibit was like taking a stroll through time. For Kerri, it was a design-stroll through her ancestry. Scandinavian Design. Her roots reach into Finland and Norway. 20 and I tease her that when these un-united united states implode, she’s our ticket to Finland. “People are happy there!” 20 lobbies. I nod vigorously to no avail. She is proficient at ignoring our expat-fantasy appeals.

We rounded a corner and Kerri stopped, gobsmacked, as if suddenly in the presence of the holy grail. “Marimekko,” she whispered. On the far wall, hanging as a tapestry, was a large bolt of bold red Marimekko floral fabric. “I love Marimekko,” she sighed, approaching the bolt slowly, reverently.

“What’s Marimekko?” I whispered to 20.

‘Philistine!” 20 hissed in mock-disgust at my fabric-design-ignorance. He pointed at the bolt. He popped me on the head.

“Don’t you just love Marimekko,” Kerri turned to me and sighed. I nodded vigorously.

“I do. Yes, I do.” Apparently, vigorous nodding is one of my better skills. I made a mental note to add it to my highly ineffective resume.

“Hey!” 20 perked up as he read the placard, “Marimekko is Finnish!” Looking at Kerri he suggested, “If we moved to Finland, you could work for Marimekko. In Finland! You’d like that! Wouldn’t you like that?” he asked and looked to me for support.

I nodded vigorously to no avail. So, I turned my attention to the brilliant bold red bolt of fabric, seeing it for the first time. “Wow. That is cool.” I said, absorbing the color and design. “Plus, Marimekko is fun to say.”

20 and Kerri glanced at me and said in unison, “Philistine.”

Seizing the opportunity to nuance my newly discovered skill, I nodded vigorously, tasting the sound, “Mar-i-mekk-oooooo.”

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about MARIMEKKO

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Filed under: KS Friday, Random | Tagged: artistry, color, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, expat, fabric, fabric design, Finland, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAM, Marimekko, Milwaukee Art Museum, Scandinavian Design, story, studio melange, textile, the melange | Leave a comment »

Welcome Home [on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on March 8, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

I realized on a night dive, 90 feet below the surface in the darkest dark I’d ever experienced, that my consciousness was like the flashlight I held. I saw only what was in the small space illuminated by my light. There was a vast world beyond what I could perceive in my limited view. I understood that the most potent choice I have – or will ever have – is where I decide to aim my light.

“Welcome home!” she said as we stepped into the gallery with three magnificent sculptures by Barbara Hepworth. The soft light, the floor-to-ceiling windows drawing us toward the lake. An open clean space. She was imagining this room was what our future home might feel like. I lapsed into studio fantasies.

I’ve always appreciated this room in the museum but for some reason, on this day, the sculptures were magnetic. While Kerri took photographs, I communed with Barbara Hepworth. The pieces are totems. Sacred symbols. Barbara Hepworth was a woman sculptor in a century that pretended the arts were the province of men. Her life spanned both world wars. She reached beyond the horror of her time to something more elemental. I found hope in her work. Guidance. Perseverance. She was shining her light on what humankind might become. Form and emptiness, perfectly balanced.

“Look,” Kerri said, showing me the photo. “It’s a porthole.” A perfect circle. A horizon. “I could stay here all day,” she closed her eyes and breathed in the space.

“Me, too.” Welcome home.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE PORTHOLE

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Flawed Wednesday, Gratitude, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, Barbara Hepworth, consciousness, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, emptiness, form, Guidance, hope, horizon, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, MAM, Milwaukee Art Museum, perseverance, sacred symbol, sculpture, story, studio melange, the melange, totem | Leave a comment »

Trace The Line [on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on March 6, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

Love has a lineage. Without Piet Mondrian there would be no Ellsworth Kelly. Without Ellsworth Kelly there would be no Robert Indiana. For that matter, without Georges Seurat or Henri Matisse there would be no Piet Mondrian. Without the invention of the camera and the science of optics there would be no Georges Seurat. Of course, I’m referring to Robert Indiana’s sculpture, Love. We are rarely aware of how many lives influence our thoughts and give shape to our passing moments.

Love, the non-sculpted variety, follows the same principle in every life. It has a lineage. Chose any moment – any emotion – and follow the thread. An amazing web of interconnectivity emerges that stretches beyond…beyond. Sometimes I stop on a trail and wonder how I came to be walking through the woods in Wisconsin holding this woman’s hand. A tumble of choices. An immensity of influences and circumstances that quickly become impossible to comprehend. It’s no wonder destiny is such an attractive notion! Phew!

Four simple letters. Stacked symbols designed into another symbol. An aspiration? A graphic design? History placed Love in the box called Pop Art, thereby giving it a location-in-time. A starting point. A relative nod to lineage.

Standing in the museum, gazing out the window at Love, Dale Chihuly’s color explosion to my right, Kerri taking a photograph of the sculpture over the shoulder of a biker seated at a cafe table, the guard lost in his thoughts, a school tour echoing in the next gallery, a mural behind me that I’ve not yet taken in though it’s tapping me on the shoulder…meaning being made and shared and expressed all around me! How is it possible that we ever think we originate on our own? How is it possible that we ever think we walk this path alone?

read Kerri’s blogpost about LOVE