meaning | The Direction of Intention

Enter And Listen [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on March 18, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Haiku for You

A forest critter,

Gnome, Leprechaun or Spirit,

Tree Dweller, Heart Door.

Sometimes I want to believe in magic. I want to think there is an angel at my side. I want to sit in the certainty of Rumi, knowing without doubt that the entire universe, the whole of infinity, is tipping in my favor.

Sometimes I want to know what tomorrow will bring. No surprises. I want to know that the good people will win over the rage-mongers and truth-spinners. Just like in the movies. I want to know that perseverance will inevitably meet ideal circumstance and all will be well in the end. I want to be at the other end of the week so I can tell the story of what happened, the story of stamina and fortitude fulfilled.

Sometimes I want to know that the eagle flying by at just the right moment or the hovering hawk or the owl hooting outside my window at midnight is bringing me a message: we’ve got your back. Fear not. Take another step. From our height we can see the meadow, the sun and tall grasses. We can feel the hope, breathe the calm.

Sometimes when she spies a heart-shape and kneels to capture it for her collection, I want the gentle spirit, the gnome or sprite living in the tree or residing in the leaf shaped like the symbol, to make themself visible to us and affirm that there is meaning in the mystery, that in this life there is more sense than we can possibly imagine. There is reason. A reason. Yet, I already know what it would avow if it allowed us to see it: the meaning of the mystery is always found right where we knew it would be, where we know it to be: in the heart. Our vast open hearts. We do not need to seek it or wish for it. We need only enter and listen – more than just sometimes.

read Kerri’s blog about HEART DOOR

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Filed under: Love, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, forest, fortitude, Gnomes, heart, imagination, infinity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, leprechaun, listen, meaning, meaning making, mystery, perseverance, Rumi, semiotics, senses, spritis, stamina, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange | 1 Comment »

Language Blossoms [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on March 5, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

I just experienced something new: a visual route to a find synonym. That might not seem like a big deal but for a visual-guy like me it fundamentally changes my relationship with language.

I wanted another word for “shine” and, instead of finding a static linear list, a blossom of interconnectivity unfolded on my screen. Shine in the center, five interconnected primary synonyms, with each of the five subsequently sprouting five fingers of word possibility. I was gobsmacked. Like a child with a new toy, I clicked back into the site again and again so I might see the word bloom.

I’ve directed (and loved) many of Shakespeare’s plays. I am an avid reader. I write everyday and spend more time than I care to admit chasing down words. Yet, had you met me when I was a wee-lad of 22, none of these things would have seemed possible. It hurt to read. The worst hell imaginable for me was diagraming sentences. My knuckles were rapped by stern-faced English teachers more than once for poor use of language, rotten sentence construction. And, although I had an undeniable enthusiasm for the theatre, I literally hated reading plays when I was in high school.

Linear sequential is not my friend.

One day in my 24th year an actor introduced me to Shakespeare. Active language. Delicious sounds and living images. The penny dropped. The world opened. I have been a voracious eater-of-language ever since. When rehearsing, I dance my words.

Words matter. They are alive when not forced to toe-the-line. Symbol and sound, makers of meaning, each intimately connected to the other. When I come back to this earth I will hopefully be a poet, attempting to capture in language that which is impossible to articulate. The beauty of a pink tulip. A flower selected by a mother for a rare visit from her daughter. Our daughter. Our daughter: a surprising and remarkable combination of words I never thought I’d utter.

Language unfolds and reaches deep into pools of meaning. Words blossom. And nothing is ever the same.

read Kerri’s blogpost about PINK TULIPS

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buymeacoffee is exactly what you make of it. the meaning is yours to give.

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Language, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, dance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, images, interconnectivity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, language, linear, linear sequential, meaning, meaning making, movement, poet, poetry, possibility, relationship, semiotics, sentences, shakespeare, story, studio melange, symbols, the melange, theater, theatre, words | 2 Comments »

ILY [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on February 19, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Shapes become symbols. The alphabet is my evidence. Or the silhouette of a dove carrying an olive branch. Two equilateral triangles merged into a star, once the property of Venus and now under the stewardship of David.

Occasionally I incorporate calligraphy-like strokes in my paintings. The marks resemble the Chinese alphabet. Patrons have asked me what the symbols mean? I’ve learned to smile as if keeping a secret. They want the lines, the symbol, to have a meaning. I’ve learned not to rob them of their wanting. “What does it mean to you?” I ask. A question answered with a question.

Kerri saw this marking in a felled tree. “It’s I love you in sign language!” she exclaimed. ILY. Her family flashes the hand sign for I Love You when it’s time to depart. It’s the last thing we see as we drive down the street, turn the corner.

Lately, our world is populated with emojis. Heart, heart, heart. So many yellow faces with so many possible expressions. Symbols adding nuance to symbols. “What does this one mean,” I sometimes ask. I am a clumsy user of emojis. It’s yet a foreign language and I have been reprimanded for symbolizing the wrong thing; sending the wrong message. “But I love this whacky face!” I insist. I like using the wrinkled face, one eye open, tongue sticking out.

She rolls her eyes. I flash the I Love You sign. She rolls her eyes again only this time it is followed with a warm hug.

A hug. It’s universal. The best of all symbols.

read Kerri’s blogpost about ILY

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buymeacoffee is a symbolic offer to the creators of symbol in sound, on paper, and in other not-yet-named dimensions.

Filed under: Language, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor | Tagged: alphabet, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, emoji, emojis, expression, hug, I Love You, ILY, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, language, meaning, meaning making, sign language, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange, understanding | 1 Comment »

Babble [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on January 5, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

This could be a Jackson Pollack splash painting or an x-ray of arteries, veins and capillaries. A winter sun attempting to reach through the cover of clouds and trees.

If I believe the forecast, as hard as it tries, the winter sun will not reach us today.

I’m paying attention to language a bit more than usual. Looking up through the veins and arteries of the tree, I ask myself: What could it be? What could be? What is “it”? I shiver and am reminded of a quote I used in my book. It is appropriate for our times:

“One must be leery of words because words turn into cages.” ~ Viola Spolin

Language Matters. A double entendre. One of my favorite. It’s right up there with my favorite double entendre title of a book: The End of Education. Classic Neil Postman.

The question is, in our day-and-age, amidst the torrent of words and the easy belief-systems that words construct, how to stay out of the cage?

It’s a question with roots back to The Tower of Babel. A human race united by a single language builds a tower that reaches into the heavens. It is a threat to Yahweh. To protect his status, he confounds their speech and scatters them around the world. Language is the barrier against unity.

A bramble of branches to a Pollock painting to the inner working of life-blood to a weather report and landing at last in the Tower. An epic journey in just a few words, reaching through metaphor and pattern.

Language can be a cage. It can also set us free. Language Matters. A double entendre.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about WINTER SUN

like. support. share. comment. all words that describe actions that we appreciate.

buymeacoffee is. nothing more. nothing less.

Filed under: KS Friday, Language, Metaphor, Seeing | Tagged: artistry, beliefs, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, division, human race, Jackson Pollock, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, language, language matters, limiting beliefs, meaning, meaning making, metaphor, Neil Postman, pattern, speech, status, story, studio melange, The End of Education, the melange, The Seer, tower of babel, unity, viola spolin, words | 2 Comments »

Share The Symbols [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on December 22, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

When I was a wee-turnip I found a textbook on the shelf from a course my dad took in college. Comparative religions. It’s a big-big book full of many-many comparisons. It now resides on my shelf. This book sparked a life-long fascination for me. The universal nature of myth and story across individual cultures and how these stories and symbols are, over time, pulled and twisted like taffy, co-opted, integrated and sometimes claimed as the private property of religion x or y.

Today, as I write this, we sit squarely on the solstice. I thought a few tidbits of story-symbol might be fun to visit so, together, we might taste the taffy.

In Italian tradition, La Befana is the goddess of the solstice. She rides a broom through the skies leaving candy and presents to the good little boys and girls. As a broom-riding pagan goddess, she predates Saint Nick by more than a few centuries. The Christian tradition snagged her and after a bit of twisting, she became a character in the Magi story. On a cold, cold night she gave shelter to those three wise-men but declined to join them on their quest because she had unfinished chores. After they left she had a change of heart but couldn’t find the manger on her own so she gave the gifts she had in tow to the nice children she met during her manger-search.

On the solstice, the goddess Isis gave birth to her son Horus, the sun god. Leta gave birth to Apollo on the solstice. The Persian god of light, Mithra, was born on the solstice. These births were technically virgin births since the conception in every case was immaculate. Egyptian. Greek. Persian. These stories predate the Christian story by centuries. It’s a ripple across time and culture of the same human impulse: after a long dark season to celebrate the return of the light.

We lose more than we know when we – to borrow a great term from Joseph Campbell – concretize a symbol. The stories and myths are meant to open us to greater unity with each other and the world we share. They are not meant to be taken or understood literally. Holding them literally slams the door on their greater meaning and unifying power. It renders them a possession, a plot point on a map.

On this winter solstice I can imagine no greater gift to this divided world than to recognize we are, through our unique symbols and characters, telling the same story, yearning for the same possibilities, sharing the same ideals whether they soar through the air on a broomstick or in a sleigh, both rides brimming with toys for good girls and boys. We borrow each others best ideas and ideals, rewriting them to fit our unique audience. From Isis and Horus to Mary and Jesus, it’s time once again to celebrate the rich warm return of the light through our myriad forms and cultural traditions, to feel the push and pull of something ancient and deeply human. Together.

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

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE HOME IN THE TREE

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buymeacoffee is a surgically implanted intention, a medicinal tradition stretching back eons to a time when beauty and analytics held hands and shared meals. together.

Filed under: Identity, KS Friday, Metaphor, Story | Tagged: apollo, artistry, christmas, culture, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, history, Horus, integration, Isis, Joseph Campbell, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, La Befana, Leta, Magi, meaning, meaning making, Mithra, myth, mythology, pagan, religion, Saint Nick, Santa, separation, solstice, story, studio melange, symbol, symbolism, the melange, together, togetherness, tradition, unity, virgin birth, winter solstice | 3 Comments »

Listen To The Sing-Song [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on December 11, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

The sound, rhythm and pattern of language. Listen to the sing-song of a mother talking to her infant child. Exaggerated prosody. Love carried through time and space on a warm carpet of sweetly over-elaborated sound waves. The words carry less meaning than the prosody. The shape of the sound, exaggerated to invoke a giggle. A bright face. A smile.

In our house, the exaggerated prosody is reserved for Dogga. “It’s time for sleepy-night-night!” Kerri sings to a tired-faced-Dogga. There is a distinct rhythm to “sleepy-night-night” that has become a comforting ritual chant. Our day would not be complete without it. He wags his tail and lopes toward the bedroom. Or, “We’re going to the living room!” she says in response to his constant anticipation of our next move. The words “living room” elongated and embued with excitement. He dashes to beat us there and, in my mind, to convince us that he’s been waiting all along.

When Unka John arrives, his ritual Dogga sing-song goes like this: “Hey! Hey! Give me that bone!” The game is explicit, the sound of the words as exacting as a line from Sondheim. After Unka John pretends to eat Dogga’s bone and returns it to the awaiting Dogga mouth, signaling the end of the arrival game, he chants two consecutive times, “Do you want a treat!” with the hard accent and lift on the word “treat.” It sets-off a full body wag and race to the treat jar. “Gentle! Gentle!” is the incantation that signals Dogga to sit and tenderly accept the treat. Of course, the whole sequence of Unka-John love-fest is ignited when we say to Dogga, “Guess who’s coming?” in a melodic line that we know will provoke a bouncing-dog-rush to the front door as we await the imminent arrival.

The meaning is not carried in the words, rather, it’s in the poetry of the tones. The generosity of the sound.

It’s the poetry of everyday life. The ritual sounds we use to shape our day, to create our comfort-home. To fill our hearts with gratitude. To clearly say, “I love you” in sound and tone when our words are merely, “Do you want some lunch?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about EXAGGERATED PROSODY

like. support. share. comment. all carry forward the meaning and are appreciated with or without sound.

buymeacoffee is a sing-song of generosity offered to the ongoing work of the artists and travelers that support you journey.

Filed under: Family, Language, Love, Merely A Thought Monday | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dogga, Gratitude, incantation, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, language, love, meaning, meaning making, melody, music, musicality, pattern, poetry, prosody, rhythm, ritual, ritual sounds, sing-song, sound, story, studio melange, the melange | 2 Comments »

Voluntarily Contemplate [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on December 7, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

It’s tempting to say that the snow is white. A second look, a better look, will prove otherwise. Purples and cool blues with some muted green and pink thrown in for good measure. A subtle festival of color. In general the light on the trail painted the snow – not surprisingly – ice blue, so the burnt orange in the leaf made for an eye-popping compliment. Some abstract expressionist might use this bit of natural composition for inspiration. Helen Frankenthaler or Joan Mitchell. Monumental paintings with the power to force contemplation. Well…to force voluntary contemplation.

Forced contemplation! A great phrase, to be sure, and another name for “problem solving.” Take a moment and look around during this busy holiday season: everyone you see elbowing their way through the crowd will be deep in forced contemplation. Rushing to the next. Making a list and checking it twice.

I’m a few pages into my fourth reading of Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It fell off the shelf and hit me so I took that as a sign that it was time for a revisit of Robert Pirsig’s novel. The subtitle is An Inquiry Into Values. I’ve learned that the books I read are forms of voluntary contemplation. What has value? What does not? And why? I regularly ask myself a question that comes from the title of another favorite-book-of-the-past: How Then Shall We Live. Wayne Muller’s voluntary contemplation on meaning, purpose, and grace. Given what I know – that I shall die – how then shall I live this day of my life?

There are very few answers to the question but there are values that, like a marble sculpture, take shape and emerge over time. The single value that consistently dominates my voluntary contemplation: walk through this day slow enough to see that the snow is not white. Rather, experience the full celebration of color and live inside – rather than rush through – the perfection of this composition.

meditation, 48×48, mixed media on canvas

read Kerri’s blogpost about SNOW AND LEAF

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buymeacoffee is a slow walk of appreciation through a world that holds more magic than any single mind can conceive.

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Gratitude, Identity, Seeing, Transcendence | Tagged: abstract expressionism, artistry, color, composition, contemplation, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, grace, Helen Frankenthaler, How then shall we live, inquiry, Joan Mitchell, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning, meditation, purpose, Robert Pirsig, slow walk, story, studio melange, the melange, values, Wayne Muller, zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance | 1 Comment »

See Green [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on September 6, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

If we call someone “green”, we mean that they are inexperienced. Innocent or new. The term “green-on-green” implies a team that has little experience. Young pilots. Mixed doubles swatting at tennis balls. Newly minted detectives. New growth. Immature. Seedlings.

A green issue is environmental. Renewable energy. Wind power. Green is the color of nature.

In street slang, green has two possible meanings. Money. Green is the color of currency. Or, weed. Green is the color of marijuana. A surprising twist on green-on-green!

I can be green with envy. Or green with jealousy. Green is the color of illness. Apparently coveting makes us sick. “Do you feel okay? You’re looking green.” The Romans thought so. Shakespeare, too.

Google the meaning of green and you’ll find it symbolizes peace, hope, and harmony. Optimism.

In spiritual circles, green refers to fruitfulness and fertility. New leaves. New growth. And so, a full-circle return to the first meaning of green, only “new” need not imply ineptitude as much as promise. Hope. A weave of the many meanings of green!

I’m left pondering why I rarely use green in my paintings. Van Gogh did not shy away from green. He was bold enough to smear his green adjacent to vibrant reds and orange. Opposites on the color wheel. A bang to the eyes. Perhaps there is some green in my future.

On our hike today I can say with all honesty that I was completely taken with the many shades of green.

read Kerri’s blogpost about GREEN

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Language, Metaphor, Seeing | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, green, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning, money, new, peace, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange, vincent van gogh, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment »

Take A Second Pass [on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on August 16, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

It was the second time we’d walked the loop. The first was many months ago in another season. Though the path was the same it felt as if we were walking an entirely different trail. This time, instead of seeing across brown and yellow winter marshland, we walked through a tunnel of tall viridian reeds. Not able to see the landscape, I looked up through the green at a rain-threatening sky. If our first hike on the boardwalk felt like a discovery, the second pass seemed directed.

The second pass. In life it’s called a memory and it is never the same as the original walk. To begin, it is viewed from a different season. Time alters details, rearranges events, begs questions. The second pass is made with a different purpose-in-mind. To re-view. It is directed, replayed, questioned, run forward and backward. Different endings are tried on for size. Different beginnings, too. Destiny or accident? Did that really happen?

Plotting backward through memory provides ample sense-making. Event chains, choices, that lead to this place, this day, this story called life. Looking forward from the current first pass, this present walk, there is a wide open vista. What if I stepped off the path? Is there a path? It’s all discovery though we rarely experience it that way. The routine of the day or the master to-do-list obscures the newness of each and every step. Same-old-same-old is a sorry reckoning.

Kerri and I are having an ongoing conversation about how quickly and dramatically life can change. Just when you think you know what the day holds a strong wind huffs and puffs, forever altering the arc of your life. The tiniest of choices hold the seeds for the most profound changes. The boardwalk suddenly disappears. Or the opposite, when you are lost and least expect it, a boardwalk magically appears. In a flash a path seems certain.

And, isn’t it awe-some that we are capable of twice-storying this grande life adventure? Giving to each step a meaning and shape the very moment we take them. Giving to each step a different meaning and shape, over and over again, on the return loops, the second pass. Memory.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE BOARDWALK

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Metaphor, Story | Tagged: accident, artistry, boardwalk, chain of events, change, choices, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, destiny, direction, discovery, fate, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning, meaning making, memory, Random, story, storying, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

See A Gull [on KS Friday]

Posted on August 11, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Haiku

a scavenger bird.

opportunistic, seeker.

see! a gull am I!

The gulls congregate in the Kohls parking lot. We’re not sure why. It seems an unlikely spot for gulls to hang out. Hot pavement. No snacks. Cars coming and going. They camp en masse. Later in the day they exit in full voice and return to the marina. Make sense of that, I dare you!

Susan asked when caring-for-others left the building. I launched into a pedantic monologue that, even to me, sounded like the screech of a gull. Lots of noise, little helpful substance. Or, my diatribe mimicked the adults in a Charlie Brown special. Wah-wah, wah-wah. The sound of a preacher who thinks the path to deeper spirituality is through a map or a dry history lesson. A rule book. A witless shepherd caught lecturing the sheep. (baaaahhhhh)

I wondered what or who I might become if I dedicated myself to knowing nothing. What if I understood to my root that my opinion is just that…an opinion. Not a fact or a truth or blue-ribbon winner at the world-thought-fair. What if life needed no explanation?

What if there is no higher meaning to be found or greater mystery to be solved in the daily seagull pilgrimage to Kohls? What if, rather than seek a rationalization, I gave myself over to the wonder-of-it? What if Joseph Campbell had it right:

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive…”