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Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on April 3, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

your thought for Tuesday from studio melange

There are a few consistent thought-practices that cut across most spiritual traditions. ‘Just Shrug’ is our version of one of those universal practices. In some traditions Just Shrug it is called ‘detachment.’ Or, spun another way, it is known as ‘take nothing personally.’ Lilies of the field. Centering, grounding, presence, stepping back, quieting the mind,…, are variations on the theme. Practice not taking the bait of the crisis-of-the-moment. “There are 7 billion people on the planet,” Quinn used to quip, “and none of them are thinking about you.” Just shrug.

I laughed aloud when Kerri dashed off this Two Artists graphic because it looks like an operator’s manual illustration for detachment. The little arrows are diagram-perfect instruction for how to begin the practice. Just shrug.

JUST SHRUG reminder/merchandise [mugs and cards and pillows, oh my!]

read kerri’s thoughts about Just Shrug

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just shrug ©️ 2016 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Metaphor, Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: centering, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, detachment, grounding, inner life, just shrug, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, presence, society6.com/twoartists, spiritual practice, spiritual traditions, take nothing personally, the melange, Two Artists Tuesday | Leave a comment »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on March 27, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A thought for your Tuesday from the melange.

we call these pieces, “just words.” double meaning? perhaps!

If I had to write a how-to book on soul wellness it would be brief and could be summed up with simple phrases like, lighten up, or cease the practice of taking yourself so seriously [or, the inverse, practice not taking yourself so seriously]. Soul wellness and lightheartedness are companions.

Many southwestern native American traditions include a sacred clown. Don’t you love that phrase! Sacred clown. A sacred clown serves many purposes but usually they lob some light into the too-serious-ritual; they shock us out of our attachment to “how things should be” and spin our dials so we can see “how things really are.” Those wacky sacred clowns know that the path to center is more often found with the assistance of light than when stumbling through the heavy dark. Stephen Colbert is a sacred clown. Jimmy Kimmel is, too. John Oliver. There are many great clowns to help us laugh our way to soul wellness.

The jester, the sacred clown speaks truth to power when no one else can. Power rarely likes to hear truth so most often surrounds itself with sycophants. Power needs a mighty sacred clown to keep it honest. The same rule applies with inner monologues and the runaway stories that plague our minds. A good inner-jester, the practice of not taking yourself so seriously, acts as a mighty dope slap, a necessary reminder that an alternate focus, beyond the insurmountable obstacle or the unsolvable incessant problem or the unshakable attachment to being right, is possible.

Feed well your sacred clown and you will invariably find the path to wellness with your soul.

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL merchandise/reminders

‘it is well with my soul’ leggings

read Kerri’s thoughts about IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

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it is well with my soul ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood

Filed under: Edges, Identity, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: clown, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, it is well with my soul, jester, jimmy kimmel, john oliver, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meditations, old souls, possibility, power, practices, sacred clown, society6.com/kerrisherwood, society6.com/twoartists, soul, stephen colbert, the melange, Trickster, Two Artists Tuesday, wellness | Leave a comment »

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 »

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 »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on March 6, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Jim told me that he was suspicious of this culture that seems to need to plaster messages on the wall, on shopping bags, or indelibly tattooed on body parts. Begin Anywhere. Live Loud. This life is not a dress rehearsal. Peace. Home. “It’s too simplistic,” he says.

So. Brave.

Are we branding our lives, marketing our selves to ourselves? Are these ubiquitous expressions reminders? Encouragement? Aspirations? Desires? Statements of intent? Flags planted in the metaphoric sand? Are these flags too simplistic?

Joseph Campbell once said that to find more-than-ample evidence of the collapse of our unifying culture/story (our mythology) one need look no further than the daily news. Violence and division dominate our day. It is the seedy sensational story we tell to ourselves. It seems we’ve traded the commons for higher ratings. The common good falls apart in the face of the lobbyist’s payout. Can there be a center when another set of ubiquitous expressions dominate our dialogue: tribalism, polarization, fake news. Us. Them. Again, more flags planted in the metaphoric sand and are they also too simplistic?

On the stage, when actors have no direction and lose sight of the common story they might otherwise tell, they default to a condition lovingly (yet accurately) known as “Save-your-ass-theatre.” It is every man/woman for him/her self. It a group of artists on stage feeling isolated and all alone but pretending to be together. It is fear with a thin smile pasted on its face. It is awful to watch. And, it is easily remedied: save-someone-else’s-ass. Instead of pushing your drowning mate down so you can reach air, lift them up so they might breathe. They will immediately return the favor. Restore the commons. Step back into the common story.

The opposite of fear is not courage. It is community. Bravery is nothing more than the choice to stand in fear and reach. Cowardice is the choice to stand in fear and pummel. Fear that flourishes in isolation dissolves in the common story. From the studio melange on this Tuesday we offer the only flag worth planting in the sand: be brave enough to turn to the center. Reach. Help someone find air. Is it too simplistic?

BRAVE merchandise

read Kerri’s thoughts on this Two Artists Tuesday

kerrianddavid.com

brave ©️ 2017 kerri sherwood & david robinson

Filed under: Story, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, brave, common story, commons, community, courage, daily news, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fear, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mythology, polarization, service, society6.com/twoartists, the melange, theatre | Leave a comment »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on February 27, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

I knew from a very young age that I would never have children of my own. I knew. It was an intuitive knowing, not an intellectual resolve. My life, I knew, would be a wandering through the wasteland. I would tilt at windmills. I would seek for things that can never be found. Children, I believed (and still believe), needed the kind of stability that a restless seeker like me would never have been capable of providing.

Last night we went to the foreign film festival and saw an inspiring, funny and poignant Irish film called Sing Street. The ingenue explains to her suitor, an aspiring musician, that love is happy-sad. To love is to experience both.

I now have two amazing step-children. They were adults when I came into their lives and both live far away. I am slowly developing relationships with them, creating memories with them. I listen with fascination (and sometimes horror) as Kerri converses with her friends, mothers all, about their children. There is so much suffering, to want to be near their children and yet want them to fulfill their dreams and fly. They want to be present and available BUT not too present or available; those wacky offspring want full support AND they want mom to stay out of their business. Motherhood, I’m learning, is a bottomless yearning, a constant ache, and there is nothing better. There is nothing more fulfilling.

Fathers, I’m observing, are mostly confounded. They shake their heads, not so much in agreement, but in concession. Their spouses are capable of reconciling and celebrating the ambiguity of parenthood. Fatherhood, it seems, is a surrender to the unsolvable. A submission to the mystery. The ache is no less profound. The joy is no less intense.

Happy – sad. A full spectrum of living. Love. From studio melange on this Two Artists Tuesday.

CHILDREN ARE THE BEST THING merchandise

kerrianddavid.com

read Kerri’s thoughts about this Two Artists Tuesday

Filed under: Love, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: ache, children, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fatherhood, fathers, joy, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, motherhood, mothers, parenting, parents, society6.com/twoartists, suffering, surrender, the melange | Leave a comment »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on February 20, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

I love this image. It works as a subtle infinity mirror, two parallel mirrors that create a ripple of ever smaller reflections that seem to extend into infinite space.

Be Kind. The first and most obvious mirror is an ideal and like most ideals it is unattainable. It is unattainable because it is not a fixed state, a grasp-able thing. It can’t be bought. Kindness is not an achievement. Instead, it is a way of being, an aspiration, a flowing river. Like most things unattainable, it is easily tossed into the dustbin of cliches. Why be kind in a dog-eat-dog-business-is-business-every-man/woman-for-him/her-self world?

Be Kin. The second mirror, the parallel that creates the ripple, is not an ideal, it is a simple reality. It is also not attainable because it simply is. It cannot be attained but it can be ignored. In fact to ignore our innate kinship requires a serious dedication to denial, an elaborate fantasy of control. It seems we humans, we makers-of-belief, have a choice to either recognize or deny our kinship.

With inclusion, with the recognition of like-ness, comes the desire to reach for the unattainable kindness. The desire to reach for a greater spirit, a better nature, our natural state.

Exclusion, on the other hand, is a sad and scary state. It is a lonely single mirror, self-directed, single-reflective, a “me” space, and, thus, it is incapable of seeing or participating in the infinite ripple.

On this Two Artists Tuesday, step into the melange and consider looking through the ripple. Be kind. Be kin.

BE KIND. BE KIN merchandise

kerrianddavid.com

check out Kerri’s thoughts on this Two Artists Tuesday

Filed under: Awakening, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: belief, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, exclusion, inclusion, infinity mirror, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, kin, kind, kindness, kindred, kinship, makers of belief, mirror, natural state, reflection, ripples, society6.com/twoartists, spirit, the melange, Two Artists Tuesday | Leave a comment »

Two Artists Tuesday

Posted on February 13, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

SWEET POTATO copy

Standing at the doorstep of her mortality, Kerri’s mom, Beaky, turned to her daughter and offered these words of advice. Live life, my sweet potato. This print hangs by our front door as a reminder of two very precious gifts: Beaky and this life.

Live life; who doesn’t occasionally need a reminder?

A few years ago, as a readership experiment, we created and published a series of simple images with words. Each image or phrase had a special meaning for us. We called the series two-artists-making-stuff-for-humans. The experiment was a success, our readership quickly grew, and then, like all attention deficit artists, we moved on to other projects. In the melange, Tuesdays belong to Two Artists.

LIVE LIFE, MY SWEET POTATO

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Family, Love, Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: alive, Beaky, beakysbooks.com, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, family, inspiration, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, live, live life, love, precious gifts, relationships, reminders, society6.com/twoartists, the melange, two artists making stuff for humans, Two Artists Tuesday, valentine | Leave a comment »