Touch An Angel [on KS Friday]

Posted on July 13, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

angel you are with photo song box copy

Kerri is thready. Important dates are always noticed and honored in our house. She is nearly Balinese in her attention to auspicious dates. Soon we will honor the life and loss of Wayne. Kerri’s brother Wayne passed away many years before I came into her life. I knew immediately about him. She adored him. He is certainly one of her good angels.

Through her stories and those memories warmly told by her family, I feel he is now one of my kindred spirits, too. Every once in a while, when I need a good bit of brotherly advice, I ask him questions – well, one question in particular (“What am I going to do with your sister?!! She’s out of control!”). He has yet to answer me but like all good angels I do hear him howling with laughter at her antics and my utter confusion.

On this KS Friday, reach for your good angels. Let Kerri’s song for Wayne put you on the back of his bike and take a ride into a special place and time with those you’ve loved and lost. Toast them with a good cup of java, as I do Wayne. From what I hear he was nearly as great a coffee lover as I am.

 

ANGEL YOU ARE on the album AS SURE AS THE SUN available on iTunes & CDBaby

 

read Kerri’s blog post about ANGEL YOU ARE

 

www.kerrianddavid.com

 

angel you are/as sure as the sun ©️ 2002 kerri sherwood

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Let Me Take You Back [it’s KS Friday]

Posted on May 18, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative
jacketasitisjpeg copy

let me take you back

take me back product BAR copy.jpg

Before Kerri and I were married, I asked her daughter, Kirsten, to tell me ‘the one thing’ I should know and understand about her mother. Kirsten’s answer was immediate. “Mom’s the most thready person you will ever meet,” she said.

It is true. Kerri is the most ‘thready’ person I have ever met. Thready means threaded to the past. We mark auspicious days. Each piece of furniture in our house carries a story. Every day she writes in her calendar what we did or what happened; at the end of the year it is our ritual to read the calendar and retell the stories of the days just lived. We light candles for lost loved ones.

She is rooted, deeply rooted, in family, in ancestry, and she actively and consciously tends the root through her thready-ness. And, what is most remarkable to me, is that her thready-ness is not weighty. It is in no way heavy. It is light-hearted and surprising and lively, just like her composition Let Me Take You Back. On this KS Friday, take a moment, and let Kerri give your spirit a lift. Let her take you back.

 

LET ME TAKE YOU BACK on the album AS IT IS available (track 12) on iTunes & CDBaby

Kerri’s designs & TAKE YOU BACK products

record player CLOCK copy

read Kerri’s blog post about LET ME TAKE YOU BACK

www.kerrianddavid.com

let me take you back [as it is] ©️ 2004 kerri sherwood

let me take you back – designs & products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 

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

Roots & Wings [It’s KS Friday]

Posted on May 4, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A composition of elements from studio melange on KS Friday

jacketrfthjpeg copy 2Kerri and I share this in common: behind each composition there is a story. My favorite moment each week as we prepare our melange blog posts is to ask Kerri about the story behind her ks friday music pick. There is always a top-layer story and then a deeper-layer story. And then a deeper story-layer still.

The best art is like that. It opens stories. It reaches deep down to the roots of being and then, through story, propels the human spirit to soar. Art is communal connective tissue.

This week in her blog Kerri shares the story behind Give Me Roots, Give Them Wings.  My story, as I listen and give over to the music is this: the first time I stepped into this house I was overwhelmed with the feeling of “home.” It was something I’d never in my life experienced. It was a warm rush of surprise and I laughed. Give Me Roots, Give Them Wings reminds me of that moment, of stepping through a door for the first time and knowing that I was finally home.

 

GIVE ME ROOTS, GIVE THEM WINGS on the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART available on iTunes and CDBaby

ROOTS & WINGS gifts and products

ROOTS WINGS product box BAR JPEG copy

read Kerri’s blog post on GIVE ME ROOTS, GIVE THEM WINGS

www.kerrianddavid.com

 

give me roots, give them wings – album released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood

roots & wings designs and products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood

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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 »

Embrace Your Obstacles [It’s Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on April 10, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Tuesday thought-spark from studio melange.

obstacles FRAMED ART copy

obstacles are merely challenges by another name

“Simple” was the single guide-star we followed when we started our Two Artists designs. “They should be very, very simple,” we chanted. With the wall of our dining room a vast fluttering field of post-it note phrases, we jumped in, quickly creating images that might illuminate the phrases. I’m a spontaneous-gesture-drawing guy. Kerri’s designs are swift and potent with color. In simplicity we created an obstacle for ourselves. We created a challenge.

Obstacle/challenge creation is what people do!  People create obstacles all the time and call them “hobbies.” We humans routinely fabricate wings and run at edges, we aim to solve unsolvable problems and create the unimaginable. Eliminate obstacles and there is no story. Eliminate obstacles and cloudy boredom descends. The absence of obstacles is what makes retirement so daunting for so many. The carefree life is only carefree with a select set of obstacles, a good garden or golf game.

From studio melange on Two Artists Tuesday, we wish for you a healthy selection of happy obstacles.

 

 

OBSTACLES MAKE LIFE INTERESTING reminders/merchandise

society 6 info jpeg copy

obstacles MUG copy

obstacles SQ PILLOW copy

obstacles TOTE BAG copy

obstacles LEGGINGS copy

 

read Kerri’s blog post about OBSTACLES

 

melange button jpeg copy

kerrianddavid.com

 

obstacles make life interesting ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

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Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on March 12, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Chicken Marsala thoughts from the melange to help you start your week:

MASTER assumeawe WITH EYES jpeg copy 2.jpg Almost every spiritual tradition offers a form of this thought: make no assumptions. Sometimes it is called ‘detachment.’ Sometimes it is called ‘the middle way.’ Often, it is referred to as ‘presence.’

It sounds so simple. Be where you are. Be here now. Aspirations always sound easy but are never easy to realize.

In my past life as a consultant/facilitator I regularly issued two “caveats” prior to beginning the work of the day. The first was, “Have the experience first, make meaning of the experience second.” The idea of opening to an experience, that they might actually be capable of stepping out of their roiling story of assumptions, was a revelation to my clients.

And, that’s the point. The revelation, the insight, the heaven-that-you-seek is just on the other side of the story-fog that obscures your experience of life. That is why it shows up so often in all-practices-spiritual. Quiet your mind. Make no assumptions. Open to what is there beyond what you think is there.

However, we are human. That fast running inner monologue, that incessant storying of experiences, pre-and-post occurrence, is what we do. So, a good first step toward the quiet mind, toward the suspension of assumptions, is to make life-giving assumptions. Our runaway minds chug down a track so why not put that train on a generative track: assume awe.

ASSUME AWE merchandise

assume awe rect. pillow copy

assume awe TOTE BAG copy

assume awe framed print copy

assume awe METAL WALL ART copy

metal wall art

 

assume awe leggings copy

read Kerri’s thoughts about Assuming Awe on Chicken Marsala Monday

 

melange button jpeg copy

kerrianddavid.com

assume awe ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

 

 

 

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

Chicken Marsala Monday

Posted on March 5, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

thismomentunique WITH EYES jpeg copy 2“What do I see?” It is, perhaps, the most important and fundamental question any person can ask. Seeing is never passive. It is never pure. Interpretation begins the moment you open your eyes. The ‘see-er’ stories – gives meaning to – what is seen. It is a simple truth: the very act of opening your eyes is a creative act.

Every moment of our lives is new. What else? You have never lived this moment before. You will never live it again. We blunt ourselves when we tell ourselves the story of ‘same-old-same-old.’ We dull ourselves when we weave the belief that this day is routine, that this moment of life is nothing new.

We blur our seeing and muddle our moments by asking the wrong question(s): how do they see me? what do they think of me? These are impossible crazy-making questions to answer. They generate a directional challenge. It is not your superpower to determine what the world sees when IT looks at YOU – mostly because you can’t. The world is not looking at you. You are seeing it.  IT is not giving meaning to you. You are giving meaning to IT. That is your genuine superpower.

The thought for today from the melange: open your eyes. See the new-ness. Create this moment as unique in every way.

THIS MOMENT UNIQUE IN EVERY WAY merchandise

ThisMomentUnique mug  ThisMomentUnique framed print ThisMomentUnique clock ThisMomentUnique pillow

read Kerri’s thoughts about this Chicken Marsala Monday

melange button jpeg copy

kerrianddavid.com

this moment unique in every way ©️ 2016 kerri sherwood & david robinson

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

KS Friday

Posted on February 23, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

jackettpotjjpegIn this age of brevity, tweets, freeways, fast tracks, efficiency and ubiquitous worship at the alter of time-is-money, I find this piece of music to be heart-full and hopeful.  It reminds me of the simple truth in this life: the important stuff lives in the fields beyond the achievements and striving. It’s A Long Story is beautiful and evokes a profound paradox: each moment is a long story  – especially if I choose to live IN it rather than rush to pass THROUGH it.

I listened to this album long before I met Kerri in person. I listened over and over again to this track, It’s A Long Story, and knew we were kindred. It asks you to stop and listen. It asks you to take time, to surrender any nagging efficiency, cost cutting race through life and sit in your moment. It’s a warm bath in the simple appreciation of living. It has made me smile and sometimes served as the soundtrack to my weeping. It always serves as a siren call into the present moment. That’s the heart of the artist’s gift and Kerri, my wife is a remarkable artist. On this KS Friday, hear her call from the melange, and fall into your Long Story.

ITS A LONG STORY from the album THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY (track 1) iTunes

KS FRIDAY

www.kerrisherwood.com – buy the album

read Kerri’s thoughts about IT’S A LONG STORY

www.kerrianddavid.com

IT’S A LONG STORY from THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY ©️ 2000 kerri sherwood

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

DR Thursday

Posted on February 22, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative
NapOnTheBeach

Nap on the Beach, mixed media, 22.25″ x 55.5″

“I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary.” Pablo Picasso

I’ve been selling my paintings from my studio, un-stretched and unframed. When potential buyers come to my studio they view the raw canvas tacked on the wall or spread on the floor. Many of my pieces are big. It’s how I like to paint: big canvas stretched and tacked to the wall. These days when I ship paintings to another state, when I ship paintings to those courageous people who take the leap of faith and buy an expensive (and very personal) painting based on an image from the internet,  I roll them. They receive the piece in a tender unembellished state.

There are practical reasons for my seeming-shoddy showmanship. It saves my customers money to stretch and frame the canvases themselves. The cost of shipping a large framed canvas is breathtaking! If I stretch or frame it myself, if I sell a painting through any gallery, online or brick-n-mortar,  the cost is easily inflated by 70%.

But, that’s not why I show the unfinished edges. Before moving from my Seattle studio I had studio open houses. People inevitably drifted to the paintings stapled to the wall. They touched the edges. They asked me about the drips and marveled over the charcoal lines. They gently brushed the bumps of paint. They entered the story and became a part of it, they took on a role greater than witness. Instead of approaching art – my art – as an untouchable abstract thing, they engaged with it, questioned it, touched it. I loved it. Art is supposed to be accessible. It is supposed to open and say, “Follow me.”

Recently a client slid this painting, Nap on the Beach, from the pile of paintings stacked on the ping pong table, touched its complex surface, and, with Kerri, he held it by the corners saying, “Oh, this canvas is heavy! This one makes me yearn for summer!” And then he asked, “Did you take a nap on the beach? Is this about something you did?”

Yes. And yes again.

On DR Thursday, on your visit to the melange, I hope this painting inspires you to embrace the raw edges, the drips and bumps, and perhaps give over to a quiet mid-winter yearning for sun and sand and a spontaneous nap.

A NAP ON THE BEACH reproductions

nap on the beach framed print

framed art prints

nap on the beach art canvas

canvas prints

 

A NAP ON THE BEACH original

read Kerri’s thoughts on DR Thursday

kerrianddavid.com

a nap on the beach ©️ 2017 david robinson

 

 

 

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

Think “Isn’t It Weird…?”

Posted on December 21, 2017 by davidrobinsoncreative

my new tree;-)

Wide awake in the middle of the night, we snacked on handfuls of Chex cereal and indulged in my favorite kind of conversation: “Isn’t it weird that…?” Little did we understand that our late-night conversation would set the theme for the week.

The next night high winds toppled our neighbor’s ENORMOUS aging maple tree into our backyard. The insurance company called it “an act of God.” It is a phrase implying no fault, no responsibility. It just happened. I laughed aloud when, immediately following the “act of God” designation, the insurance adjuster heaped on us a load of legal cautions, new responsibilities (the tree now ‘belonged’ to us), property line designations, and small print reminders meant to minimize financial risk and responsibility to the insurance company. The layers of irony are too many to count though I suppose if wacky preachers can assign responsibility for hurricanes and other natural disasters to the wrath of God, then it is no less ridiculous for insurance companies to invoke the fickleness of God to absolve themselves of liability.

Isn’t it weird that…?

P-Tom reminded us that the “act of God” was that no one was hurt in the tree fall. For P-Tom the act of God was a kind of intervention. A few degrees to the right, a slightly different wind direction, and the tree would have landed on our bedroom. Life does seem fragile by the slightest of degrees. We told people that we were lucky. Intervention? Fortunate? Fate? Design?

Isn’t it weird that…?

We cut a branch from the fallen tree and brought it in the house. It is now our Christmas tree.

Had you asked that branch a week ago if it would ever become a Christmas tree it might have laughed at you.

As a maple branch it had no aspirations or intentions of being wrapped in lights or decorated with silver baubles. In truth, it probably cares little if it makes us laugh or invokes a smile each time we enter the room. But it does. Or, better, we make sense of it that way. Sense making? Story telling? Either way.

Isn’t life weird?

Our work-in-progress

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Random, Seeing, Story, The Direction of Intention, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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