SOUND KRAYONS: Copier Counterpoint

Tonight, I'm engaged the repetitive, administrative side of being a creative person.

Tonight, I'm my own administrative assistant. Nothing glamorous about it. Just plain old mindless work. I'm printing, copying and collating handouts for a workshop I'll be teaching at a conference in a few days.

I staple together sets of worksheets. The printer and copier chug away in the background. I count aloud, lifting sheets from their piles, "one-two-three" K-CHUNK (that's the stapler), "one-two-three" K-CHUNK in counterpoint to the poly-rhythm of the office machines.

One runs out of ink. Another has a paper jam. We are musicians in rehearsal. I am their conductor. I stop to fix a problem, then we pick up where we left off.

This is the work of creating. Though it doesn't feel creative, the machines and I are bringing something new into being -- the means to communicate ideas beyond the confines of this small room.

©2006 Kay Pere - Effusive Muse Publishing

SONGWRITING: Raw Materials

This is where song ideas turn into songs, here at my piano, with a pile of freshly sharpened pencils (Papermate American Naturals unvarnished wood) and lots of notebook paper on pads.

American Naturals are my pencil of choice for all writing. Some are better than others, even though they're labeled as being same the brand. The best ones are very smooth and made of a reddish wood. The others are made of a lighter wood, not sanded as well and have smudgy erasers. When I've gotten those by accident I've gone over them with a fine grained sandpaper before using them. It's just one of those things. They don't feel right.

Last time I found the good ones in a store I bought up all they had. Spent about $20 on pencils. I should be OK for the next couple of years. :-)

I'm very possessive of my song writing pencils. For some unknown reason they seem to grow legs and disappear into an alternate universe along with all the singleton socks, coat hangers, winter gloves and guitar picks.

Here's a link to a blog for Dave in NZ who also has strong feelings about his pencils, in case you're interested.

During a songwriting session, I rip the pages off the pads and spread out them out all at once across the piano, so I can see the ideas as they develop. I'm working on an upright piano where the individual sheets have a tendency to slide off onto the floor if they're not secured in place. I've use a long strip of cardboard sitting on the piano's music rest and 8-10 bankers clips over the top edge of the cardboard to hold the music in place.

I've come to these preferences through experimentation.

The bare wood pencils are part of my desire to feel more connected with the natural world, to simplify my life, and to have my creative work flow from that place. Besides, they feel good in my hand.

The cardboard-and-bankers-clips setup developed as a solution to accompanying singers while playing from multiple sheets of photocopied music. This idea carried over into my songwriting.

By using my creativity to find solutions to problems in the environment where I do my creative work and discovering materials that fit with my values, I've added another dimension of meaning to my artistic work processes.

I encourage you to find creative ways to make your materials, methods and working environment a supportive reflection of your own artistic impulses.

RECORDING: Process & Meaning

I'm in the early stage of writing a book about the creative process. In preparation for organizing my material and bringing the project into better focus I ordered a pile of used books through Amazon.com about creativity. I wanted to see what had already been written and how these other books were organized, so could be sure that my ideas will offer something new and different.

This reading has been good for me, both artistically and personally. After a long time way from the studio, I've started recording again. I don't have much to show for it yet, but I'm on my way.

The process of recording a song is much more than sitting down at the piano with a microphone and pressing the record button. Although I use this simple method, on a minidisc (MD) recorder, to capture ideas and develop songs in progress, much more is needed to produce a radio ready recording. Even more will be required if the finished recording is to reflect my vision of the sound I want for my music.

So first thing in the morning, I've spent 2-3 hours each on Wednesday and Thursday this week moving a few tiny steps closer to a recording I'm ready to release. After 6 hours of work, I've completed STEPS 1-4 below for a new song B and I wrote back in June called "So Little Time (Time at the Table)". I'm hoping I'll get faster at all this with more experience.

I start by working in MIDI using MOTU Performer on a Mac. Here's my process:

STEP 0 - Practice, arrange, and visualize in preparation for performance and recording.
STEP 1 - Make a rhythm track that works with the feel of the song. This is a temporary placeholder used to set tempo and provide a grid.
STEP 2 - (could have been STEP 1) Make a chord sheet for the song so I'm not working from memory, not chancing chord and structure mistakes while the record button in armed. This is also essential for communicating the song to others involved in the process.
STEP 3 - Record a rough piano part.
STEP 4 - Enter markers into the conductor track to show beginnings of intro, verses, chorus, bridge and outro.
STEP 5 - Record and quantize piano. Cut and paste together if necessary.
STEP 6 - Record bass track, pad or organ track, lead instrumental track.
STEP 7 - Hand it off to my recording partner. Record a rough vocal to use as a reference while he's detailing the arrangement. Work collaboratively until the results are on target.
STEP 8 - This depends on the nature of the project. Ultimately, for my next CD, many of the MIDI tracks will be replaced by acoustic instruments. This may involve sessions at various locations with hired musicians, then combining audio tracks back in our studio.
STEP 8 - Record final vocals.
STEP 9 - Mix and master completed song.
(Repeat STEPS 1-9 for each song)
STEP 10 - Master completed CD project.

Beyond this, I design my own artwork and graphics for the packaging, make duplication decisions, arrange for band rehearsals, handle distribution and booking, do publicity. I've put off recording because all of this takes time away from my first love - writing a new song.

The joy, for me, is in the process of writing of a song then bringing it live to an audience. Recording is an artform I am learning to love. I see it as a vehicle that carry songs from the intense, solitary environment where they were written out into the marketplace where they may catch the ear of someone passing by. To go through this, I have to believe there's something of value in what I'm doing, at least on some small scale.

Selling my art and recordings to raise money for hunger relief and social services through LUNCH is a part of creating meaning through my creative work. Just as important, for me, is the ideas of using art and music to create an awareness of our deep connectedness as human being.

Like my Sacred Shards pottery and the Gaia Luna garden, the songs I record are tangible manifestations of my solitary creative experience, things I can share with you.

When I create, I dive deep and bring back meaning from ancient dream places. Beauty in simplicity, values of family and the natural world, stories of ordinary lives lived in extraordinary ways, and mythic tales from the shadow world. I know the value this holds for me. Beyond that, I'm only guess.

So, I record. I make things. And I bring these things to the marketplace, where I'll chat with whoever stops by to look and listen.

©2006 Kay Pere - Effusive Muse Publishing

GAIA LUNA: Toad Abode

If you build it, they will come.

No, I haven't been hearing voices in a corn field, but I did find an old broken terracotta flowerpot in the barn. I've read that they make good houses for garden toads, so I built this little toad abode, hoping I would find someone to come live in my garden and eat the bugs there.

I spent most of the day on Tuesday (my day without lessons to teach) weeding and mulching the strawberry bed and surrounding ring of lambs ears at the center of Gaia Luna.

Late in the afternoon, as I came into the house get a drink of water, something unusual caught my eye. Just inside the screen door, sitting crouched in the corner of the door jam was little gray frog about two inches long, like a gray stone with shiny black eyes. He looked a lot like this.

Gray Treefrog© David Liebman (from first link, below)

At the time, I didn't know he was a frog. He looked to me like a toad, warty lumps and all, so I carefully picked him up and took him out to his new home, confident that destiny had brought him right to my doorstep. We occasionally see frogs, toads and salamanders in the woods, very rarely near the house. Never inside!

After my new amphibious friend was comfortably settled into his custom-made accommodations, I came inside to to see if I could discover his true identity. While I was carrying him out to the garden I'd noticed that the under sides of his hind legs were bright yellow. This helped me to identify him. He was a Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor), not a toad at all. Here's another link where you can learn about Gray Treefrogs.

When I came back to check on him the next morning, I was not surprised to find that he had hopped off to find a more watery habitat in the wooded wetlands at the back of our field.

My initial impressions were colored by what I wished to see, hindered by my inexperience identifying local amphibians.

How many women have had this experience when their Frog Prince turned out to be a toad instead? I'm glad my Quiet Little Life already includes someone with whom to share it. I don't have to worry about the treacherous world of the Lily Pond of Love.

Meanwhile, the Toad Abode waits for a more permanent occupant.

©2006 Kay Pere - Effusive Muse Publishing

GAIA LUNA: Four Directions

A short first tour of Gaia Luna.

WATER (West)

Just inside the entrance to Gaia Luna is this hand made faux stone bowl. Rainwater collects in the bowl (West/Water). This direction is also associated with water/release/flow/culmination.

The bowl was sculpted from a mixture of portland cement, perlite and peat moss, very durable and lightweight. Here's some info about the process, though I learned about it at a workshop. It is the only object in the garden that isn't made of natural stone. The plants behind it are lambs ears, planted in a circle around the central bed.

EARTH (North)

Walking toward the left around the garden, is the North/Earth/Winter/renewal/wisdom stone. The Earth stone is the larger brown stone in the background. The color associated with North is white. Plants closest the Earth Stone are winter savory, horehound, garlic and horseradish.

Sitting in front of the Earth Stone is the Moon Stone. This stone was added in June. It circles the garden according to the phases of the moon. This picture was taken last Tuesday when the moon was new (dark). The correspondenses of direction and moon phase according to traditional moon lore are: North - New Moon, East - Waxing, South - Full, West - Waning.

AIR (East)

East is the direction of Spring/Air(Wind)/Inspiration/Beginnings (color - yellow). After I arranged the stones for East, I discovered that the ancient symbol for air looks very much like the shape made by the top two stones, a triangle with a horizontal line crossing it parallel to the base.

The small square stone in the front is a resting place for other objects, including the Moon stone during its waxing phase.

The plants are lady's mantle in the front, lemon thyme on either side, and dill behind, just barely visible.

FIRE (South)

The only recent picture I have for Fire/South is shown in the photo from a previous post with the barn in the background. South also is the direction of Summer and the Sun, as well as passion/enthusiasm/proliferation. I chose to plant with colors associated with direction by some native american traditions - blue and purple.

For obvious reasons, some traditions assign red and orange to Fire/South. I chose to follow the traditions that link red and orange with West and Fall because culmination and release relate more closely this phase in the cycles of a woman's body.

WATER (West)

We are back at the entrance where we started. The photo above shows one of a pair of stone figures that form a gateway. Created by balanced stones, they have a similar meaning to the inuksuit (singular inuksuk) or stone people built by the Inuit, though mine are built on a much smaller scale. The red flower beside it is bergamot.

Just down the hill in this direction are the calm tidal waters of the Mystic River.

GAIA LUNA: Entering

Welcome to my earth moon garden, Gaia Luna. Gaia Luna speaks the language of stones, earth, leaves and seasons. It embodies the cyclic nature of the creative process.

You stand at the entrance. You face East where the yellow sun rises beyond the woods and the field. This is the direction where change begins, the direction of Wind and Inspiration, the direction of Spring.

Stepping back, you see the whole garden. The door to the barn is behind you, the gardening tools, pottery wheel and old scale there in the cool darkness.

Tomorrow, we will enter the garden.

SACRED SHARDS: Art Barn

I'm about to head out the work in the barn glazing about 60 Sacred Shards pendants, plus a dozen labyrinth pocket stones and another dozen or so word stones.

So I thought it was time to share some photos.

Standing inside Gaia Luna, looking past the "South/Fire/Summer" stone, the barn is visible in the background. The plants, from left to right, are eggplant and marjoram, basil in the background, with a few weeds sprinkled in between.

My view from inside the Sacred Shards Art Barn. This is the same door visible in the photo above. My kickwheel in the foreground and an improvised work bench on the right. That's where I'll be sitting to work in just a few minutes.

On Saturday I passed a yard sale at a very old farm near here. I needed a scale to weigh my clay (for making vessels of about the same size on the wheel). This one was so rusted that the green paint was completely hidden and the tile on the top is cracked, but it still works! After a bunch of scrubbing a little WD40 it was ready to take it's place in the Art Barn atop a set of shelves from the same sale. Total cost: $5.

My gardening tools on the side of the barn opposite my work bench. I like to arrange them like this. It has a peacefulness about it.

GAIA LUNA: Weeding

I like pulling weeds.

I like the feeling of the roots letting go from the soil with one smooth tug. I like the smell of the earth as it turns over. I'm proud of the dirt stains on the knees of my old blue jeans.

I like the tools I have for digging and tilling. They've been passed along from parents and grandparents, worn smooth by many hands.

I like the quiet and repetition of weeding. I find myself pulling up worries along with the weeds.

At the end of the day, I dump the bucket filled with weeds and worries at the edge of the yard where the the brambles grow wild.

SACRED SHARDS: Messy Momentum

Finally, a photo.

That wasn't so difficult! Digital camera connected by cable to PC, copy image from camera to PC, upload to blog. Hurray!

Our dining room table has become a production space this week. The reddish brown and white items at the left of the photo are bisque fired pottery pieces waiting to be glazed and high fired. The chocolatey looking pieces on the right are unfired pendants in various stages of drying. The darkest pieces were just made this morning.

In the past 2 days I've sculpted 38 more Sacred Shards pendants, in between teaching lessons and barely tending to household needs.

When I'm in the active (versus contemplative) phase of the creative process the house ends up looking like there was a combined explosion in a laudry mat, convenience store and art supply store.

Eventually, things cycle around to the domestic/practical side. The bills get paid, the laundry washed and put away, the pile of dishes in the sink washed and the refrigerator restocked. The house will eventually return to a state of order, though only temporarily.

If I derail the creative process with "shoulds", like cleaning, precious momentum is lost and nothing moves forward.

A mess is a small price to pay.

Divine Tree Fall - Close Call

I had a very close call this past week. I escaped harm by mere seconds and didn't know it until afterward.

It got me thinking about divine intervention, wondering about such things as whether I was being watched over and protected, or whether it was just by lucky chance that I wasn't squashed like a bug.

This past Thursday I drove to a small local nursery to pick up a flat of ajuga (bugle weed) I'd ordered to edge the southern border of Gaia Luna. I was walking the short distance from my car to the greenhouse when a woman who works there shouted that the electricity had just gone off. I completed the transaction with cash and prepared to head home.

Just 4/10 of a mile from the nursery the flashing lights of a volunteer firefighter's truck blocked my way. Behind it, electric cables sparked across the pavement.

A large oak tree had fallen across the road, taking powerlines down with it.

Sunny day. No wind. Very strange.

I turned my car around, realizing that I had passed this way before, within seconds of the tree‘s collapse.

I felt as if I had been spared, wondered if someone had been watching over me, protecting me.

It was a reminder that anything can happen at anytime to anyone. Being spared from harm is not a reward for faith and good behavior. Misfortune is not a punishment for disbelief or sin. There is no Divine Vending Machine where we drop in coins of belief, push the button of prayer, and collect the material blessings of our choice.

Good things can happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. When and why are mysteries impossible to solve in this lifetime.

The value is knowing that "I" am much more than what happens to me, or even what I do. True for each of us. We are more than physical beings. It's what we chose to do with this knowledge that matters.

Pain and suffering are part of rules of the game in this life. I choose to live my life to create joy and compassion where I can, hoping to lessen and avert the suffering of others when possible.

Believing in Something Greater than myself helps me to value the small blessings that come my way. It's also a resource of strength for times of hardship.

Trees fall. Sometimes they squash people. Sometimes they don't. We don't get to choose which. We do get to choose how we treat each other and ourselves, before, during and after. That's what matters.

Herding Turtles

Recently, I was commiserating with an artist friend who also prefers to work on multiple projects at one time.

She said she spends time each day on many different things, but feels like it's taking forever to bring anything to completion.

I said, "Right! It's like herding turtles. The turtles and I are all headed somewhere. We're just not getting there very fast."

The up side is that at this pace the turtles (my projects) don't go astray very quickly either.

GAIA LUNA: New Residents

A trip to the nursery this morning. Guess who followed me home! Below, I've also listed where each plant will be placed.

• bronze fennel (south - purple)
• fern leaf dill (east - yellow)
• French tarragon (north - white)
• cilantro (west - red)
• horehound (north - white)
• lemon verbena (east - yellow)
• zucchini and yellow crookneck squash (east - yellow)
• a blackberry bush! (south - purple)
• and horse radish (north - white)
• red creeping sedum (west - red)

Tomorrow, I'll be up early, while the air is still cool, to plant everyone in their new home.

NEW SONG: The Moon and Sun MORE!

And what did I do today? I played through all my songs for the Dolphin's Daughters CD and ended up writing two more verses for "Moon and Sun".

MOON AND SUN
Words traditional, with additional lyrics and music by Kay Pere

The New Moon rises with the Sun.
Her waxing half the midday shows.
The Full Moon climbs at sunset hour.
And waning half the midnight knows.

Moon and Sun, the great romance,
Spinning high then bowing low.
Love's ancient luminescent dance,
Shine upon us here below.

A woman rises with the sun.
Her work half done when midday shows.
She climbs the stairs at sunset hour,
And candlelight the midnight knows.

Moon and Sun, the great romance,
Spinning high then bowing low.
Love's ancient luminescent dance,
Shine upon us here below.

A child is born like rising sun.
He seems half grown as midday shows.
His colors climb at sunset hour,
And quiet rest the midnight knows.

Moon and Sun, the great romance,
Spinning high then bowing low.
Love's ancient luminescent dance,
Shine upon us here below.

COPYRIGHT 2006 - Effusive Muse Publishing

NEW SONG: The Moon and Sun

Yesterday, someone asked me what I had done all day and I replied, "not much," until I remember that I had written a song. Hows that for art becoming a routine part of everyday life?!

The words for the first part are a very old traditional rhyme describing where the moon is seen in the sky as it moves through it's phases. I've written the melody and harmonized it so it can be song either as a solo, an echo song, or a round, building as you go with audience participation.

The second part is a contrasting chorus, my own words and music. (I really need to figure out how to create simple rough recordings of new songs to post online) This will be on the Dolphin's Daughters CD.

THE MOON AND SUN
Words traditional, with additional lyrics and music by Kay Pere

The New Moon rises with the Sun.
Her waxing half the midday shows.
The Full Moon climbs at sunset hour.
And waning half the midnight knows.

Moon and Sun, the great romance,
Spinning high then bowing low.
Love's ancient luminescent dance,
Shine upon us here below.

COPYRIGHT 2006 - Effusive Muse Publishing

SACRED SHARDS: Pottery Pilgrimage

I'm happy to report that I'm about to head out to the barn to work at my pottery wheel for the first time. I've had it for over a month, but things keep getting in the way.

Today, I've loaded all my pottery things into my garden cart and I'm about to make the pilgrimage out to the new work space. I'll spend the afternoon out there at the wheel and hand building with no interruptions.

Very exciting!

I'm slowly transforming the barn from a junky storage space full of dust and spiders to a functional Art Barn facing out onto the field and Gaia Luna.

The rustic wood and antique tools in the interior are an inspiration. Parts of it were built over 100 years ago. The family who originally owned the land lived in the central section of the barn, where my wheel is now, while they were building the house.

I spent all day Tuesday cleaning out one of the stalls to make room for ... whatever develops from this. Found 5 old horse shoes that had been sitting upside down in a corner, and gave them a place of honor, lucky side up on a wooden ledge inside the barn, arranged with a small heart shaped stone from Gaia Luna.

Quotes for today:

"There is no shame in happiness."
-- Albert Camas

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart."
-- Rilke

Peace,
Kay

Red-y to See

This past week I learned how to sew slip covers for furniture.

Nearly a century ago my great aunt taught my grandmother, who in turn taught my mother, who came to visit for the week and taught me.

My parents only bought one piece of living room furniture during their entire married lives. It was a sofa. Everything else was second hand, made to look new-ish through my mother's skill. Even that sofa has been recovered 6-7 times over the past 60 years.

It's a skill that fits with my values of reuse, recycle, renew. The whole Anti-Diva thing.

As my mom and I worked, I learned much more than just the practical skills she was teaching. I began to see her more clearly, and who I am in relation to this. Seeing her for the person she is brought both a feeling of closeness and distance. I don't think she sensed a difference, but I feel changed.

There is vividness and unfamiliarity to this, coupled with an acceptance of what is. Sort of like finding out the true identity of the Tooth Fairy for the first time when she forgot to take your tooth while you slept, then came flapping in the next morning with a quarter in her hand and a smile on her face.

The velvety slip cover is on the chair now. Mom has flown back home. I sat reading this evening after we got back from dropping her off at the airport. I fell asleep in the chair and woke suddenly, not knowing quite where I was, the room vivid and unfamiliar. I returned to my body with an awareness of smell of new fabric close to my face. The chair welcomed me with a hug like you'd want your mother to give you when you've been lost in a public place.

No one in my family is huggy. No one except for me. They'd rather do something for you, or teach you how to do something for yourself, than give you a hug. Doing is the language of love in this family. At least that's the habit we've fallen into over the years.

My mom spent this past week sewing on the chair.

At times it was a struggle. Things didn’t always fit together right, had to be redone, adjusted, just like the important relationships in our lives.

It's not perfect. But neither are we. It is good enough, more than good enough.

In some unspoken way, it’s just what I needed.

A Red Velvet Chair

I've officially arrived here at blogspot. First I'll unpack my small purple suitcase, then I'm off to work in Gaia Luna, cutting the last of the netting for the deer fence, turning the compost pile.

I'm not one who likes to move from house to house. I prefer to put down deep roots and stay in one place.

The house where I grew up was my home for the first 20 years of my life. I moved 8 times in the next 10 years. Until I found B. Our quiet little life together began 10 years ago this month.

Living in one house for a long time provides a deep feeling of connectedness with ordinary objects and the land. The stillness of staying brings inanimate objects to life. If I listen, I can begin to hear their voices.

This past Sunday, I bought several yards of fabric to slipcover my reading chair in the livingroom. I laid it out to look at in the changing light through out the day. The next evening, when I'd sat reading for a while, the chair gentle told me it really didn't want to wear what I'd bought for it. It didn't feel comfortable in such a bold design. The room agreed. It wanted something more peaceful. After a discussion that included the sofa and the loveseat, the reading chair decided it will be covered in rich cranberry red velvet.

I’ve decided it’s best not to question the wisdom of such a well read chair.

Soon it will be, well, red.

:-), Kay

COPYRIGHT 2006 - Effusive Muse Publishing

A New Home

I'm a blogging nomad who hopes she has found a more permanent home here. I moved after discovering that myspace.com deletes blog posts after 1 year. What kind of blog is that?!

If all goes well, I'm hoping to move that content to this new place. Will have to find out if I can back-date posts.

SACRED SHARDS: A Beneficent Boss

Today I'm engaged in repetitive work, putting together packaging, assembling necklaces, stitching beads on baskets, and sitting at the computer for hours to work on graphics. I enjoy all this, up to a point. I have to use distraction and bribery to get myself through this last phase of the creative process when it requires assembly line work or being chained to a computer for hours.

This last phase of the creative process* is called proliferation. It involves reproduction, packaging, and marketing a creative work.

This last phase of the creative process is the most neglected among artist and musicians. We create because we like to make something new out of ideas and raw materials. Many of us also create because we hope the things we make will be meaningful or at least entertaining to others. But no one will encounter our work unless it's given legs of its own to venture beyond the confines of the artist's studio.

As an artist/musician/writer/educator, I work for myself, by myself, most of the day. I'm learning to be sensitive to the needs of my creative process, while running a small business.

I'm the business manager, but I'm also the art department, marketing consultant, accountant, admin support, public relations, product development, travel agent, computer tech, database manager, licensing/legal, print shop, mail room, purchasing agent, inventory control, and cafeteria chef, all rolled into one. As business manager I'm required to be financially responsible, organized, plan ahead and follow through even when it isn't any fun.

Managing my creative side, really allowing time for it to manage me, requires a completely different set of skills.

Creative work in it's earliest stages has to be play or it just doesn't happen. When I sit down at the piano to write or slice off a fresh slab of clay to sculpt, I don't know what I'm going to end up with, if anything. Results are far from guaranteed. It's all about enjoying the process, following it where it leads. I start with raw materials, a stretch of time and an image or a concept or a feeling or nothing at all. Things progress spontaneously rather than sequentially.

Sometimes, after several hours of intense effort, all I have is a better idea of where I might be going and a pile of pages covered with scribbled words, or used up materials that have to be tossed out. Sometimes the results are so unexpected that I feel as if they've arrived by divine providence.

Creative play/work doesn't follow a typical business model.

A good boss for a creative person plans for spontaneity by not packing the schedule too tightly. A good boss for a creative person arranges for abundant materials to be on hand and easy to find. A good boss for a creative person shields the artist from concerns about finances and marketability while the artist is developing something new.

A good boss for a creative person actually realizes that the artist is the employer, not the other way around.

Am I the kind of boss I enjoy working for? A Beneficent Boss?

That depends.

I try to be a good boss. When I'm working intently, I try to remember to give myself breaks to get up and stretch, get some food and take care of other necessities. I try to see that I work in a studio, not an office. I try to stay focused on deeper motivations: to be happy, to make a difference in the world, and hopefully have something for paying the bills.

Unfortunately, there are times when I'm a slave driver. The slave driver insists on doing one more thing, then another and another, before I'm allowed to stop for lunch. The slave driver forgets about the artist's need for unscheduled time and makes too many commitments. The slave driver is all about practical applications and marketability, all the time. The slave driver demands that the work space is perfectly picked up and the To-Do List is completely crossed off before the artist is allowed to play.

The slave driver boss threatens to take possession of the artist's successful creations by setting expectations for the artist to produce the same work over and over.

The artist is not a factory worker.

Today, I'm an artist working the assembly line of proliferation. I'm bridging the gap between creating in seclusion and putting a tiny piece of art into the hands of someone who will enjoy it.

I'm pretending not to be doing something repetitious. I'm distracting myself by writing this little essay while the box inserts for Sacred Shards necklaces come out of the printer by the dozens.

Is this efficient? For me it is.

In a little while, I'll rent a couple of sappy movies and pile a plate with snacks, then sit down to cut the box inserts to size, hand stamp 50 or 60 box lids, assemble necklaces, and sew beads on baskets. There'll be a break to teach a couple of voice lessons early in the evening. Then it's back to the assembly shop for a couple hours to meet a deadline coming up this weekend.

If I do this, the good boss has promised me some uninterrupted time to write songs, play with clay and dig in the garden. Just as soon as this big push is all over. I'm trusting the good boss to follow through.

:-), Kay
http://www.kaypere.com

* For more on the phases of the creative process [Creation, Realization, and Proliferation] see Bill Pere's articles at:
http://www.billpere.com/Songwriter_Tools.htm

COPYRIGHT 2006 - Effusive Muse Publishing

HEART&SPIRAL: Why Title Everything?

I thought it might be good to provide some explanation about the titles I'm using in this blog.

I'm not a person who's content to do only one thing. So I've come up with names for the different aspects of my creative/artistic/musical life. Makes more sense to me that way. Helps me to keep straight on what I'm doing at any given moment, but might be confusing for others without some sort of Rosetta stone to help decipher.

People ask me what I do. Here's the breakdown.

HEART&SPIRAL: This is name for that swirly logo thing made out of my initials. It's also an over arching concept of creative flow, spiritual journey toward center, etc. And it's the name of my band. Everything else I do, no matter how it's named, falls under HEART&SPIRAL.

SOUND KRAYONS MUSIC: This is my teaching studio. I offer voice instruction and coaching, workshops, song writing and performance coaching, music theory and piano instruction.

SACRED SHARDS: This is my pottery business. Also includes some mixed media work.

KEYS FOR A CAUSE an organization I founded to unite keyboard playing performing songwriters, coast-to-coast (US) and internationally, to present events and recordings benefiting local social services as an outreach of LUNCH (Local United Network to Combat Hunger).

GAIA LUNA: a sacred space garden being created to celebrate the cycles of earth and moon, and the traditions of women. All this is described in more detail on my website: http://www.kaypere.com/visual_artist_garden.htm

:-), Kay