cloak & sounder

I know that cotton is touted as the “fabric of our lives” but let me suggest that there is another “fabric” that clothes us and I don’t mean linen, wool or silk. I’m talking about music…it has certainly cloaked me for my entire life. Music has spun me right round, (w)rapped me up, needled me to distraction. Music is textured, multi-layered, has provided me with various experiences depending on the genre. My passion for music is deeply embedded in every fiber of my soul…I was told I could dance before I could walk, so something about the rhythms I heard as a wee one stirred me not to mention my booty! Both music and art surrounded me as a child and now I cannot sit down to create anything visual without some kind of music…it adds a layer to the finished piece somehow.

Female vocalists seem to keep me on point and every so often, male vocalists or rock will weave through my fingers as I cut, construct and glue. I try not to let anything that calls for an impromptu dance party find its way into the CD player while I’m working. I have stopped what I’m doing for an hour long session that leaves me sweatin’ but exhilarated; my flow has never suffered due to a temporary lapse in focus as music, movement and song spurs me on. Now this changes drastically when I need to write something. I turn on the laptop, tune into www.pandora.com, click on one of the stations I created and get into trouble! I’ll be pecking away and suddenly a song will come on that I have not…have I heard this before? The thought clings to me. I stretch my brain to try and remember if I have this song. Before I know it, I’m looking through my CD's! This is indeed a distraction that I need to hem in.

On this eve of Labor Day when the only laborious tasks I will perform are lifting a glass and chopsticks, I climbed back into bed with Dell and pulled the cotton comforter over my mosquito bitten legs (my AM walk through the sculpture garden produced a kind of texture that I don’t love so much) and began to think about my subject du jour. Before I started, I quickly searched for a CD I had heard about and stumbled across “The Painter’s Music – The Musician's Art.” I listened to the classical tapestries for a few moments. Without much effort, the stitches began to embroider my writer’s canvas and here we are clearly starting a conversation that needs to be continued “darn” it.

keep your peepers open!®