One of my favorite moments of last week’s porch concert was watching as a family of girls (and quite gifted movers) danced all over the chalk earth I’d drawn on the sidewalk as we played. This morning, after a week of mulling patterns internal and external, I decided to turn the earth into a flower for tomorrow’s (May Day!) porch concert #7.
As I was drawing I was thinking of a favorite class during my long-ago freshman year at UC Santa Cruz “Art and the Inner Life”. Pretty much any kind of expression was worth exploring in that class, which I found amazing and liberating even as I was a bit disbelieving.
One day’s lecture featured Jasper Rose and Mary Holmes in a wide-ranging discussion that seemed both pedestrian — I recall Rose talking a lot about chickens — and extraordinary. “People can do this!” I thought, after spending half of another class crawling and emoting across the floor. For the final, I drew and painted and batiked a series of Iris (since lost). The more things change the more things stay the same, at least around here, and making a series - of concerts, of chalk drawings, writing, et. all. have helped me live into this time. We'll continue the porch concert and live-streams at least through May and I have a couple more livestreams that may pop up. Stay tuned, keep in touch and take good care.
Wishing everyone well!
