Day 138 Journey Through the Body

April 26, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

The power of the music comes from more than just the hands.

My pianist friend Guity Adjoodani played Esfahan Rhapsodie by J. Marufi and Sonata in C Major by Beethoven. In other solos,  Jeremiah Baker played the alto sax, Robert Ford played the accordion and Vladimir Fridman played guitar. They all were part of a concert presented by the Unique Foundation, a non-profit organization benefiting cancer programs.

Their performance at The Lyceum Historical Museum in Alexandria, Virginia, was not the only thing the musicians had in common. As I found my body responding to what I heard, I thought about the power their playing had on the audience and why. I think the answer is that each of them leaned into their music, physically and emotionally. I watched how Guity moved her body and how it became one with the movement of her hands. I watched how Jeremiah rose on tiptoes during some phrasing of his piece. I noticed how Robert leaned his head toward his accordion like a duo dancing, and how both he and Vladimir closed their eyes and expressed such emotion in their faces. 

It occurs to me that if you are going to move your audience as they listen to your music, you cannot play with only your hands, or voice or breath. Music must travel throughout the musician’s entire body. This journey is what gives power and emotion to their music. If this does not happen, then the music is “flat” and lacks life. Each performer tonight created music that was alive and that lived inside each of us in the audience as we listened. 

This concept applies to areas outside of music too. It is the “leaning into” that gives power and breathes life into everything we say and do. Tonight I leaned into the music I heard and it made all the difference. Whether I am writing or creating images or having a conversation, I hope I lean into and that it will make a difference too.

My gift today is a leaning into.

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> Day 139 Gray Tails

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 137 Marriage of the Senses

April 25, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

 

Oregon blue ice agate pendant by Janol and Matt looks like a miniature painting by nature.

All of today was a gift as I showed Hiro, our Japanese visitor, around my area. We started at the Robot Fest at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum where 3D printers demonstrated the new wave of technology and robots roamed about. Several exhibits demonstrated the integration of senses. Students from MICA mixed the sense of touch and sight in clothing design and Michelle Vargas, a senior, mingled movement of a mask she created with her own body’s motion. With her technology wizardry, she caused her movement several feet away to result in facial changes in the mask. Magic! Another exhibit married sound and sight with music and light colors and patterns based on actual musical scale notes in the music.

Next, we dined at the Papermoon Diner where we mixed taste and sight, surrounded by old toys and visionary art everywhere, including those nailed to the ceiling. Then we moved on to the Hopkins Fair where we took in sights, sounds and smells. Geological beauty offered by Janol and Matt drew me to their booth where I found one-of-a-kind necklace and earrings made from Oregon blue ice agate. Matt looks for small areas in larger pieces and he showed me the larger piece this particular beauty came from. His artistic eye led him to cut a perfect section that I wound up purchasing. He said he had to sever the emotional umbilical cord from this piece, one of his two favorites. Hiro and I returned to the car through the Baltimore Museum of Art’s sculpture garden and ended up at Fort Smallwood Park in Anne Arundel County before going home. What a good day!

Tonight my senses merge as I look again at the beautiful Oregon blue ice agate and my fingers slide back and forth over its smooth surface. 

My gift today is a piece of Oregon blue ice agate.

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> Day 138 Journey Through the Body

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 136 Penises and Cupcakes

April 24, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

Out of Order art auction by Maryland Art Place

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~ Pablo Picasso

I marvel at how art intrudes on the way I see things. After seeing Edward Weston’s famous black and white photo of a green pepper years ago, I can never again look at a green pepper in the way same way. Perhaps the way the pepper photo shaped my mind helped me to see the special qualities in a piece of metal, which I photographed and exhibited in the Maryland Art Place’s Out of Order silent auction that took place tonight. My art sold, I was glad to help contribute to MAP and I had a good time at the party too. 

Tonight, my eyes kept straying to a large framed photograph, the torsos of two men facing one another with a penis showing through the legs of one. Just two art frames down the wall from this was a painting of cupcakes with glitter glue. When I met the cupcake artist, I couldn’t help thinking that the cupcakes should have been moved a little further away from the penis. The glitter cupcakes were the creation of a 4^th grade girl, so excited about being a part of a big art show. Her mile-wide smile and enthusiasm were contagious but her mother reined in the enthusiasm. “I told her that she’s not a real artist until someone buys her art.” 

I don’t know if anyone bid on her painting by the time the bids had closed, but I’m not sure I agree with her mother. Artists are driven to create art because something has touched them and they want to express that feeling. It is the process that they go through, the process of creating, that makes them artists. If others like it or are inspired to look at life in a different way, that is good. However, if no one buys it, does that mean the person who created the art is not an artist? Do we value art only by the money it brings? Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans sold for $15 million but I am more likely to buy the cupcakes than the soup cans.  

The three pieces I’ve mentioned —the penis, the cupcakes and the soup cans—make me think and question. What was there about the juxtaposition of penis and body that made it so visceral? What was it about the cupcakes that made me want to smile? Why should a series of realistically painted soup cans be considered art? Whatever the answers, it is the questions that stretch perception. And that’s what I love about art—both the things I like and don’t like.  

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 

My gift today is a mind stretch.

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> Day 137 Marriage of the Senses

You can find links to my other posts on this project here: http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 135 Heinz Ketchup

April 22, 2015

 (This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

"If you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Waiting may be a lost art in today’s culture. Years ago, we had rotary dial telephones and numbers with zeroes seemed to take forever. Dinner took a while to cook in a gas oven then; now we have microwaves and fast food restaurants. I remember waiting for snail mail letters from penpals and boyfriends. The wait was so sweet. Now we have e-mail and instant messaging. We used to have to go physically to the library to research information that took hours—even days. Now we have Google. I read that over three billion Google searches are processed in a day, answering 34,000 questions per second. One in four people abandon a Web page that takes more than four seconds to load. Even dating can be rushed. Millions of people look for a partner in 3-to-8 minute speed dating sessions. 

Some people may remember the classic Heinz ketchup TV ad. Two little boys are sitting at a kitchen table. One little boy says, “Your ketchup is slow.” The other says, “Doesn’t your mama buy Heinz?” The first boy answers, “No. Why should she?” Then we hear the song, “Anticipation,” and watch a close-up of the thick, mouth-watering red ketchup slowly pouring out. The first impatient little boy, after tasting it, then asks, “Can I stay over tomorrow night too?”  An announcer finishes, assuring us that it is worth the wait.

For the past several days, I have embraced anticipation. Last year we bought a redbud tree after admiring the early-blooming purple buds all around us. Everywhere else today, these trees are blooming but our little tree is a late-bloomer. Every day, I closely examine the tiny buds and try to guess when they will fully open. This anticipation is delicious. In fact, sometimes the anticipation is the best part.

“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.” ~ A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

My gift today is anticipation.

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> Day 136 Penises and Cupcakes

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 134 The Wisdom of Fortune Cookies

April 22, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

After a day filled with chores, medical check-ups and scheduling further medical appointments (all routine), it was a pleasure to spend some time with Troy at New Beginnings Barbershop. His shop is not only a barbershop but an art gallery too. The purpose of our meeting today was to discuss details about the opening of a group exhibit I’ve put together with members of my photography group, Creative Exposure Baltimore. 

Just five minutes away, about 1 ½ miles, a protest was happening over the death of Freddie Gray which followed his April 12 arrest. It has become yet another incident concerning white police officers and black men. Before we started talking about the exhibit, we watched live news on television showing the protesters. I kept shaking my head and thinking, It is crazy that this is happening in 2015. I was eight years old when Brown versus the Board of Education resulted in desegregated schools in 1954. I was 23 during the Baltimore race riots in 1968.  I am 70 now. Why is this happening now? If anyone had told me in the 60’s that race relations would still be a problem almost half a century later, I would have told them they were crazy. Yet, I have seen white prejudice, often veiled but very much with us today.

I must remember, however, that my 365 project is about gifts. What gift did today bring? I opened a fortune cookie tonight after eating at the Szechuan Cafe near my home. My fortune read, “The time is right to make new friends.” I thought about how at Sowebo Festival (Southwest Baltimore) a few years ago, I wandered into New Beginnings where a handsome, middle-aged African American man was standing. The light from the window fell on him in a way that compelled me to take a photo. After asking him if it was okay, he smiled and said, “Sure.” This was Troy and I later sent him the photo. Since then we have been friends. I admire his love of people; I respect his vision, good sense and taste in art. The time was right then to make a new friend. It is always right. And it is time for our society to create a new beginning.

My gift today is a valued friendship in the middle of insanity.

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Day 135 Heinz Ketchup

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html