Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The "Creative" Life

September 3, 2013

Sitting here on the Brooklyn waterfront, looking out my window to the water,  I have been thinking about what defines a multi-disciplinary artist - and how to move through more than one discipline with ease. 
The longer I walk the creative path, the more I inhabit the territory of ideas.  I think it builds a stronger creative mind to investigate other disciplines for ideas.  I remember Henry Miller said he loved to look at the paintings of Turner when he felt "stuck" in his writing.  The trick comes when you write AND paint.  How do more than one way of expression live in harmony in one soul?
As a percussionist, I have always felt the need for many colors in sound.  As a visual artist, I need many textures for my eye and hand.  As a singer, I often visualize the note before I hit it.  As a word person and songwriter,  I want a song to paint a picture in the listeners mind - and if their body moves to the music, all the better.
More and more it seems to me that it is all the same clay:  timbre, texture, color, texture, dance, song.
A colleague of mine, Otis Saleed, calls this sort of multi-disciplined person simply a "creative". 
Can we please put this in common parlance?

So, for your pleasure, dear reader, here are some images of the percussion side of who I am.  All three of these images are moments of strong inspiration for me. 

At Lincoln Center, participating in the first "Table Of Silence" in New York City, 2011:


At the Perry-Mansfield Arts Camp this summer in the Louis Horst studio:


And finally, at the Chateau Windsor Hotel in Mumbai, on a spiral staircase not used since the 1940's:

Here's to your creativity and joy.............and the road ahead!


 

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