reverse threading

the path back is the path forward


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be kind. [two artists tuesday]

be kind collage with color font copy

we have a new frog in our pond! two actually.  this feels like perfect timing for us; we needed the good sign of a frog in our midst.  both of these frogs are different than previous pond-frogs we have had in past years; these two are leggier, less body and more frog-legs.  we’ve named the bigger one ripple and the little one pebble.  neither comes when we call their names, but ripple is not as shy as pebble.  we’ve advanced toward the pond and pebble will dive right in before we get close, but ripple sits quietly on one of the rocks and waits.  when he (or she) eventually dives in, it’s with a flourish and we get to see the concentric circles that spread outward, which is where it got its name.

it’s where we sit in our belief – as artists, as people – that the concentric circles spread outward from the center.  the only place from which we can really make a difference.  any difference.  it hearkens back to my sweet momma…her very core believing that all should start (and end) with being kind.  on her website www.beakysbooks.com is quoted mr. fred rogers, “there are three ways to ultimate success.  the first way is to be kind.  the second way is to be kind.  the third way is to be kind.”  it’s how she lived.  she would point to her life and asked what she had accomplished.  greatness.  she accomplished greatness.  because she spread kindness.  out and out and out it went, the ever-widening rings into the world.

it doesn’t seem that complicated.  it doesn’t take wealth or a super pac or any kind of grandeur to accomplish.  it is simple.  basic.  in the words of john wesley, “do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”  or my sweet momma’s favorite verse, ” i shall pass through this world but once.   any good therefore that i can do or any kindness that i can show to any human being, let me do it now.  let me not defer or neglect it, for i shall not pass this way again.”(stephen grellet)  or from the dalai lama, “be kind whenever possible.  it is always possible.”  right at the center, right where ripple quietly sits before the great hop – right before we move or speak or rebel or undermine or chasten or deflate or insult – is the place where we can choose to be kind.

for BE KIND products – so many things with this basic message – click here OR click on the BE KIND collage box above or below. you will be linked to a t-shirt, but be sure to scroll down on that society6.com page to see the “also available as” products.

be kind collage with color font copy

read DAVID’S thoughts on this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY

TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY – ON OUR SITE

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please visit our kerrianddavid page and like us on facebook! thank you! 🙂

be kind ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 


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be kind. [two artists tuesday]

be kind collage with color font copy

we have a new frog in our pond! two actually.  this feels like perfect timing for us; we needed the good sign of a frog in our midst.  both of these frogs are different than previous pond-frogs we have had in past years; these two are leggier, less body and more frog-legs.  we’ve named the bigger one ripple and the little one pebble.  neither comes when we call their names, but ripple is not as shy as pebble.  we’ve advanced toward the pond and pebble will dive right in before we get close, but ripple sits quietly on one of the rocks and waits.  when he (or she) eventually dives in, it’s with a flourish and we get to see the concentric circles that spread outward, which is where it got its name.

it’s where we sit in our belief – as artists, as people – that the concentric circles spread outward from the center.  the only place from which we can really make a difference.  any difference.  it hearkens back to my sweet momma…her very core believing that all should start (and end) with being kind.  on her website www.beakysbooks.com is quoted mr. fred rogers, “there are three ways to ultimate success.  the first way is to be kind.  the second way is to be kind.  the third way is to be kind.”  it’s how she lived.  she would point to her life and asked what she had accomplished.  greatness.  she accomplished greatness.  because she spread kindness.  out and out and out it went, the ever-widening rings into the world.

it doesn’t seem that complicated.  it doesn’t take wealth or a super pac or any kind of grandeur to accomplish.  it is simple.  basic.  in the words of john wesley, “do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”  or my sweet momma’s favorite verse, ” i shall pass through this world but once.   any good therefore that i can do or any kindness that i can show to any human being, let me do it now.  let me not defer or neglect it, for i shall not pass this way again.”(stephen grellet)  or from the dalai lama, “be kind whenever possible.  it is always possible.”  right at the center, right where ripple quietly sits before the great hop – right before we move or speak or rebel or undermine or chasten or deflate or insult – is the place where we can choose to be kind.

for BE KIND products – so many things with this basic message – click here OR click on the BE KIND collage box above or below. you will be linked to a t-shirt, but be sure to scroll down on that society6.com page to see the “also available as” products

be kind collage with color font copy

read DAVID’S thoughts on this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY

TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY – ON OUR SITE

Screen Shot 2018-08-07 at 12.27.50 PM

please visit our kerrianddavid page and like us on facebook! thank you! 🙂

be kind ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 


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not enough crayons. [chicken marsala monday]

therearen'tenoughcrayons WITH EYES jpeg copy

as i am writing this, The Girl just texted to say she was driving off the pass and that she and lumi-dog had finished their hike in the back-country.  earlier she had texted (as is safe practice for all back-country activity) to let someone know both that she was going to be out of cell service, off the grid, in the high mountains on a hike and where she intended her hike to take her.  she is a conscientious hiker and boarder and i can’t tell you how much i appreciate that.  and so, early early this morning, i looked up the hike she was taking.

the #1 hike in the san juans (according to my trail app) it was taking her on a giant elevation gain and to a stunning lake, the color of which i couldn’t describe by the picture, and evidently was un-grasp-able even by the people reviewing the hike.  this was a place incapable of being captured by even a crayola 64-box.

that is what i love about our world.  countless places we couldn’t begin to capture with crayons.  no matter how many we could get our hands on.

the places that take our breath away.  the places that give us breath.

if you'd like to see more CHICKEN...

to see THERE AREN’T ENOUGH CRAYONS products, click on box above and scroll down page to see various products

read DAVID’S thoughts on this CHICKEN NUGGET

CHICKEN MARSALA MONDAY – ON OUR SITE

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there aren’t enough crayons in the world to capture it all ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood

 

 


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pulling weeds. [k.s. friday]

pullingweeds song box.jpg

a number of years ago i planted a small seedling of lavender in my backyard garden over by the fence.  i was wanting to tend this carefully and, eventually, be able to go outside and snip sprigs of lavender – for vases, for the pillows of visiting family or friends.

it was slowwww.

soon after, i found that the patch of black-eyed susans was entering the spot where the lavender was.  black-eyed susans are beautiful and happy flowers, so i hesitated to do anything about this.  i pulled the weeds in the garden and continued to hope for a flourishing lavender patch living side by side with what-would-be bright yellow blooms.

but then i talked to a friend.  she told me that as diligent as i was about pulling the weeds, i also needed to pare back the black-eyed susans.  she said the lavender needed space and air, its own dirt.

i followed her directions and carefully dug down to the roots of the black-eyed susans and transplanted them away from the lavender.  i could almost feel the lavender breathe.

later, in the summer, with clippers in hand, i walked outside, over to the little garden by the fence, vase in hand, and, in the midst of a heavenly scent-cloud, snipped healthy sprigs of purple.

then i added this piece to the track line-up for the album RIGHT NOW.

PURCHASE the album RIGHT NOW on kerrisherwood.com or DOWNLOAD the track PULLING WEEDS track 8 from RIGHT NOW on iTUNES or CDBaby.com

read DAVID’S thoughts on this K.S. FRIDAY (KERRI SHERWOOD FRIDAY)

K.S. FRIDAY – ON OUR SITE

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PULLING WEEDS from RIGHT NOW ©️ 2010 kerri sherwood


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sandcastle with me. [d.r. thursday]

MorselSandcastle withMe copy

one summer, (almost) every single day, i took The Girl and The Boy to the beach.  not the beaches on lake michigan, for the water there is way too cold, but a beach that is inland in our town and is man-made.  that was the summer-of-the-best-tan and the summer i loved packing and re-packing our beach bag, a small cooler with drinks and snacks and buckets and plasticware and shovels for building castles in the sand.

they were littler then and it was easy to keep them happy on the beach.  when The Boy was reeeally little, he, like his dad, did not the feeling of sand in his toes.  he preferred to stay on the blanket or the beach towel.  but at this time in his life – the-summer-of-the-beach – he loved it.  he played in the sand and the water as much as every child there, including his big sister and me.

looking at this morsel SANDCASTLE WITH ME from the painting SPOONS AND SANDCASTLES makes me want to go back.  go back and do it again.  repeat that summer.  play in the water more.  have more icepops from the refreshment stand.  stay late until the sun was almost directly on the horizon.  and make more sandcastles.

click here (or on the image above) for SANDCASTLE WITH ME products

click here or on image below to see the original painting SPOONS AND SANDCASTLES on david’s gallery site

spoonsandsandcastles copy

spoons and sandcastles 28″ x 57.5″

read DAVID’S thoughts on this D.R. THURSDAY

D.R. THURSDAY (DAVID ROBINSON THURSDAY) – ON OUR SITE

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spoons and sandcastles/sandcastle with me ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

 

 

 

 

 

 


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space invaders. [flawed cartoon wednesday]

space invader jpegBIG copy 2

we were at costco.  in the fruit and vegetable section.  pondering just how many blueberries and strawberries we could eat in the next few days; costco’s quantities are not meant, necessarily, for two people.  but we are berry-lovers, so it works for us.  we were in the middle of deciding to get both the 57 pint container of blueberries and the 28 quart container of strawberries when i felt a presence.  right next to me.  close.  like next to my face, only my face was turned away.  i thought – is this a mystical visitation?  is this a sign?  i turned slowly.  she was standing rightnexttome, her face inchesfrommine.  i have never seen this person before.  she spoke directly -and loudly- to me, “are the blueberries any good?” she asked.  “it’s only me.  will they stay good?”  i tried to back up, but our cart was behind me and she moved forward as i moved back.  i was trapped.  i answered (you owe me, costco!) that they were the best berries and would last and last and that she should buy them. and then she was gone.  good grief.  what i wanted to say was, “get out of my space!!!”

i know you know what i mean.  (insert eye-rolling emoji here.)

if you'd like to see FLAWED CARTOON

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FLAWED CARTOON WEDNESDAY – ON OUR SITE

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space invaders ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood


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pillow-paintings. [two artists tuesday]

pillow collage - d paintings

we have bought our share of throw pillows. different fabrics and patterns from target, from department stores, they have been at various price points.  and they are great accent pieces on the couch or the wicker chair where we are hiding the wicker that babycat has torn off with the combination of a throw blanket and throw pillow (of course, if you see the chair from the back, it’s pretty clear what has happened there.)

recently, the newest design within reach catalog arrived.  now, that is a great catalog.  clean lines, a store (brick and mortar as well as catalog and online presence) that is dedicated to their designers and design services.  so the “design” part of their name i agree with.  it’s the “within reach” part that gets me.  i flipped through the catalog, admiring the white space and the simple fonts, the brief snippet stories about their designers, and came to pages 50 and 51.  six columns of throw pillows greeted me across the spread and a “save 15% during the living room sale.”

designs within reach

catalog page

the pillows ranged (retail price, without the sale) from $95 up to $295.  at this point in our life, it’s not in our budget to spend even $95-15%=$80.75 on a throw pillow.  yes, i grant you that there are people who absolutely can afford that.  but i must say, that on the day i wouldn’t have to think twice about a $295 throw pillow, it would have to be hand-painted by our (potential) grandchild for me to buy it.

 

when i have been working on the designs for products that are inspired by david’s paintings, i have been aware of and have worried about the pricing.  (that is something we think about a lot for those people who are interested in purchasing these designs and other products that are printed on demand – one at a time.)  on the society6.com site, throw pillows range from $29.99-$44.99 for indoor pillows or outdoor pillows for your deck or patio.  with their often 30% off sale, it brings that down to about $21-32.  i mention all these specifics because those prices seem more “within reach” to me, and not mass-produced or mass-marketed through a large company.  it is entirely possible to have the only pillow in the world with the design you have chosen.  but, that is also the peril of many artists – the inability to reach the masses.

even with however cool it is to say that you own a design within reach throw pillow, i just want to say that each time i see one of the rendered pillows with the chosen david-painting-morsel on it, i have wanted to purchase it, put the pillow-painting on our couch and show others that beautiful art doesn’t just have to be on the wall.

and so, with the arrival of new catalogs as fall shopping approaches, i thought a pillow collage was in order – just in case you missed the pillows along the way.  besides, if design within reach can do a throw-pillow-collage, so can i.  😉

to view david’s painting morsel throw pillows, click on the black box above or click here

to view the artwork that inspired these pillows, click here to visit the gallery

read DAVID’S thoughts on this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY

TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY – ON OUR SITE

pillows ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

 

 

 


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play like there’s no tomorrow! [chicken marsala monday]

playlikethere'snotomorrow WITH EYES jpeg copy

for us, it’s easy to like chicken…our chicken marsala, that is.  we made him up; he is the (mutual) son we didn’t have together.  and so, he’s a jeans-wearing-black-shirts-mostly-flip-flop little boy.  he takes after david with his esoteric wisdom and me with his high forehead and sentimentality.  he has much more brevity than either of us, but he’s little, so give him time.

it’s easy for us to be invested in chicken’s antics, to laugh aloud at his shenanigans, to get a little misty at his emotional ties.  but we have driven across the country with david making up his little voice in the backseat; we have taken a three foot tall flat-chicken into welcome centers and family gatherings; we have taken pictures of our chicken at the colorado border and hanging out in the back of the xb.

and so, it’s easy for us to believe that chicken marsala would have an instant following – an ever-growing group of people who believe in him kind of like how they believed in charlie brown or calvin (well, maybe a teeny little bit like charlie brown or calvin.)  because we do.  we believe in him.  his snippets of wisdom, his goodness, his take on life.  i realize that, like any story, it’s possible that maybe it is hard to start in the middle.  (i am the worst at starting in the middle of any movie – i ask a million questions trying to catch up…)

so i just want to say this:  if you had a chance to have a little boy in your life, one whose wise words entered your heart and whose voice countered the narrative so prevalent in our world now, and, even if he was, ok, make-believe, wouldn’t you just love it to be a little boy like our Chicken?  this nugget is for you.  play.  with abandon.  like a little make-believe boy.  like there’s no tomorrow.

if you'd like to see more CHICKEN...

read DAVID’S thoughts on this CHICKEN NUGGET

CHICKEN MARSALA MONDAY – ON OUR SITE

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play like there’s no tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow ©️ 2016 david robinson & kerri sherwood


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count on you [k.s. friday]

count on you song box copy

i drove back and forth and back and forth to nashville when i recorded this album, each time returning with a cd of the work we had done on the album.  i’d play it numerous times, taking notes to share with my producer, re-writing, practicing, sometimes sharing the songs-where-they-were-at-the-time with others.

joan was the one who told me i needed a “strong woman” song included on this album.  so i walked across the street home, directly into my studio and wrote one.

now, this isn’t my favorite song – it’s a little kitschy if you ask me – but i have had many tell me how much they like it and one of my favorite performances of it was when beth’s students sang it.  (i was long-term-subbing for her. she’s a dear friend and an amazing choir teacher in a middle school in our district.)  those kids really rose to the occasion and kitschy fell by the wayside in favor of strength and power and belief in themselves.

recently d and i listened to some of my first recordings.  they were from 1979-80 and recorded in a studio in a town called port washington on the north shore of long island.  i had found a cassette (now isn’t that retro word dating me!) and we have a boombox (another retro word) that plays cassettes so we settled in to listen to the three songs on what would now be called an EP.

one of the songs is called leaving and is a song i wrote for my parents as they retired and moved from our long island home to florida.  i remembered that song well.

the other two?  well, it’s funny.  i could sing every word, but i didn’t remember the intense emotion behind them.  THESE were my #metoo songs, i discovered (rediscovered?) as i listened.  one of these days i might share these songs, not because they are great songs but because they are truth and every artist has songs that are life-defining.  not the ones necessarily that chart (although those are lovely, indeed!) but the ones that speak from deep inside, with lyrics or music that must be spoken.  these two songs were written by a vulnerable (and pretty angry) young woman who wanted to unleash the power of her crayon and live out loud, who definitely wanted to live without fear, who tried hard to break away from an experience i still would rather forget and who prayed – alone at the time – beseeching words.  all this is what i wrote about in this week’s melange.

my heart goes out to all those women who are also card-carrying #metoo survivors.  the out-loud ones and the silent ones.  my wish for each of you: unleash your crayon, live without fear, break away, pray with another, count on you.

from this song of today’s melange post COUNT ON YOU, which may be more #metoo and less kitschy than i thought,  “just move forward and then believe – you gotta trust…in you.”

DOWNLOAD the song COUNT ON YOU track 12 AS SURE AS THE SUN on iTUNES or CDBaby or purchase the CD on kerrisherwood.com

read DAVID’S thoughts on this K.S. FRIDAY

K.S. FRIDAY – ON OUR SITE

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COUNT ON YOU from AS SURE AS THE SUN ©️ 2002 kerri sherwood


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prayer of opposites. [d.r. thursday]

PrayerOfOpposites10.17 copy 2

the first time i joined hands with david and prayed, i cried.  truth be told, we both cried.  it was a powerful moment…one i will never forget.  there is something deeply grounding about prayer with another person.  it is forging, like iron in a hot smelter, clay in a  kiln…seeking the solid base, making something stronger.

this painting, prayer of opposites, reminds me of that gift – the exchange, the sharing of peace and words of comfort, words of gratitude, beseeching words – with another.  the passing of that spiritual energy one to another.

were we to pray with opposites, would we not ultimately be drawn closer?

drc website header

to view the original painting PRAYER OF OPPOSITES please click here or on gallery link above

for PRAYER OF OPPOSITES product line, please click here or on product box below

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prayer of opposites ©️ 2002 & 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood