it’s not every day you pull into a parking lot and park next to a potato. even at church. we never considered parking in the same spot as the potato. it was clear that spot was taken. and as two artists living in this world together, we don’t question things like that. we parked in the next spot over. i mean, every potato deserves a little respect.
read DAVID’S thoughts on this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY
just last saturday evening, out on cape cod, we lingered over seafood and glasses of wine with jonathan, our bass player. we were sitting around his table, chatting about music.
he told us about a group of musicians he rehearses with on an irregular basis. they play a wide variety of instruments and they all just gather casually together and jam on some “good music”. “…and once in a while we play the same stuff…” he stated. his voice trailed off as he thought about what he had just said and we all laughed. we can picture a whole group of jonathans in the room – all exuberant and, each, lovers of all music, all pick-ready, mouthpiece-ready, reed-ready, hands-poised-over-the-keys-ready. that kind of enthusiasm shouldn’t be curbed or restrained. the sheer joy of playing – now that’s the reason to be all together. it’s not about playing all the notes on the page, playing them all perfectly at the same time, playing them with no mistakes. it’s about heart. it’s about the breaths and the rests of silence, the flip-flop your heartbeat makes when soaring notes come together in a sweeping harmony, the tears you get in your eyes when something you just played or heard is sublimely sweet, dynamically touching, deeply resonant, the belly laugh with the ridiculously dissonant moment.
the ukulele sip ‘n strums are about just that. if we can choose to teach anything at those sip ‘n strums, i would choose to teach just these things. the things of joy. music is all about individual hearts…coming together with the immense gift of twelve notes at our literal fingertips. no matter what we play, we are playing the same stuff.
what playing music looks like.
read DAVID’S thoughts on this MERELY A THOUGHT MONDAY
UKULELE SIP ‘N STRUM ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson
we played a game on the roadtrip back from boston and time spent with our beloved boys and family and friends. our on-the-road-many-hours-to-pass game was “if i were first lady/first man, my platform would be….” we spoke about what we would choose as our impassioned work, the reasons we would choose that very important work and how we would try to support it.
coming back – after thanksgiving gratitude and in the beginning of this beautiful holiday season – to this painting morsel of HELPING HANDS and the full image of david’s deeply touching HELPING HANDS painting, i can think of no better platform than that of those two words – helping hands.
click here or on painting above to view HELPING HANDS in the online gallery
read DAVID’S thoughts on this D.R. THURSDAY
HELPING HANDS ©️ 2010 david robinson, kerri sherwood
as i look at a few of the throw pillows i designed through the months of our FLAWED CARTOON postings, i remember some of the stories i told in those posts…what the FLAWED CARTOON sparked in my memory bank or made me think of. you are what you eat reminds me, once again, of my big brother – and the words he had written on his sticker-decorated-painted-verses-nylon-string guitar. so much possibility!!! makes me think of my sweet momma and her determination to drive her electric wheelchair downstairs in her assisted living facility to dinner all-by-herself. face your giant a sign of the times, fearless – each of us brave, every single day. i will try to see i to i an honest attempt at kind, gracious co-existence. and dream. of course, dream.
this is week 42 of our STUDIO MELANGE. and as i look back through all the writing and thoughts and designs and merchandise, i relive each one…reminders of time flying by, of days passing, of the ever-importance of our heart-stories.
i hope you might find a pillow you can’t live without in this week of throw-pillows-to-purchase-as-gifts-this-holiday-season. but if not, i hope you find a writing that resonates with you and reminds you of the value of your own stories.
read DAVID’S post this NOT-SO-FLAWED WEDNESDAY
FLAWED CARTOON designs and products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood
so. many. throw pillows. and so much design fun. these collections represent a smattering of our two-artists-making-stuff-for-humans product lines, a vast array of tote bags, mugs, prints, laptop sleeves, phone cases, blankets, beach towels, cutting boards, coasters, shower curtains, and yes, throw pillows.
as we rapidly approach the holiday-gift-season, we thought we’d enter the pool of possibilities and just offer up a compilation of some of the merchandise that is available in our names. perhaps it will be just the right thing you need…for you or someone else. either way, it’s a pleasure to look at our five society6.com store sites and see how very many lines we have designed through the time of this melange. the learnings have been vast; the feedback and every single sale deeply appreciated.
happy holidays from two artists who love to do art. xoxo
read DAVID’S thoughts on this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY
LINK TO www.society6.com/twoartists PRODUCTS
TWO ARTISTS designs & products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson
i love the unicorn on the daily calendar wendy aka ben aka saul gave me, but the thing i really pay attention to are the words of wisdom it offers me day after day. sometimes it makes me laugh aloud; sometimes it makes me really think. later in the day i recall a bit of the message, but i can’t recall how the unicorn was standing or if it was flying or rearing up or ….
i think that’s the way with other similar images…like our CHICKEN MARSALA. CHICKEN is our little made-up boy, a cartoon, who showed up for the first many months of mondays as a part of this melange. CHICKEN always had a message morsel – a CHICKEN NUGGET – and it was that message that seemed to resonate with his audience.
taking some of those words of wisdom or expressions, i designed ‘words-only’ products (as well as products with CHICKEN MARSALA on them.) with the shopping season upon us and everyone seeking something unique as gifts, the next few weeks we’ll revisit some of those products so that you can see what you might have missed.
this is throw pillow week. you can find these by clicking on the box above or by clicking HERE. when you get to the society6 site, you will find these same simple images and lots of others – including images with CHICKEN MARSALA – on coffee mugs, travel mugs, laptop sleeves, phone cases, hoodies, t-shirts, tote bags, blankets, towels, coasters, even shower curtains. it was a blast designing all of these product lines. i hope that we can help you in finding just the right thing for someone special…or maybe even yourself.
happy holidays with love from me, david & chicken marsala.
read DAVID’S words on this MERELY A THOUGHT MONDAY
CHICKEN MARSALA designs and products ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood
8. grateful (5:31): for all the blessings, the joy, for life itself.
download the album AS IT IS on iTUNES or CDBaby
read DAVID’S thoughts on this K.S. FRIDAY
GRATEFUL from AS IT IS ©️ 2004 kerri sherwood
yes. it is. happy thanksgiving to you and yours. with gratitude and love from us.
INSTRUMENT OF PEACE mixed media 48″ x 91″
click here or on painting above to view INSTRUMENT OF PEACE
read DAVID’S post this D.R. THURSDAY
INSTRUMENT OF PEACE ©️ 2015 david robinson & kerri sherwood
it was election day and i was passing through the denver airport, walking from one end of the united airlines terminal to the other. i knew that later that night, i would be tuning in to the results of the midterm elections and would, undoubtedly, read a plethora of articles on my news app that would sadden me. the divisiveness is palpable, an uneven heartbeat in our country, a dis-ease that is rampant.
i passed a bank of telephones (the ones that you put coins in to make phone calls) and above each cubicle was a poster. i read each as i walked past. i was much further down the terminal when i turned around to go back. lincoln’s words captured my attention and i wanted to pass-it-on as the poster says. “a house divided…cannot stand.”
it made me wish for what should be simple things: dialogue. grace. equality. kindness. unity. and yes, civility. they are all there. in us.
pass it on.
read DAVID’S words this NOT-SO-FLAWED WEDNESDAY
morsel of WAITING AND KNOWING
“…you must wait patiently, knowing that you’re waiting and knowing what you’re waiting for…” (carlos castaneda)
a balance point. the morsel of the painting WAITING AND KNOWING doesn’t include the obvious visual balance point between waiting and knowing and not. instead it draws you into the words “wait patiently”, “know”, “promise”, ” then a time will come”.
but we all know the point. the trust. the blind faith. with roots we courageously send deeply into the earth of our lives we teeter on the edge of patience and impatience, belief and unbelief, knowing and not knowing, fulfilling and not fulfilling, living and not living.
WAITING AND KNOWING – the painting – illustrates that amazing center of gravity available to us as human beings, our root a fulcrum from which we pivot in our lives, live our lives, celebrate our lives.
click here or on WAITING AND KNOWING to view this painting in the online gallery
read DAVID’S thoughts about this D.R. THURSDAY
WAITING AND KNOWING ©️ 2015 david robinson & kerri sherwood
reverse threading 