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feet. the places we go. [two artists tuesday]

feet copy

if you scroll through our phone camera log, you will find sooo many of these…pictures of our feet posing, posing, posing, traveling, traveling, traveling.  there are pictures on beaches, in the car, in the woods, in paris, in snow on a-basin, on the train, on the subway, on the gondola, on the pontoon boat, on crab meadow sand, on the trail in telluride and aspen and minturn, in the river in ridgway, in boston, in boca grande, in san francisco, in northport, in columbia, in chicago, in brussels, at the coffeehouse in breckenridge, at the pub in silverton, at the harbor, at the airport, at the waterfront in buffalo, at the park in savannah, at our friends’ houses, at our wedding, at home.  we document our traveling – our lives – with lots of other photos as well, but there is always one of our feet…in frye boots, in sandals, in flipflops, in heels (well, i’m in heels, not d), in hiking boots, barefoot.  i’m not really sure how that started, but it has become an important tradition for us…saving the moment of our experience.

years ago when i was performing upstate ny, there was a guy who had this foot-thing.  he asked after the concert if he could have a photo of my feet (he wanted them either barefooted or socked) on the piano pedals.  uh….no.  i was pretty weirded out, but not as weirded out as i was when he started sending letters to the label (in very very painstakingly-precise penmanship that resembled type from a typewriter) asking for these pictures.  repeatedly.   when i got a thanksgiving card that expressed how thankful he was for “all our times together” and how he “looked forward to all the times to come” i called the authorities.  some things are just too weird.

sometimes i think about that guy when we take pictures of our feet.  yikes.  but oh, i love the places we go.  and i love documenting the steps we take to get us there – into the heart of each memory.

“congratulations! today is your day.  you’re off to great places!  you’re off and away!  you have brains in your head.  you have feet in your shoes.  you can steer yourself any direction you choose.” oh, the places you’ll go (dr. seuss)

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feet collage image  ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 

 

 


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cheers. as we go. [two artists tuesday]

starbuckscups

anyone who knows us knows that we love our coffee.  every night we literally look forward to coffee the next morning; we even talk about it.

it’s no different when we travel.  friends, in incredibly thoughtful gestures, have given us starbucks cards that we load onto the phone (proudly, i might add, since that speaks to our APP savvy…ok, slight APP savvy.)  we drive a few hours and start looking for the signs – on the highway – or on the APP (which i have to say is sometimes frustrating since – it seems – the APP locator doesn’t differentiate what direction you are going and sometimes displays a starbucks cafe twenty miles away….and we get excited….only to realize it is twenty miles BEHIND us.)  but i digress….

pretty much every time we stop to get our double espresso (knowing sandy sue is rolling her eyes) we take a picture.  most of the time we send that picture (there are COUNTless photos of coffee cups on our phones) to our dear friend 20, although jen and others have received these oh-so-meaningful photos.  double espressos are good (called “doppio” if you want to seem really hip at the starbucks) because they make it possible to have lots of caffeine without having to stop at every rest area or small convenience store you pass while you are traveling long-distance.

we also love to find independent coffeehouses.  one day in asheville, north carolina we literally stumbled into a great little coffeehouse while trying to navigate through a town under construction after a stressful morning drive.  i found a lucky parking spot, parallel parked into it and said, “let’s go find some coffee.  i neeeeeed coffee.”  we got out of the car, looked around us, trying to figure out which way to walk and stared right into the window of a granola-organic cafe with sweet little mugs of espresso and great gluten-free vegan sandwiches.  ahh.  bliss.

if you’re traveling and want to keep in touch with us, text us some “cheers from….” with your coffee cups.  we can relate.

and today…a nod and so much love to my big brother, who loved coffee even more than i do.  i’ve missed you for 26 years.  i’ll always miss you.

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cheers. as we go.  ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 


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trust where you’re going. [two artists tuesday]

TRUST this one.jpg

so if you are an over-thinker like me, this is tough – to trust where you’re going.  there are too many details that get in the way of the overall picture.  d is a global thinker…he looks at the bigger picture, he calls it “from 30,000 feet”.  i need to be able to envision each foot to get there….ok, maybe not EACH one, but i need a few more details lined up in order to believe something is possible.  that disparity gets us in trouble sometimes.  we talk about something and are having two different conversations within the same conversation.  mostly, we usually agree on the ultimate Thing, but getting there is, well, sometimes cloaked in a tad bit of disagreement.

who was it that said, “everything will be ok in the end.  and if it’s not ok, it’s not the end” ???  such brilliance! and optimism!  i suppose we gauge so much of what might happen on what happened Before.  we have pre-judgments about how something will turn out; we have reluctance to start; we think, “i’ve already DONE this and it didn’t work.”

i am at a crossroads.  after 15 albums, i haven’t recorded an album in 8 years, haven’t recorded a new vocal album in 16.  16!  where does the time go?  albums are very expensive projects, not only financially, but emotionally.  as i have already talked about numerous times, there is financial pressure on independent artists now like never before.  streaming and illegal downloading has lead to a literal trickle of income, despite millions of “listens”.

so – where do i go from here?  songs have been waiting; the piano beckons.  something in me resists, afraid of not recouping even what it costs at the front end for something new to be released.  part of me wants to believe – believe that it’s time to release something new, in this new time of my career.  put it out there and not be concerned with how it is received, how many cds are purchased, how many paid downloads vs how many times it is streamed or pirated.  but that won’t pay any bills, won’t afford a living.  i am having trouble seeing the 30,000 foot view.  not to mention all the feet in-between here and there.

like you, in some arena of your life, i am trying to trust.  that whatever decision i make it will be ok in the end.  and, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end.

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trust where you’re going ©️ 2016 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 

 


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all existential. [two artists tuesday]

Arches

“mom’s getting all existential on us,” The Girl declared as we drove through moab, utah to arches national park, my first time.  i could hardly help myself.  she had told me ahead of time that, “it looks like mars” and she was right.  it is vast.  and full of shape and shapeless.  it was hard to wrap my head around the BIGness of it all.  i felt utterly tiny, small as an atom, infinitely lucky to even BE on this earth, somehow present in the midst of all of THIS.

i couldn’t help reflect on how this had all happened, both scientifically and from, yes, an existential place.  i couldn’t help what was probably a mouth-wide-open expression on my face the entire time.  it is so immense you can feel it in your heartbeat.  i couldn’t help the tears that flowed easily, which The Girl had predicted.  i couldn’t help the wonder.

in those moments that day of gazing at what had been created on this glorious earth, i realized, once again, that nothing really mattered except that i was there, that intense beauty surrounded us, that love prevailed.  i had seen yet another spectacular vista, had breathed it in, had climbed with my daughter and watched my husband take in this place, for each of us both magical and spiritual.  and all would be well.

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arches national park ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson


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how we see the world. [two artists tuesday]

big screen on what we see

TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY – ON OUR SITE

see DAVID’S post of the very same thing

yup. how we see the world:  flying bird branch, duck stuck in a tree, tree moon ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson


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find love everywhere [two artists tuesday]

uncropped acorn love

i am a scavenger.  i readily admit it.  it’s not like you don’t know.  you have read posts about my pieces of wood or sticks or rocks or feathers; i have even posted photographs of how these things decorate our home.  but i am always looking…keeping an eye out for something else i can bring home.  something that is natural.   something that will remind me of time spent.  something i really treasure.  and every now and then, i will find a heart – that nature, in its infinite wisdom, has left behind.  a gentle reminder that love is everywhere.

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find love everywhere ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson


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dandy for dandelions [two artists tuesday]

dandy copy

this dandy product box

we have dandelions.  ask our neighbors.  luckily our neighbors on the west (and our sweet friends) share our love and adoration of dandelions.  well, maybe not love and adoration, but they don’t have a terrible aversion to them either.  neither of our households competes in what charlie calls “the lawn olympics.”  we have old houses and, thus, old lawns.  and yes…i have walked around our neighborhood and there are plenty of old houses with utterly rich, dense, verdant carpets.  but, alas, that is not us.

we have much to learn about grass.  everyone in our circle asks dan, because dan is a lawn god.  his grass is gorgeous and cross-cut and weedless.  we do have a lot to learn from him.  we are glad (but only for the grass reason) that he and gay don’t live next door.  but if they did – (and that would be lovely, but only on the east side so as not to displace our west side neighbors) – i am betting that our dandy dandelions would be gone and we would have dandy grass instead.

TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY – ON OUR SITE

read DAVID’S thoughts on DANDY!

dandy! ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson

 


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everybody has their thing. [two artists tuesday]

so, we were trying to have a nice backyard.  the pond, the deck, the grasses, the hosta, the barnwood planting stand, the old piano….we were headed in the right direction.  but then there’s dogdog.  he has this THING.  every time we let him out and michele and john’s dogs are out, he races around in a circle, digging into the grass that was there, creating a velodrome (kenosha is known for its velodrome, only not this one.)  we tried various ways to address this, to try and dissuade him from running around in the circle, from ruining the grass that we had painstakingly planted.

finally, we decided it would be far less painful for us to just embrace it.  i went online and ordered an actual highway sign (the european roundabout sign, because he runs clockwise every time and the roundabouts in our country are counter to that.)  we planted a few grasses, put up temporary rope to help the grasses have a chance, pounded in our new sign and sat back to watch.

i mean, EVERYbody has their thing.  sometimes it’s just easier to not fight it.  it’s easier to just, well, laugh.

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dogdog roundabout ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood


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surf [two artists tuesday]

surfuncertaintyprimaryimageBOX

SURFUNCERTAINTYproductBAR

becky loves boards.  snowboards, surfboards, skateboards.  she is one of those people who can easily stand up and grab a wave or dominate a mountainside and make it all look easy.  david’s drawing of a surfer makes me think of her.

but in more than one way.  she and The Girl, just like us, really, are living a lifestyle that is uncertain.  snowboard/ski/surf coaches and instructors, like artists, choose a life that doesn’t have guarantees…there are few financial aspects you can depend on with these callings and yet…the mountains call, the break of the wave calls, the canvas calls, the piano calls…and you know that, despite the risk and the worry and yes, the uncertainty, you are doing what you are supposed to be doing…people need what you are doing…you are THAT spoke on the wheel…and all will be well.

click here (or on product box above) for SURF UNCERTAINTY products

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surf uncertainty & surfer ©️ 2016 & 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood


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which way? [two artists tuesday]

whichwayTODAYimageBoX

which way product BAR

the moment i saw this trailmarker it made me laugh.  i was feeling exactlyyy this way, so this lightened my mood.  (yes, yes, i understand that the marker made sense, but if you flatten it out (as opposed to three-dimensional) it is admittedly funny and a little confusing.)

middle age (ohmygosh, yes, middle age) seems like a time of arrows every which way.  where we’ve been, where we are, where we are going…these questions are all different now…different from the striding times even a decade ago.  time is starting to mean something else; i recognize the scarcity of time-limitlessness.

i lost one of my very best friends from elementary school, junior high and high school last week.  kenny was brilliant and funny and courageous and a really good person.  together with his twin richard and i, we were often thought of as “triplets” in school, mostly because we were all platinum blond kids growing up.  i haven’t seen kenny for many years.  the last time i can remember was having coffee with him at the atlanta airport; he was an airline captain and based there so we met when i flew through with a tad bit of a layover.  he was thrilled to catch me up about his beautiful wife and son and he joked about how long it took him to find her.  even though i saw him rarely, there was something about knowing he was in the world that was comforting…a piece of my long-ago-past that i could still talk to or text with, maybe see from time to time, who knew me when i was little, when i was a preteen, when i was a teenager, when i loved calculus.  i tried to explain this to d…when certain people who connect me way back to my roots are no longer present on this earth, it is as if i can feel the earth tilt on its axis; it wobbles.  and nothing will ever be the same.  i can’t get to ken’s service, but i hope to carry with me – always – a piece of kenny and our growing-up history.  i hope to honor him somehow.

and the next time i wonder “which way” in angst, i hope to stand still, right where i am.  time is not unlimited.  i don’t want to waste it.

click here (or on product box above) for WHICH WAY products

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 which way products ©️ 2018 kerri sherwood & david robinson