Lately

Rain is falling and it is said snow is coming.  What a perfect time to share this……

So excited to finally share with you a little drawing I made in late summer or so.  It is the cover art crafted for a beautiful collection of pre-twentieth century European Christmas carols, all arranged for fiddle and guitar and performed with such delicate grace by Finn MaGill.

You can obtain this music digitally via the link below during pre-order days for just $7 until Nov. 29:

https://andrewfinnmagill.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-carols-for-violin-guitar?fbclid=IwAR3vwHOu5eB5xoZ2SX-ybMINGJv4UJ_EDdvLKD30Cy4b-T4ByUFbHV7FLoE

In a world so mad with the day to day, it is really nice to find a pensive work of music to set the tone.  Especially for the holidays.  Truly, it’s lovely.  Go get it.

In other news, I have been pulling myself up by the bootstraps a bit as I dig back into colder weather and grayer days.  I look back at older work to see where newer work might come from.  My friend Rima Staines posted online a week or so ago a weeklong set of prompts for “Folk Tale Week” and at the last minute, I decided to play along.

It was good for my mood.  Here they are….. (but to read my reasoning behind choosing these particular images for these specific prompts, go to my instagram page.)

  1. HOME
  2. SECRET
  3. PATH
  4. SMOKE
  5. DARKNESS
  6. KEY
  7. CROWN

It really was fun to re-visit some of my older drawings, and fun to feel inspired to make a couple of new ones as well.  New ideas are a funny thing.  We need the space and time in which to create them, and in a busy modern world, finding that is a feat in and of itself.  But we must also seed new work with perhaps pieces of our own old ideas, or maybe some new things from people and things that inspire us.  and so, we strive for balance.

This balance is always up for scrutiny, at least for me.  Too much time alone with my own thoughts can be dangerous.  Too little, is equally or perhaps more so.  But I keep wandering the artful path.  Trusting that time spent playing my flute or learning new things on the pipes is time well spent (let’s face it, no money is being made and in this modern age, that can seem like a waste of time!!).

In pipes class the other day we were lamenting the piping path, fraught with peril.  And a new idea occurred to me of a series that might happen showcasing a newish piper, a Badger perhaps, clumsily finding his own way along the road to piperhood.  And so I may have a new friend.  He may look a bit like the fella singing in the album cover above…. John Joe?  is that you?

More soon on all of it.  In the meantime, treat yourself to the quiet beauty of Finn’s new album.  It’s gorgeous.  And for once, I am excited to put on Christmas music.


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