Music, connections, art . . .

In the last post I mentioned many artists from all around the world and how much I savor those connections. I also mentioned that in preparing the post I found on Shari's Creative Chatter blog the most wonderful videos and project called Playing for Change. You can watch the short video explaining what Playing for Change is all about. It is about inspiring one another, making connections and coming together from every walk of life to make this big ol' world work a little better. I plan to show these videos in sequence here. Today I've posted the introduction and the first episode. You need to jump over on the right side of my blog and turn off my playlist first.





It is evidence to me that not all of the most talented and important people are famous. Have you ever seen any of these people before? I love the idea that our blogs and our art and our words are doing a bit of what is undertaken with Playing for Change. We inspire each other, make connections, and come together.

These two things, music and art, come together for me in another context as well. I am a musician and artist born in a body that struggles with both. I feel and see visual art and music in ways I cannot relate to you - it is soul deep for me. My soul yearns for what my mind and hands cannot make easily, without great effort. I think I must be a reincarnated artist and also a musician stuck in a body that doesn't know how to make either very well. Music and art are as important to me as eating, or sleeping, or breathing. My husband wrote recently that the musician chooses the notes, the poet chooses the words, and the artist illustrates them both. It is easy to connect words to art. Artists title their works, we use words to celebrate and describe them. But for me, connecting music to pictures is as perfect as it gets and a little more subtle. I rarely work without music playing. I find it to be one of my biggest inspirations and it further communicates the message I am trying to "write" wordlessly into my pieces. Usually, not always, the music I play on my playlist here is chosen to set the stage, the ambiance in which I want my art to be understood. Sometimes it has nothing to do with my art at the time, but more with what my soul needs at that instance.

Recently, a constructive and kind hearted suggestion was made to me that I remove my music from my blog and that maybe more people would visit. Not that I am feeling a need for more people to visit. I am happy with the lovely people that visit regularly. But, I don't want their experience here to be negative in any way. So, I am searching out input on the music on blogs thing. When I blog visit, I turn my music off so that I can listen to what other people play on their blogs. It gives me a bit more information about them, an insight into the way they work, the things they enjoy. And, I enjoy hearing things I might not hear otherwise. I have never found it to be a problem with page loading. Blogs load for me just as fast with music as without it but maybe that is just me. (I have found, interestingly enough, a certain page layout that some people use conflicts with something in my computer and freezes it up. It's really weird. The horizontal based layouts freeze me every time.) If it is music that I just really don't care for, I just turn off their playlist and continue my visit. Kind of like if you don't like what's on TV on that channel, change it, no biggie. I like blogs without music too. I am easy to please and find my own way to make everything work for me.

I know it is impossible to please everyone. But, I really would like to know if my music is a pain for the majority of visitors. You can email me instead of commenting if you like - marsha@tumblefishstudio.com Be honest now! Truly, I love my music, but I can listen to it without it being on my blog. If you all think it takes away from your visit here, I want to know.