Halfway through playing in the 2009 Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, CO, I’ve found myself again pondering what motivates us to create. I miss my drafting table and bench, but my hands have been literally full with playing the viola both in orchestra and chamber music settings right now. The ability to create a beautiful sound is indeed a gift; even rarer are the musicians who can spin a phrase stylistically and “in time”, while somehow seeming to suspend the passage of time entirely. The need to own the moment is perhaps what drives us most as musicians. We want to “say” something and know that we’ve been heard.
Not unlike that is the process of creating a visual piece of art. When I sit down to do a rendering, I find that time stands still. Most important to me is to convey the vision – my truth – that comes from deep inside. I get a great sense of satisfaction from fleshing out an initial line drawing to a shaded sketch or full-blown rendering. Although the experts claim that it is impossible to be equally creative in every endeavor, my musical training and background seem to enhance my design work. I did the sketch above years ago while at another music festival…proof that creative impulses feed on each other.
What beautiful lines. Neo-Egyptian? My imagination is running around art history.