ArtSpirit7

When Poetry, Calligraphy & Music Collide

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"Awesome," calligraphic piece by Mary Gow

“Awesome,” calligraphic piece by Mary Gow

WHEN POETRY, CALLIGRAPHY AND MUSIC COLLIDE
By Mary Gow

A shrill violin, then a furious drum beat accompanied by a bass guitar with a steady beat, then the bass goes deeper, the violin goes shriller.

My hand is struggling to let go of my mind while pen moves across the page.

This was my first workshop where I listened to experimental music and was prompted to interpret it on paper. A process not to be confused with painting while listening to music.

This is a deliberate call upon my hand to perform according to tempo and beat. I usually enjoy painting to music or Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday. My first creations from this calligraphy and poetry workshop were a bit sad looking, I hate to admit.

I know what wondrous expressive calligraphy looks like and it wasn’t flowing for me.

But I had to pardon myself and let myself absorb the great learning that comes – yet may begin with frustration. I knew what I wanted to put down on paper and what would look good. But I allowed myself to draw something crummy looking, something that didn’t have rhythm and proper spacing like the music did, and I even taped it up on the wall when it came time to show our work.

That in itself was a breakthrough for me. To be okay with putting up work that I knew didn’t represent all I could do. I put it up at the risk of getting feedback, yet, it felt liberating to allow imperfection to be on public display.

I’ve attended a LOT of workshops yet this was my first one ever that calligraphy and poetry were combined with music. And within the workshop the calligrapher and the poet explained how they are collaborating with musicians.

One of the calligraphers I admire the most in the world is Thomas Ingmire. He should be designated a National Treasure as far as I’m concerned. His spectacular work transcends letterforms. He’s won numerous awards and his work has been recognized internationally, so I’m not alone in this admiration.

Ingmire has been collaborating for ten years with British poet, David Anwnn (pronounced Ah-newn). Like a dialog, Ingmire reads Anwnn’s poetry and reflects on it then creates calligraphy from his reflections, Anwnn answers back, and it continues and continues.

Both appeared and spoke of their collaboration at the Book Club of California on Thursday evening, April 7, 2016.

I knew that night that the workshop they were giving two days later would be unlike any I’d ever experienced before. And I was right.

The workshop was a starting point for me to keep going with what was introduced.

Listen to some John Zorn when you can.

Get lost and found in calligraphy by Thomas Ingmire.

Take yourself somewhere you’ve never been through David Anwnn’s poetry!

And don’t give a darn whether anyone approves of what you’ve drawn or painted or written. What is real and true is what matters and it might take a workshop to kick start the remembrance of that.

Coloring for Calm

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Customize how you color a page in a coloring book.

A coloring book page that Mary Gow customized.

Yesterday was the special launch of the book Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. At the end of the event streaming live from Nashville, Hyatt said their book reached No. 4 on the Amazon best seller’s list. The three top sellers were coloring books!

Have you seen evidence of this new rage?

Not long ago I met up with friends to make art. (I usually make art almost every day anyway). I ripped out a page from Coloring Mandalas: For Insight, Healing, and Self-Expression, by Susanne F. Fincher. I added more lines and circles to the existing pattern. It felt good to not stay within the lines. I highly recommend it.

Inspiring Resources from a Podcast

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Door to Wonderland, photo by Mary Gow

Door to Wonderland, photo by Mary Gow

This is a year I’m all in. All for reinvention and embracing the inevitable C word – Change. This year I’m pro-transformation. On my list of must read books is Michael Port’s Steal the Show. Port has a podcast show as well and I listened to his interview of Mike Michalowicz, speaker and author of the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.

I can’t recommend this podcast enough! It runs 1 hr. 7 min. You can hear it at:
here.

Then go to Mike Michalowicz’s website for a look at an amazing website with lots of resources – even ways to motivate kids. (If you prefer you can close the pop up window that comes up when you go to the site).

Sayonara Salmon?

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"Save Salmon," digital drawing by Mary Gow

“Save Salmon,” digital drawing by Mary Gow

It first appeared in the news about a month ago. I forwarded the article in the New York Times to a friend because we share a love for the same kind of fish.

Within two weeks of the article’s appearance, I got a write-up about concern for the plight of salmon from the creator of my daily workout, Dr. Al Sears. His article was titled Invasion of the Frankenfish.

William Davis, author of Wheat Belly, captured my attention when he spoke about “Frankenwheat” on the Dr. Oz show. He said wheat of Biblical times is totally different from the wheat we find today. The plant has been hybridized to create a much faster growing plant minus the same nutrition the original wheat offered.

My intention isn’t to write about wheat but rather to use it as an example of how the hybridization of it has created a new type of food yet it’s still referred to as “wheat,” but it’s now what it used to be.

Sadly, the plight of my favorite fish came to my attention in an opinion piece in the New York Times on December 1, 2015:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/01/opinion/tell-consumers-what-they-are-eating.html?_r=0

The first two paragraphs really summarize my concern:

In approving genetically engineered salmon as safe to eat and safe for the environment, the Food and Drug Administration rejected petitions from environmental and food safety groups asking that companies selling this salmon be required to label it as genetically engineered. Congress should overturn that decision. Consumers deserve to know what they are eating.

The salmon, made by AquaBounty Technologies of Maynard, Mass., has genes inserted that allow it to grow to market size twice as fast as wild salmon. The F.D.A.’s approval permits the engineered salmon to be raised only in land-based hatchery tanks in two facilities — one in Canada, where genes are injected into the eggs of Atlantic salmon, and a facility in Panama, where the fish are grown to market size. Each site has physical barriers to prevent the escape of eggs and fish.

Some stores are refusing to carry the genetically modified fish. Other stores will carry these new fish and they won’t be labeled.

I haven’t tasted this new breed of fish but I reckon I accidentally might at some point.

Hopefully this isn’t the year we say sayonara to real salmon.