I Love Fairy Houses

In the last couple of years, I have become fascinated with fairy houses. My fascination initially started when I went to the Fairy Fest at Lakewold Gardens in Washington State about three years ago with my husband's grandchildren ... but perhaps even before, since I had installed a fairy door on my favorite tree in Rochester.    But, by seeing them in the gardens, it was magical, and I could imagine a tiny presence dwelling there.   

Since that time, my husband has built several and entered his houses into the Lakewold Gardens festival.  I love how he uses the natural materials he finds on the property--tree stumps, feathers, moss, fern, etc.--  to transform them into the magical houses.   

Now that the houses are here, they are becoming part of the experience of being here.   They delight; they inspire imagination ...  

In absentia … SIMON'S ROCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Last Thursday, The Simon's Rock Chamber Orchestra premiered "Nestis"  one of my pieces from The Four Elements of Empedocles.  This is a two-year project where I explore Fire (Zeus), Air (Hera), Water (Nestis) and Earth (Aidoneus) --one each semester.

The challenges of writing for this awesome little orchestra are that the members are at varying ability and their participation is largely volunteer.  … and yet in composing for this ensemble, it created a lot of joy for everyone involved.

My daughter is the flute player and had one of her friends send me a YouTube video of it (below) so I could hear it as soon as possible.  (The school  is sending me an archive copy).  It was truly satisfying to hear it … to hear the ensemble's success at realizing a piece written especially for them …

And now … Onward!  Fire, Air & Water await!

THE ALPHABET FLOWERS

One of the greatest gifts an artist is given is the vision and a capacity "to do" whatever comes to him/her.  This is especially noticeable as I work on a new (and unexpected) project I am calling "The Alphabet Flowers", which is a collection of 28 little poems to celebrate the love of flowers.  The poems encourage literacy and they are designed to create positive adult-child interactions as a child learns the alphabet.


Ordinarily, I work on music or plays or some aspect of educational psychology and the integration of the arts into our lives.  So, I was surprised when I had the inspiration to create poems about flowers--alphabetically, and that I feel so compelled to illustrate them using techniques I experimented with this past summer (crayon, watercolor, regular 8 1/2 x 11 office paper and gold craft paint.)


The poem paired with the illustration above is:

Bachelor Button petals are
raggedy and blue.
Plant seeds early in the spring
and they will bloom for you.


Since I am a composer/playwright, what the project is teaching me is that no matter what realm of art we work, we can be open to the possibility of expanding ourselves in all kinds of ways ... and when we do, we receive so much more joy by exploring that unknown.  For me, I am receiving the gift of "Delight" ... Creating the poetry was a delight!  Printing the poems and placing them into a working binder made the project real ... as did creating its community FaceBook page .  These tasks were a delightful process.  And now, for the next several evenings,  I will color the letter/flower designs and work to complete the pages ... preparing for whatever follows.

Click HERE for a link to a slide show