Art Journaling and Songwriting NOW

Happy July!

In truth, because I live in Dallas, I sorta hate July.  And August.  And at least the first half of September. Oh Dallas, I will never love you for your summertime heat.

To make July more bearable, I decided to start a few indoor projects that will keep me busy without breaking a sweat, and flex my creative muscles.  Two creative endeavors I will be starting in July:

1.  I am starting my Art Journal July 1 (TODAY!  YAY!).  I have talked about Art Journaling and stalked bloggers that do it for years, but I have yet to start and keep one of my own on a regular basis.  But this is where that changes.  I recently bought this book...

NO EXCUSES ART JOURNALING by Gina Rossi Armfield

And it has inspired me to gather up my materials (which I have over the past week, months and honestly, years!), stop making excuses and just make the time for an art journal already.  And even if it's only 5 minutes a day, that's totally okay!  If it's more than that, even better.

2.  I am going to write a whole bunch of songs between July 4 and October 1.  The online challenge that has motivated me to do this in past years is called "50 songs in 90 days".  I'm not sure about 50 songs this time around, and I'm not sure they have to be all brand new songs, but there will be lots of songwriting most days of each week during the next 3 months.  I might chose to edit and finish something I've previously started, or it might be hot off the press.  I'm not really making firm rules this time around.  I just want to participate in the process and know that in 90 days, when it's finally starting to cool off, and when the Fall days are just around the corner, I will have created some songs that didn't exist in the universe before.  That's all.  Other than that, no firm rules.

I'm doing this not only to reframe how I think of a long, hot summer, but I'm hoping I will learn new things-- even some things about myself, and come out of this feeling like I've really accomplished something cool.

So here goes!  IT'S ON!

Music Monday- Jonatha Brooke

I would say of all the musicians out there, I probably love Jonatha Brooke the most.

She plays most of her songs with altered guitar tunings which makes for a bit of a different sound than what is mainstream. And I'm not such a fan of mainstream. In fact, that's another thing I love about Jonatha- She has lots of fans around the world, but still somehow, she's a well kept secret.

I think, altho I certainly don't know, Jonatha probably has a pretty cool life. She's a successful musician that tours (although not crazy long tours) all over the world and is very well respected, and yet remains relatively unknown and doesn't have to mess with all the weirdness of being famous.

I saw Jonatha perform a few times live, and it coincided with when I was first starting to play out myself. When I felt nervous about getting up to perform, I would just pretend I was Jonatha for a few minutes, until I calmed down and found my own confidence.

I have every cd she's ever made, and I love them all. It's hard to even tell you which one to buy first, so instead I say: BUY THEM ALL NOW!

This is one, just one, of my favorite songs of Jonatha's....

Because I Told You So

Who Would You Be?

I read Jonathan Field's blog, and today he posed the question, "If there was no criticism or praise, who would you be?" He answered that he'd basically be doing what he does now. That's a great realization.

For me, when I think about this, I guess my answer is similar. I'd still want to write my blog, and write songs, and play music for people- But I'd like to be fearless and do it on a bigger scale. That's my truthful answer.

So then the next obvious question is, what keeps me playing my life so small? And maybe the truth of it is, ultimately, I sorta like it small. But at that same time, I'm constantly daydreaming about something bigger... Hmmm.

How 'bout you? If there was no praise or criticism, who would you be?