–

A good day!

Several of us swam to Cherry Island and back (1/2 mile) this morning at 7am when the temperature was 48º. What a wonderful tradition! I’m so glad we didn’t let the chilly morning dissuade us. This always is both fun and a meaningful bonding time. We take it slow and chat, telling stories, and watching loons frolic with us in the water. We swim back feeling victorious, with every ruffle smoothed way out.

And today I finished my first big acrylic painting of my time here. This newest addition to my “sound series” is called What it Takes to Sing, and is all about what we’ve been learning in our singing class. Lift your head off your neck. Any note we sing exists first only in thought. We think it, and poof, give it some breath, and there it is. This is such a great example about how thought literally governs our experience. Drop your jaw. Listen to others and modulate. The eyes, not being what this is about, are only suggested. The sound that starts in the throat, circles around the singer. There is breathing and thinking and motion and sound. It is not physical.

I really like this painting and in many painstaking layers accomplished what I had in mind. It is large, 48″x30″ and done in acrylic. The original is available; buy it here. If you’d like merchandise with this image on it, get that here.

Also fun today was playing a friend (and blog reader)’s alpine horn. That was a rare  experience that was cool! I was able to get a whole range of notes on it, and the sound was loud but lovely. See photos of that below.

–