Part of the artistic process is knowing when you need to rest and take a little break. Today will be the day that I relax and recoup from the constant practicing and painting I've been doing over the last week. Last week was devoted to hours of practicing my instruments. There are a few concerts I have coming up, so it's better to start practicing earlier rather than later. Also, I'm practicing up for the music placement auditions when I return to Furman. Mainly, I've been working on the flute audition excerpts, but I must admit that I've been eyeing the violin excerpts as well. It would be amazing to audition for the symphony orchestra on violin this semester, but if anything, it's good practice to just learn the pieces on the violin. Later this week, I'll have a lovely blog post about practicing! Joy! Hope to see you all then!
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In the last few days, I've made significant progress in my painting! It's more than halfway done, but still, I anticipate the completion of my painting by Saturday. That leaves me enough time to finish every detail and also find an appropriate frame for it. When I've completed the painting, I'll post a picture here for you all to see. Meanwhile, I'm still working on the painting...or better to say, waiting for the paint to dry so I can continue work.
Today, I'm starting on a painting that I should have gotten around to perhaps a year or two ago. Back when I started painting, a friend of mother's asked me to make her a painting, so she'd have an original before I got famous. Ha, the famous part isn't going to happen, but still, I promised her I'd paint her something sometime when I had a little bit of free time.
The landscape I'm painting this time will be of the Gem Lakes, her favorite place in the Aiken area. It'll be a calm and beautiful painting when it's completed. Meanwhile, the canvas is barely coated in paint. I started off with a blank canvas today, and God, that's intimidating. Sometimes, I have trouble starting a painting because I don't know how to begin or how to not make a mistake from the very start. From previous experiences, I know the painting process gets easier as I go along. Meanwhile, I had to make some mark on the canvas to actually make some form of progress. So far, I've generally sketched out the picture and I've laid in the background of lake water, sky, and ground. It's rough, but I'm confident that this painting will be finished eventually. Key word: eventually. Don't rush me. For the last few weeks, I've been helping out with a summer arts program called acGATEWAY. This Aiken County program headed by Mr. Joseph Laorenza is a program for elementary, middle, and high school students. The program offers five divisions of the arts: music, drama, dance, art, and creative writing. As a former student of the acGATEWAY program, I decided to return this year to visit a few of my former music teachers. One of the teachers who had been present for the premiere of my composition asked me if I could serve as a guest speaker for her conducting classes. About a month ago, I was honored to speak to all of the music students about conducting, composing, and what the life of being a musician is all about.
After that first visit back, I continued to return to the program every single day just to help out and be useful. Originally, I had come to talk about conducting an ensemble and from there it advanced to assisting and coaching the strings masterclass...and then I was asked to compose three fiddle parts for a country tune...and then I became the designated page turner for the accompanist in chorus! In the last few weeks, I've done everything from fixing flutes to tuning violas to setting up equipment and performance areas. Honestly, I enjoy helping out teachers and music students so that the school day run as smoothly as possible. People have asked me if I'm a teacher. Not really. Then that question is usually followed with the insinuation that I'm a student. Nope, I'm not that either. What am I then? Well, one teacher has dubbed me as an "intern" and I suppose you can say that I'm kinda in that category. I consider myself a volunteer who doesn't mind helping out in the slightest. The acGATEWAY program is all about improving your art and always striving for excellence. By helping out with the program, I must say I'm constantly learning something new each day. I'm learning how to be an good music director, how to play any stringed instrument you throw my direction, how to help young instrumentalists find their sound and be proud of the beautiful talents they possess. I look forward to this final week of the program, and I certainly look forward to the showcase performances of these young artists on Thursday of this week. For anyone interested, the showcase will be held at Kennedy Middle School on July 11th at 7 pm in the gym. That's all for now! Helping out again with Gateway tomorrow bright and early tomorrow morning! Stay tuned to my blogs ab Hello to all! It's seems that I've been slacking with the blog writing. For that, I apologize, and I also propose a "creative" solution to remedy this problem. For the two months, I'll be blogging about my artistic/creative endeavors. For two solid months, I want to fill every moment I can with something creative and exciting. It'll be a summer long adventure of creative writing, playing music, composing music, painting, and much more! Already, I've been busy doing artistic jobs, but starting now, I'll start writing about my latest projects. So why exactly did I want to take on this challenge? Before the summer began, I vowed I wanted to enjoy the summer to relax. In my definition of relax, I take my completely blank calendar and fill it with all the activities I want to do. Happiness for me comes with doing anything productive and not mindless. So far, I've had a summer of absolute bliss! It's absolutely splendid to get a chance to enjoy things that you normally don't have time for! Check back tomorrow for my next blog about my summer "internship" adventures! |
AuthorKendall Driscoll is an accomplished writer/ musician/ artist/ academic scholar. Archives
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