I have been obsessively playing instruments this year. I started with my son’s ukulele, hiding in all of the quiet recesses of my house while single parenting. I’ve found that where I have trouble getting my paints and prints out and finding space that they can stay without my children getting into them, I can take out and put away instruments twice as easily. About the only painting I get in regularly is my daily drawing.
Since picking up the ukulele, I’ve had my father’s acoustic guitar which I learned to play on 30 years ago repaired, begun playing mandola that I received from my Aunt after my Uncle passed, and most recently started strumming a mandolin which I purchased online.
I’ve been writing a lot of different progressions and melodies and even creating a few songs with a friend, though I’m not sure that that is going to be the final iteration of anything that I’m playing. I’m really hoping to put together a few projects that involve visual art and my own soundtracks a la WMR whose cassettes I’ve been collecting a while.
However, as a sort of bridge between my two creative areas for the time being I have begun carving woodcuts of instruments. Here is the first, Keep on Rocking in the Free World.
It seemed fitting to start with a ukulele. Prints are available on my Big Cartel page for $20.