I have been very busy lately with painting commissions and have had only a little time to devote to getting OKAPI launched on CD Baby. I have received a lot of interest in my paintings of Koi lately. I have been painting abstractions of Koi swimming in Japanese gardens for over 20 years and sold quite a few to hotels and office buildings for lobby art. A hotel in Florida actually sent a patron to me for a painting for their home, and we put together something they really like and it is now hanging in their living room. Several more paintings have been sold and put in place this year and I hope to get some photos of their placement. I’ll add a page of these photos if they look good.
There is a real demand for video content, moving art for commercial properties. I am working as I can at improving my editing skills. I am very comfortable in the Adobe Photoshop environment, and I have Adobe Premiere on one of my PCs. It is, for me, a long curve to getting familiar enough with the filters and strategies to produce content of real worth.
With this in mind I produced a short film “Not For Export” and put it on a page for sharing with those I think might be interested in how I work with my musical instrumets.
"Rings"
I am not ready to stand in front of a camera, but displaying how my hands interact with a keyboard and Theremin I can do. The musical piece I produced is short and I would probably incorporate it into a larger work if I continued with it, but I think it illustrates how my musical ideas come together.
I posted the page to a mail group called Levnet just to get some reactions. Funny, when I post a note to this group I get a huge surge in hits to my site, but no complaints about my music!
I read Levnet because it is a wonderful source of information. The people who post regularly are an excellent source of electronic expertise and will share what they know very willingly. The professional Theremin players, though strangely conservative in their musical taste, are active listeners. I feel they are uncomfortable speaking up and hurting my feelings, which they won’t, because I know I am not really trained, as most of them are, as a musician. I make sound art, which I know is not the same as being a professional musician, but I think my work is at least interesting. Martha remarked last evening that it was “kind of pretty” but it made her uneasy. For one thing, she said, it is too complex for her to really listen to. She is an avid listener to Blues, and Folk music in general and sings, with the passion and beauty of any kind of folk, herself. I really like people to give voice as they are moved to do so, and always encourage them to continue expressing themselves. That’s just what I do, too.
