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Here is a list of a few people I know. Artists, actually. Of various sorts. I don’t agree with them all about everything, but it would be awfully strange if I did, wouldn’t it? However, I’m blessed to know a great many talented people. Here are a few of them. I’m not name dropping (or don’t mean to be), just thought you might like to see some work from somebody besides me sometimes!

Angie Brennan, humor writer
Angie Goodale, solo, and her band Ion Avenue
Mark Helwig, illustrator and sculptor (incidentally also a really good singer; so is his wife; but I digress . . . ).
Reba Hierholzer, painter and visual artist.
Rob Woodyard of Power Trip
Ward Jenkins, animator, illustrator, director.

This list was off the top of my head, so please don’t be upset if I left you off of it! (But if I did leave you off please do let me know; Lord willing, I’ll live to promote you another day.)

I love Sundays, but they wear me out! We get to church early for choir practice, then sing at Mass, then have coffee hour, then return to choir practice. It works out great for those of us (including me) who drive a long way to church, but I’m pretty much useless when I get home.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Douglas F. Hedwig and his wife today, and he told me about the posthorn. I had never heard this instrument, but now that I look at the picture, I have seen these before (or something very much like it), largely in use for decorative purposes and not as instruments. Anyway, from what I gather, they are portable instruments that were once used to bring a little culture to the countryside, perhaps like a guitar in terms of function. Dr. Hedwig is an expert on the subject (as well as the trumpet and music in general), plays the posthorn here, and has a CD for sale.

Over at RedBubble, I am pleased to report that Dogwood Tree was featured in the Seasonal Scapes group, and Bluejays placed sixth in the Genesis: Day 5 challenge in the Living Christianity group.

I haven’t been painting much lately (did I already say that in a recent post?), but I miss it, and I hope to get back to it soon.

des·cant
(děs’kānt’) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. also dis·cant (dĭs’-) Music
    1. An ornamental melody or counterpoint sung or played above a theme.

    2. The highest part sung in part music.
2. A discussion or discourse on a theme.
(American Heritage Dictionary via dictionary.com)

If I had known I could hit those notes, perhaps I would have quit smoking long before 2006. That is not to say I sound good, just to say that I can make a sound several notes higher than I thought I could. Almost always the right note at the right time, even. And it wasn’t until now, the third day after my first successful descant experience, that I thought of shattering glass. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it. Shatter glass, that is. But who knows?

I’m still thinking about it because it was SO MUCH FUN. That . . . and I have a sore throat. The two aren’t related that I know of, except I probably got exposed to a bug the same day I discovered that I could hit high notes.

So I looked up vocal ranges on Wikipedia, and I’ve got nothing special. But it’s special to me. I hope God liked hearing those alleluias as much as I liked singing them. . . and that He’ll clear up this sore throat in a jiffy!

I’m painting orchids. The orchids are not as much fun as the descant was. However, I think I see how the painting is going to fall into place now and just need to take the time to make it happen.

Every time I say I’m painting a flower, I get this mental picture of me standing in a florist shop with a paintbrush, surrounded by white flowers that need color. Anyone else get this picture or is it just me?

Dogwood Tree
A.M. Otwell, 2008
Acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches, gallery wrapped
Original $400

I finished this up last night. The square format and small size don’t really lend themselves to the types of prints available on RedBubble, so I’ve just made the original available; no prints this time.

This was from a reference photo I took earlier this year at Lake Oconee near Wallace Dam. The reference photo had a lot more white in it (the sky, the far bank) that competed with the blossoms, so I had to make a lot of changes. When I get this far from the “real” photo, it sometimes feels like I’m walking a tightrope and that I might lose my balance and end up with a not-very-good painting, but I’m pretty happy with the result this time around.

While I’ve been painting, I’ve been listening to a beautiful piece of music, Ave Generosa, over and over again, trying to learn it before the choir I just joined sings it Sunday morning. I haven’t been in a choir in a LONG time, and I’m really rusty at reading music, much less trying to sing in Latin! It’s so beautiful, though. Embedding has been disabled, but you can hear it on YouTube here. I’m not sure if the viewer can “see” any of the music in the painting, but I think this painting and that music are forever intertwined in my mind.

And, of course, it’s September 11. I was remiss in preparing a blog post for today, but I have NOT forgotten the day or those who died, and I am grateful for the heroic responses of emergency personnel that day and every day, as well as the soldiers who serve our country and protect our freedom. God has blessed this country richly with heroes, and I pray that He continues to bless the USA.

(Ivan Sings/Andantino by Khachaturian, one of my favorite piano pieces, 1:51)
(To avoid any confusion, I should note that I’m not the one playing on this video.)

Video: Summertime, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, with some truly fabulous photographs, 4:59.

. . . or at least be prepared for the consequences! (funny video; very short)

I’ll admit that it takes a little time to enjoy classical music, even when you’re having fun with it. Perhaps especially when you’re having fun with it. But since I serendipitously encountered two fun Beethoven references in just a few hours, I decided to go exploring to see what else I could find.

I’ll not save the best for last in this post, because, as I said, classical music takes time. Just in case you, Dear Reader, don’t have oodles of time today, I’ll start with the best.

“Argument to Beethoven’s 5th;” Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray; 5:51; make sure you watch all the way to the end! (There’ll be a test later. . . or maybe not.)

Next is a link to a very, very interesting rendition of Beethoven’s Fur Elise (2:25). (Just imagine a googly-eyed umlaut; I’m too lazy to look up the HTML right now.) Based on the comments on that page, I don’t think viewers are “getting it,” but if you think about it for a few seconds, this rendition is incredible. . . or incredibly odd, at least.

Back to the fifth. I’m going to skip right over “A Fifth of Beethoven” and go right to the Beethoven Rap. (Back story here.)

Dudley Moore plays a well-done parody of a Beethoven piano sonata using the whistling tune from “Bridge Over the River Kwai” as a thematic subject here (4:29).

Beethoven on The Muppet Show (along with Victor Borge) (2:12).

And if you haven’t cracked a smile yet, maybe this will work:

(Beethoven is Funny, 0:42)

The Hello Experiment (3:09)
Hiccup 101 (about 2:00)