The Kyo Daiko Drummers

I had no idea that Philadelphia held such extensive celebrations for the Japanese Cherry Festival until this year.  I have taken the girls to special children's storytimes at our local libraries, and while we didn't attend, there was a food tasting at a nearby Japanese market.  There have been archery demonstrations, tea ceremonies, and dance performances. 

On Saturday, while my mom was in town visiting from Kentucky, we went to Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill as a family to watch the Kyo Daiko Drumming Crew.  It is apparently Philadelphia’s only Japanese-style drumming group. 

This style of drumming has been around for over 1400 years in Japan, while this group has been together since 2005.  I was especially captivated by the drummer who spent most of her time directly in front of where we were sitting, a woman named Cathi.

She had a seemingly endless supply of positive energy as she shared her talents.

It was so odd to watch the video posted by the local Chestnut Hill online news because they never featured her at all, though she was my favorite of the performers.  Even my three-year-old, upon watching the video, asked, "Where is the white-haired woman who played for us?"!

(If you watch the video, by the way, we are a mere foot off-camera to the left of the screen for most of the clip; I even think you can see my husband's tennis shoe in one frame!)

They played a number of different songs on the three different styles of drums, changing their positions and their roles for each song.  One of the features of their drumming is to yell out occasionally as a way of encouraging one another in what is clearly an exhausting performance.  At one point, the crew divided the crowd into two groups, and we had a "yell-off" to be the loudest "encouragers"...though now that I think about it, they never declared a winner!

Our girls even got the chance to try out drumming, which was a big thrill for them.

There is something so alluring about the thought of banging away at those drums in rhythm, calling out with abandon to encourage my drum-mates.  I am seriously considering their offer of beginning Taiko classes on Monday evenings...not right now perhaps, but at some point in the future!

What an absolutely beautiful afternoon we had at the Arboretum!  Just one of the great memories of this weekend with my mom that I will be sharing with you this week!

Drawing Practice

I'm not very good at drawing.  Yet.  And there's no shame in that, because I haven't ever had any training, and I don't practice.  Yet. 

I started off last year, gung-ho to learn how to draw.  I found Danny Gregory's The Creative License to be wonderfully inspiring, and checked out armloads of books about drawing from the library.  For a brief time, I sketched in my notebook in the evening, and had fun seeing what I could accomplish.  I liked many of the things I sketched by copying from the pages of the books I was reading, but I was invariably discouraged when I tried to draw from real life and, in my mind, failed miserably.

I've been participating in Dana Barbieri's eCourse, "Artfull Sketchbook," this month of April, and she has challenged us to spend time each day--at least fifteen minutes--drawing in our sketchbooks.  (She follows up each week with plenty of paint-y play, as well.) 

Being in her class, and being challenged to draw on a daily basis, sent me back to my sketchbook from the beginning of last year.  I was surprised to see how much I seemed to "get" the concept of a sketchbook back then.  I wasn't trying to keep an "art journal" with publication-worthy spreads; I truly used it as a playground to try out ideas, subjects, and techniques. 

I thought I would give you a peek at some of the pages from that sketchbook, before sharing some of the things I've done since Dana's class began.

I just feel like these pages really reflect someone trying to learn, and playing around with something new.  I want to bring some more of that spirit into what I am doing as part of Dana's class.

I have a file of pictures I have pulled from various magazines and catalogs to use for drawing inspiration, and I have been using these images for my recent drawing practices.

Don't bother trying to look too closely; they are really not good. 

Because of this mermaid's frightening eyes and mouth, the text on this page says, "Alas, poor Siren, there is no song sweet enough that you could sing to lure an unsuspecting sailor your way.  Better to remain silen, for if he hears your song but escapes your snare, then surely you must die."  Cheery, don't you think? 

I actually kind of liked this little rabbit, drawn from the cover of a Chinaberry catalog I filed last year around Easter.  I used it as a journal page for our Easter celebrations this year.

I tend to enjoy the more abstract, doodling kind of drawing, because I don't have to be hard on myself that it didn't turn out the way it's "supposed to."

I was inspired by Caatje's ribbon drawings to create some of my own.

I swiped this doodle straight from a video Dana shared with us of her own sketchbook.  Don't tell!

The "mark-making" is easy and fun--sort of like the "therapy" of Zentangles and doodling.  But I feel like I am trying to take the easy way out instead of challenging myself to get better at something that I clearly have yet to develop any talent in.  (Though when my husband saw me painting my little bunny picture, he called me "artistic" with a certain amount of surprise in his voice, and made my day!)

It's fun to try something and discover that you have a natural and easy gift for it.  But that's pretty unusual, too, I think.  I am hoping that with a little more consistency than I've shown in the past, I'll be able to put some practice into drawing, maybe even have an opportunity for some more formal education on the subject, and see some progress in my talent. 

I'm not expecting any miracles, but I would love to get "good enough" to pursue drawing as a pasttime and find satisfaction in the results.

A closing thought from Bill Brown:  "My sketchbook is the opposite of my job.  It's like a pocket-sized vacation."

Three Things: Birthday Edition

1.
My husband got in touch with his craftsy side for my birthday this past weekend. I have asked him in the past if he could drill holes into Scrabble tiles so that I can use them to create collaged pendants, so he decided to surprise me with the results as a birthday gift.

He strung together Scrabble tiles to spell "BELOVED," and added other beads to create a necklace for me.  How sweet is that?

Now he wants a proper drill press for our next gift-giving holiday (our anniversary, in May), though he says he thinks I'll end up using it more than he will.  He is very encouraging of me introducing power tools to my art and craft-making supply list!

2.
I also had to share another gift he gave me for my birthday, this one to encourage my jogging efforts.  I've been wanting to have fast-paced motivational music playing while I jog, so he got me an iPod Shuffle.  Have you seen these things?  They play tons of music, and are the size of a postage stamp.  It really is unbelievable how small this little thing is. 

3.
After all the gift-giving, including sweet cards signed by my girls (both are writing their names now!), my husband took me to The Melting Pot (yum!) and then on to Briggs Auction in Booth's Corner.  We've been going on occasion on Friday nights since before we had kids, maybe even before we got married.  Even when there isn't too much of interest up for auction, I find it to be a relaxing, kind of soothing environment.  The people-watching is fascinating, and I love listening to the auctioneers' voices.  There wasn't too much that caught our eye on Friday night, but we came away with a few fun things:

My husband was quite excited about this little jar of marbles.  He had no idea that I have a whole huge jar of marbles down in our basement.  Neither of us realized how much the other one likes marbles!  See, we are still learning new things about each other.

We also bid on a box of picture frames.  I have visions of all the ways I can alter them to make them more interesting!

We also bought two crazy decorative wood chickens, but I didn't take their photo.  I was amused that we both kind of liked them, though the auctioneer actually laughed at my husband for bidding on them, and no one offered a counter-bid!  It made it even better that we were alone in the world together liking them!

All in all it was a fun way to usher in the last year of my 30s.  Time to live it up!