I have discovered that it is so refreshing – INSPIRING – to work with other creative people. My advice to any artist who feels burned out is to have some fun working with another creative person on an entirely different type of project. It really rejuvenates the soul and makes for some great memories. For example, I have discovered I so enjoy writing lyrics. My first musical collaboration was because of the kindness and talent of Robin Frost, an international, award winning composer. Robin elected to put my poetry to music – working side-by-side with Robin in his amazing studio are some of my happiest memories. I owe quite a bit of my musical courage to him! Following is an example of one of our first bits of creative fun together. Robin Frost used my lyrics “House Cleaning Rag” to write the following ragtime song (and you can hear I won’t win any awards for my singing)!
I have been so lucky to enjoy a few musical collaborations with brilliant musician Dr. Kenneth Kafka – here is an example of the wonderful music Dr. Kafka wrote for my “Moonlight” lyrics:
Another wonderful memory was being a professional narrator (along with Dominic Byrne, a well-known BBC personality and narrator) for my children’s book, “Inca Dink, the Great Houndini.” I even took a photo of my Leonberger dog Inca with me to the recording studio, for inspiration. Here is an excerpt:
Please visit IncaDink.com to learn more.
Creativity comes in more forms too! I am helping to design a cell phone app – that really gets the brain working in other ways! It’s very inspiring to see the genius creative software engineer at work, and maybe much more fun than you might expect. More on that in a later post!
New Fun on the Horizon: I just finished writing the lyrics for an entire musical! It will be awhile before the final product is available to the world at large – but stay tuned! Please visit TuneSmith.bz to learn more.
