Day 23
“The artist: disciple, abundant, multiple, restless
The true artist: capable, practicing, skillful;
maintains dialogue with the heart, meets things with the mind.
The true artist: draws out from all the heart, works with delight, makes things calm, with sagacity, works like a true Toltec, composes objects, works dexterously, invents;
arranges materials, adorns them, makes them adjust.
The carrion artist: works at random, sneers at the people, makes things opaque, brushes across the surface of the face of things, works without care, defrauds people, is a thief.”
-Aztec
"Songs are thoughts, sung out with the breath when people are moved by great forces & ordinary speech no longer suffices. Man is moved just like the ice flow sailing here and there in the current. Thoughts are driven by a flowing force when he feels joy, when he feels fear, when he feels sorrow. Thoughts can wash over him like flood, making his breath come in gasps & his heart throb. Something like an abatement in the weather will keep him thawed up. And then it will happen that we, who always think we are small, will feel still smaller. And we will fear to use words. But it will happen that the words we need will come of themselves. When the words we want to use shoot up of themselves - we get a new song."
- Statement by Orpingalik, Netsilik Inuit
Both excerpts from Technicians of the Sacred
I have been asked a few times, "Why are you doing this?"
The cynic in me would reply, "Why do anything?"
A clear calling, a creative performance and endurance challenge. I also enjoy the hell out of the guitar and want to provide people to hear sounds in a unique setting and space. I want to share the sounds I have unearthed that dispel the norm or cliched "licks" and "riffs" that are like the stagnant waters of the guitar. Nothing against those sounds, they played a significant part to my development that I am proud to acknowledge. Underneath though, lies a deeper search for understanding and truth, a sound that cycles and drowns. A sound that I can hear and am attempting at all costs to get out. Immersing myself in a space and time that allows for little distraction, that has a pleasing tone that does not live inside the comforts of my home. Nature isn't so structured as to contain neatly compartmentalized verses and choruses, nor does this music. Tapping into a source, a well to drink from and to water the garden for growth.
