lately much of my artwork has centered around hearts... it wasn't a conscious decision... i just started one day and then it seemed they were everywhere i looked... this childish whimsical heart-art has been good for me.... it's helped to heal my own heart
music has been a major part of my life for as long as my memories reach back... the happiest moments in my life, and the saddest for that matter seem to have a song attached.... my grandmother used to sing in the car when i was a little girl ... "mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy, a kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you" a happy lilt in her voice.... it took me years to understand the lyrics.... i thought she said.... maresy doats and dosey doats .... i had no idea what it meant... but the melody was pretty and she was always smiling when she sang it...
the smell of old spice, my dad's cologne, shag carpeting... my parents dressed up for a night out and willie nelson... blue eyes crying in the rain on the 8 track player...
dancing around the basement with my sister to roger miller "king of the road" on the giant record player....
falling in love with harry nilsson on summer nights with my friend matt.... just imagining life outside our tiny town... watching the river go by for hours in his vintage impala
seeing vivaldi's four seasons for the first time at orchestra hall and crying at what i'd been missing... and the beauty of something so complex and old and easy to feel, even now.... timeless... just like my first opera... and my marvel at the ice queen
connecting to people over and over again through my life with music...
recently, someone that shares a love for music with me.... in a way unlike anyone else ever has, gave me the American Graffiti Soundtrack on Vinyl.... several things happened the last couple of weeks and i purposely hadn't listened to it.
last night i put it on... all of the songs were like familiar old friends... and then "Heart and Soul" came on... and i realized, i'd never heard that version... my grandmother taught my sister and i piano lessons for years. she would come to our house (next door to hers) and we would play on the piano her mother received as an engagement present from her father... years and years ago.... i always thought that story was so romantic... my great grandparents were so adorable in my mind... i knew them briefly... but the stories of their romance and their life were like a beautiful painting to me... they were both quite musical, and grandpa frank smoked a pipe... they lived in a giant brick house, that he built... that smelled of dark wood and stacks of old knitting magazines... they had beautiful rooms and my grandmother had a collection of dolls that she would take out whenever we went to visit... that used to be hers as a little girl. the first time i played that piano was at their house... in beatrice nebraska... i was maybe 3 years old...
one of the first songs i ever learned on the piano, was heart and soul... my grandmother would play the "hard" part... and i would plunk out... "heart and soul, i fell in love with you... lost control... the way a fool would do... maaaaaaaadddddddllllyyyyyyy..... da da ... da da ... da da... da da da da " and we would laugh and she would play it faster and faster adding really elaborate pretty parts... she played the piano in a magical way... she never even had to look at the keys... i suppose that's what happens when you teach and play piano for over 60 years... i remember going with her to church to practice for services... and she would let me sit by her at the organ.... i would always want her to switch the pipes to "chimes" because i loved the way it would boom through the giant empty church.... it never took much urging... she had a soft spot for me, and gave in fairly easily... sigh.... i miss her... what a wonderful lady
last summer, my friends were married.... and a bunch of us from my hometown were in attendance at the wedding.... one of my friends, jaime, took piano lessons from my grandmother too.... as did most of my small town... at the wedding reception i slipped and broke my foot... and i was determined to enjoy the night anyway.... probably in retrospect not the best idea.... but i had friends there from as far away as stockholm and had been looking forward to it for months... after i hurt my foot, jaime and i went out into the lobby and sat on the bench of a baby grand piano... instinctively i started to plunk out ... heart and soul.... only now, i can play the "hard" part.... jaime followed suit.... and we were laughing and reminiscing about my grandma.... "oh Elsie" jaime said.... and we both smiled.... just then an older couple walked by... and they danced cheek to cheek as if it were the most romantic song they'd ever heard
and then again, last night... the song came on and for the first time... i really listened to the lyrics... and i realized how they rang true to me in relation to that record... and the spirit in which it was given... and grandma... and her view of the world... and today, when i came into work, i opened a trunk filled with all of my old piano books.... just as i remembered grandma had written in the dates, complete with years.... for my sister and i.... and again, i heard her voice... she knew what she was doing when she wrote our names in cursive at the tops of the pages... now, for me, it is like a journal of the times spent at the piano... i wish i could tell her... just how much i like heart and soul too and how i understand why she did
music has been a major part of my life for as long as my memories reach back... the happiest moments in my life, and the saddest for that matter seem to have a song attached.... my grandmother used to sing in the car when i was a little girl ... "mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy, a kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you" a happy lilt in her voice.... it took me years to understand the lyrics.... i thought she said.... maresy doats and dosey doats .... i had no idea what it meant... but the melody was pretty and she was always smiling when she sang it...
the smell of old spice, my dad's cologne, shag carpeting... my parents dressed up for a night out and willie nelson... blue eyes crying in the rain on the 8 track player...
dancing around the basement with my sister to roger miller "king of the road" on the giant record player....
falling in love with harry nilsson on summer nights with my friend matt.... just imagining life outside our tiny town... watching the river go by for hours in his vintage impala
seeing vivaldi's four seasons for the first time at orchestra hall and crying at what i'd been missing... and the beauty of something so complex and old and easy to feel, even now.... timeless... just like my first opera... and my marvel at the ice queen
connecting to people over and over again through my life with music...
recently, someone that shares a love for music with me.... in a way unlike anyone else ever has, gave me the American Graffiti Soundtrack on Vinyl.... several things happened the last couple of weeks and i purposely hadn't listened to it.
last night i put it on... all of the songs were like familiar old friends... and then "Heart and Soul" came on... and i realized, i'd never heard that version... my grandmother taught my sister and i piano lessons for years. she would come to our house (next door to hers) and we would play on the piano her mother received as an engagement present from her father... years and years ago.... i always thought that story was so romantic... my great grandparents were so adorable in my mind... i knew them briefly... but the stories of their romance and their life were like a beautiful painting to me... they were both quite musical, and grandpa frank smoked a pipe... they lived in a giant brick house, that he built... that smelled of dark wood and stacks of old knitting magazines... they had beautiful rooms and my grandmother had a collection of dolls that she would take out whenever we went to visit... that used to be hers as a little girl. the first time i played that piano was at their house... in beatrice nebraska... i was maybe 3 years old...
one of the first songs i ever learned on the piano, was heart and soul... my grandmother would play the "hard" part... and i would plunk out... "heart and soul, i fell in love with you... lost control... the way a fool would do... maaaaaaaadddddddllllyyyyyyy..... da da ... da da ... da da... da da da da " and we would laugh and she would play it faster and faster adding really elaborate pretty parts... she played the piano in a magical way... she never even had to look at the keys... i suppose that's what happens when you teach and play piano for over 60 years... i remember going with her to church to practice for services... and she would let me sit by her at the organ.... i would always want her to switch the pipes to "chimes" because i loved the way it would boom through the giant empty church.... it never took much urging... she had a soft spot for me, and gave in fairly easily... sigh.... i miss her... what a wonderful lady
last summer, my friends were married.... and a bunch of us from my hometown were in attendance at the wedding.... one of my friends, jaime, took piano lessons from my grandmother too.... as did most of my small town... at the wedding reception i slipped and broke my foot... and i was determined to enjoy the night anyway.... probably in retrospect not the best idea.... but i had friends there from as far away as stockholm and had been looking forward to it for months... after i hurt my foot, jaime and i went out into the lobby and sat on the bench of a baby grand piano... instinctively i started to plunk out ... heart and soul.... only now, i can play the "hard" part.... jaime followed suit.... and we were laughing and reminiscing about my grandma.... "oh Elsie" jaime said.... and we both smiled.... just then an older couple walked by... and they danced cheek to cheek as if it were the most romantic song they'd ever heard
and then again, last night... the song came on and for the first time... i really listened to the lyrics... and i realized how they rang true to me in relation to that record... and the spirit in which it was given... and grandma... and her view of the world... and today, when i came into work, i opened a trunk filled with all of my old piano books.... just as i remembered grandma had written in the dates, complete with years.... for my sister and i.... and again, i heard her voice... she knew what she was doing when she wrote our names in cursive at the tops of the pages... now, for me, it is like a journal of the times spent at the piano... i wish i could tell her... just how much i like heart and soul too and how i understand why she did
That's me, at my great grandmother's piano
Mom, Me, Grandma Elsie, Great Grandma Anna
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