The Not So Perfect Summer

In about 22.5 hours I will again be fully engaged in my daytime gig as an art teacher.  New students will come flooding into my classroom.  I dearly hope they bring with them the enthusiasm and energy necessary to light and kindle their creative spark.  I spent most of last week preparing my room for the onslaught and unfortunately it is still not ready.  That is the way it goes, one can only do what time and energy allow.

Usually I am able to approach each school year with fresh eyes and renewed spirits but this summer was a challenge to the heart.  June was devoted to my father-in-law whose failing health led to his passing from the struggle of life on the 27th.  I could write more about this but somehow this feels like private territory.  Suffice to say I was left feeling emotionally drained and if you've ever been there, you know your body follows your spirit.  I found myself, on more occasions than I care to admit, paralyzed by lethargy.  Mood and physical pain contribute to this state as my arthritic knees provide me with pain as a nearly constant companion.  Enough whining.  I did get off of my butt enough times to be productive in my favorite ways.

I spent a good deal of time at Fire Arts in downtown South Bend where I am a founding member of this non-profit devoted to promoting and producing sculpture and pottery.  This was the fourth or fifth year that I offered a summer studio camp for talented high school students.  Three students participated and I believe each had a very productive experience.  Penn Hs, Mishawaka HS and my school New Prairie HS were represented.  The kids will have an opening on August 23rd where they will display their creations.  Come on over to the Fire Arts Showroom at 305 E. Colfax between 5:30 and 8:00 pm to see their sculpture and pottery and share in their success.  As these students worked I guided them when needed but for the most part they worked independently which was the goal of the experience.  I used my mentoring time to create some fresh work of my own including functional ware and a couple of sculptural pieces.  I also made a series of proto-type porcelain guitar slides.  These were initially requested by a local guitarist.  I took his requests and worked from there.  I took some of these slides to the Troy Gillacamp last weekend and had just the right number to gift each player with their own Desrosiers slide. It was serendipitous that I had the right number of slides and that even though each was significantly different, each found an owner who liked that particular slide.  Richard really liked the one he picked out.  This has reaffirmed my decision to produce more of these slides.  They are not the easiest object to make but if I can settle in and get consistent results that could make them marketable. 
EVART 3.0
July was a month that brought two music experiences.  The first was the Non-Electric Music Festival in Evart, Mi,(formerly the Original Hammered Dulcimer Players FunFest).  John and I purchased a used mini pop-up camper to pull behind my Scion XB.  Our goal was to make this third year of attending the festival a comprehensive experience by camping in the midst of all the other devotees.  We had a great deal of difficulty getting started because of a dirty trick nature decided to pull on the day before departure.  We had set up the camper as a practice run and to air it out a bit before going.  A sudden wind storm kicked up while I was away getting the license plate for the camper.  I returned just in time to see the wind pummel the structure of the camper forcing pole fittings to contort and snap.  "The horror, the horror of it all." Clearly our departure would be delayed.  I almost immediately began camper triage.  I assessed the damage and it was extensive.  I essentially had to re-manufacture all of the poles.  This meant trying to source and gerry rig parts. I made many trips to the Lowe's, a marina in a nearby town, and ultimately worked into the wee hours.  Finally got it working again, next adventure was installing a wiring harness for the lights. This had its own set of challenges and frustrations and I still think I have a defective harness.  In the end we missed the opening day of the festival.  By the time we arrived most of the camping spaces were gobbled up.  Since our camper is so petite we were able to squeeze into a prime mini space and even had an electrical outlet to charge our phones etc.  This spot was fantastic because we were actually in the thick of the action.

I put aside my trepidation and participated in jam sessions this year.   I played in three different sessions, two Ole Timey and one Celtic.  The Celtic one was my favorite since I really love that genre.  I did not attempt to stand out although because I'm still trying to recognize keys by ear and sort out the best chords to play as a rhythm backup for the fiddlers who dominate the lead in both styles of music.

Our camping spot was located adjacent to a group of musicians who represent the center of a major solar system at Evart.  The festival is like a universe that has solar systems located throughout the fair grounds.  Each solar system has its own characteristics, dominated by a core group of players who know each other well and other musicians of varying skill levels, like myself, who are temporarily pulled into the orbit.  The core musicians are incredibly skilled and provide the driving force.   Saturday night is marathon jam night.  The solar system, located near us and under a canopy of festive lights,  literally jammed all night long. We fell asleep to the sound of dulcimers, fiddle, guitars, bass fiddle, tin whistle and bodhran and awakened to the same, albeit played much more quietly and with far fewer participants.  Warning!  Although the festival enforces a personally welcomed ban on alcoholic drinks and smoking, there are no quiet zones or quiet hours.  Bring your ear plugs if you can't sleep with the sound of music in the background.  I enjoyed it and found myself rocked to sleep by the surging rhythms. 

We had a week's reprieve before heading down to Bloomington, IN. for a workshop that John signed up for with mandolin maestro Jim Richter.  This workshop focused upon Blues and Rock mandolin technique, theory, and jamming.   John's actual class-time was on Saturday.  We arrived Friday late afternoon and checked into the Grant St. Inn, the B & B that hosted the workshop.  I can only say WOW what beautiful inn.  Our room was glorious and I spent hours using it as my guitar practice zone.  I was invited to participate in two jam sessions that started after dinner time and lasted into the wee hours.  These were informal sessions and I was pleasantly surprised to be included since I neither play mandolin and did not sign up for the workshop.   I was also the only woman present.  I guess mandolin workshops fit into Richard's "tupperware party for men" formula.  Sorry guys for breaking with tradition.

Once we returned to South Bend, I felt the urge to force myself to start painting the livingroom area that had been on my list for over two years.  I finished one wall area and started on the adjacent spaces, ran out of paint and now have run out of free time since school is starting. Hummm......hope it doesn't take me another two years to wrap this up.


August opened with one of my favorite activities: Richard Gilewitz's  Gillacamp!!!!  Another great weekend of immersion.  This was my fourth Troy, OH.  Gillacamp!!!!  Damn time flies when your having fun.  I count Gillacamps by the type of treats I bring.  First year it was coconut cookies, second year it was the first annual Gillanut cake(Richard's Bday is in August), third year Gillanut cake with John's image imprinted on the frosting, and this year Zombie Gillanut cake.  What the heck am I going to do for next year?????  Well besides that annual treat we spent serious time working tunes:  Last Steam Engine Train, Spanish Two Step, Yesterday, If I Fell(added spontaneously),  Both Sides Now, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and Steve Talbot on the Keddie Wye  We also spent time with some warm ups, and slide guitar using exercises from Richard's new "Slide Guide" course produced by TrueFire.com.  On Friday evening Richard also took out some time to add details to the music for "Dumonde Blonde".  I've been wanting to add this piece to my repertoire.  Gillacamp is pretty intense and even though I manage to keep up with what is thrown my way,  I realize I will always be the "least" experienced and proficient player in the core group.   This is a simple reality because my guitar buds, Leibert, John and Camille(when she can attend) have copious years of experience beyond my few years.  John has youth on his side and the reinforcement of musical background with his school band studies.  He has been playing out regularly and to say that he has family support in his endeavors is a huge understatement.   I need to remind myself at times that this is not a competition.  I play for intrinsic reasons, gaining pleasure from the challenge and expressive nature of music.  I always want to do better.  I come home from Gillacamp humbled and with more repertoire and skill targets for which to aim. 

I had the dreaded realization that as the beginning of school approached I did not feel renewed from summer break as I usually do.  The beginning of summer left me sucked dry for a bit.  Like a drought-drained well, my energy level is only now beginning to show signs of recovery.  Here's hoping that the students and their energy(positive) will dump some healthy buckets of spiritual water into my vessel. 

Floral City Gillacamp Crew

Gillacampers 2010-August 7 and 8

Gillacampers Troy, Ohio August 7 and 8, 2010

Back Row:  Me, Matt Stump(shop owner),Richard Gilewitz, Fred;  Front Row: Camille , Mark, Leibert, John

 

 

WhyVon and Chamomile share a laugh

Camille and I get along great and share a love for guitar.

Gillacamp Weekend Has Drawn To A Close

   It was a great experience indeed.  Just like Saturday's sessions, I approached Sunday's sessions with the intent to learn as much as possible and to conquer some of my fears.  I made some improvements along those lines but I still was extremely nervous while attempting to play Dance.  I made enough mistakes that Richard stopped me relatively early to help me with some of the problem areas that he immediately caught.  I did not have shaking hand syndrome this time around but some of my errors were based upon anxiety and others upon simply playing the piece incorrectly.  He did something a bit different.  He and Leibert played along with me during a second attempt.  When asked, I told him that an additional  level of tension was added to the experience.   I was stressing about getting through the piece without a memory lapse but also about maintaining a steady rhythm so that he and Leibert could have at least a slight chance of hanging with me.
  In the last hour of our day Richard again offered up the opportunity to play another piece for the group.  I didn't give myself long to think about it and just volunteered to play again.  This time I chose to play The Foggy Dew, a traditional Irish piece that in essence is not particularly difficult.  It does lend itself to a bit of improvisation.  I did some of that but must admit that nerves contributed to a loss of rhythm on my personal additions which I'd deem as sloppy and disjointed.  It would do me good to "organize my improvisation" which I suppose sounds somewhat contradictory.  It make sense to me although.  During this "turn in the hot seat"  Richard provided a series of distractions as he purposely walked back and forth in front me, messed with stuff on the table behind and bumped into me.  I believe he may have done a few other things but honestly I wasn't paying much attention to that.   This exercise was meant to replicate what could easily happen during a live performance.  Surprisingly, the attempted intrusions upon my concentration were easier to deal with than performing for an attentive audience(I find this ironically humorous)...at least until he bumped my hand away from the strings.  I quickly recovered from that nudge and finished the piece. 
   While nestled in the cocoon of anonymity within the group, I can quietly play through a  piece of music in preparation for a performance experience.  Then,  I immediately tense up as soon as my butt hits the hot seat and things fragment to varying degrees. 
   We spent a decent share of time on John Fahey's "Take a Look at That Baby" , "Angels We Have Heard on High" and using open G tuning with slide.  I started to feel a bit more comfortable with the slide.  It is a priority to incorporate slid techniques to my playing.  I really enjoy the sound.  Like everything, it will take years of practice to truly master the textures that this tool can add to music.  I often think about how music and visual arts overlap.  Many visual art design concepts carry over into musical arrangement, expression and skill development.
  We also spent time on set development. The weekend flew by and suddenly it was time to pack it in for Gillacamp 2010.  Even though I was truly tired, I was not ready to see it end. 
   After the camp, a group of us met at a local Italian restaurant, La Piazza to socialize, wind down and review the weekend's experiences.  Guitar-talk was a dominant focus of our conversations but many tangents were hit upon and a fairly boisterous time was had by all.  Our backgrounds were diverse but we shared  a mutual goal.  Leibert made the comment that this year's camp had the highest level of players of any of the previous years.  There were no "newbies".  I recognized the difference as well.  I have clear recollection of being an absolute novice, struggling to make sense of everything being thrown at me.  I still hold the perpetual position of the least experienced player by years and even decades.  There's a lot of catching up to do.  In two days my teaching year begins and I will again need to organize my practice schedule around a full-time job.  The trip to Ireland will be the next significant fellowship adventure.  I depart for Dublin in about four weeks.  In between that time I will be teaching art each weekday.   Guitar practice will be dominating my spare hours and moments.  It will be necessary to have my art students "trained" and have material ready to fill the two weeks that I will be absent from the classroom.