What stoked your creative fire this year? What did your discipline enable you to achieve and/or create?
2011 turned out to be a year in which I did some small things that had a deep effect on me and allowed me to reconnect with my creative passion-singing. Three musical high points come to mind. The first happened right at the start of 2011. I happened to find out that an arts group on island was organizing a fundraiser; a night of love songs scheduled around Valentine's day. I asked to be a part of it and it was amazing. Not just the night itself but the path to that night. Picking material, rehearsing, improvising, working with other artists; I can't remember the last time I did any of that. I realized how much I missed having an outlet for that. The random karaoke nights and singing in my living room are not the same as working toward something as an artist. Making a career out of singing and acting? I tried it. I wasn't successful. The "business" of it took over as I was pounding the pavement and the art took a backseat. But if I am honest with myself, there is a part of me that is unfulfilled without singing as part of my life.
That's why I took another opportunity that presented itself a couple of months later and helped a friend with a radio show. She was looking for local artists to reinterpret indie songs. Well, during one of those aforementioned karaoke sessions in my living room, I decided to record myself on my computer. No fancy equipment. No practice. No thought. No second guessing. Just did it and hit send. I immediately regretted it. But my friend wouldn't let me take it back. And she still hasn't let go; recently making a video and posting my version on her you tube channel. It makes me uncomfortable, self-conscious and happily giddy.
The last thing I did this year to feed my musical soul happened at the end of my course in Mexico. We had a graduation ceremony after completing our month long yoga and we were invited to share our experience with the group in any way we wanted. The more creative; the better. So I sang. Got back to my roots and sang a song from a musical about how things & people change you and the course of your life. Who can say if it's for better or worse but it is for good. It was fitting of my experience in Mexico and I remember shaking as I stood in front of the group. The hardest thing is to sing fully, with my true voice in an intimate space with a small group of people. At least when you are on stage there is distance, darkness, space. But I did it and something beautiful happened. People were moved; people were touched; hearts were open. That is what I love about being creative and singing. The effect it can have on a person, place, experience. To be a part of that; to be a portal for that kind of connecting is the gift given by music.
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