The Direction of Intention

One Of A Kind [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on June 15, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety…” ~ Maya Angelou

The house shook. “What the hell was that?” she asked. Later, I noticed bits of plaster on the black couch, fine white dust on the hardwood floor, shaken loose from the ceiling. Our great old maple tree split and fell.

“Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us…”

It was the first blast of wind, the leading edge of a storm that lasted no more than a few minutes. It was enough. “My children climbed in that tree,” she told the crew boss sent to clear the mighty limbs from the road. The crew cut a piece for her to save. These burly men were kind.

She told me stories over the buzz-roar of many saws as we peered out the window, witness to the quick dismantling of her guardian. Heartbroken. The crew was methodical, efficient. The storm had taken more than a few of the old guard trees and they needed to beat the next wave of incoming storms. To them our great tree was one of many. To us, it was precious, one of a kind.

It is serendipitous. Maya Angelou wrote her poem, When A Great Tree Falls, to process the loss of her mentor and friend, James Baldwin. On the day our tree fell I was reading The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin; a book about our nation’s inability to deal with its history. He was a mighty voice, a giant tree. On the morning our tree fell, I read his prophetic words: “The subtle and deadly change of heart that might occur in you would be involved with the realization that a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”

The end of an era. A methodical and efficient dismantling of our great nation made possible by the spineless. To them our great nation-tree is one of many, easily disassembled. To us, it is precious, one of a kind. Democracy.

Our tree shook the earth. “What the hell was that?” Plaster fell like snow from the ceiling.

“Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.” ~ Maya Angelou

“We can be. Be and be better.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE GREAT TREE

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Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, civilization, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, James Baldwin, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, maya angelou, spineless, spineless republicans, story, studio melange, The Fire Next Time, the melange, When A Great Tree Falls | Leave a comment »

A Butterfly On A Pin [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on June 12, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

When you say “green,” what exactly do you mean? Each morning I stand in my backyard and marvel at the symphony of greens. The licorice plant, the tomatoes, the sweet potato vine, the ferns, the grasses, the aspen leaves…each wear a unique shade of green. Each green changes with the light. The greens are different in the morning than they are at noon and wildly different during the pre-sunset golden hour. Well…they are not different but the light changes what I perceive. The change is in me.

The change is in me.

My first line of contact with the world is my senses. Everything I know is a product of everything I have experienced and my experiences begin with my eyes, ears, nose, skin and taste buds. And then I make sense of it or at least try to makes sense of it. I build stories like, “Each green changes with the light.” In other words, the greens change while I remain unchanged. I am the center. This is the exact opposite of what happens. It’s a trick of language. I story myself as normal (Kerri will laugh hysterically when she reads that assertion!). I story myself as “right” though I also have great capacity to story myself as worthless or stupid or wishing I had kept my mouth closed.

I story other people as good or bad – a harsh and narrow measurement to be sure.

In my current story I have discovered the depths of my intolerance. I can’t understand how farmers voted again for their own demise. Since we are all suffering the impact of their support of autocracy, I have little compassion for the loss of their farms. They voted for it.

I find my intolerance necessary. And sad. These farmers are suffering accountability for their actions – for their votes – while the people who showered them with false promises and drown them in propaganda are profiting from the farmer’s loss.

I am like all others: I seek and find people and information that bolster my point of view. It feels good to feel affirmed in what I believe. Yet, what I believe – my opinions – are meritless unless grounded in fact. I have worked hard in my life to question my point of view because I was taught, as an artist who could impact the lives of others, I had a responsibility to deal in truth.

Even in writing this mind-wander about the senses and perception, it all sounds schizophrenic: seek support for what you believe and then challenge it. It’s called learning. The senses open and expand, the mind narrows and refines. It is like the tides. Open to the experience, sift it for veracity. It is how we make sense from senses.

The farmers and red-hatted others who voted for fascism would have been well served to ask a few questions before they calcified their belief and cast ballots for their own destruction. The information was readily available. They simple needed to open their eyes and exercise their minds. They only needed to take a moment – for that is all it would have taken – to challenge the gaslight.

Do you see the current scrubbing of our history? The white-washing of our national sense-making, the assault on education and educators? It’s akin to reducing all greens to a single dull shade. Do you hear the fear of the question, the fear of being questioned? Are you aware of the publication of an enemies list? Those who are exercising their first amendment rights are being branded as hostile. Do you smell the corruption? The acrid burn of our constitution? Do you taste the bitterness at the gas pump, the bitter frustration at the grocery store? Are questioning?

There is sense to be made.

Of our nation and our fear of facing our history, James Baldwin wrote: “People who imagine that history flatters them (as it does, indeed, since they wrote it) are impaled on their history like a butterfly on a pin and become incapable of seeing or changing themselves, or the world.”

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blog post about GREENS

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Filed under: Edges, KS Friday, Seeing, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, change, corruption, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, education, fascism, First Amendment, James Baldwin, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, propaganda, sense making, senses, story, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

Born Anew [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on June 11, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

A week ago they were buds about ready to burst. This week the petals are letting go. The lifespan of a peony blossom is short. I consider them the flower equivalent of the sand paintings made by Tibetan monks: upon completion of the painting, upon the fullness of the blossom, it is swept away. All things are temporary.

“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.” ~ Alan Watts

One of the gifts of our democracy is its fluidity. It is mutable. It is a system that is built upon a foundational principle of continual change and renewal. It is alive, growing and adapting. The mechanism of renewal in democracy is the what we know as voting. The people vote for the change they desire. The people vote for the future they envision.

John Dewey wrote, “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” The people vote for change but their vote is only meaningful when they are well-informed, when know the truth of the change they are voting for. When the people’s vote is based on misinformation, gaslighting and lies, democracy is stillborn. The only purpose for the incessant lies, for misleading propaganda, is to prevent change. To prevent democracy. To assault education, to erase history, to restrict knowledge, to flood the zone with misinformation…is to make the people ignorant and gullible. It is to prevent democracy.

Autocracy requires permanence. Democracy requires changeability. We are a sand painting, made anew again and again by a diverse people who participate in the perpetual change and renewal requirement of a democracy: government that serves the people.

This other thing, white national fascism, autocracy, built upon fearmongering that demonizes immigrants, that denigrates opposing ideas, that protects the criminals and punishes the victims…is inert. It intends to restrict change. It is meant to suffocate the voice and will of the people. It gerrymanders to hold onto power. It spreads lies about the security of voting to sow doubt, to challenge and upend the voice of the people when it loses. Autocrats serve no one but themselves.

More than to restrict the blossom-vote of democracy, the autocrats intend to kill the plant, cover the space with concrete, and erect a golden statue to dear leader. Lifeless. Corrupt. A sad monument to the gods of permanence.

We have the power to stop it. Our democracy can be reborn. Educating ourselves, sifting truth from lie, fact from fantasy, and then voting en mass as if our lives and livelihoods depend upon it – because they do.

read Kerri’s blog post about PEONIES

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Education, Identity, Perspective | Tagged: alan watts, artistry, autocracy, changeability, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, education, fact, gaslighting, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, renewal, story, studio melange, the melange, truth, vote | 1 Comment »

The Third Line [David’s blog on Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on June 10, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Our first guess, a Yellow Breasted Bunting, was inaccurate. It was an American Goldfinch. Our honest mistake did not short circuit a haiku.

Seven syllables, the second line of a haiku: A Yellow Breasted Bunting. What might be the first line of this haiku? A shock of color? Harbinger alights? An Omen arrives? What reconciliation or insight might this omen-Bunting bring to the third line? The messenger sings? Chirping the future?

An omen arrives/ A Yellow Breasted Bunting/The messenger sings.

All of this ran through my mind after scrubbing out the birdbath, refilling it with fresh water, only to find a few moments later a shock of feathered yellow perched on the rim preparing for a swim. The fourth line of my haiku, if such a thing existed, would be: Gratification. Or “pure bliss”. Or perhaps, “The oracle takes a bath”.

Canary in the coal mine. Their song an early warning system.

Maya Angelou wrote, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”. The song of the caged bird is one of hope in the face of oppression. The song of a bird yearning to be free.

And what is the message of a mistaken Yellow Breasted Bunting/American Goldfinch perched on the rim of a newly refreshed birdbath? A new beginning perhaps? A fresh start? The necessity of chirping from the heart?

Or, perhaps, it wasn’t a messenger at all! Perhaps it was just an American Goldfinch, not an oracle, who simply stopped in to take a cool bath and sing.

American gold/finch, not oracle or seer/Singing just because.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE GOLDFINCH

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Language, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: American Goldfinch, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, freedom, haiku, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, maya angelou, omen, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Having Enough [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 9, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

When we are in need of a quick and easy sunset getaway, a mental and emotional break from a hectic day, we drive 15 minutes south to Winthrop Harbor and slow-walk the boardwalk that runs along the marina. The sound of the gulls, the rhythmic clang of buckle-on-mast, the quiet plop of a line cast by someone fishing from the dock, the breeze off the lake…it quiets the mind. On the weekends, bands play from a small stage to people sitting on the grass adjacent to the boathouse where Harbor Brewing runs a pop-up beer garden throughout the summer months. It sometimes feels old-worldly: people gathered together to drink a beer at sunset, tapping their feet to music from a local band. Some folks surround fire pits. Others sit in fold-up chairs, blankets at the ready in case the wind shifts off the lake. The siren-smell of brisket and burgers wafts over the gathering.

It is enough. It is more than enough. Simple people enjoying their simple moment.

Last week Kerri wrote a post that hit-the-nail-on-the-head. She asked, “What’s missing?” in the hearts and minds of the republicans and the administration currently robbing the country blind. Her answer? Reverence. In this cohort there is no reverence for nature, for people, for ideas, for science, for the future, for the past. There is only insatiable hunger for more, more, more. They are hungry ghosts. “In Buddhism…These beings are depicted with scrawny necks, tiny mouths, and huge bellies, representing an eternal, painful inability to satisfy their desires.” (Wikipedia) We are subjected to a gaggle of people who live in the existential emptiness of “never having enough”.

Reverence. Awe. Wonder. Veneration. These are born of respect. They require a certain humility that comes from knowing-to-your-bones what it is to “have enough.”

If a picture paints a thousand words then all we need to truly understand what’s happening in this republican administration is Paul Cadmus’ painting, Gluttony.

Morbidly wealthy. Hoarders. Absent of reverence. Completely incapable of understanding what makes (or will make) this nation great: simple hardworking people who believe in equality and fairness, gathering together to share the fruits of their labor, the deep satisfaction of neighbors playing music, of the sun setting over the harbor, enjoying a meal or buying a beer for friends. Slow-strolling the boardwalk. Knowing to their bones the enormity of appreciation that comes from having enough.

read Kerri’s blogpost about SUNSET AT THE MARINA

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Filed under: Two Artists Tuesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, gluttony, hungry ghost, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, paul cadmus, republican, reverence, story, studio melange, sufficiency, the melange, veneration | 1 Comment »

The Question Remains [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on June 8, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

It’s hard not to sift everything through the lens of current events. I mean, we are alive in the time of an AI upheaval that is at least as revolutionary to society as Guternberg’s press, all the while white-knuckling it through an attempted autocratic takeover of our democracy that Timothy Snyder calls “superpower suicide”. And we mustn’t forget climate change. How could circumstance not shade almost every decision we make?

We are living in transformational times which means we are experiencing serious upheaval. The daily ups seem higher because the daily down is without bottom.

Through social media people are sharing the sounds made by newly built data processing centers. Isn’t it ironic that the infrastructure necessary to fuel this tsunami called AI, a technology that is meant to make our lives easier, roars and thrums and not only robs communities of their peace but requires them to pay the power company for their discomfort? The price of progress? Is this a down or an up or both?

Gutenberg’s press made books available to the masses and soon transformed an illiterate populace into a literate society. The Renaissance and the Reformation would not have been possible without the press making literature and education accessible to the masses.

In his book Technopoly, Neil Postman posited that our daily glut of information would ultimately make information a form of garbage: “Because it is severed from theory, meaning, or purpose, it is incapable of answering fundamental human questions or directing coherent solutions.”

In an act of irony I asked AI to describe Neil Postman’s warning about AI: “Neil Postman warned that making information effortlessly accessible severs it from human purpose and action. He famously argued that an overwhelming glut of data creates passivity, leaving us drowning in irrelevant “disinformation” while remaining hopelessly impotent to solve real-world problems.”

Neil Postman was prophetic. His warning accurately describes our current challenge. We are drowning in irrelevance and misinformation. I cite the ballroom. We seem hopelessly impotent to solve our real-world problems but infinitely capable of creating tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. We have lost our free press and any attachment to fact or truth. I cite the current resident of the White House, the incessant gaslighting, the party that enables him and the propaganda mechanism that stuffs his lies with credence. We are easy marks since we seek information that confirms our bias rather than accurate information that might challenge our opinions and expand our knowledge.

We are told that what goes up must come down and vice versa. The question remains: Can we survive it?

read Kerri’s blogpost about IT WILL COME BACK

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Filed under: Edges, Merely A Thought Monday, Perspective, Uncategorized | Tagged: AI, artistry, authoritarian, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democraccy, free press, Gutenberg's Press, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, knowledge, misinformation, Neil Postman, propaganda, story, studio melange, the melange, Timothy Snyder, truth | 1 Comment »

Extraordinary [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on June 5, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

The morning sunrise sky was vivid mango. It rained overnight so as I stood in the cool morning air marveling at the color of dawn I also breathed deep the newly washed earth. Life is extraordinary.

Dogga was sick again this morning. We are doing what people do when they don’t want to admit that there is nothing to be done that will change what is inevitable. We are preparing ourselves for heartbreak. Life is extraordinary.

She brought the peace sign from her studio and placed it on the branch on our deck that now serves as a way-station for the finches and the sparrows. “Do you like it?” she asked. The symbol is made of glass and softly glows when the sun catches it. It is a symbol that almost everyone on earth understands. Language is not a barrier to understanding it. Culture is not a barrier to understanding it. Religion or politics cannot cloud its meaning. Common ground. A shared symbol is a shared aspiration. An impossible dream? An invocation? Life is extraordinary.

We do not miss an opportunity to say to each other, “I love you.” We’ve both walked life paths that made those words nearly impossible to utter. Scary. We’ve learned that they are not just words to be tossed away, an easy sentiment scribbled on a birthday card. They are fresh water to the garden. We do not speak those words lightly. We are careful to whisper them into Dogga’s ear each day.

Vivid mango sky. Side-by-side writing about reverence in the form of a shared symbol. She takes my hand in hers. Life is extraordinary.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about PEACE

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Filed under: KS Friday, Love, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dogga, heartbreak, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life, love, peace, reverence, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange | 1 Comment »

Play And Walk Away [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on June 4, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

This is the season of vibrant color. The muted tones of winter have traveled through the pastels of early spring and stepped boldly into full saturation. The greens are not holding back. The magenta of the peony is unabashedly electric. The purple and blue blossoms on the trail demand an audience. Nature’s color wheel abandons the monochrome of the cold months and proudly and loudly performs in full contrast.

Breck-the-aspen-tree grows a few inches every day. “I wonder if we stared at Breck would we see her growing?” she asked.

We are on peony watch. It was only a few days ago that the tiny buds appeared and then like old-fashioned Jiffy pop they visibly swelled and are now bursting open. The peony flowers have a very short life-span so we give them our undivided attention and appreciate every eye-popping minute that they give us.

I bought a full color spectrum of cheap craft paint. I am in the mood to play and don’t want the expense of the paint to be a barrier. I don’t want taking-myself-too-seriously to be an obstacle. I have several small canvases and some panel pieces just waiting to be splashed. Master Miller sent me some cool painting tools so I’ve made a single rule that no brushes are allowed until the final washes – and the only brush allowed is a cheap 3″ house painting brush. Only the cool tools, scrapers, wipers, palette knives, crayons, my hands…and anything found on the shop floor. No thinking is permitted, just playing, impulse and intuition. Play and walk away. There will be plenty of time for serious study in the fall.

I want to take full advantage of the fearless energy of spring.

Kerri calls this little ditty “Primary.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about COLOR

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Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, attention, color, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, energy, experiment, fearless, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, peony, play, saturation, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

In It [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on June 3, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“As we grow older, we often cling to our past achievements or rigid ideas of who we are. True contentment comes when we release this need to be a “finished product”. ~ Pema Chödrön

Late at night, not able to sleep, I bumbled upon a Sounds True interview with Pema Chödrön. She shared her thoughts about the gifts available in aging. Slowing down and spaciousness ran through her comments. I found myself deeply grateful for Kerri since I doubt, if left to my own devices, I would have slowed down or learned to watch the birds. I would never have left the studio. It’s taken a Herculean effort on her part to help me “gear down”.

It’s not like I haven’t had teachers and mentors drop out of the sky to guide and help me live a less obsessive life. In Bali a man working his fields saw me walking in the American style – as if I had an urgent destination – and he joined me. We did not share a common language so without a word being spoken he helped me slow down. He helped me learn to breathe and walk in the world, not through it.

Dive master Terri taught me the same lesson. For him, diving was a meditation. Learning to dive was about learning to get neutral. Not to swim through the water but to be in it. To be it. To let it hold me. Only then could I see.

There were many, many brilliant teachers who crossed my path, each bringing to me a variation of the same lesson. Slow down. See. And, although I understood – and believed in – the repeated lesson, I had difficulty incorporating it. It was uncomfortable. It ran against the Puritan upbringing that tied my worth to my achievements. Achieve more = worth more.

It’s quite the conundrum to sacrifice self-worth for presence. Perhaps tossing away rigid value measurements is one of the gifts of growing older. Isn’t it true that, at the end of the day, the most treasured moments of life are about relationship and rarely about achievements? I’ve racked up many, many achievements, as Quinn would say, “Yet another certificate on my wall of respect,” but none of them are as precious as a phone call with a friend, a morning belly-belly with Dogga, a slow walk with Kerri. White wine on the back deck, Dogga asleep in the shade, a hummingbird at the feeder. In it. See it.

It is uncomfortable to slow down in a culture that values the race. It is uncomfortable to seek substance in a culture obsessed with appearances.

When I read this quote from Pema Chödrön I laughed. For me it is profoundly true:

“The interesting thing is that the more willing you are to step out of your comfort zone, the more comfortable you feel in your life.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about WHITE WINE

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Filed under: Awakening, Flawed Wednesday, Gratitude, Identity, Uncategorized | Tagged: appearance, artistry, comfort zone, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, pema chodron, slowing down, spaciousness, story, studio melange, substance, the melange, worth | 1 Comment »

The Force of Flowering [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 2, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

If you’ve been following our posts you will have noticed – as we have noticed – that we are lately schizophrenic in our writing. One day we are blistering critics of the abuses of the current administration while the next day we write about the peace and presence of our lives. Utter discontent and sublime contentment all in the same week. I doubt that we are unique in our split personality. I believe we are reflecting the split-personality that is contemporary life in these un-United States. It is my bet that you are as whiplashed by the struggle for equilibrium amidst the daily dose of chaos as we are.

What we write is supposed to come from the image at the top of the post, thoughts inspired by a photograph. Lately, however, what we write depends often upon the circumstance of the moment. For instance, last week we sat down to write and Kerri said, “Before we start I have to read you something.” What she read to me was so upsetting that I wrote a rant about what she shared – and found a way to sense-squeeze it into the photograph.

This morning we laughed at our schizophrenic writing. And, we acknowledged that it is exactly what this autocratic administration desires to create: a populace that is reactive and so under assault that it doesn’t know where to look next.

During COVID we intentionally transformed our backyard into a sanctuary. In an unsafe world we needed a place where we felt at peace. This spring, although we haven’t discussed it, we are doing it again, we are creating a sanctuary, cultivating beauty and quiet, we are creating a space where we can rejuvenate, where we can unplug from the brutality. A space to breathe.

We’ve been watching the peonies bud and are taken by the sheer force of their flowering. You can almost see the pressure building in the bud, ready to burst into blossom. It has become for me a harbinger of hope. It is the same pressure I see gathering in my friends who, like me, have had enough of the chaos and corruption. It is the same energy that fills our conversations when we talk of voting in the fall. It is the pressure-driven transformation changing reactivity into intentional positive action: the reclamation of democracy and decency and sanctuary, a safe and productive home for all.

read Kerri’s blogpost about PEONIES