"it's about the silence"

My title comes from a piece in the gallery centered around musical phrases.  (ie: also "Play, Rest, Repeat").  Common little reminders that come to you during a life playing music.  Silence in music is as important as the sound.  The "rests" are important to the sequencing.  I've always loved breaks and changes and bits of silence in music.

I once went to an art talk at MCA (in the little room where they feature artists) that has resounded with me ever since.  Unfortunately, I can absolutely NOT recollect the name of the particular artist but I will never ever forget him.  He did photographs of empty rooms.  An empty hallway in a school.  An empty interrogation area.  An empty judge's office.  He also did photographs of Lake Michigan.  On the left would be a rock and if you got really close you'd see someone laying down on the top of it.  And all the rest?  Emptiness. Just Lake and sky.  His work was as much about what's not there as what is.  ("it's all about the silence.")

And I remember that this particular artist was also a Chicago Cop.  He wore his black beat shoes with his jeans and chewed on a toothpick the entire time.  There were the critics and the professors and the reviewers and the students and they all wanted to break up his work, pick it apart piece by piece.  They asked, "What themes are you trying to impart to your viewer?".  "Is there a purpose or message your trying to convey with these empty rooms?".  And he just said, "I just take the pictures.  You see what you want to see."  He didn't want any of their art nonsense.  You see what you want to see. YES!

So, i'd like to think my silence in this blog was a necessary rest.  A poetic pause.  This month was like a rest too.  Green and folk and fabric were all easy things.  Second Nature almost.  There wasn't a day this entire month I didn't listen to Green.  There wasn't a day I didn't list to Folk music.  I made plenty of things out of fabric (arm warmers, hand kerchiefs, finger puppets).  With the hustle and bustle of the holidays and my new job and my new work out regime, we didn't even approach this month's task.  I think I'm o.k. with that though.  This month was full of new habits.

I'm totally late with this green wrap up and I won't get to introducing January's delights tomorrow but just in case you were wondering, I'm wearing Bright Orange pants and Snoop Dogg and I are friends.