I am struck most by the color pallet in this photo, the warms and the cools juxtaposed against each other. I also love the serenity of this image, the flat calm and the perfect glass like perfection of the reflection. I didn’t see it at the time I took it, but people are always pointing it out to me, that the boat’s reflection has all this warm light in it that you don’t see in the actual boat. The sun is just 5 minutes above the horizon. It is only just beginning to wake up the day. Quietly its rays have managed to sneak into the frame of this photo and spill all this warm light into the water. This photo sums up morning and the meaning of calm for me.

I was in Hawaii, just back from surfing, when I got this picture in the mail. I’d just received a ukulele and needed an excuse to practice it. The photo summed up a safe harbor & tranquility and with this sensation I steered my way to this song.. When I got home to Sag Harbor I put the photo up on a big screen in my studio. I practice the song until I could record it in one take, start to finish.

I loved this soft melancholy melody and the over all feeling of it. I immediately thought of the beach at dawn. The painting was actually completely done in my head by the time I finished listening to the music. I just had to get it on paper. I asked my daughter, Sam, to model for a portrait of a lost soul at dawn. This is Sam on Second.

The music felt, peaceful and quiet, simple and distilled. Like the beginnings of a day, the first steps you take getting out of bed. It made me think of walking and moving through sand, early in the morning. Fresh air, warm coffee. Happiness. Simple times. Listening to the music I felt calm and peaceful and care free but motivated. I wanted to improvise a dance rather than create a concise set of steps, so I decided to create a vocabulary of steps for myself that I would use without putting them in a structured order. My immediate vision from the first listen was that my dance would start with feet.

What I remember most about the painting were the complementary contrast of blue and orange. I liked the expression of the girl who seemed to be lost in contemplation (of the sun?), calm but with energetic contrasts. If I had to sum the painting up in one word I’d say, “glowing.” It elicited a sense of calm and serenity. Although the painting uses vivid colors associated with liveliness, I perceive mostly ‘blue’ emotions coming from the girl. In my perfume I wanted to express the contrast of warm and cold.

Without going back to watch the dance, I remember the various types of movement starting with the feet and moving into a full body dance. I remember the spiral movements that started in the legs and carried through the whole body, out the arms. I remember longing to know the music inside the dancers mind and musing at how gracefully she moved, empathically translating the sound. The dance evoked a calm regarding the world and my surroundings. I felt empathy for the emotions of the world, especially as I watched the video with no audio. I felt that the needs of the world were implied in the dance itself. My sculpture started with a flat shape that flared at each end and was skinny in the middle. I felt that the raw material had a dance quality to it before I even started. I polished one side and textured the other side. My translation was about the dancer’s movements and taking that movement with me as I twisted and formed the metal, letting the art speak to me as it was coming to life.

Without going back to watch the dance, I remember the various types of movement starting with the feet and moving into a full body dance. I remember the spiral movements that started in the legs and carried through the whole body, out the arms. I remember longing to know the music inside the dancers mind and musing at how gracefully she moved, empathically translating the sound. The dance evoked a calm regarding the world and my surroundings. I felt empathy for the emotions of the world, especially as I watched the video with no audio. I felt that the needs of the world were implied in the dance itself. My sculpture started with a flat shape that flared at each end and was skinny in the middle. I felt that the raw material had a dance quality to it before I even started. I polished one side and textured the other side. My translation was about the dancer’s movements and taking that movement with me as I twisted and formed the metal, letting the art speak to me as it was coming to life.