Pinch me: I’m Off to a Month-Long Artist Residency

After a late night of playing music about a week ago, I groggily opened an email to find a very, very pleasant surprise: an out-of-the-blue invitation to a month-long, no-cost artist residency on the Washington coast!  It came in the wake of a last-minute cancellation.  The directors of the center were asking if I could basically drop everything in two weeks and join four other creative professionals: a poet, a novelist and two visual artists on a 17-acre spread to engage in 28 straight days of unfettered writing and composition.  When I heard there would be a full-time chef on hand delivering lunch to my private cottage and lively discourse over nightly dinners with the other participants, I needed somebody to pinch me.  Hard.  Several times.  A whirlwind of scrambling to shift dates around slowly settled and gave way to the overwhelming feeling of peace and focus that I would enjoy for an entire month.  Thankfully, May just happened to be my lightest month for bookings in quite a while as I was already planning to arrange and kickstart a recording project.  This is unlike anything I’ve ever done.  I’ve always had to contend with the everyday distractions and challenges of urban living, busy social calendar, traveling, gigs, teaching and making ends meet as a full-time artist and teacher.  I am deeply grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to spend May going deeper than ever before with the work that so consistently challenges and feeds my soul.  I am currently mapping out a daily schedule that includes dedicated time to free write, fine tune arrangements and compositions for my upcoming Brazilian choro recording and go though reams of original songs and hone vocals and arrangements for a long-over due solo project.  I will be keeping a disciplined meditation and yoga practice as I do at home and hopefully soak up the inspiration of the surrounding coastline with early morning walks and  rides.  I’ll also be limiting my social networking to two hours: two mornings per week to keep me in line, but I’ll be posting blogs and updates then.  Follow along and stay in touch.  Cheers!