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Love Song Caress

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Love Song Caress

Friends -
More about music.....
Thank goodness for public radio. Not too long ago they broadcast a spot about "The Power of Music to Affect the Brain". A friend forwarded this to me because of my recent series about the dimensions of music.
How cool that they talked about music being one of the most powerful forms of art is because it makes our bodies react in ways that no simple painted gourd could do!!! (Or canvas or sculpture, for that matter). It is likely that the reason for that is because music actually, physically, touches us.

By that I mean, the three dimensional sound waves reach our ear drums, making them vibrate and our nervous system reacts. Sometimes that leads to foot tapping, body wiggling, singing and dancing -- but it most certainly can affect our emotions. This can mean all kinds of emotions, certainly, but for this particular gourd I decided to focus on the gentle caress that we can get from love songs. For me, some of those love songs that clearly touch me are 'Suavecito' by Malo, 'Your Song' by Elton John, and also 'Have I Told You Lately' by Rod Stewart. I am pretty sure that you all have found songs that also touch you in this very pleasant sort of way.

Whatever that power is, I know for myself that I get the most out of my work in Lopez Island when I have great music making me feel real.


Love Song Caress is a very different gourd. It is made from one single duck gourd that I bought at my favorite place -- Gourd Farmer in Knight's Landing. I cut off the top and inverted it into the bottom, which left the cut part of the neck looking very much like an ear. I used a lot of iridescent paint, which does not show well in these photos but that seemed to enhance the magic touch of music type of feeling. I also used some peacock feathers to line the gourd's 'eardrum' -- although I may take them out because I think they make it hard to see the tender ear drum shape. What do you think?

May this recent warm sunshine you warm your heart as well.

margie lopez read


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