Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness.*

Music House by Valerie Walsh

Some of you may remember this post at Writerquake last October because the artwork featured was a big favorite. You probably won't click on the link so I'm going to reprint most of the post here because it's rather key to understanding how special what I have to share with you really is:

 . . . I've refreshed my mind tonight by looking at art and photography online. Of all genres, many appealed to me for different reasons.....this one especially for its expressive charm. I just love it, not only because it describes the houses of my childhood - but because it is a powerful reminder that I have still not taken violin lessons. I bought my violin two years ago after taking a fiddle workshop for adults conducted during our town's arts festival. It was taught by a classical violin teacher who has been with our school system for decades, and by a free-wheeling New Orleans-style fiddler (he calls his style "swamp rock"). They wondered: would this work? ...offering at a small price a five-night course for adults with little or no violin experience, and have them playing a song together at the end of the week? Well, it did work. It was one of the best times I've had in a decade and I consulted the classical teacher about the appropriate beginners violin to purchase, not expensive but not tacky either. We were all set for lessons when her elderly mother grew ill, and time went by that turned into years.

I was meant to find this artwork tonight. Because my silent violin is waiting for me.

~~~

Willow inspects Valerie's package, as if she knows the painting inside has a cat in the window. 
Note the little apricot-colored spot on top of Willow's head. It is her kiss-dot.

"Music House" -- a magical print by Valerie Walsh -- now graces a special spot in my home because she sent it to me as a gift after finding that I linked to her in that post of mine! She emailed me and said that she'd like to send me the print.......would I email her my address? I was absolutely thrilled and responded that I would treasure the print. When she wrote again saying that she was making a frame and that it would take a bit to dry due to the damp weather there I was practically dumbstruck by what she was offering to me. Amazing!


Here's the thing: we bloggers use the art and photography of others in many of our posts to enhance our words and to make our posts more visually appealing. I know I'm not alone in feeling special delight when I find just the right image to further evoke the meaning or message behind a particular post. That's what happened when I discovered "Music House" by Valerie Walsh. Where most artists and photographers will never personally get in touch with us as Val did in this case (I have received heartfelt thank you messages from three videographers in the past after posting their work here) we just don't know how featuring and giving credit to their work might please them. And neither we nor the artists may ever know how important one of their creations might be for a reader(s) of our blogs. There is a ripple effect -- seen/invisible, desired/unbidden -- in every act: physical, mental, and virtual.

That ripple effect is evidenced in an ironic connection to blogging and the way I found Valerie's art at an online image site in October. Karen Jasper (she of Blogland Lane fame and another blogging friend of mine) and Val are great friends. In fact, Valerie did the cover art for Karen's new book and she wrote that it was her favorite gift in 2009 (see KJ's blog sidebar for more info about her book ) .........


I will close this post with a marvelous music video featuring the art of Valerie Walsh.......my muse and my pal. Thank you for your special gift to me, Val, and for touching so many people with your wondrous art.


www.VeryHelpfulSongs.com -- music
www.ValerieGallerie.com -- artwork
©2008 David Tobocman



*Title quote by George Jean Nathan, drama critic (1881-1958)

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