to all my great chordie friends.....
I think that whether you are lennon, ian Anderson, Elvis, dylan, buddy holly, the doors, taylor swift or Van Gough, picasso, louise fishman, monet, luke shepard, remington or a thousand other famous dudes and dudettes....
the bottom line is that they are all defined by their willingness to take a leap of faith - that someone out there would think their stuff is awesome......
there has to be a terrific element of excellence to get to the the top such as these fine folks... but there is a whole bunch of people that also qualify as artists... because they were willing to put their souls out there ... as many people here on Chordie do all the time....to express something that is important to them...... through painting or music.... risking criticism.... hoping for praise........
trying to reach another ... igniting a spark .... a reaction.....a sharing of similar emotion....... ( God knows Bill gets us all going )
There are so many talented performers herein many different ways - way beyond what I can do... yet they make me feel like I am a part of the Chordie artistic family...... and that feels great.
Jim Valvano ( college Basketball coach ) who died of cancer, and who is the reason for the Jimmy V fund for cancer research said " there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.
I happen to agree
an artist , in my opinion, is anyone that can reach others and stir emotions.... through whatever means they can... to think, to act, to feel, to cry, to laugh, to love, to smile, to remember, to empathize, to connect.....
to plant many shade trees we may never sit under....
In the words of Agnes demille.....
“The artist never entirely knows — We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark , with great faith that what we have done has relevance and heartfelt significance"
just sayin'.................. when I read all the songs and poems, both triumphs and tragedies, on here, I know they are genuine and intensely real life stuff -the chordie stock get togethers - thats real artist stuff - the sharing human stories, of love and sorrows, and straight from the heart - so refreshing. every one on chordie in my humble opinion is an artist, and I thank you all for sharing your artistic ability with me.
Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but what your mind can imagine.
Make your life count, and the world will be a better place because you tried.
"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except only the the best." - Henry Van Dyke