I’ve written briefly about inspiration before, but I’d like to call attention and give more detail about how music has inspired me tremendously over the years. Music has always played a huge role in my life, and although I’m not a musician, I do love to sing and dance. Especially DANCE. I have a 7-month old daughter and I see this in her as well. When held up she can move her legs to the beat of a song and LOVES it!
Nostalgia
Music is a very nostalgic sensory experience for me – when I hear certain songs I am taken back to long car rides with my parents on family vacations, belting out our favorite songs playing on cassette tapes (Billy Ocean, Steve Winwood, Marvin Gaye, to name a few). Or a middle school dance (Boyz to Men), or a party with my girlfriends in high school (Outkast), or a terrifying care ride in Costa Rica that I feel lucky to have survived (Sade). My musical taste is varied and open – I’ll give anything a chance! I do have my favorites that I play pretty much any chance I get (Otis Redding), but for the most part I just love music.
Inspiration
It has inspired many works of art, including “Bright Blessed Day, Dark Sacred Night,” a dyptic that I worked on over the summer. The title is from my favorite line of lyrics to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” which I sing to my daughter every single night before bed. Sometimes I sing it at naptime too, so she’s definitely going to grow up knowing the words to that song! And maybe even have the memories associated with it.
What a Wonderful World
“What a Wonderful World” is such a beautiful song, and the line, “the bright blessed day, and the dark, sacred night” is just exquisite in my opinion. It’s always moved me. Here is how it’s illustrated in Mila’s board book.
I just love the illustrations in this book so much. Obviously the version I created is much different, but perhaps some day I’ll do a children’s version of this piece as well.
