Here are three things I believe: 1) We are all creators; 2) we all need to express ourselves and; 3) we are all motivated by the desire to see and to be seen. To me, it’s not about ego. I think we are driven to want to matter, to interact, to connect, and to perhaps create something more by joining together. Individual efforts bring results; cooperation, however, usually achieves more.
Let me tell you a story of co-creation - a story about creativity, of serendipitous timing, and of five loving hearts.
It begins on a Sunday as one heart approaches another…singer/ songwriter Mary Veselka has written a lullaby and wants to use her friend’s art to create a video to accompany her recording. This artist friend, Sherri Harris, is also a friend of mine. As Sherri listened to Mary’s song, she knew her work wasn’t the right fit. And then she thought of me.
So far, we have three loving hearts in this tale. Number four is my web wizard friend, Robin Sagara, who worked with Sherri to get her the perfect paintings for the video.
Now, friend Sherri is also an art curator and she orchestrates her church’s art gallery. Her next program was to showcase children artists and she wanted to play this video alongside the hanging works in the gallery. Sherri shared the lullaby with the kids and let them paint whatever came to mind.
When she sent me the first results, the audio track was separate from the video. I experienced issues with compatibility between our software and computers and I couldn’t open some of the files. Originally, the artwork was to be mine alone yet, once Sherri saw the children’s paintings, she knew that theirs and mine should dance together to the song. (When you watch the video, I would ask you to pay attention to Sherri’s finding the perfect visual fits for Mary’s words.)
These computer glitches required the expertise of our story’s fifth loving heart, Pamela Roberson. She is another artist friend and also an art coach; Sherri and I belong to her Strong Artist Life group. Pamela’s heart (and computer skills) combined the soundtrack and the paintings into a flowing montage that makes me cry every time.
Of course, all the little children’s hearts belong in this story as it is their paintings, expressing their little shining selves, coupled with Mary’s words, that bring the tears. As the title says, “Co-creation at its best.”
Dream on little dreamers…