Monthly Archives: September 2015

“OLD SOUL” Makes Her Debut for the DYAO

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

vio6  before

violin2015 012   violin2015 009  after

copyright 2015, Jo Ann Brown-Scott, OLD SOUL

Every year the Denver Young Artists Orchestra hosts a fundraising event called the Painted Violin Event. Artists are selected, retired violins are sent out to them and we are all asked to paint the violins with a theme of our choosing, three-dimensionally,  then the violins go on tour for several months at many of the Denver area art galleries with the hope of attracting buyers to fund talented young kids who love music. It is an exciting time, receiving a violin, knowing your mission is to give it an inspired treatment by anointing it with a theme that is both appealing and marketable; one that speaks to people and sends them a message. Please visit  http://www.paintedviolin.com  or  http://www.DYAO.org  to see all the new violins for the 2015-2016 symphony season and those from all past seasons as well.

I have chosen to honor the authentic character of my particular old violin by embellishing her weathered patina with exotic stones and treasures including rare leopard jaspar from Madagascar (which is one of the oldest known gemstones containing healing powers), turquoise, African bone beads, Mexican silver, coins and other treasures from around the world. After all, she is a musical traveler, having provided the music of the world to audiences from all ethnicities and walks of life during her long career. The story of her origin and how she finally came into my hands is fascinating and involves the San Francisco Bay area and Yosemite Park to name just a few of the clues to her long life. Coincidentally or not, both of those locations are especially meaningful to my own family. Most of the items with which I have chosen to adorn her are from my own personal collection of magical found objects….saved through the years for some special purpose. This is an extraordinary purpose.

“Old Soul” is my second violin selected by the DYAO, (Denver Young Artists Orchestra) following my first violin included in the 8th season titled Scheherazade, which I have also written about on this blog. I have enjoyed a life-long career in fine art after obtaining my degree from the U. of Colorado. Most recently (2009) I  published a book titled The Creative Epiphany – Gifted Minds, Grand Realizations and taught mixed media painting in northern California. After returning to the Denver area in 2013, a place I consider my home, I enrolled in a class at Denver Art Students League taught by Homare Ikeda which further deepened my work as a contemporary abstract artist. My most recent work places an emphasis upon color, pattern and texture in compositions inspired by travels to Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Hawaii and the landscapes of the western USA. I am currently writing this blog based upon my art and my travels, which fuel my experiences with art, and I will soon publish my third book, a novel titled A Canary Flies the Canyon, within days…

This violin, as did my first, carries a deeper meaning than people will see on the surface – it truly found me. That is another story, but a story worthy of telling. Please stay tuned for continuing information and revelations about this violin and the larger story of one contemporary woman’s artistic life in my new novel A Canary Flies the Canyon.

A CANARY FLIES THE CANYON A Novel by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

tree roots

Tree Roots of Angkor Wat

A bunch of funny things happen on the way to publishing a novel….funnier on some days than on others of course. Two steps back, one step forward, three steps forward and then a day when 4 steps back take you by surprise, knocking the air right out of your lungs.

This has been a very weird day, aside from the wonderful visit by the Pope, which I have been attentive to and inspired by. That will be another blog – when I am feeling nicer and more benevolent of spirit…because I do so love this particular Pope.

Here’s the deal – I believe, as I write this, and because people tell me it is true, that my book’s website is now published…but I cannot see it on any of my own devices. Not on my PC, not on my Iphone, not on my laptop and not on my Ipad. Why? Please tell me why! Oh the Yahoo Sitebuilder tech support people have so many interesting answers. You would be amazed. I know a bit or two about computers, but their answers are all voodoo to me. I have spent hours on the phone, being walked through a dozen trouble-shooting procedures, but nada. Today, before noon, all of their fingers were pointing at Comcast. If any of you can enlighten me, please do so. Comcast and I had a long chat and it is not them – why would they possibly deny me access to my own website?

My new website address for my book is http://www.joannbrownscottauthor.com

Can you see it? All the people I spoke with this morning assure me that it is a beautiful website! I would love to have you visit it! Please tell me if you are able to do that…because I still want a solution so that I can go there myself.

I intend to offer some insight about the title of my novel, soon, because it is both whimsical and enigmatic, I think. Stay tuned for that – and I am actually able to edit my website and make additions and changes to it but I cannot see them myself when I am finished. This has got to be resolved!

Please bear with me. I am in the outer ring of technological hell.

Bone Tired But Happy

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

floor

The above photo is representative of the scramble my mind has been experiencing all day today. Actually it is the paint-splattered floor from my classroom at Denver Art Students League.

Hi. In my absence of the past couple weeks I am sure that issues of vast importance were solved and enormous progress was made with dozens of worldly problems, but in my little domain it was plenty enough that I managed to move to a different residence in the western area outside Denver (at the very base of the bumps that begin the Rocky Mountains) and my book is almost at the printer – thus out of my hands for the first time since it began itself over a year ago. It actually did begin itself, almost without me – I sat down one day with some thoughts that I was intending to call little personal essays. I began writing and one thing led to another – every thought needed expanding upon, every direction I took had to have the back story explained, then pretty soon I was dividing all of it into chapters…no one was more surprised than me. Life sneaks up on us, does it not?

Now I am exhausted and beaten up from the physical task of moving, which I did not sit by and just supervise, and mentally from the great challenge of trying to find the best words to use in a 516 page story about the life of a woman artist. Life came at me from both sides – the mental and the physical, with my deep muscle aches and my bruises and my mental so-tired-I-cannot-even-eat-or-sleep fatigue. What was I thinking? Why didn’t I time this better? Two huge things at once. I must be nuts.

Then there is the new website – the one about the book – which I was all ready to publish today and proudly guide you to. You would not believe the mess, the 3 hour mess, that a super-human Prince of Patience over in India helped me unravel so that 48 hours from now I might have my lovely new website for the book available to see. It was a marathon of communication he and I had on the phone; I have never experienced anything like it. And while it was in progress the company we were dealing with had a system-wide failure (probably my fault) and we had to repeat the same complicated procedure about 4 times. It was also a lesson in acceptance and faith, (just give it up to the universe) because I was hoping beyond hope that I would somehow manage to be helped by a person I could understand and vice versa – and my experience with him was beyond great. Hurrah for Aman in India!! Wish I knew him better.

Perhaps tonight I will sleep more than 4 hours. Perhaps I will not. As soon as the website goes live, or the book is finally published and listed on Amazon.com, you will be the first to know. We are in the final countdown for my novel A CANARY FLIES THE CANYON….

In the meantime, I will be unpacking…