My Art Soundtrack

What a Wonderful World performed by Louis Armstrong

Written by George Davis Weiss, George Douglas, and Bob Thiele

I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white

The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do

They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies cry, and I watch them grow

They'll learn much more than I'll ever know

And I think to myself what a wonderful world. 
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

In a recent episode of the Creative Pep Talk about Finding Your Unique Artistic Voice, Andy J Miller mentioned briefly that you can make a music soundtrack that sounds like what your art looks like. I tried it for fun and realized it's actually tricky to do! It was easy to make a soundtrack of my favorite music, or inspiring music to listen to while making art, but it's harder to pinpoint what my art would sound like if you could hear it instead of just seeing it. What a Wonderful World seemed to fit just right. Below are bits of other songs that made the short list for my art soundtrack. Try it for your own artwork and let me know what's on your list!

All I Want Is You by Barry Louis Polisar from the movie Juno. 

If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is to be your sweet honey bee.
And If I was a tree growing tall and green
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves.

Blackbird by the Beatles

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Soulshine performed by Gov't Mule 

written by guitarist Warren Haynes with vocals by Gregg Allman

When you can't find the light,

That got you through the cloudy days,

When the stars ain't shinin' bright,

You feel like you've lost you're way,

When those candle lights of home,

Burn so very far away,

Well you got to let your soul shine,

Just like my daddy used to say.

He used to say soulshine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain. 
Hey now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometime,
Got to let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

You are My Sunshine

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine
You make me happy 
When skies are gray.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high, 
like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are!

The Rainbow Connection performed by Kermit (Jim Henson)
written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side
Rainbows are visions
But only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide

So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Some day we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

Who said that every wish
Would be heard or answered 
When wished on a morning star
Somebody thought of that 
And someone believed it
And look what it's done so far

What's so amazing 
That keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

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The Evolution of a Dragon

This super neat dragon lives in my town and comes out for parades and other fun community gatherings. He even breathes fire! My daughter, Tessa has always been a little afraid of him, but on this evening he was parked and not breathing fire, so she was willing to approach him.

The photos I took of her with the dragon really were fairytale-like. Not long after their meeting I did this painting in my sketchbook.

After that when I was trying to think of something for our RMC SCBWI image contest, I knew I wanted to work on the dragon and Tessa again.

I had SCBWI on my mind so I wanted the image to emphasize books or reading. Tessa is learning her letters right now and because of that I'm realizing how overwhelming it can be trying to learn 26 letters! And how they all sound! And words that start with those letters! And some of them look a lot alike! And there are UPPER CASE AND LOWER CASE LETTERS! 

But my daughter loves books, and she's learning lots of letters and general ideas about how reading works just from casual conversation while reading. I know she's going to love reading because she loves books so much. This thinking made me realize how learning letters and numbers and reading can be scary just like a dragon. But once you learn how it works and cozy up and make friends with letters, they can be your best friends and even be a little magical, just like an Alphabet Dragon.