@harriethodgson1 Yes! that's exactly how it is! I see the world that way too! I look at the relationships of everything all the time and ask myself how would I paint that? What colors would I mix to get that? I memorize the colors in the sky, so next time I'm working on a painting, I can bring up the memory to add life to what I'm doing. I play music too and in my head I imagine harmonies to layer on top of music I'm listening to. In the same way that I paint layers of colors on a painting, I paint layers of notes colored by the expression of the instrument that would make the notes... or a voice singing. I use music that really moves me to get into the zone when I paint, when all I'm feeling is the creativity and oneness that I have with my subject. It becomes timeless and transports me to another space and time. Then all my husband has to do is just start talking to me and I jump because I am so focused that I didn't hear him walk up next to me....... and he's learned to wait until my brush is not contacting the painting to speak.

My husband and I played in a community band and played all kinds of wonderful music in outdoor summer concerts. I played in percussion on the glockenspiel and xylophone because I could translate my keyboard knowledge from the organ lessons I had as a kid. Playing in a large band of around 70 players has lots of melodies interweaving and it helps you to know where to come in when you hear the other parts of the music. We prepared a new concert every week with a dozen of so pieces of music which is a lot when you are just a volunteer and there is only one rehearsal after the show for the next week's concert. I have learned so much from doing that. The other sections had safety in numbers as there were multiple players for most instruments, but I was always playing a solo... the bell or chime that rises above everything else. I did have a big solo to start out a Harry Potter medley when there was no band accompaniment, and I really had to focus. I told the director, I couldn't look at him because if I watched his waving baton to sync with it, I would miss my notes. It was just me on those bells playing the lines everyone knows in front of about 800 people on a pleasant summer night. I had really practiced, and got it perfect, and I was nervous, but did my best to forget that the whole world was watching. I guess painting is a little bit like that too, and I'm really always painting a self portrait because I'm painting my emotions and how I feel about what I see. Then when you stand next to that painting at an art show, it's kind of like having your sole exposed as you listen to what other people say about your work.

I think the power in the arts is that they take you to another place and time from where you are, and that is why they are so beneficial, not only in healthcare, but also in living. I can't image a life without art. It is innate in our nature and goes back to when cave paintings recorded and communicated things about life and survival.

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