Seeing the trees for the forest
Every so often I feel the need to write specifically about the Inspiration for Violinists card deck itself rather than individual cards – the trees for the forest. Producing the card deck was about a five year process with many starts and stops. It began with keeping a notebook handy when I was teaching because I was finding recurring themes that would come up with my violin students.
The next step
I had to choose what size to make them. I decided on poker size, roughly 2.5”x3.5”, thinking that they could easily be stored in a violin case accessory compartment. I also thought this size would work well for holding them in one hand since the other hand would be holding the violin and bow. Including a box was important too as violinists are very detail oriented and wouldn’t like cards strewn all over the place.
Creating the images
For a few months I attended workshops with artist, Elisabeth Moss (ElisabethMoss.com). Her approach was to have participants meditate on a suggested theme then begin creating our own works. In the same way, when creating my images, I thought about the text first then meditated on it. Amazingly, I always saw the image in my head and knew how to create it.
Some images were created first
There were a few cards in which the image came to me first and then manifested the appropriate text. Two examples are the “Create the music of your life” and the “Turn your dreams into reality” cards. One morning I was watching the nature segment on CBS Sunday Morning which had a beautiful video of Walden Pond that I had to draw. It was an excellent reminder of the ekphrastic programs I have done with poet Joan Kantor (JoanKantorPoet.com).
A shamanic inspired image
The pollinator image came to me during a shamanic journey with Joyce St. Germaine (TheSacredJourney.biz). It was a “middle world” journey through wildflowers by the ocean. During the journey I was inside of this flower watching and experiencing how it photosynthesized life giving energy. It seemed to me that this plant did a lot of complex biochemical work behind the scenes for the production of the beautiful blossom feeding the bee.
Violinist Linda Beers is the creator of the Inspiration for Violinists, a 50 card deck. Each card has a unique image and text inspiring musicianship, mindfulness and spirituality.