Music City Derby Day 2016: Champing at the Bit for Bridges in Nashville

May 14th, 2016

Nearly 20 years ago, the EAR Foundation granted me a scholarship that helped me attend Harding University. Some years back, EAR Foundation merged with the League for the Hearing Impaired to form Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to join their board, and I have always felt it was a chance for me to help others since others have helped me.

Last weekend we had our third annual Music City Derby Day event, and we raised $55,000, an agency record. I’m happy to say that I contributed two paintings to the silent auction. Sure, it’s fun to get all dressed up, sip mint juleps, watch a horse race, participate in a silly version of croquet, but it’s even more fun to do it all for a good cause.

I put in some recent pieces that I painted a few months ago:

“Bend” acrylic on canvas. 14 x 11 inches. 2016

I was excited to put something this colorful and lively in the silent auction. For me this piece is about embracing life and building connections.

“Pressure” acrylic on canvas. 20 x 20 inches. 2016

These gold swirls on a neutral background with a teal undertone were actually inspired by some lazy pressure-washing I saw on the sidewalk one day. I love reinterpreting ordinary things as something unusual and exciting and even glamorous.

It was great to be part of this awesome cause again. Plus I got to meet some really cool people. Former boy-band singer Evan Farmer was a hilarious emcee, Lucia Folk‘s Russian jockey getup was a hoot, and TSU men’s basketball coach Dana Ford and his wife were as nice as ever.

We all had a great time and I can’t wait for next year.

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Silence

June 11th, 2013

“If you speak my name, I vanish. What am I?

Silence.”

— Guido Orifice, in “La Vita é Bella”

In my mind, Quiet and Silence are two different, if similar things. I’ve written about Quiet before.

Maybe it’s just semantics.

But I see quiet as something desirable, and silence as a sort of punishment.

It probably has a lot to do with my hearing loss. I seek quiet. I like to get up early and drink coffee and write before everyone else wakes up. Or stay up long after everyone has gone to bed, and read. Or find a pond far away from everything, and listen to the breeze, with birds chirping.

Silence is when my wife is too mad at me to talk to me. Or when I’m not finding an answer I’m looking for. Or finding someplace that’s been devastated by a terrible storm.

Quiet gives life, but silence destroys. Silence is a void, a nothingness.

I know I’m not the only one who sees a difference between quiet and silence: silence is the absence of sound; quiet is the absence of noise.

Photo by me, taken in Mount Olivet Cemetery, where my grandparents are buried.

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