Song Playlist — Radiohead Albums That Made The Art

What I Listened To…

As promised in last weeks blog, I will reveal today the albums I listened to during the creation of ‘Escapism’.  If you have been following this Rock Art Series blog then great, if not you can recap by starting here.

“As we were walking and talking about this I caught a glimpse of my companions face under the hood — yes ladies and gentlemen, it was a very young and blonde Thom Yorke …”

In no particular order, they were:

Some of my favourite songs at the moment are ‘Lotus Flower’ (fan-blooming-tastic video!), ’15 Steps’, ‘Little by Little’ and ‘Bodysnatchers’.  I have also had the great honour of seeing them live in London on their ‘Hail to the Thief’ album tour in 2003 — what an experience!

I unfortunately did not have enough time to listen to ALL their albums (as I would have so loved to have done), so what I listened to in the above track-list must have been relevant in some way to the picture.  I just went with the flow and stopped when I felt it necessary.  I like to think that everything has a quantum reason for taking place, which brings me to my dream…

Bloody Weird or Maybe Not!

I had a dream a few days ago about the painting.

I was walking with a hooded figure who was discussing the painting and linking it to the root chakra (what I like to call the poop chakra ’cause you usually associate that one with letting go of the crap).  For those of you who don’t know, the root chakra is associated with your anus.

‘Escapism’ by Cherie Roe Dirksen (below)

As we were walking and talking about this I caught a glimpse of my companions face under the hood — yes ladies and gentlemen, it was a very young and blonde Thom Yorke (the ‘Pablo Honey’ days look).

We then stopped at the painting and he said that it had a coded message in it, one that I subconsciously painted into the picture and it had to do with letting go.  Particularly for parents of daughters who were finding it hard to ‘let them go’.

Interesting…it’s like one of those ridiculous stories from Ripley’s ‘believe it or not’…lol.  Or maybe not.  I have witnessed and experienced enough hoodoo lately to make this just a drop in my ocean of the weird and inexplicable.

So if the dream is true — great!  If not, well…‘nice dream’...he he.

Emotions While Painting

Okay, I jotted down a few things that were coming up for me or going through my mind as I was painting.  I’m going to list it in point-form so you can better understand the end result of the painting:

  • Other worldly/out of this world
  • Expressing and experiencing emotional pain and anguish
  • Also experiencing pleasure
  • Loss and frustration
  • Chaotic sound that blends into perfect harmony/order
  • Orgasmic sounds in the mix and off-beats
  • Being unconventional/out-of-the-box living
  • Being different and yet fitting in anyway
  • A celebration of being different

I absolutely love their production and orchestration of complete chaos and bizarre beats that amalgamate to produce the tastiest, funkiest songs I have had the pleasure to bathe my ears in.

To end of with:  My husband and I (yes, I sound like the queen) went to see a horror movie over the weekend and the ticket man said ‘Why are you going to see such a creepy movie?’,  to which I solemnly replied, ‘We are creepy people’.

I am proud to be different and, thanks to Radiohead, we can proudly display the creep within.

The Grand Band Reveal is Today!

The Shortlist of Muso’s to Make the Grade

I launched my new idea for an art collection last week, please read it here to recap.

The bands and musicians that I am going to explore auditorily and interpret visually on canvas are (in order of my being introduced to their music):

  1. David Bowie
  2. Queen
  3. Pink Floyd
  4. The Beatles
  5. Skunk Anansie
  6. Radiohead
  7. Rufus Wainwright
  8. Templeton
  9. Muse
  10. Jeff Buckley

Ha!  And there you have it…I will be embarking on the first painting of this series this week and, with a bit of cosmic luck, may have something to blog about next week.

Proceedings…

I am not going to pressure myself to paint in this order — I am basically going to work it on my mood and who I feel like listening to at that given time.  Make sense?  No?  Well, that’s fine!

Wish me luck as I have no idea how this is going to turn out  🙂

Click here to see the next stage

Who are your favourite musicians of all time?  Come on, list at LEAST 3 bands you could never do without.  Let them feel the love.

10 Bands, 10 Paintings…Let the Rock Art Begin!

Coming Out of a Black Hole and Having Revelations

Yeah, the global energy of late has been intense.  Making us all bunker down for some quiet time, and if not, forcing you to cease and desist.

Have you been lacking inspiration, creativity or get up and go?  Well, I have.

Hatshepsut TempleThese last few weeks since I returned from Egypt have been damn right frustrating.  I’ve lost my pluck, mojo and anything else you want to call it.

I’ve picked up the paintbrushes and seem to be trying to repeat old patterns in creativity that just don’t work for me anymore.

“It could be realism, abstract, impressionism, crapism or bullshitism…who knows?  We’ll just have to wait and see.”

But this weekend I had a revelation…

Who The Hell Am I?

Yes, that old humdinger.  What can I truly offer the world that is unique and not only that,  stay completely in alignment with who I am?

Not easy and a question I am not alone in having to come up with an answer to — this seems to be the common thread or million dollar question among most people this year, if not this lifetime!

I Am…

I sat down to have some quiet time to reflect and saw a storyboard of everything I have done since I left school.  I know that I am intrinsically an artist, musician and a writer and I have tried to merge the 3 in this website but something still hasn’t clicked into place. In a nutshell, it went like this:The Bends

Above (Photo of our band The Bends taken in 2001)

Cherie playing BassThe Younger Years — Left school and played bass in 2 rock bands.  Last band (The Bends — you guessed it, we were all Radiohead fans…yeah yeah) recorded 2 albums and got some radio play.  After the music scene cooled off and my weariness set in I up and left for the UK.  Photo (right) — in Paris Studio recording our 2nd album.

Travel Bug — In the UK I started painting again.  Got back home, 3 years later, and started painting full-time.

Crossing Abbey Road London

Above — In the UK, at the famous ‘Abbey Road’ crossing, London

Profile PictureDivine Revelations and Ants in my Pants — Started feeling ‘pushed’ to write my book ‘Divine You’ in 2010 and did so, focusing all my energy and attention into getting it published and promoting and blogging, etc.

Footnote — Here I am, having come full circle with all 3 of my major interests but I feel like I need to break free from the confines of every single one of them.  I need to fuse them into a trinity of talents that will truly showcase the uniqueness of my being.

New Realizations:

I am a rock chick, a philosopher, a creative, a free spirit, a wanderer, a listener, an adventurer, a seeker, a trailblazer…so what am I trailblazing?

” I am more than the ceiling limit I have built over my head.”

I feel like at the moment I am trying to conform to the standards of any other self-empowerment writer (who just happens to paint and compose on the side).  No, this is not working for me.  I am more than the ceiling limit I have built over my head.

Major Refurbishing

I am going to be blowing through the ceiling.

My first adventure, that incorporates all 3 of my pursuits, will be to do a series of 10 paintings to my favourite bands or musicians from the dawn of my time here on Earth.

Musical Mural A little background:  I love to turn on the stereo in the morning and blast out my favourite music much to my husbands annoyance.  It just happens to usually be quite loud and obnoxious music for this time of the morning.  However the upside is that this ensures that the car gets washed, or that the lawn is mown (husband seeking refuge outside of the domain).

“I want to be activated into action first thing in the morning — and this plus a cup of coffee seems to do the trick.”

There is nothing like a bit of Airbag by Radiohead to get the blood flowing after a long nights sleep or head-banging your way to the bathroom to get cleaned up to Hysteria by Muse.  Who can’t be put into a good mood when you are listening to Queen’s I Want to Break Free?  Or even better, David Bowie belting out ‘Drive in Saturday’?

Yes, I know, I am a bit odd.  This is probably not the best morning music soiree (I am told this is strictly night-time music) but I simply can’t wait for night-time to arrive, I want to be activated into action first thing in the morning — and this plus a cup of coffee seems to do the trick.

So Where is This Heading?  Get On With It, Girl!

Okay, okay…I love rock.  Yes, oh yes.  So I have selected 10 bands to do 10 painting to.  I want to see what comes out whilst listening to their music.  I hope this experiment will be a visual feast and have no preconceived ideas of how any of it will turn out.  All I can guarantee is that I am going to have fun in the process and do whatever comes to me in the moment that I set aside to paint.

It could be realism, abstract, impressionism, crapism or bullshitism…who knows?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

I will be blogging (obviously) about each artwork and the process (so watch out for Tuesdays art blog).  And will reveal the top 10 bands/musicians that have been the greatest influence in my life in next Tuesdays blog.

So in the words of the famous Monty Python…”and now for something completely different”.  Bring it on!

READ THE GRAND BAND REVEAL HERE

Note to self:  Need to add new word invented in this blog to Wikipedia — ‘crapism’.  Needs no definition either, self-explanatory. Bullshitism seems to be a valid word because my spell check didn’t pick it up.

Share Your Insights:

What are you struggling with?

Do you have yourself all sussed out or are you still in flux about who you really are?

Do you think it is important to align yourself with your core essence or do you think that is just a bunch of crap?