JoDee Luna's Blog, page 4

Deborah Keily Hanson: Pianist, Composer, Teacher

Meet the multi-talented Deborah Keily Hanson: pianist, composer, teacher and so much more! I play her music while creating because her unique arrangements inspire my creative muse.

I first met Deborah over 30 years ago when I returned from living in Europe. My children attended El Dorado where Deborah produced and directed over 20 musicals. I choreographed dances for a couple of her amazing productions. However, both of us didn’t realize, at the time, that her father was my favorite teacher of all time. Back in the 6th grade, I had the privilege of benefiting from his artistic approach to making learning fun and innovative. Her collection titled “Pianoscapes” is inspired by his paintings.

Here is an excerpt from her bio posted on her website: “Deborah Keily Hanson has a diverse musical background. An accomplished musician, teacher, and performer,  she has performed solo recitals, accompanied soloists from the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera, performed at the Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival in Jamaica, accompanied musical theater groups locally and with the Los Angeles Opera Musical Theater Company.”

Her website gives additional information about this amazing woman and her many accomplishments: http://www.hmspiano.com/. You can click to play her music and order CD’s from her website.

Here is an amazing article published about her: http://blog.sheetmusicplus.com/tag/deborah-keily-hanson/.

She has performed with the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Lancaster Community Orchestra. In September 2010, Deborah joined the Argentine pianist Mario Roque in performing duo piano fund-raising concerts for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Deborah was featured in articles for Pianoforte. In 2011, she was invited to play for a Master Class with Menahem Pressler. She has also performed in the Sara Compinsky Master Class.

Our creative collaborations began with Golden Butterfly. You can read more about this project with this link: The Pairing of Music and Painting. 

Our next project was Promethean Series: Music Inspired by Art.

We have several other songs/paintings in the works. 

She also sells her sheet music at http://blog.sheetmusicplus.com/tag/deborah-keily-hanson/.

Promethean Series: Music Inspired by Art

I’m excited about this new series of music paired with art inspired by my mixed media, Promethean: Dare to Create. 

This first song, Promethean, created by Composer Deborah Keily Hanson,  features the creation of the universe, stars, and planets.

The music honors the Creator of all with its fiery rendition in musical form. 

The original Promethean mixed media envisions creativity’s fruitfulness masked in human form.

Like the mixed media’s namesake, Prometheus, we receive fire or inspiration from heaven and make something beneficial for humanity when we dare to create.

The name for the mask popped into my mind quite unexpectedly, and I couldn’t recall the meaning. 

When I looked up the definition, I chuckled. What a perfect name for this piece: Promethean: of, relating to, or resembling Prometheus, his experiences, or his art; especially: daringly original or creative*

Visit Deborah Keily Hanson’s website for more information about her music: http://www.hmspiano.com

Subscribe to her Deborah Keily Hanson YouTube Channel

The song is also on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon.

If you’re in need of inspiration sent straight to your inbox, sign up for my email list. Be the first to find out about new art and music, as free downloads to get your creative juices flowing: https://mailchi.mp/9b0b22551946/jodee-luna-art-newsletter-email-sign-up

The Pairing of Music and Painting

Like fine wine paired with cheese, the pairing of a song and a painting invigorate the viewer, sooth the soul, and revive resolve to live, to create, to believe!

Pianist and composer, Deborah Keily Hanson, and I have embarked on a series of music and wine pairings.

The first is Golden Butterfly of Chiang Mai. You can read the backstory in Art Heals the Soul.

Listen to the music paired with the painting:

We are currently working on pairing her song, La Petite Rose, with my painting of the same name. She’s coming soon:

Another project we’re very excited about is titled Bluebird. Envision a woman finding hope and joy in the midst of despair and pain. Her hair is a bouquet of blue flowers with a bluebird perched on top. Deborah describes composing as “painting with notes,” so I’m very excited to see what this painting inspires musically!

Deborah is currently composing the music while I create the painting.

What a gift creative collaborations are! Creativity inspires creativity, and that is amply true of our joint projects.

Visit Deborah’s website to discover more of her amazing music: http://www.hmspiano.com

Subscribe to her YouTube Channel.

Find her extraordinary music on Apple Music.

Are you a creative in need of encouragement?

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If you’re looking for creative resources delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today by selecting this link: Release your Full Artistic Potential.

Beauty Grows in Unexpected Places

Have you ever found yourself in a tough spot?

Maybe things didn’t go as you’d planned.

Or maybe you feel trapped in circumstances beyond your control. 

Often life feels like rocks you’ve got to find a way to grow up and out of despite the seemingly impossible situations.

I took the first two photos during a recent trip to Sedona, Arizona, and Zion National Park, Utah. 

I marveled over a pine tree growing out of rock and daisies blooming in-between rocks. 

Then I found the third photo in a design software I use. 

All three spoke to me of hope, perseverance, and faith.

Those times I find it hardest to trust God’s faithfulness are the times I need to trust the most.

Sometimes life is hard, and it’s a struggle to blossom. But if nature can, so can we! 

Are you in need of ongoing encouragement?

I create resources to ignite creativity, overcome obstacles, and help you develop your God-given talents.

If you’d like a monthly infusion of inspiration, links to free resources, and tips for making art easy, sign up for my email list: Release your Full Artistic Potential.

You can also connect with me around the web by selecting this link: https://linktr.ee/jodeeluna

Art Heals the Soul

The story behind Deborah Keily Hanson and my collaborative project, Golden Butterfly of Chiang Mai, is so amazing that I wanted to share her account with you:

“I was really inspired by your painting of the Rose.

I have been dealing with long Covid since July 2022-2023. Every time you would post an update of your painting The Rose on Facebook, I would feel a burst of hope and joy that I would improve and gradually, slowly, day by day I did!!

So even though I couldn’t play the piano again at the time, I thought maybe I could find an old recording of the song I wrote for you back in 2013, Golden Butterfly of Chiang Mai, about you and your daughter’s life journey through service and overcoming adversity.

Then I thought, “What if JoDee would collaborate and make a painting that reflects the meaning of the music?” We could put it on ITunes:)

I was overwhelmed and excited when you said yes!

This project has turned out so beautifully!

I was absolutely blown away by the depth of expression in the Butterfly portrait

The golden mask covering half of her face is especially meaningful because in 2017 I had a bad fall, smashing the bones on one side of my face. The X-rays looked terrible, and the doctor at UCLA recommended surgery immediately!

I asked if I could function without the surgery. The doctor said yes, but my face could possibly cave in, and droop down over time.

With much prayer and consideration for my family should I undergo the extreme surgery suggested, I decided that I would just continue on even if my face was damaged and I would look funny. After all, I am blessed with an incredible husband who loves me no matter what I look like:)

Our prayers were answered, and I look just fine now!! You would never know anything happened unless you see the X-ray:)

The Rose painting was the catalyst for getting me off the couch and trying to create something new again.

Thank you so much for sharing your talent with everyone in the creation of The Rose and the persona of the Golden Butterfly!”

Here’s a link to the song:

Read more of the backstory on Deborah Keily Hanson’s website: hmspiano.com.

Read more about The Rose: The Rose Blossoming in the Father’s Love.

I create resources to ignite creativity, overcome obstacles, and help you develop your God-given talents.

If you’d like a monthly infusion of inspiration, links to free resources, and tips for making art easy, sign up for my email list: Release your Full Artistic Potential.

You can also connect with me around the web by selecting this link: https://linktr.ee/jodeeluna

Creative Blocks

What are your creative blocks?

For us artistic types, the battle begins in the brain. Not only in mastering skills needed for our art form(s).

Fears of moving forward.

Tendencies to devalue our own creativity time.

Struggles to organize our creative spaces and art supplies.

Insecurities over sharing our artistry with others.

If you relate, you’ve come to the right place.

You can overcome your creative blocks and realize your full artistic potential.

I’m here to show you how.

Hi! I’m JoDee Luna, and I’m passionate about empowering people to reach their full potential. My inspirational posts, practical tips, and creativity resources will help you along your creative journey. 

Subscribe to my email list to receive updates and access to free resources for inspiring and assisting your creative journey.

How Big is your Garden?

I’ve always wanted a bigger garden than I could possibly manage. I’d scroll through Pinterest and ooh and ahh over archways and gates that beckon entrance, white-picket fences, and trellises that cradle ripening fruit.

Yet, the demands of life and suburban living whittled my gardens down to a few raised beds.

Tending a garden isn’t a one-way experience because gardens give back:

They provide an abundance of fruit and vegetables.Time to contemplate while tilling the soil.Release of frustrations while picking weeds.Reminders of how essential pruning is in gardens and in life.

Gardens remind me of people God’s placed in my life with whom I exchange encouragement.

As a writer and artist, I often envy the size of other creatives’ gardens. Some have far more than a garden; they have an entire farm’s-worth of followers to nurture:

Author Ann Voskamp provides for thousands through her books, website, and public speaking.Jennifer Dukes Lee, author of Growing Slow, also blesses the multitudes with her wisdom and life experiences shared in a multiplicity of ways.Ann Kroeker, founder of YPM, Your Platform Matters, the writing community I joined, tends a huge farm’s worth of followers.

How big is your garden?

Mine’s pretty modest—there’s the women in my family and among my friends; the book study group at a local church, and a moderate social media following.

My garden might never grow to influence thousands, but I’ll faithfully tend it just the same: planting seeds of encouragement, watering with prayers, and plucking the fruits of encouraging comments others give back when I share my artistry. 

How big is your garden?

Who has the good Lord placed in your life to nurture and to receive nurture from? 

We don’t choose our garden or field, God does.

He knows what we can handle with His grace and our life commitments.

He merely asks us to cultivate faithfully. To use the gifts and talents He’s bestowed.

Perhaps in God’s eyes size is irrelevant.

Faithfulness and commitment are what matters. 

“‘The kingdom of God is like this,’ He said. ‘A man scatters seed on the ground; he sleeps and rises — night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows — he doesn’t know how. The soil produces a crop by itself — first the blade, then the head, and then the ripe grain on the head. But as soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle, because the harvest has come.’” Mark 4:26-29 HCSB

I create resources to ignite creativity, and help people develop their God-given talents.If you’d like a monthly infusion of inspiration, links to free resources, and tips for making art easy, sign up for my email list: Release your Full Artistic Potential.

I believe you have a unique destiny, and I hope to be a part of your journey! 

Making Peace with Empty Spaces

“You’d think with two photographers, and one who is also an artist, we’d have something on our walls.” My husband grumbled.

3 years has passed since we bought our home and still no wall décor. 

“We’ve both agreed on a wine country theme for the dining room,” I added apologetically, “since we live in wine country. Maybe we need to lower our expectations for finding the perfect pieces of art or photography and use the best of what we’ve got so far,” I added as I was thinking, I’m a portrait artist and not a landscape artist. Geeze! 

Every day we look at the empty spaces and sigh, maybe someday?

I don’t just have empty spaces on my walls, I have them in other parts of my life as well. Places where I can’t fill in the blanks:

What will carrying for our aging parents will look like for my siblings and I? 
Empty spaces__________________.What will happen to my children and grandchildren in the future? 
Empty spaces__________________.What will happen to family members who have health issues?
Empty spaces__________________.What needs will my husband and I have as we age?
Empty spaces__________________.

And then there’s those empty spaces in my creative life.

What should I paint next? 
Empty space__________________.How will I sell my paintings post pandemic?
Empty spaces__________________.What is my publishing path for my other manuscripts in process?
Empty space__________________.

When I think about empty spaces, those uncertainties in life and artistic giftings, I’m reminded of Corrie Ten Boom’s father’s advice when she was a child afraid of dying:

“Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you the ticket? She sniffled a little, and replied, “Why, just before we get on the train.”

“Exactly,” her father responded, “and our wise Father in heaven knows when we are going to need things too. Don’t run ahead of Him, Corrie.” 

Corrie Ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, inspired me to become a missionary in the Netherlands. Her family hid Jewish people during the Holocaust, and it cost her father and sister their lives. I traveled across the world at twenty-years old because of her story. 

From Corrie I learned that grace is like the manna God sent to the children of Israel in Exodus 16:14-21. Each gathered just what they needed for the day but couldn’t store it for the future. 

So it is with the answers we long to fill our empty spaces. 

We ask, and then we wait. In due season, God’s grace will fill in the blanks.

The direction will become obvious, the next painting will form in my mind, the pathway to publishing will unfold.

Whatever the empty space is, we will know the next step when we’re ready to walk the path. 

An Exciting Journey Awaits!

I believe you have a unique destiny, and I hope to be a part of your journey! 

I create resources to ignite creativity, and help people develop their God-given talents.If you’d like a monthly infusion of inspiration, links to free resources, and tips for making art easy, sign up for my newsletter: Release your Full Artistic Potential.

How to Overcome the Creative Block of Fear

“In order to learn the important things in life, one must surmount a fear each day.”
 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear is a formidable creative block for many reasons and manifests in many forms. Here are a few I’ve encountered along my artistic journey.

Fear of Failure

Creativity requires you to venture into the unknown where possible failure lurks. It’s frustrating to fail. Embarrassing to appear incompetent in front of others.

It’s scary to share writing, art, videos…or any other forms of creativity when your skills are in process. This is especially true if you are a perfectionist by nature. 

But failure is inevitable unless you are a savant. Skills progress imperfectly.

Antidote: “Strive for progress not perfection.” This Twelve-Step slogan focuses on having a growth mindset. The emphasis is on effort and incremental steps forward as opposed to doing something perfectly.

Former Failures

I’ve attempted a lot of artistic ventures that didn’t pan out like I’d hoped. I must face these former failures whenever I decide to take on a new task that looms large. 

Former failures can paralyze you from attempting new projects.

Antidote: Remember that former failures—whether inferior art, failed businesses, or poor sales—helped to form the creative you are today. Each failure is full of skills learned and content created in the process. You can repurpose those skills and content and use them in your next venture.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”

–Luke 12:32

Mediocrity

It takes work to create. Effort is required. New skills need to be mastered when you want to learn a new art form, build your creativity business, or share your artistry with others.

It’s tempting to take the path of least resistance and quit when you feel afraid.

But we creatives will age regardless of our attempts, failures, or conquests. 

Those to be pitied are those who never try; those that settle for the mundane because fear paralyzed. 

Antidote: Exercise your creativity like you would your body. The more you create, the easier it will become. Set some achievable goals like:

I will jot down ideas that come to mind.I will sketch out a simple plan or project.I will set aside ____minutes a day to pursue my ____.

These are just a few of the reasons we creatives struggle with fear. So, if fear is keeping you from pursuing a vision God has put in your heart, remember:

Do you doubt your creative abilities? 

Tap into the truth about your creative potential and learn how it can breathe life into your soul in this workbook that has helped over 200 women take simple steps to making art and finding joy. 

We are, after all, chosen to create! 

Sign up with this link: 
Chosen to Create Workbook

Prioritizing People, Projects, and the Practical

Trying to balance these three essentials can cause consternation for the creative. 

We want to be present for people, but not to the point where we don’t have time for our projects. 

Projects are important—from home improvements to artistic endeavors.

Yet, life can’t just be all about projects at the expense of people.

And then there’s the practical:

Houses need cleaning.Groceries need buying.Food needs cooking.Bills need paying.Gardens need weeding.

Often the practical keeps us away from our artistic projects.

So, what’s the solution?

The recipe.

The perfect combination that makes life worth living and creativity worth pursuing.

I don’t know. What I do know is over booking my schedule muddies all three. 

I need open spaces in my life…time to reflect on what I should do and what I want to do.

Realistic timelines for goals, rest and refresh, time with family and friends as well as with other creatives.

Home improvement projects spread out.

The next painting started next week.

The practical tasks scattered throughout the month.

I rarely get it right, but I sure feel it when one of the three is out of balance.

Are you a creative in need of encouragement?

I create resources to ignite creativity, overcome obstacles, and help you develop your God-given talents.

If you’d like a monthly infusion of inspiration, links to free resources, and tips for making art easy, sign up for my newsletter: Release your Full Artistic Potential.

You can also connect with me around the web by selecting this link: https://linktr.ee/jodeeluna