Tag: Joy

#37 Mistletoe & Loved Ones

Chaz DeSimone 2 Comments

Before I present my Christ­mas 2012 Amper­Art design, I wish to to tell you about the two incred­i­ble kids who inspired it.

Lydia Jayne, 12 years old, and her broth­er Alden Blake, 14, are excep­tion­al­ly tal­ent­ed chil­dren. Both of them are visu­al artists and both of them are musi­cians. They’ve even pro­duced short films together.

Just recent­ly they pro­duced their 2012 Christ­mas album. 

When I say “they pro­duced” I real­ly mean that — they pro­duced it all by themselves.
Lydia sang the lyrics and added percussion. 
Alden played all the instru­ments — Gui­tar, Bass, Glock­en­spiel, Xylo­phone, Ukulele, and Percussion.
Alden also record­ed, mixed, mas­tered, and pro­duced every­thing. Want more? He is the album cov­er artist as well. In short, there were no adults involved at all! (To men­tor Alden in my area of exper­tise, I changed a few ele­ments on the cov­er art that appears on this Amper­Art page, but not Alden’s orig­i­nal art which is on their own site.)

I’ve known these kids for sev­er­al years, heard them play and watched them draw, but I had no idea they were this incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed. I actu­al­ly had tears lis­ten­ing to Lydi­a’s and Alden’s ren­di­tion of these songs. Lydia has a strong, soul­ful voice and unusu­al­ly great styling – as if she were a vet­er­an songstress. Alden’s inflec­tions, phras­ing and cadence with each of his instru­ments con­veys the pre­cise mean­ing of the part of the song he’s playing.

Lydia and Alden are amaz­ing­ly tal­ent­ed. The term genius comes to mind.
I espe­cial­ly like Lydi­a’s per­son­al­i­ty and Alden’s ukelele on “Hol­ly Jol­ly Christ­mas,” and their heart­felt ren­di­tion of “Oh Holy Night.” For a solo gui­tar treat, lis­ten to Alden’s “Car­ol of the Bells.”

Lis­ten free — click here (http://​lydi​a​jayne​.band​camp​.com/​a​l​b​u​m​/​c​h​r​i​s​t​m​a​s​-​s​p​i​rit)

Enjoy the beau­ti­ful, charm­ing, joy­ous music these chil­dren have cre­at­ed, absolute­ly free. In the spir­it of Christ­mas you may wish to help kick-​start their career by pur­chas­ing a song (name your own price) or the entire album. These chil­dren are donat­ing a por­tion of the pro­ceeds to the World Wildlife Fund. 

These kids, and their Christ­mas album, inspired my 2012 Amper­Art edi­tion. For­tu­nate­ly, one of the album’s songs, “It’s the Most Won­der­ful Time of the Year,” con­tains an amper­sand (actu­al­ly, the word “and”) in the lyrics.

 

 

 

You may view, down­load and print a high-​resolution pdf of this spe­cial Amper­Art edtion here:      Let­ter size 8½x11 inch­es       Tabloid size 11x17 inches

Best wishes for a Christmas season full of happiness, love, cheer, and wondrously beautiful music!

#34 Kettles & Mittens

Chaz DeSimone 5 Comments

Amper­Art #34 is the sec­ond line of lyrics that contains “and” in the song My Favorite Things from the 1960 musi­cal and the 1965 film, The Sound of Music:
 

Rain­drops on ros­es & whiskers on kittens
Bright cop­per ket­tles & warm woolen mittens
Brown paper pack­ages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream col­ored ponies & crisp apple streudels
Door­bells & sleigh bells & schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dress­es with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Sil­ver white win­ters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feel­ing sad
I sim­ply remem­ber my favorite things
& then I don’t feel so bad

 

This is a col­lec­tion of four edi­tions, each fea­tur­ing a line from the song that includes the word “and” which of course we replace with our favorite charac­ter, the ampersand.

Each edi­tion in this series will be released a week apart. You must sub­scribe to receive high-​resolution pdf files so you can cre­ate beau­ti­ful prints (11×17 or 8.5×11 inch­es). Sub­scrip­tions are free & you will receive your print down­loads by email. You’ll find sug­ges­tions on print­ing and fram­ing here.

Con­cept & design notes:

In research­ing the style to use for this art­work I found one of the orig­i­nal movie posters, sam­pled the col­ors from which I chose a lim­it­ed palette (I did not use blue as that would be your per­fect mat in a nice frame), select­ed the appro­pri­ate type­styles & hand-​drew the amper­sand, styl­iz­ing it to resem­ble the main title in the poster.

Pink & yel­low kettles?

Have you ever seen a shiny new pen­ny in the sun­shine? It alter­nates between a gold­en yel­low and a bril­liant pink. Togeth­er, or when not direct­ly reflect­ing the sun­shine, it’s a bright cop­per. That’s why this edi­tion sug­gests cop­per through pink and yellow. 
 
If that does­n’t make sense, let’s just say the left­over mit­tens right after Black Fri­day were yel­low with pink pol­ka dots.

The amper­sand not only con­nects rain­drops and kit­tens and ket­tles and ponies and door­knobs, it also links the last two lines of the song, which appear on all four lay­outs at very top and very bottom.

To fur­ther research this piece, I real­ly enjoyed watch­ing the movie! If you ever need a joy­ful lift & a lit­tle humor, this is the movie to see. It’s won­der­ful & timeless.

If you love the amper­sand sub­scribe to Amper­Art here to receive future Amper­Art edi­tions. They’re always fun & fab­u­lous & free. Sub­scribers also receive spe­cial bonus­es.

#12 Peace Love & Joy

Chaz DeSimone 2 Comments

 

W I S H I N G   Y O U

AmperArt 12 Peace Love & Joy

T H I S   C H R I S T M A S

#12 Peace Love & Joy
Click to view full-​size or download hi-​rez image for gallery-​quality printing and framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

This is the first Amper­Art Christ­mas design, issued Decem­ber 2011.