Grunewald Songwriting Workshop

Jan Krist, visual artist and song-writer, led us through a powerful creative process at the Songwriting Workshop she hosted at the Grünewald Guild in Leavenworth Washington this Spring.

The Grunewald Guild is named for Matthias Grünewald, 

"a German painter who ignored the classicism and idealism of the current Renaissance style and painted in a more expressive and intense style than his contemporaries."

The Guild is a retreat center and a community that facilitates the exploration between art and faith/spirituality.

At the beginning of 2016  had committed to set aside some time and resources for my first continuing education time in many years so when my daughter invited me to join her at this songwriting workshop, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

My Assigned writing companion.

For a long time I have felt like my creative voice was being given expression only in instrumental music, with there being little to say of any value or interest in the current climate of wordiness. 

There IS power in nonverbal music, nonverbal communication, which I see daily in my Music Together classes with preschool (and pre-literate) human beings.

However, thanks to the safe (and challenging) container that Jan helped to create and a process which helped to facilitate focus and a timeframe to produce a song to share with the rest of the community at the end of the retreat...I found myself rejuvenated and refreshed!

 My "office" on the bridge and my explorations of the external geography (which paralleled and revealed my internal geography) led me to produce not one but two songs!  

This earned me the title of "overachiever"!  lovingly bestowed upon me by the rest of the group.

Demo recordings of Barefoot Ballet and The Center Calls have been shared with my patrons as rewards on my patreon page  and are in consideration for a new recording project as well.