Keira McArthur

I once played a minor (non-musical) part on a Rolling Stones Tour – ‘Steel Wheels’ in the ’80s. I have a tour jacket, even, that boyfriends past have happily worn… and torn and stained. This comes up now because I wrote the blog title first. It’s still a good jacket, and I keep it to […]

acres of open acres and acres of open grassland like water in the wind but grass sings differently than water, if you listen Grass sings air On the treadmill today I close my eyes and listen to Africa my shoulders stop fighting gravity and every muscle is fluid easy, open, walking steady and forever like […]

This wire is familiar – the one I’m down to.  Six paintings, eleven days – I’m now working on two at the same time. (also workshop and rehearse the Performance Piece for Opening night, compile the Book for #Selfie and make at least two.  Then my breaks:  three rehearsals, two concerts, teaching cello lessons and […]

As a musician I know this – that I am most effective as a performer when I get my Self out of the way, and simply allow the music to flow through me and out.  People who are listening are then much more able to hear and recognize themselves in what’s being played, and can […]

I’m at the stage of production for this show that’s the most intense on all levels – emotional, psychological, mental and physical.  Each piece has its’ own trajectory and arc, and I work in collaboration with this. There are sixteen different painting ‘trajectories’ to define and follow to completion –  in 22 days –  if […]

A facebook friend of mine wrote this in his status update this morning: May 18, Facebook:  T.M. – 7 mins · New York, NY, United States : Everything we do is a selfie. (see MMcL) If you’re reading these, I do SO agree T.  And Marshal. Blessed long weekend.  I’m grateful to be here in […]

Mama said there’d be days like this.  It’s been weeks of days like this. When you need to change your mind about something that’s buried deep in your blind spot, getting a good, swift sucker punch or two from someone close will do the trick.  It’s best if the motivation behind the attack is baffling […]

There’s a subtle art to avoidance – one can accomplish a great deal when motivated by discomfort with a project’s requirements:  Go work out – more often.  Coach at GBSS’ annual music clinic; play at elementary schools in Bruce County for GBS.  Go see Art of Time’s Cadmium Red with Aruna; wander introverted and happy […]

Easter. Into a cave for three days, where you find the old stuff – the callouses, the excess, the muck and the clog.  You cut it all off or out, and let it go. Amazing how long three days can be, when you do this.  Amazing, how it feels to surrender to what you already […]

I’ve begun to think of my face as a mask, in all this clicking, writing, posting and painting of it.   It’s a mask that I make and change according to what parts of myself I wish to present.  Actually, that’s not even completely honest – sometimes I use parts of other people in my […]

I was walking down the street  When I thought I heard this voice say “Say, ain’t we walking down the same street together on the very same day?” “Hey, Senorita, that’s astute”, I said.  “Why don’t we get together and call ourselves an institute?” Paul Simon, “Gumboots”, from Graceland Many marvelous synchronized happenings and conversations these […]

This project has required a great deal of mirror-gazing.     I’ve noticed while doing so that my eyes each have a different gaze, left and right.  My left eye (on your left in the photo, above, which is a ‘double-mirror’ shot) tends to have a gaze that is outward and direct.  My right is inward, […]