My Upcoming Art Show in Manhattan

Credo

What is greatness
if not the shedding
of lesser stuff
if not the daring
to be alone

Content simply
to play
fool around
with divine mischief?

A burst here
a sigh there
scribbling
slow and fast
and lingering
long enough
for all
to join the fun
the wonder

from Syzygy (2005)

James Knowles at the
Yellow Bird Gallery (2006)

My brother James Knowles has long been a great inspiration to me as an artist. Please click title link to see my photographs of his sculptures in bronze and paintings in oil, as well as my photographic portraits of him.

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Light Dark I

Part of a series of four photographs, this is a closeup of an old piano bench with a black cracked plastic seat. I like to think the play of light is the lingering overtones of all the music that bench has enabled over the years.

copyright Nancy B. Knowles 2006

At Dusk, the Cold Front

Out of the great nothing
something

You, lighters of lanterns
wait

The stars will illumine your way


They wait for the dark
steady

They watch the winds
swirl

Meanwhile the door
percusses

Asleep the puppy
groans

Out there the bell, old now
clinks


Will the stars fathom my words?
And I their winks?

All around, the forest
roars


copyright Nancy B. Knowles 2006

January
Click on image to enlarge

copyright 2006 Nancy B. Knowles

This blog gives me an opportunity to share unpublished work, such as this beautiful song from 16th century Spain by Juan Vasquez, that missed the final cut for our renaissance song CD, Piva, on Gyre.

Amor Es Voluntad
[click to hear song]


copyright 2006 Nancy B. Knowles

Today's blog is a culling of thoughts on presence, or the body as a window to the soul.

Essence
(some reflections)

My work radiates outward from silence. Nature welcomes, asks for my silence, hence I have chosen to live in her midst. We must pass through inner and outer silence to find presence (our essence).
When a great artist walks on stage it is the space within which [s]he moves. Living with spaciousness softens the edges of this mad world. Those who have presence honor other’s space, human, plant, animal, mineral. To communicate with others we must first listen to our own bodies. The body reveals the mind and the soul and is the most direct route to them. It is through the body that the mind speaks. To hear the body we must calm the chatter, the noise of tension. Our bodies are sacred. As a performer, my body is my instrument. To do my work, to BE, I must keep it flexible and free.

“There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows.

In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it opens.

Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest,
And let the spirits fly in and out.”

--Rumi

[click on image]

How Fragile She Is 2005

White roses sent to my parents for their 67th wedding anniversary; this one graces the cover of Frank Wallace's cycle of 16 songs for two voices and guitar, How Fragile She Is (2005), a musical celebration of and prayer for our small planet.

copyright Nancy B. Knowles 2006

For years the bansuri flute of India has been a solace to me--so much like the human voice. Often when I need to have a good cry, I do it on this simple instrument, which is made of reed, has very thin (resonant) walls, a wide diameter, and large finger holes for bending notes. This is an improvisation on medieval Spanish tunes.

Flute improvisation
[Click to hear]

copyright 2006 Nancy B. Knowles

River Panning
on editing recordings of our songs

We climb into increase
working our sweat into lather
which we then scrape off, flinging, splat
there on the floor to mingle
with our shavings
our clippings, polishings, our ravings.

Our froth and our chaff: music’s mud
from whence golden flecks wink at us,
laughing at what we left behind.

from Syzygy (2006)
song cycle for mezzo-soprano and guitar
by Frank Wallace with poetry
by Nancy Knowles

copyright 2006 Nancy B. Knowles

Jardin de Calla : Peru Revisited
a photo essay

[click on image to view photo essay, then click on first thumbnail and arrows to proceed]

Many years ago I lived in Peru for a couple of years. On Duo LiveOak's recent South American concert tour I finally had the chance to return. This short photo essay from that trip speaks of my love of the country where I became a photographer.

copyright 2006 Nancy B. Knowles

Triptych I (2005) and Her House (2005) [mosaic]

Photographs in exhibit (April 2005) in a two-woman show with photographer Wendy Holmes Noyes at the Lab Gallery, 47th St. and Lexington Ave, NYC, seen through the window on 47th Street. [Click on image to enlarge]

copyright 2006 Nancy B. Knowles

Mon Dernier Mot (song)
[click on title: it will take a minute, as it is a complete song]
by Fernando Sor (1778-1839)

accompanied by Frank Wallace playing 1854 guitar by Manuel Gutiérrez (Sevilla), recorded in 2000, not released on CD

Duo LiveOak CDs available at: www.gyremusic.com
For more information about Duo LiveOak: www.duoliveoak.com