Artist, meet Dirt. Dirt, Artist.

I’ve been playing in the dirt for the past week or so, and I’m ecstatic about it.

Absolutely. The cast of characters includes shovels, rakes, hoes, garden boxes, a pickaxe, lots of sunscreen, and a big-ol’ pile of rich, dark, composted dirt.

We’re planting a garden!

It’s so exciting. Carrots, peas, red and yellow peppers, red potatoes, parsnips, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic; herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, and chives; canteloupe, spinach, cabbage, beets . . . We’re even going to have a bed of flowers!

On Sunday we filled two long rectangular garden boxes and two large circular beds with soil; it was hard work, and I was exhausted but very proud of the results. I haven’t planted anything since I was younger than eight! I feel totally like a kid again.

The whole process has got me thinking about my life as an artist, and just how related the two are:

First of all, there’s the very direct correlation between working in the garden and the creative process. They both require single-mindedness, focus, and patience.

During the first part of the day yesterday, I was inside working on my computer – multi-tasking: zipping in and out of my web browser, composing the latest Shawnslist broadcast, chatting with folks as they popped in to my gmail screen . . .

When I went outside, my whole perspective shifted as I slowed down and began to shovel dirt – one scoop at a time. The contrast was dramatic, and the groove of shoveling dirt became hypnotic – in the same way that playing and replaying a new groove becomes hypnotic.

Multi-tasking can be hypnotic in its own way, certainly, but in the case of shoveling dirt – or writing and practicing music or any art form – multi-tasking is not an option.

It’s funny – even writing this post, I’ve been bouncing around my laptop, doing different things. Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done!

The other obvious parallel is the time it takes to really birth an idea. I used to think that I could just come up with an idea and BAM! Put it out into the world and let it fly. Perhaps somewhere down the line I’ll have systems in place that will allow me to do that – in fact, I’ve already started building some of them – but in the meantime, I’m discovering that 3-dimensional reality is much “thicker”, so to speak, than the world of ideas, which makes the process of bringing ideas into 3-dimensional reality much slower than the world of ideas alone would have me believe. Putting a seed in the ground, and then dealing with 3-dimensional reality one day at a time until that seed can be harvested as a carrot or squash is very much the same thing: slow, requiring patience, vigilance, and love.

To tie the two metaphors together, it could be said that with regard to the next wave of my life as an artist, the seeds have been planted and now it’s time to water them and wait.

In the meantime, I am so glad to be able to share the process with you.

Sunday night Jennifer and I went out for dinner with our friends Tod and Christy, who are the other ones working on the garden, and we simply enjoyed one another’s company, basking in the feeling of having done a productive day’s work. It was a beautiful feeling, similar to the one that I get when I send out a Shawnslist broadcast and I receive messages back from you with your thoughts and reflections. So many responses came back from last month’s broadcast, and I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with each one.

And now that we’re in the realm of the blog, you can comment here or email, or send a message on MySpace, Gaia, Shmadden.ning, or even YouTube. The possibilities are endless!

Regardless how you stay in touch – stay in touch! : )

Much, much love, light, and laughter,

Shawn