Over the past day I have changed my mind a dozen times (at least) on how to send this message to Amanda Palmer. The ideas ranged from a message using Ask Amanda on AmandaPalmer.net, then I thought, no it should be a comment on the article that she wrote on Medium, then it was going to be a tweet (but that was to limiting) so it was going to become a Tweet using TwitLonger but that seemed just strange especially as the tweet hit 1000 characters and wasn’t done. Then a Facebook post, and at long last I realized… why not an open letter to her here, on GoGeekGirl since it was something on GoGeekGirl that started the need to send this message. (Sadly I don’t have a Neil to proof and edit this so I may end up with run-ons and even lower case crimes keeping me from becoming a capitalist… You may have needed to read one of Amanda’s tweets for that to make sense).
But it was more than it should be here because it was here the kernel of this message sprang from. No it should be here, because it is not just Amanda that needs these words. I needed them, many artists need them. In many ways, since this can apply to more than art, we all need them, just as a little reminder.
Dead Amanda,
Yesterday as I prepared to work on content for GoGeekGirl I did the usual surfing the social media platforms and there stumbled upon a link to your article posted to Medium. My heart broke reading the message you received that inspired your post. But it broke more recognizing the fears you were dealing with related to your art and the changes that may come with you becoming a mother. I read. I sighed sadly. I commented (with words I hoped would help) and then I got down to work on the material I had before me to prep for my own posts. Your article never far from my mind as it bothered me that somebody would send that message in the first place.
But as I picked up my headset and played back the interview I had recorded with Bear McCreary during SDCC, something he said jumped out at me and struck me. Not for me, so much as a “You need to send these words to Amanda, she needs to hear them and know it is OK” Since that moment I have debated whether I should. Then I debated how I should. Finally I simply decided… I just would.
So here they are. The words that jumped out at me telling me that Amanda Palmer needs them:
“No one writes in a vacuum. No art is made that’s not influenced by everything the artist has seen, heard and experienced in their lifetime leading up to that point. So on a fundamental quantum level you are a different person on Tuesday than you are on the next Thursday. So everything you experience becomes part of your experience.” Bear McCreary
I believe that sometimes we do the things we do in the time we do them for some unknown cosmic reasons. Such as why did I not post the interview with Bear any sooner. Somehow something somewhere knew this was going to be needed and if I posted it any sooner the words would not leap across my mind calling your name.
In my slightly less eloquent words… You are simply evolving and so will your art and that is ok and as it should be. If you don’t evolve your art eventually stagnates and dies. You are simply letting it grow into what it shall me next.
Be Well and keep on Rocking!
GoGeekGirl
Ps: The best day in September for a birthday is September 22nd, I know you may be hoping for sooner but just a little hint. It is a damn fine day to have a birthday.
GoGeeKGirl Exclusive SDCC15 Interview with Composer Bear McCreary
