Consenses Project in Martha's Vineyard

My Musical Adventure- part 2 The story of the elephant

We had just wrapped up the recording of the basic tracks for Eric’s new CD, it was early on Saturday, August 16th and though we had a fabulous week in Muscle Shoals, enjoying the local cuisine and the musical vibe that comes from being in such a place; we were not looking back but forward to the days ahead. We had breakfast and headed to Nashville where we had a flight booked very early the next morning. This flight was taking us on yet another musical journey that awaited us in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. 

More than two years earlier, Eric’s friend Sally Taylor had sent him a photograph. It was a plain black and white print of an old boat floating all alone. There was nothing particularly special about the picture, it was almost sad to me. She asked Eric to look at this picture and write a song. The song was not to be about the subject matter in the picture but about the feeling this picture created in him.

He wrote that song while sitting on the sofa in my den. It appeared that this picture just drew the words and music out of his soul easily and quickly.  Once the song was the way he wanted it, he sent it to Sally.

Seven years ago while in Thailand, Sally Taylor saw the story below of the elephant and the blind  men and it sparked something inside her. She feels that if we will open our eyes and hearts to the view point of others; make an effort to release our insistence on being right and hear how they view things and how they feel, the world will be a better place. This story below is what started her vision for the Consenses Project she opened in Martha's Vineyard and that my son Eric Erdman became a part of at her request.

ELEPHANT AND THE BLIND MEN

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."

They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.

"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.

"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.

"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.

"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.

"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."

"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.

The moral of the story is that there may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes not because they may have different perspective which we may not agree too. 

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A little more than two years ago Sally put her ideas in action and reached out to artists she knew and some she found,  to accomplish this task of getting her vision of artists coming together and each seeing their own works expressed from a different view.

The picture Eric recieved and song he created, would become parts of an artistic chain that would travel through several art mediums and finally reach a film maker who would look at all of the contributions in the chain and make a short film. Eric’s picture was one of 22 that were sent to singer/songwriters worldwide. Each songwriter wrote and performed their song and when Sally received them back, she sent them to another art medium. Eric’s song went to a dancer/choreographer who created a dance. The dance was performed for a scupltor, who made a sculpture from feeling the dance evoked with him. The sculpture went to a perfumist who made a fragrance, based on how it made her feel. The group of artists that were in line in Eric's chain each performed their part until it reached its final art medium, the film maker. 

Each group of artists in the chain was inspired by what the previous artist had done, yet amazingly they all tied back without even realizing it.  I was fascinated as I heard many of the participants say that seeing their work from the eyes of others, helped them to see their own  work in a different light. It was amazing, for the visitors who attended the revealing of this Consenses Project, and it was amazing to the artists to see how their work effected other artists. Added to this, was tables placed throughout the venue that allowed those who were viewing the exhibits to use any medium of communication to express how these chains or parts of the chains had effected them. It could be conveyed through writing, drawing, or painting. Paint brushes, pens, markers, pencils and lots of paper were provided for viewers of the exhibit to say whatever they wanted to the artists or perhaps just one of the artists in any chain as they viewed it. I saw notes and drawings that said  “this touched me deeply, I will never forget it”, “I was amazed at the way each chain unfolded”....all of the expressions of feeling or emotion that touched everyone was very special to see.

It allowed the artists to see how their work effected the people who listened or touched or viewed their piece of the chain. 

I have never seen anything like it in my life. I met some of the greatest people that week. Several of the perfumists spoke to me and attended workshops with me. A couple of dancers and sculptors are now new friends. AnnMaria Mazzini danced to Eric’s music at a workshop where she taught dance during the Consenses Project. She is fantastic, look her up if you get a chance, she is located in New York City. The closest connections I felt were with the songwriters. I met a beautiful, talented, sweet young lady named Kori Withers who sang at two of the nightly shows, Eric appeared in the shows with her. Her song was one of my favorites. It was called “Stranded” and was pulled from her soul as she was going through a tough time when she received her picture from Sally Taylor. Kori’s father (who is now deceased), Bill Withers, wrote songs such as, “Lean on Me”, “Aint no Sunshine when she’s gone” and “Grandma’s hands”. She is a brilliant songwriter and it is definitely in her genes. I love Kori.

I also met two people, husband and wife, who are music professors at Burklee College of Music in Boston. His name is Mark Simos and I am not certain of her first name, I cannot remember. I spoke with them both at length each day. Mark teaches a graduate course in Songwriting and he had a couple of books he had written on the subject. Eric got one of them and they plan to stay in touch. His wife (I think her name was Heather), also was a part of the project. Both Mark and Heather received pictures, just as Eric did and they wrote songs. Heather’s was hands down my favorite song. Heather and Mark both  performed the first night. Her song touched my heart and I cannot wait until she records it and I can get it. She played the piano as she sang her song, “Even a caged bird sings”. It makes me tear up just to write the title down because it brings me back to her performance that night.

There were 140 artists from 23 different countries, including film maker Wes Craven, Songwriters, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jimmy Buffett, and more. I loved the film and song by a singer,songwriter from the UK, but again, I will have to look him up. His song was excellent, though it told the story of being adrift and feeling alone, it was very moving. He said that when he received his picture, it was a time when most of his friends had moved to America and he felt so alone. The picture brought out his deep feeling of uncertainty and it was beautifully expressed in his song. I could feel his emotion deeply as he sang. 

I met publicists, agents, dancers, quilters, tea makers, musicians, artists, sculptors, people from all walks of life, and all were so happy to be there to share such an enormous project of feelings and shared artistic abilities. 

This event was unlike any other. It enabled the visitors to participate and express how the work of these artists made them feel. There were workshops led by songwriters, dancers, photographers, and other disciplines of art that enabled us to better understand how they view the world and how they relate to the world. True artists are unique creatures to me. But I learned in one of the work shops that everyone is an artist. We all have abilities in one genre or another, whether it be music, painting, photography, cuisine, perfume, writing, poetry, quilting, glass-blowing, it is art and it is a means of expressing yourself. 

So I learned that even I am an artist, I never thought of it that way before. If we all could learn to accept our abilities and our art-self, oh what a wonderful world this would be for us and our children. Consenses Project is going to spread to other cities and many more people will have the opportunity to see, touch and feel it. If it comes to a city near you, I recommend it as an uplifting experience for your spirit and as something that will be good for your soul.