Pool of ideas

Virgina Center for Creative Arts

Virgina Center for Creative Arts

If the Virginia scenery isn’t inspiring enough, there’s always a night at the “dive in movie.”

I’m spending a little time away from home here at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts in Amherst, Virginia. The creative retreat provides quiet time and ample freedom for a small group of writers, composers and visual artists to develop new ideas (or recover from the last one).

Past Fellows are recipients of some prestigious fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as winners of National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and MacArthur genius awards.

Whatever they put in the water here, has good effect.

On the drive up, I had some time to think about this last year. 2010 brought some new and challenging projects, and I wanted to thank all of you who shared in the creation, production, and performance of each of them:

Providence Gap
Beautiful Star
Songs in the Rear View Mirror
Redbird Round
Polecat Creek and Steep Canyon Rangers

A walk around this gorgeous campus is helping me settle in. A few conversations with some Fellow guests will help, too. And there’s always the pool.

Residents here turned the empty pool into a “dive in” movie. Just the kind of creative idea I’d like to dive into.

See you when I get back.

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Thank you

William Christenberry

William Christenberry

Thank you, Cara Hagan, for the carefully-penned review of “Songs in the Rearview Mirror” in lvcmag.com. Arts coverage these days is a dying art, and you’re breathing some new life into it.

From the article:

“As Dossett and Frazelle took in the scenery and history of Hale County and the surrounding areas, Frazelle said that poetic ideas began to emerge, which then turned into texture and melody. He began to draw parallels between the Christenberry images and experiences from his own childhood. Some of these experiences appear in the songs as poetic verses, sung by Dossett, with an emotional sensitivity that was readily apparent in her performance. At times, it was as if her voice could be that of your own mother, singing you to sleep, or a young child on the verge of tears. At other times, her voice rose to be loud and clear, commanding the space around her in the theater.”

Read the full article here.

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