Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone.  I hope that everyone is safe, happy, and healthy.  I played a gig last night, Christmas Eve at the 13 Coins in Sea Tac.  It was a fun gig with Tim Turner on guitar and Billy Spaulding playing drums.  Tim dressed up as Santa half way through the gig.  Last weekend I played with Scott Rosburg (guitar/vocals) and Rick Spano on drums. I'll soon be enjoying Christmas dinner, my son and his fiance (Stephanie) are cooking it for me (lucky me).  Mmmm, it smells great!  I painted this at 3 or 4 am, a quick acrylic painting of a poinsettia last night.  I have 'I'm Dreaming of a 'White Christmas' linked to the title and here.  Always a favorite Christmas song of mine.  I get to see my sister tomorrow in Vegas.   Yeah!
I'm off to eat and to see if Santa brought me anything?  xxoo Laurie

Chair and Vase

Hi Everyone,

  Yes, I'm still alive, and I'm covered in a new coat of mold.  It is lime green this time.  This is my first break, only one student to teach today, in a couple of months.  I have been busy doing positive thing, even if I haven't had any time to paint (wah, wah).  I painted last night though.  I forced myself to get started. To shift my brain back to the right side. It was 3 am when I started, and it is a quick acrylic painting of a vase of flowers and a chair.  I will be updating my art site with my miniatures and paintings from the previous few months by next week - www.lauriemillermodernart.com .  
   First, I played a GoGirls Festival at Eddie's Trackside in Monroe.  Michael, my son, played violin with me, and Carol played percussion.  It is soul full filling to play my original songs again.  Writing music, painting, writing, creating in any form brings me joy.  I'm in the moment, and I feel like I'm living my destiny.  




Anyway, the GoGirls Festival was a wonderful event, and I met some wonderful talent: Ronnda Cadle, Heidi Swan, Jean Mann, and Christine Havrilla.
  Next, I played a fundraiser at The Vera Project for Ruby Smith, my 17 year old bass student who is beating cancer.  Here is a link to her journal. 
  Finally, I held my fourth annual Christmas recital for my music students.  It was a wonderful event as always.  Their energy is so positive and they are all so talented.
  I'm #4 on the Rock charts in Seattle on Reverbnation now.  How exciting!  There is some great music on the Reverbnation site if you get a chance to check it out.  Here is my link: http://www.reverbnation.com/lauriemiller.
  I'm still updating my Facebook Fanpage.  If you want to 'Like' it great.  Let me know by sending me a message or email and I'll 'Like' your page back: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laurie-Miller/6369592998.
   Thanks so much for reading, looking, and listening.  Have a nice day! Laurie

Stormy Seas

Hi Everyone, I'm going to post my famous 'quickie' today, because I have to leave to teach music in five minutes.  I wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive!  "I'm still breathing!"  Busy, busy, busy with a ton of left brain decisions to make.  I did paint this quickie small acrylic painting this weekend, and I've been working on new lyrics for a couple of new songs and the B section for an instrumental piece.    I'll be updating my art site - www.lauriemillermodernart.com soon within the next two weeks, since I have about 20 new miniatures to add.  I'll post more this week.  Have a nice day!  xxoo Laurie

My Father's Birthday and Steve Jobs Dies

Hi Everyone! I'm back again. Wednesday, October 5th, would have been my father's birthday. Unfortunately he passed away of a sudden heart attack when he was only 49 years old. He was an amazing man, and I remember moving to Palo Alto twice, two years apart, so that my father could work on his Ph.D in Sports Medicine at Stanford. He was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame. He had also been a trainer for the USA team Winter Olympics, and he was the president of NAIRS which was located at Penn State. I wrote this song on Wednesday in memory of him - My Father's Song. Unfortunately on Wednesday, Steve Jobs died. What an amazing creative genius Steve Jobs was! What a loss!
Ruby, my bass student is always in my thoughts, and you can read about her journey to heal from cancer at her online journal link Caring Bridge/Ruby Smith.
I'm really enjoying getting back to writing songs again. The song I've linked to this post is written for piano/violin, but I haven't found a good violin midi sound yet. My son played it on his violin for me, and it sounded great. I will soon have my instrument inputs set up so I will have a real violin sound recorded.
I painted the acrylic painting 'Hat and Coat' last night too. I'm getting excited to focus time on my painting too.
I'm sure that I'm in need of some sleep,
so nighty night. xxoo

American Boy

Hi Everyone! A quick post to show the variations I made to the acrylic painting for Susan Bellone's 'American Boy' album cover.

If you want, leave a comment and let me know which layout you like the best.

My art is still displayed at the Puyallup Fair till Sunday Sept. 25th. Here is a link to my art web site - Laurie Miller Modern Art.

It is a very warm day here in the Seattle area. I'll soon share a new song and picture that I'm working on.

Have a nice day! Laurie

Yellow Wind

Hi Everyone! I'm readjusting to my back to school teaching schedule. Fortunately I'm not playing as many gigs, yeah. Don't get me wrong I love playing the bass and I like the musicians I play with, but when you work seven days a week 365 days a year being in a bar is the last place I want to be. It is a rather negative environment. Hopefully, I can make enough money with my creations so I can move on to a different level of presenting my music which isn't limited to bars.
   My bass student Ruby is still fighting cancer and we hope to have a fund raiser soon. I'll keep everyone posted, and in the meantime you can read Ruby's journal.
  I still have art work displayed at the Puyallup Fair. I will have to write more soon, since I'm a bit tired.
I stayed up till about 7 am painting an album cover. Once Susan picks which version she wants to use I'll share the picture in my next posting. The acrylic painting in this posting is a quicky I did this morning after the album cover called Yellow Wind.
   I'm still having fun with my keyboard recording input. I love writing a song and being able to record it immediately. Here is my latest piano piece I wrote for my son to use as backing music for his photography.
  

Gray Skies

Hi everyone! A lot has happened since I've written. First of all, sad news; my bass student, Ruby, who is only 17 years old was diagnosed with cancer. Ruby is a wonderful intelligent person with an upbeat amd kind personality. She has learned music and how to play the bass at an amazing level - here is a link of Ruby playing 'Teen Town'. You can read about Ruby's journey to recovery from cancer and make a donation at her CaringBridge site. I visited Ruby once at Seattle's Children Hospital, but since last week I've been hit with a bad virus. Hopefully I will be well enough to visit her again soon. My prayers go out to her and her parents, Kate and Theo. You can visit Theo at Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Cafe where he is a co-owner.
I painted this quick acrylic painting this morning. It reflects Hurricane Irene to me. I'm also always inspired by Project Runway - Season 9. Currently I'm working on a couple of larger paintings so, I may post WIP, or I may

wait till they are completed? I've also started to write a new piano solo song in the vein of my Inanna's Dream song. The link below is the book 'The Help' which is written by a fellow Phi Mu sister Katheryn Stockett. The book is now a movie, and I can't wait to see it. Off to finish errands, and then I have a gig tonight. Have a nice day! xxoo Laurie