RUMINATION PERFORMANCE ART

Improvisational singing of Rumi's love poems accompanied by original music and improvisational painting.

IMPROVISATIONAL PAINTING

"Improvisational poetry is a form of dancing with words, and images come naturally with that. Inspired by Jackson Pollack's drip painting over glass accompanied by jazz music, I decided to paint on plexiglass accompanied by my singing of Rumi poetry.

For my first artwork in this series, I set up a large plexiglass piece in the middle of my garden and spontaneously created a painting based on Rumi's poem Bird Song."

RUMI AS INSPIRATION

"Ten years ago when I stumbled upon Rumi's love poems, the ecstasy and mysticism puzzled me and I had to put it down.

But in the past year, I have been reading him again and perhaps because I have gotten old, I have attained some wisdom. For the first time, I got the essence of these poems. His love poems stem from his improvisational mutterings after his lover was murdered. Through grief and loss, he found the expressions of love.

Rumi's poems are so fresh and immediate, they bring out the singer in me. At age 69, I thought I had lost my soprano voice but through improvisational singing of Rumi, my soprano voice came back.

My music teacher and friend Bertrand Laurence is a master guitarist who has done years of improvisational playing for silent films. When I suggested that I'd like him to play an accompaniment to my singing, he did not know Rumi's poetry. The magic that happened became our duet. We have recorded about 75 poems in five months."