Snow again. Heavy with the monotony of more to shovel, weary with the dread of many more cold days ahead, this morning I pined for Spring to begin TODAY…

…Until I read Jim Gurney‘s post from two days ago:

“I thrive on the austerity of winter as a foundation for my creative life. Winter scrapes the palette clean before springtime unscrews the caps from the tubes of colors and squeezes out the reds and yellows and greens.”

I like this idea of annual artistic evolution. Especially after a new snow, the starkness of winter can offer an austere cleansing sequence, clearing the splash of melodies and words from the past year to make space for new ideas, new ways of recycling favorite riffs, new ways of hearing/viewing/interpreting current material.

Metamorphasis is about evolving, figuring things out as the scene around you is changing… and adapting to the changes around you. Frogs have evolved to live on all continents except Antarctica. Some live on 15,000 foot mountain slopes. Some live in the desert. The Australian water-holding frog can wait up to seven years for rain by burrowing underground and surrounding itself in a cocoon of previously shed skin!

By committing to a locale, the desert frog’s adaptation to his environment is a central creative process of his life. By committing to my locale (of Boston), I too can choose to harness the harshness and the snow of winter for creative means.

So:
Welcome, white snow.
Welcome, uniform blanket.
Welcome, blank canvas over which new melodies can roll.