I’m fond of the truism that  ”Too Much is too much––but Way Too Much, can be just right.”

That was definitely true today as I uncovered exactly what I’ve been searching for for my newest series of art pieces, SYMMETRY.  I had been dreaming of distressed window and door frames, and then putting stills from the short film behind frosted and broken glasses––appropriate for a series about voyeurism.

I’m working with my friend Matt who’s a master woodworking craftsman.   When he came over today, I suggested that the abandoned building that’s back to back with ours had a cool window on the second story.   Matt climbed the ladder and we found a goldmine of incredible windows and doors.  We ended up excavating 12 windows and 3 door frames which are going to be incredibly perfect.

Tonight while practicing along with Barenboim, however, I recognized that while TOO MUCH may be just right in terms of distressed windows and doors, a little off is WAY OFF when it comes to chromatic passages.

As I began to play some sonatas which were newer to me along with Barenboim’s recordings, I noticed that whenever I was just a half beat off how jarring the dissonances were during any charming run or frilly ornamental passage.  So much worse to be so close yet just a little off and therefore painfully at war with the recording.  Part of it’s the speed of those passages, but mostly it’s the number of notes clashing.  Rather than a momentary clunker here or there where I miss a sharp or a flat, suddenly a long phrase of 4 or 8 or 16 notes is clashing against Barenboim (and rightness).

There’s some kind of spiritual lesson here, too, I think about being just out of alignment with one’s inner vision.  Somehow the momentary mistake that quickly evaporates is less unsettling than an extended run of being “just out of whack.”

This reminds me of  everything I’m working for on a spiritual level;  more or less, it’s all about bringing myself back into balance whenever I’m out a alignment, and never settling for long passages that are just a little out of harmony.  I’ve learned that that really creates the most extended and worst kind of discord.