Posts

March 2021 Free Wallpaper and Playlist

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

March is here friends. Since fall, I have been getting up early each weekday morning at 6 and taking a very chilly walk around our park. I make myself a cup of cinnamon tea and bundle up in all my layers. The last three months have been very dark and very cold. But this morning, for the first time, it was just a little bit light out when I left the house. And by the time I got back the sun was fully up and the birds were singing. A change is coming.

If you have been around me for a while, you probably know how I feel about March. I truly dread it every year because something terrible always seems to happen in March (it’s those darn ides…). But this time I plan on squaring my shoulders and facing whatever the pruning brings. I am going to do my best to search out spring even if it isn’t quite ready to find me.

Our theme for the month is “Song”. It is about finding those moments of beauty and poetry amidst the end of winter and singing. Love you friends. Keep on keeping on.

For the desktop, click on the image above to view the large size image

This month’s playlist is themed “Song”. It is full of Irish sea shanties, ballads, and songs that make you want to get up and dance. Enjoy!!

For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both. I make a couple different versions so that you can use what works best for your device.

March 2020 Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper

/2 Comments/in , /by

For the last five years (at least), something really difficult has happened to our family in March. One year it was our daughters bout with seizures, one year was the fight that almost ended our marriage, last year Tim’s dad’s cancer surgery, one year a miscarriage, etc. I know I always talk about how each season is my favorite, but after the past years, March has become the month I dread. Yesterday I was telling my husband how I have this sense of impending doom already. And I don’t want that. I don’t want to be that person. Historically March is the end of winter. It’s the month when the store rooms are bare. It’s the last leg of the hard race of winter. So it makes sense that it would be a place where pruning happens and we experience hardship. But it’s also where we get to see the hope of spring. It’s where the grays of winter start to recede and we discover crocuses under the snow. The light begins to grow stronger. And the plants know. Over the years, I realized that I usually gravitate towards themes of color, and light, and spectrum in March. We are in a place where we are longing for light. So friends, let’s head out into the sunshine and feel the air strengthening our weary bones. Happy March friends!

For the desktop, click on the image above to view the large size image

For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both. I make a couple different ones so that you can use what works best for your device.

July 2017 Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

It is fun for me to make these desktop backgrounds each month because I don’t plan them out. The direction they end up is often as much of a surprise for me as it is for you. This month, I started with a star themed red pastel drawing and ended up here with this bold background. Parts of it are pulled from a swatch of 1940’s wallpaper.  Fun, right?

For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.
High Resolution Desktop Wallpaper:

For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the iphone images. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen.

NEW ALBUM! Haystacks: A Collection of Favorite Songs (2008-2016)

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

haystacks-album-cover

Today I turn 38. When reflecting on life this I realized something:

Over the past 8 years I’ve released 8 albums!
becoming_cover_1600almanac-cover_color_v1418qjnxtlul-_ss500frailty_album_cover_giants-and-pilgrims_sm51b3jzcvpil-_ss500trillium-album frailty_album_after_party61r8b-835nl-_ss500

 

Before that, when I had turned 30 I had crisis of profession. I wasn’t sure if being a musician/singer-songwriter was going to be good for my family. Our first baby was on the way and I had always treated this part of my life as a hobby. I wrote songs and shared them locally but I never went beyond our pocket of friends with any intention. Yet I had this strong pull that I needed to be giving more room for this in my life.

Then I had a transformative conversation with a friend.

He let me know, “Tim, this is the year of the baby. You’re going to have your first child. And then you’re going to let this other child known as your ‘creative career’ out of the closet you’ve locked it up in.”

Really, someone’s respected opinion that I could DO IT was all I needed.

I created a website.

I shared my music online.

I played shows and gathered emails.

I went on my first tour (to Kansas! because it was home!)

It was a turning point for me where I stopped talking about what I wanted to do as singer/songwriter and started actually doing it.

So collected here are songs that are favorites of mine and the people who have listened in over the last 8 years. In the fields of everything I’ve released these are songs that rise a little bit higher in their season.

Hence the name, Haystacks.

Processed with VSCOcam with m4 preset

“Ghosts for Tinder” Painting Story and Process Photos

/0 Comments/in , , /by

IMG_4058
A photo of a wildfire that was about a quarter of a mile from my parents’ house.IMG_5177IMG_5175

My parents’ farm in the Kansas Sandhills is surrounded by hundreds of acres of native prairie. Farmers there are constantly fighting the growth of cedar trees and other invasive species to try to retain the health and beauty of the prairie. One of the reasons why the prairie can be difficult to maintain is because fire is necessary to its life and health. Wildfires burn away dead plants; prevent certain other plants from encroaching; and release nutrients into the ground to encourage new growth. But in our world, we fight against fire.

Where I grew up, prairie fires are a very real concern. My childhood home was destroyed in a prairie fire (thankfully after we had already moved out). I remember many nights where my dad would leave all the sprinklers on in the yard “just in case”  because a nearby wildfire might jump the road and head our way.

Understandably, we don’t have room in our lives for fire. It can be dangerous and destructive. We have belongings and homes that are cherished. But, in our needs for safety and to protect the things we love, we can miss out on some of the restorative benefits. Especially in the sense of fire as a larger metaphor.

So the prairie here is a metaphor. Sometimes the best healing for new growth is a clearing out. This painting is my reminder to myself; that sometimes we need to start anew. Sometimes we need to let pain in and let go and begin again.

Ghosts for Tinder_web

Interesting little side note, this is the one piece in this series that was not started on a new blank canvas. The canvas had a painting on it that I was never happy with, so I painted over it to create this new piece – an act that mirrors the symbolism of the piece. The gray bird in the sky flying towards the past is the one element I kept from the original painting.

The butterflies here represent (as always in my pieces) hope and forward momentum.
The fire has sparkles of the universe within it.
IMG_7429

A 2013 photo of burning cedars in the prairie

 

GHOSTS FOR THE TINDER lyrics by Tim Coons

Come and keep by my lovely fire

I’ve got pieces I’m scheming from the liars with in me

You’ve replayed in my darker mind

You’re re-lived in the days I have assigned without you

Yes, I’ll leave it behind

Yes, I’ll leave it behind

Yes, I’ll leave it behind

Yes, I’ll leave it behind

Burn it down here

burn it down

it will come again

come up, on up from this ground

Up and around

So burn it down

I’ve got ghosts for the tinder glow

I’ve got pages to wash clean as snow to warm me

I’ve got memories for matches now

I will lighten the load so sad and loud for
When I see you

Heaven knows it will light

Heaven knows it will light

 

Portfolio Items