Zombies: Exchange between an Artist and a Musician

Upon seeing my Glitter Zombies posted here, my brilliant musician friend Damon Ketron wrote that his upcoming album will be titled "Repel the Undead". I asked what Zombies signified to him. He wrote:

"Yeah the Undead for me with my next album "Repel the Undead" is like things you've wished you could've said or opportunities missed before you turned into a zombie, unfeeling, Not living now in the moment, the arrogance of thinking we'll be alive tomorrow and living a life of fear and being afraid to live now which is like dying twice. I don't know, lots of things, but mainly just being numb and not living I guess and repelling those thoughts and dead feelings."

Damon asked what Zombies represented to me. I wrote:

"The undead - zombie - that whole word / idea only came up when my brother saw the started paintings in my studio, which were a continuation of that drawing you aptly called "gestural"; and he called the painted creatures "zombies". The paintings are about a subjective feeling - about being "out of it", numbly unhappy, in a dull pain - feeling you have no control over your body, over what's happening - a mind / body disconnect.

Have been thinking I might be a total control freak without ever having realized it. Maybe that's a given for any active creative person, any artist/musician/writer. One of the hardest parts of being pregnant has been to not be in control of my body. Here I am, producing something I don't have any creative say in! Realized I like to use my body as a "tool" - derive energy from movement - go anywhere I please - dance - be flexible - know why I feel the way I feel, and change it if I don't like it. Having an "alien" in you that you cannot control - because this is a whole new being of its own outside of yourself, even though it's in you for the moment! - changes all your possibilities. And I felt the limiting aspect of that more than the miraculous one...so far.

So, the idea of the "zombie" didn't even come up til my bro mentioned it, and I liked the word, and juxtaposed the zombie with its glittering surroundings that it didn't feel part of...glitter: nyc, my creative active friends, an adventurous life."