“Quiet Your Mind, Open Your Heart” is a multimedia video about internationally renowned sculptress Star York.
Star York trains horses and practices Tai Qi to nurture her creativity.
Internationally renowned sculptress Star York describes her creative process to create award-winning sculptures of wildlife, Native Americans, Cowboys.
She quiets her mind and opens her heart by training her horses, doing Tai Qi meditative movements, and working in her Abiquiu, New Mexico studio.
The goal of the multimedia video “Quiet Your Mind, Open Your Heart,” was to present Star’s creative process, which was to be used as a promotional piece. The main challenge was technical. I was cutting my teeth on audio and it was the first time I was the videographer. The only solution was to go in there, make mistakes and keep learning. Fortunately Star was patient.
Another challenge was the sheer body of Star’s work. What was the best way to represent this highly prolific, creative person who has been sculpting for more than 30 years, has been highly awarded, and publicized.
The solution here was to focus not on her work—that had been done, but how she nurtures her creativity. To cover her work we scanned photos and tear sheets of her earlier work. And, I had the permission of Wendy McEahern to use her beautiful studio photographs of Star’s sculpture. It’s always a challenge to find music that can legally be used. Star suggested I contact the composer, performer Phillip John “Aarnaquq” Charette, about using one of her favorite musical pieces, “Eagle Song.” He readily gave permission.
The final challenge, which came up during editing, was whether it is possible to use the highly personal nature of a digital story for promotional purposes. During the interviews, there was an emotional transformative moment when Star revealed the personal meaning of one of her cowboy sculptures.
The rough cut of the multimedia piece was a digital story of revelation and transformation. However, this seemed much too personal for a promotional piece. The solution here was to work collaboratively to give Star what she needed to promote her artwork.
Credits
“Quiet the Mind, Open Your Heart” written, produced, filmed, and edited by Pam Taylor.
Photography © Pam Taylor Photography
Studio photography © Wendy McEahern. “Grama’s Gifts,” “Over the Top,” “Purrfect Lazy Day,” “Regal Repose,” “Rocksie,” “Roll,” “Scratch,”“Starwildlife,” “Range Duty,” “Greatest Gift,”
Additional images by Rachel Brock, Jeff Shulman, Dell Weston, and Star York.
Music: “Eagle Song” by Phillip John “Aarnaquq” Charette