A Chance Encounter

I ran into a kid in a music store. Conversation. I gave him the Watershed CD. The story ends. Usually.

This time the kid had a dad (well often that's the case, but this dad was unique -- stay with me now).

The dad likes the music.

The dad blogs about said music on his interesting, well-written blog (a much LESS common phenomenon).

(He's prolific, peace-loving, intelligent, conservative... hmmm, all those things always go together, right?... I feel honored, awkward, and gleeful to have my music featured on it (he posts sacred music on Sundays). I love 2012.

The Meaningful Gifts on a Budget Dillemma Continued

My general approach to the Meaningful Gifts on a Budget problem has been to create something: cards, art, write a song, etc. I've gotten better at creatively dealing with this annual dilemma myself, but until this year I never thought that others might be dealing with the same thing - until I googled it.

I struggle with the sell, sell, buy, buy, thing that happens during the holidays. It can be depressing. So it's easier to judge and bemoan the state of the materialistic west (or try to ignore it) than think of making a difference somehow. Besides how important is giving gifts anyway?

Creative Meaningful Gifts

More on meaningful gifts: some of my favorite gifts are things my family or friends made for me -- a drawing, a hat, or handmade card to me is worth far more than the time put into it.

Not everyone has time or interest in making things, however. Another idea: give something someone else made. Etsy has some great and affordable art.

Christa and I put together three art and music specials this year made up of paintings, writings and music we created before starting our sabbatical.


If you'd like to give a gift of art and music from the Reuels, here is a chance to do it on a budget.

Specials run until Dec 7.

The Watershed Coursebook

The Watershed Coursebook is done and posted online. You can order it if you'd like. Those of you who get it as a reward for Kickstarting the project will be getting your copies once we get them and ship them to you (so it will be a while yet). It's exciting to be done with this.

A bit about this book: I wrote the coursebook as a way of 1. getting some of my thoughts about transition and growth on to paper, 2. using the lyrics of the Watershed album as a launching point for reflection, 3. giving people who want to dig deeper into some of the album's themes a way to do it, and 4. trying spiritual and personal growth together with the art and music of the Watershed Project.

This is the first time I've attempted anything like this, so it's exciting and scary. See what you think. I'm excited to find out -- six months from now -- if it is helpful to those who pick up a copy. I am, after all, headed into the wilderness... this FRIDAY!!!

The art and illustrations are by Christa and I. I wrote the text. The book is 7x9 inches, black and white, 114 pages. Please note that even though some of the photos show up in color in this preview, in the actual book THEY ARE ALL BLACK and WHITE. It's some strange glitch in the system. Just wanted to be clear.

Bring Some Trouble by Jonathan Reuel | Make Your Own Book

30 Feet of Art

We're working on getting prints made of the 30 foot-long piece of art Christa made for the Watershed Project. But there's this last little thing she wants to try. I guess 30 feet of art is not enough...

Art and the JRL Farewell recording

So I finally got the music back and ready for the live cd of the Farewell Concert. I also got a different artist to create a peice of work for each song. It's pretty exciting. Here's an example: this is for the song "Carbon Blanket" and the art is by Carrie Yoder. I'll post more examples soon.