Inspiration for the project

"I have been exhibiting at art festivals since 1974. Over those years I have met, known and traded work with many artists whose work I love and respect. In recent times I have found myself increasingly interested in collaborating with other artists on a cross-discipline basis to produce hybrid works of art, primarily mixed media in nature. 

Jerri Lisk, a friend who I met in 2021 at a show in Jackson Wyoming, came to mind as I looked at a painting of hers in my home one morning in the spring of 2022. The work featured Aspen trees - common in the high country of western America and one of my favorite species. She captures their very essence in a way that resonates deeply with me, painting often on aluminum panels - a material I had never incorporated in the fashioning of my hardwood drums.

When she was set up near me at the Art In The Pearl festival on Labor Day last year something possessed me to approach her about her interest in a collaboration between our two disciplines. Thankfully, the notion of it attracted her as well and we agreed to produce a pair of instruments - one to be kept by her and one by me - to feel out the process and taste the experience. The work was completed early this year, enjoyed immensely by both of us, and we as a result decided to release a limited series of signed and numbered one of a kind pieces as collector works. The project, “Music in the Woods” was thus born."

Michael Thiele