TJ Hirst

Songwriting is an intimate expression for Courtney King Walker that is “like writing in a journal and then letting everyone see it.”

Her song, He Bowed His Head, conveys her feelings about Jesus Christ’s personal suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and at his crucifixion. When she wrote the words and music, “it felt almost like it was a sacred hymn, even though it is not written in a hymn style.” Listen to it here:

He Bowed His Head, copyright 2001 by Courtney King Walker, all rights reserved.

The song captures an “exact moment in time” and her impressions of “what He is going through right when He is in the Garden.” It speaks in straightforward words of His sacrifice, not only for His accusers but for each of us:

He conquered life through death.
First on His knees, then as He hung on a tree.
He suffered, He died, for me.

Courtney wrote this song during an emotionally difficult period of her own life. She recorded it in 2001 in California. Jill Thompson and Linda Stewart performed the vocals, and Courtney accompanied on the piano. Now, she looks back on that time as one of her most productive and most inspired times as a songwriter.

“Was there a connection? Why was I able to write so much during that time? The more difficult times drew me close to the Spirit. And I think it was the Spirit guiding me.”

Putting words and music together is a private process for her to say something important. “I only wanted to write about Christ. I feel it is in me only to write about what I care deeply about.”

Growing up she loved both art and music. When she went to Brigham Young University, she had to choose between music and design. She took a songwriting class in college, but she chose design and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She worked as a graphic designer and now freelances for Shade Clothing and others.

Several years ago, motivated by some positive feedback and encouragement from others, she contacted other LDS musicians to explore the possibilities in the commercial market for her music. Through those conversations, she realized that although she wanted to share her music with as many people as possible, marketing her music commercially didn’t seem like the right choice. Thus, her music remains her own spiritual expression and to her “it feels more innocent because of it.”

She distinguishes between the creative process of putting words and music together and her ability to write music to accompany words that someone else has written. The latter is much easier for her and something she could do professionally.

Before her Grandpa passed away five years ago, she wrote and performed—but never recorded—a song for him to the words of a poem that his sister, Virginia King, wrote in the 1930’s. The poem, God Is, is about the existence of God in everything. Courtney added the words in parenthesis for the flow of the music.

God Is

God is, not was.
He is with us still.
His, the driving force and will
That makes the world go ’round (and ’round).

Wherever you see
a green tree grow,
or a flower in bloom, you’ll know
That there God may be found.
(That there God may be found).

God is He who
makes the sun rise;
the stars that twinkle in the skies.
Today as well as yesterday.

God is. He lives, though you may not hear
His footsteps when He draws near.
That’s where God may be found.
(That’s where God may be found).

(God is.
God lives.
He is with us still.
God lives.
God is.
God is.)

God is Courtney’s driving force that fulfills her desire to create. Her creative pursuits—songwriting and music, art and design, raising a family, cooking, gardening, friendship—express her love of God. Courtney represents a new kind of Renaissance woman of this century—one who cultivates her creative gifts and whose life and character become their expression.

Fulfilling The Desire to Create, Part III is the last in a series from an interview with Courtney King Walker. He Bowed His Head is copyrighted by Courtney King Walker, 2001, and downloads may not be sold or used without permission. You may contact Courtney by email at walkerfamily5 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Read Part I in this series.

Even on the ordinary days of Courtney King Walker’s life, her creative side comes out. Creativity helps her discover how to organize her life, get chores done or help her children. She creates in the garden and in the kitchen. And she creates music.

Music is definitely the most creative part for me—playing songs that come from the heart. There’s creative parts of me that I can’t explain. It’s coming from the Spirit, the connection to God. All of my songs are something I feel strongly about. They are unique, personal thoughts that come out of trying to understand the world around me.

When she reads the scriptures, she receives a powerful feeling about Jesus Christ and how He loves little children. Her LDS perspective shows her that babies are perfect and do not need baptism as infants. Christ’s invitation in the New Testament of the Bible and in the Book of Mormon to bring the little children unto Him became the basis for her song, Little Hands, Little Feet.

Listen to it here:

Little Hands, Little Feet, copyright 2001 by Courtney King Walker, all rights reserved.

I thought of the little children as His allies. I have a hard time believing that the little children didn’t feel his divinity. He always called them to Him. They were always following Him and wanting to go with Him. I can just imagine these little connections happening.

The little children in the song follow Christ through his earthly ministry and to his crucifixion. Courtney wrote and recorded this song at the same time as His Eyes. Courtney plays the piano and Jill Thompson and Linda Stewart sing vocals. One of the most touching parts is when they sing about Christ’s resurrection:

Then the sun shined His light
and awoke the world from night.
As we wiped the tears from our weeping eyes,
we looked for a sign.

Little Hands, little feet, they did say.
He is gone away, despite your faith,
But then He stopped and He looked my way

“The children knew he was alive more than the adults,” Courtney said about these words. “And He answers the silence, ‘Come Unto Me.’ “

The repetition of the words “Come Unto Me” invite all who listen—not just the children—to come unto Christ. Originally, she titled the song Come Unto Me, but her friend and vocalist, Jill Thompson, convinced her that the title should be Little Hands, Little Feet.

The little hands and little feet of four children fill the Walker home. In raising them she has learned the need to balance songwriting with mothering so that neither suffers.

Writing music is something that takes patience and quiet. I have to let my barriers down and let the Spirit guide me. With babies you have to stop for a time. Right now is the season for children. I can’t get the good inspiration I need for writing music or being a mom if they are in conflict.

She remembered an experience when she was in the process of writing a song. It was the middle of the day and her children were around her at the piano, wanting to play along with her. She felt frustration toward them and realized, “If I am yelling at my children to write a spiritual song, I am missing the point.”

So, she lives her life in sequential phases. For some time she was in a creating phase when she wrote a lot of music. She composed primarily at a keyboard for several hours in the evening when she could be alone and quiet. She put on headphones to tune everything out except the spiritual connection she was seeking. In that way, she took what was in her head and expressed herself.

For now, she has written the words she needs to say, and she’s moved into a new phase in which she is taking it in, learning and absorbing. She is grateful for her roles beyond songwriter as woman, wife and mother to find ways day-to-day to apply that continuing creativity.

Fulfilling The Desire to Create is Part II in a series from an interview with Courtney Walker. Read Part I here. TJ will publish more of Courtney’s words and songs in Everyday Biography, next Wednesday, July 16. Little Hands, Little Feet is copyrighted by Courtney King Walker, 2001, and downloads may not be sold or used without permission. You may contact Courtney by email at walkerfamily5 (at) gmail (dot) com.

I knew Courtney King Walker as an artist. When we met in St. Louis, Missouri, in the mid-90’s, I was a young mom with occasional free-lance writing or editing opportunities, and she had just taken a job as a graphic artist for Brown Shoe Company, the parent company of Naturalizer Shoes. The interaction with another creative mind inspired me in my own expressions.

Later, with the birth of her children, Courtney’s primary creations shifted toward her home and family, from which she shares her talent in words, music, art, food and love. In the changing phases of her life, Courtney always feels the need to create.

Most recently, I have come to know her as a Christian (LDS) songwriter. She has self-recorded five of the 15 or so songs she has written. She began songwriting without formal training after 10-12 years of piano lessons. Around the age of 16-18 she figured out that she could write music at the piano if she just played and then wrote down the notes, and she wrote something for her high school graduation.

During the summer before she started college at Brigham Young University, she read the book, Jesus The Christ by James E. Talmage. She read about those anciently who did not believe that Christ was the son of God, and the thought came to her to write a song reflecting Christ’s divinity.

“I was always able to write and express myself well,” Courtney said. But now, she felt a purpose for that expression as she thought about “looking at Him and seeing His divinity. The words just kind of came out,” and she put the words to music and created the song, His Eyes.

His Eyes by Courtney King Walker, copyright 2001

On this recording, Jill Thompson and Linda Stewart sing vocals and Courtney accompanies them on the piano. (Singing is not her talent, she said.) She recorded it at a Bay Area recording studio in California in 2001 after many years of revisiting and revising—an important part of the process. She said,

All of my music has grown up. As I’ve grown older, I look at how naive I was. I go back and revisit it to see if it is sensitive. I ask myself, ‘Is that careful enough? Is that kind enough?’

That type of emotional and spiritual reflection and expression motivates her creative process, not commercial success. She said,

I always received support from a handful of people who listened to my music and liked it even though I didn’t have the training. I just do it the way I know how, which is probably blasphemy to people in the music world.

Though her audience may be small, the depth of her ability is great and the absence of fame or commercial success does not diminish her talents and creations.

Fulfilling The Desire to Create is Part I in a series from an interview with Courtney Walker. TJ will publish more of Courtney’s words and songs in Everyday Biography, on Wednesdays in July. His Eyes is copyrighted by Courtney King Walker, 2001, and downloads may not be sold or used without permission. You may contact Courtney by email at walkerfamily5 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Tagged: tr. v. 1. To label, identify, recognize with. 2. To touch in the game of tag.

My children are playing ball outside my window with the neighbors, and I’m being “tagged” on my computer by Julie at Evolvingmom.com. I’m not sure if this “meme” fits with definition one or two or both, but apparently, it is a fun way to learn more about other bloggers. So, for a little lighter Everyday Biography, I will tell more about me:

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. A PR writer for a university performing arts office
2. A scooper at Baskin Robbins
3. An office assistant for a cosmetic company
4. A full-time mother (still working on this one)

Four things that give my life purpose:

1. Being a wife and mother
2. Taking every responsibility seriously
3. Avoiding time-wasting activities
4. Living according to the gospel of Jesus Christ

Four things I do to take really good care of myself:

1. Exercise
2. Early to bed, early to rise
3. Worship and rest on the Sabbath
4. Read

The four events that have most formed how I live my life today:

1. Coming to know and feel confident in my own religious beliefs
2. Growing up with parents who taught me to choose my commitments wisely and then to honor those commitments fully
3. Getting married and learning to be an adult with my husband by my side
4. Choosing to have children and be a full-time, stay-at-home mom

Four things I do to keep motivated every day:

1. Personal and family prayers every morning and night (and often in between)
2. Read/ponder/study/discuss the scriptures for at least 10 minutes per day
3. Smile (When I remember to do it, smiling motivates me toward positive pursuits.)
4. Serve someone else

Four people who have been the most influential in motivating me:

1. My husband is my best listener and lets me talk it out so I can move forward.
2. My children motivate me to learn and grow and work on my weaknesses.
3. Good teachers and a mentor who helped me develop the confidence to be myself
4. Friends who share their hearts and allow me to share mine

Four ways that blogging helps me attain or maintain my goals:

1. I trust that I will be inspired every day to see something with meaning and write about it.
2. I am learning to live in the moment rather than looking toward my upcoming plans.
3. By asking myself this daily question and then sharing an answer once a week on my website, I have more gratitude for the blessings God gives to me and my family.
4. Interviewing creative and inspiring individuals for Everyday Biography prompts me to keep writing and developing my own creativity.

Who I am tagging:

1. Corbett Family Blog (Rachel)
2. Ryscott (Ryan)
3. Oldham Family Weblog (Doug)
4. MCP-Land (Julie)

The Rules:

* Link to the person who tagged you
* Post the rules on your blog
* Share four things in these themes (or replace them with your own “four things” questions)
* Tag four random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
* Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

The emotions at a baby’s birth—anticipation, pain, gratitude, and love—are rarely captured by a camera. Birth is a private story but one that portrait photographer, Minna Dyer, wanted to tell.

As a mother she knows these emotions. As a photographer her work expresses the life and love of families, especially mothers and their babies.

But when she approached a couple in her family and asked if she could document their birth experience, she discovered, “Giving birth is very different from watching someone give birth.”

Photographing the birth was unique. Her purpose was to be a photographer, but sometimes the events took her attention away from that purpose. She had to remind herself that she was an observer and they didn’t need her there. Quite obviously, she couldn’t direct the shots like she was accustomed to doing.

Despite some awkward adjustments, she found her place. “As it became more emotional, I felt more intrusive. I would need to take a step back. Then I would take an opportunity to take a few steps in and take a few shots and then retract.”

She created a beautiful and tasteful birth slide show, using music to soften the documentary-style photography. “I didn’t want it to be so raw. Music was the key; it adds a completely different element. Music makes us feel.” Her photographs do the same thing.

By experimenting with different angles or perspectives in different environments or situations, she uncovers genuine emotions.

Minna captured one such candid moment in a family by lying on her side with the camera very close to her. Her point of view highlights the body language that connects the couple to each other and their child.

When she edited the photograph, she enhanced the color with her settings. “I wanted to saturate it and make it pop.”

When Minna is deciding whether to make a photograph black and white or color, she simply tests it with editing software. “Sometimes I like to focus on the people. Sometimes color can be distracting. If the color is not doing anything for the photograph then I make it black and white or sepia to focus on the content rather than other visual stimulation.”

The resulting combination of perspective and color focuses on the joy evident in that family picture.

In her personal life, Minna finds joy in both motherhood and photography. When she has been busy with family responsibilities and hasn’t taken many photographs, she knows she is missing something in her life. But, likewise, she can sense if her photography business, Miriam Lovell Photography, is putting too much pressure on her husband. “Dan is very supportive and would never tell me he doesn’t want me to do this, but, I know when I am needed. I just don’t get carried away since I have other responsibilities. My priorities are at home.”

Her personal priorities guide her focus as a photographer. Through portraiture, she perceives and preserves human emotion. The resulting photographs visually invite viewers to feel what her subject feels. And a bond of understanding is born.

Focus on the Details, Part III is the final post in a series from an interview on portraiture with Minna Dyer of Miriam Lovell Photography. View photo cards and her gallery of photographs at her website. Learn from her regular photo assignments on her photography blog. Her images are copyrighted by Miriam Lovell Dyer of Miriam Lovell Photography. Images cannot be used without express written permission.