Reflecting Joy

Jessie Nilo

Acrylic

His playing was warm, playful, joyful, and inclusive. The musician and composer Paul Tillotson was posthumously featured at a recent Idaho jazz festival. The organizers had asked me to paint Paul’s portrait live on stage as his widow was our honored guest. It was a thrill to dip into all that orange paint as my friends played their instruments.

When a pensive song was announced as the next song, Paul’s widow spontaneously went to the mic and told the audience how much she loved that song. She told us, “I used to lie down under Paul’s grand piano as he played it, to feel and to cry.” Into the mic, she vulnerably invited whoever wanted to join her to lie down under the grand piano on the festival stage while the band played her husband’s song.

Two friends of hers joined her onstage. And the soles of 6 shoes faced the audience as music moved all of our hearts, made us cry, and lifted the power of community.