Guitar Gabby
New York- “Law is law and art is art and shall the two ever meet?” Wendy Nicole Duong, the first Vietnamese American to hold judicial office in the United States, wrote this article to provide the public with an “explanation” if you will, about the connection between law and art.
The first proposition in the article pointed out the verity that law and art share commonalities. Both disciplines are effective tools of communication, and both law and art have evoked emotion and social change over time. For instance, take Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Stowe’s artful use of literature and impeccable storytelling skills enabled her to place readers in the mind of the average black person in pre-Civil war America. Her paintbrush illustrated the plight of an African American woman, desperately trying to prevent her son from being sold away from her. The novel also vividly displayed the damaging effects the slave trade had on families under the yoke of a racist, oppressive society. This work of art, and many others like it, in combination with sweeping changes in legal statutes referencing slavery in the U.S., helped right a terrible historic wrong, proving that law and art are powerful tools when used together.
Gabriella Logan, a graduate of Vermont Law School, has been playing and studying music for 15 plus years. She plays the guitar, oboe and clarinet. Her brand, music and work reaches people in over 40 countries. According to Gabriella, conquering the musical arts is more than just being able to create “pleasing” sounds or skillfully master an instrument. To her, on a deeper level, it meant much more than that.
“I realized that music was a tool that helped me identify with others that have similar experiences, but possibly couldn’t figure out the words to vocalize them. Music is that emotional connector that presents all of us with a passageway to connect with others that don’t look like us, identify like us, or speak like us.”
That explains her passion for music, but how does law come in? Gabriella confessed that she did not initially see a link between the two professions, but eventually found a connection.
Guitar Gabby vs. Gabriella Logan
“When I first started law school, I wasn’t sure what I was there for,” said Gabriella. “I wasn’t sure what I was looking to get out of it, but it wasn’t until my senior year that I realized I could take the principles that govern the law industry and extract a strategy through it all that could be replicated across other industries. I had to find the intersections between all of my passions in order to make it makes sense.”
Today Gabriella frequently travels all over the world playing the guitar with her band and composing her own music. Despite her eventful life as a musician, she is also able to maintain a successful career as a lawyer that fights for environmental rights. What began as two separate identities, merged into one. Guitar Gabby, the beautiful, fearless, creative guitarist, was also Gabriella Logan, the hardworking, lawyer and founding member of the TxLips Consulting Firm.
“I think the world around us often caters to notions that humans are single-minded and can only live for one passion or have one career in life,” said Gabriella. “That’s simply not true.”
Gabriella says the legal work at her consulting firm permits her to strategize for and with people from under-represented communities, as well as provide them with sorely needed knowledge for the future. With her legal endeavors, Gabriella learned to use the law to empower her community. With her music career, she tells a story and connects with others she may not necessarily have connected with. In her world, law and art most definitely meet; They merge to make a profound impact on her life, and the lives of others around her.
“The world is always going to exist as it has, but the more perspectives I have on the world around me the more I will flourish.”
Thumbnail Credits: Jawan Scott
Sources
Sources
- Adelola Tinubu from Current Affairs Times interviewed Gabriella Logan,
Guitarist, Founder, and CEO of TxLips Consulting Firm.
This writer is extremely well thought out with practical points to make. She's sensitive, yet sensible. Graceful, yet grounded. It's difficult to argue with her rationale.
