Musical Manifestations
August 16, 2010
Have you ever listened to a song with your eyes closed and actually paid attention to what the music makes you see? One of my favorite exercises in the only high school art class i took was when the instructor put on some music and told us to let it guide us. I still like to do that sometimes – but now I tend to use paint instead of pencil. Sometimes when I hear songs I see images, but most often it’s color. Sublime is yellow and orange. Paramore is red, orange, blue and purple. Social Distortion is dark red, black, vibrant blue. Hem is soft yellows and earthy greens. Gin Blossoms are green, blue and yellow. So on and so forth.
When I DO see images in songs I have a hard time not sketching them. Sometimes they are strong enough that I can’t ignore what my mind wants to see in real life…that’s how the Social D snowboards were born. I recently acquired some old cupboard doors – 5 of them to be exact. I held on to them for some time…not quite sure what I wanted to do with them. I knew I wanted to turn them into a series of some sort, but I just wasn’t sure what the theme should be. At some point I decided it had been long enough since I had done any music based pieces, and so these became the Music Boards. I’ve finished with 4 of them, and those are hanging at my buddy Jim’s Mr. Pickles shop in Midtown (the MARRS building on 20th Street). Here are a few for all of you who can’t visit my art in Sacramento…
The Music Boards #2 - Deeply Grounded
The Music Boards #4: The Beginning
My sculpting skillzzzzz. Spackle is my friend.
The Music Boards #3: Not As Much Fun. A view into my world...this was taken before the piece was finished. Never mind the messy work station, look at the art!!
I’m starting the final piece now, but I’ve decided to blog post my progress as I go…sort of show you guys how I do things. I’m hoping to get that started within the next few days…cross your fingers that I can fit some art into my busy schedule.
In other news, Jack Rabbit Special now has music up on our Facebook page! Be our friend and give it a listen – feedback is ALWAYS welcome! Still working on getting our songs available for download – seemingly that is trickier than we thought. We have our first pseudo gig lined up (a friend of the band invited us to play at his wedding reception)…next stop Arco arena. Watch out!!
