Body and Soul 3 panels 30 inches by 104 inches.  A week ago Saturday night, late and done painting, but not quit ready for sleep, and after some desperate  channel surfing, there on the PBS station was Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival 3 with performances by some of the best guitar players imaginable.  Although the begining was missed, I did catch the performance of Buddy Guy with Jonny Lang & Ronnie Wood, and it was amazing.  What followed was Jeff Beck and then Eric Clapton.  After that, I drifted away, but what each of these artist did to the music was astonishing.  Yes, always, the music was recognizable, but each of these guitar masters, added much, much, more to the music, than anything that would every appear on a piece of sheet music.  But what truly made this a musical experience, and a enlightenment for this artist, was watching the video and seeing the strong emotional reactions of these artist to the words and notes they were playing.  What became clear to this artist is that this art needs to perform in that same way.

Listening to Mozart – Piano Trio In E, KV 542 – 1 Allegro.

That brings us to the above image taken this last Saturday night.  Two things: those large circles, are an idea taken from and are a reflection of, the glass ball that hangs in the Vermeer painting Allegory of Faith. And second,  all those little bright balls, around the bulbs bring back long ago childhood memories, of the passion for the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

Listening to Luther Allison – Blues with a Feeling

No use trying to explain the why of  “two things” beyond that all art and all artists build on the art and the experiences of the past.  And that idea is on display in the image above in the eighth and sixteenth notes that are being depicted in a manner that is truly unconventional.  Like the guitar riffs of Buddy Guy and Ronnie Wood, or the jam sessions of Charlie Parker, the job is to find the means to abstract music in ways that jam it up. Those colorful little planets are the current example of finding a small piece of that way forward, and learning from the past.

Finishing with The Beatles from Revolver – She Said She Said.

Scott Von Holzen