This image one shows an art that has shifted direction because my current studio is being shut down for a move to a different home, this time in the country.   This change includes the construction of a new and larger studio.  The start time for the studio construction is uncertain.  That means from now until completion I will make artworks in temporary locations, in compact spaces.   Adding to the lack of a real studio, I have become increasingly board with this art current direction and it physical and time demands which have exhausted me.   This has resulted in my sudden and required abandonment of my much favorite three-dimensional path.   For now, I will return to the world of two-dimensional primed canvas. The ability to play the music the artwork is portraying will remain. How I will add all the hardware to play and hear the music on canvas will be an interesting challenge: I will not stretch the finished artwork.  Over the past 14 plus years, I have been painting music and finding solutions for every obstacle to keep pushing this artwork style stubbornly forward.  That is the quick story.

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The effects of Covid-19 have eliminated in-person art exhibitions or turned them into virtual exhibitions (I waste of my time), for nobody knows how long.  That does not work for this art.  My paintings/sculptures need to be seen, touched, and heard by tens-of-thousands of people before they will have a minuscule chance of being taken seriously. That means, for now, until this virus is under control, I am punched out.

Scott Von Holzen

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Here is part of the longer story.

The first image shows a similarity to the artwork Where Have All the Flowers Gone.   The second image shows how I have covered up this by applying my scratch technique.  This results in me randomly scrapping away parts of the top paint layer to review the background colors (An example of this method is the artwork I Will)

Where Have All The Flowers Gone

I Will

What makes this project different is that I have never tested this scratch-off technique on unstretched canvas. I originally thought this technique would only remain stable and not peel away on wood or stretched canvas. Because of that reasoning, I was not planning to use my scratch-off technique on an upstretched canvas. I changed my mind when I realized I had no other option.  My old techniques for applying paint to my backgrounds now seemed dated.   With the coming studio move, I found out that the supplies I need were already packed away.  I bought replacements for it excited me to learn how my scratch-off technique would stand up on the loose canvas.  To my surprised, it worked.  Each time I have used this technique, I am unsure how it will turn out.   It is not until I take my finger nail or a pallet knife and scrap the top layer of paint off do I believe.  To my delight on this rougher finished and heavy prime canvas the top paint layer had the right amount of adhesion that it allows me to easily scraped off the paint.  I created pencil wide back-and-forth scraps that created a look of dramatic movement across the canvas. The second image shows my results. Now, I have noticed days later I can still remove the top layer of paint, but its adherence is greater.  That is good.

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This is another even earlier part of this lengthy story.

These first images of this Bach Minuet will be a part of a two artwork project. Earlier this Spring  The Interculture Art Inc. in Japan, which I have sent other Bach works to in the past, requested two more Bach artworks.  Issues began when there was a delay in information, probably because of  Covid-19.  Here is the original Etsy Store conversation sent on May 12th:

What convinced me to take on this project is that I had in storage a roll of a heavy-duty primed canvas that was large enough to create two Bach artworks to the measurements required. I told Yamakawa that my price would be $1000.00 for each artwork plus shipping. He agreed, but needed to confirm the order with the client.  It was not until early June before my next contact where the plan appeared to be changing. Their ultimate decision was to go with two prints from artworks of any Bach music.  My problem was I had no Bach artworks that came close to the style and colors that they wanted. They also needed them delivered by earlier July.  By the time I received their last request, my studio move was already in progress and set for mid-July.  I thanked him and declined their offer.   We both hoped that there will come another opportunity to work together.

That left me with the possibility to use up the canvas that had been lying around my storage for years.  That idea and the soon lost of my studio meant that I could change the way I made my artworks.  What convinced me I needed a change came from my growing frustration over the sizeable time and effort that each of my latest projects has required. It takes easily over a month and from 40 to 60 or more hours a week’s worth of effort to finish one artwork, and for what result?  This year the results for all my efforts to finish new artworks has been I get to take a nice photograph of my finished artwork.  I then put it on side easels in the studio until it gets in the way, or its ideas are no longer needed.  It then goes in storage with the other hundred plus other artworks that I have rarely seen over the years. I then start the next project and everything repeats.  So, why not go back to doing easel work using canvas instead of custom wood pieces?  This could be a fresh opportunity to try ideas on a simpler two-dimensional platform that will include music.  Japan would not have wanted the music. They only needed something artsy to fill a space on a wall.   At this moment lets us begin the lost chapter of this still unfolding story of one guy with one purpose, and one goal to find out. Did he make it?

Scott Von Holzen