This is the current image of the next high end music box with the cover music, The Shape of My Heart.

On the floor of my studio, again using my large supply of stretched canvas, I have put together a frame that will hold all the artwork cover music. This study of the artwork is thirty inches wide, making it an easy fit in the car. The length, although, is over seven feet. That means I will have to remove at less one of the square boxes that will hold the speakers in order to travel the work.

For this project, the artwork is going to sample this part of the cover music:

“I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know the clubs are weapons of war.
I know diamonds mean money for this art,
but that’s not the shape of my heart.” – Sting & Dominic Miller

This art and artist’s ideology relates well with Sting’s words: I know that diamonds mean money for this art, but that’s not the shape of my heart. Well said.

Here is an acoustic version of Shape of My Heart:

Looking at several Sting’s videos, I tried to get some idea of what colors would work for this project. The general color brown stood out to me, but other than that, no others. Finally, after much debate and trials, for the artworks’ musical flow, I went with Van Dyke Brown Hue and the accent color Terre Verte Hue. I choose them for no other reason than those colors would work along with what I saw in his videos. I see Sting as a sort-of-an-well-off English country guy? As for the stretched canvas colors, I am looking at accenting the browns with dark violet color options or, strangely, Maroon, not a favorite of mine. For the two tall and narrow canvases, the color choices will be on the darker side to keep them in the background. The two square speaker canvases extend out from the frame and, therefore, will have a subtle lighter look to allow the words from the music to stand out on their surface.

When I complete the artwork, I will then import the draft music into my audio software to update the instruments and the overall sound.

_________________________________________________________________________

Roger’s poem

The sun in winter
is all too short.
Who knew as you move through our lives,
that yours would follow the winter sun.

Winter arrests time
for thought and reflection
that February afternoon.
Dressed for warmth
we venture out,
Into the soft light,
surrounded by stillness,
not an oak leaf stirring. 

The cold of that yesterday
 is heard in the crackling crunch
 of fresh fallen snow, 
 as I straddled previous steps
 along a well-worn path,
 deep into the woods.

Although I think
we are alone,
Zelda knows better,
her actions are telling. 
Life and the deer are about. 
Stopping with her tail up,
head sharply flipping, 
to-and-fro sensing something_, 
curious,
I also pause,
feeling a stirring in the air.
With her nose to the snow, 
Zelda looks to turn off the known path, 
to explore another trail, 
far less traveled. 
Her interest, I cannot foresee,
or know where it leads. 

Before I can call her back
to the safe way forward,
Winter freezes my momentum,
with a stinging breeze
across my cheeks,
breaking the silence,
awakening concerns.
Had I dressed warm enough?
I feel and pat
my coat,
all was there.
Then it came to me,
that it was not the cold,
but the wind, returning to me
moments once set
quietly away.
I wondered why on a
cold Winter’s Day
on this made-up path,
at this crossroad
in these common woods, 
this walk halted,
by an unforeseen breeze
sending a shiver
tumbling inside, 
then out into the light.
Why over all my many memories,
did I find this one exposed
from beneath Winter’s blanket_,
a consciousness,
an awareness,
that once_, 
was you? 

sections 1-5 of fifteen.....to be continued.


Scott Von Holzen