Of course, I knew before starting this project that images of this extra-large music would go beyond the 10-foot easel support.

The image from July sixteenth shows the finished structure with all the notation in place with a length of 157 inches and 48 inches in height. Because of the size and weight of this artwork, I have mounted steel plates on the back of all the canvases. In that way, once the artwork is hung, the music with its attached magnets can be easily placed. In the past, I would use other magnets on the back of the canvas to attach the music. This worked, but there were issues when adjusting the music. The magnets on the back of the canvas can easily fall off. This made replacement difficult unless the artwork was removed from the wall.

Next up was the building of the speaker boxes that will be installed inside 12 x 16-inch canvases. This is the first time using 5 x 7-inch two-way speakers. The hope is they will generate more bass over my four-inch speakers when connected to the 20-watt stereo system to be built.

Up to now, I photographed this art on easels placed near a white wall used as the background. I would then remove the background wall and the easels from the image in Photoshop. I have always had to remove the backgrounds of my artworks because since 2013 I was selling canvas prints at my Etsy store. In recent years, as my artworks became more 3D and more open, removing the backgrounds became time-consuming. My solution became a adding blank canvas on the easels, which then became the background for the art placed on the easels.

I now have abandoned this baffling procedure. The weight of the artwork and the background canvases has become too much for the easels to bear. The image of July 16th shows the damage of too much weight on the far right easel. That is when I recalled the original design of this studio, which was to place the easels a lot closer to the back wall. I did not do that. When I moved in I placed my easels more in the center of the room. I suppose I did this because of the large size of this studio. I then used the space between the easels and the wall to store completed artwork and other stuff.

My easels are now placed close to the back wall. The procedure will now be to move the easels off to the side, hang the finished artwork on the wall and photograph it. I should have done this from the start. I have also closed my Etsy store so I no longer have to cut my artwork out from their backgrounds. The artwork shadows on the wall will now be left in the images. These photographs will then present a greater sense of depth that was a cutout of previous images that made the artwork appear flat.

This artwork is large. I wanted this work to stand out at the upcoming EmptyWallsArt group show in Green Bay, Wisconsin. And I also wanted to make a statement to the other members of EmptyWallsArt. I even priced the artwork high at $20,000. It is probably worth that amount after painting music for now 17 years. Although that amount is way beyond what any buyer would consider I thought Its price would also make a statement. This one artwork will probably be priced higher than all the rest of the group’s offerings combined. But, my wonderful member friends need to make money from their art. They then will price to sell. And some may sell. And if they do sell they then will cookie cut more of the same art. Lucky for them they have found their market. Nothing wrong with that. My original idea behind EmptyWallsArt was formed on the art “hook” of offering galleries and group exhibitions 7 different examples of 3D art. This different approach that hopefully they would find interesting and where pricing for all of our works would rise substantially. I wanted EmptyWallsArt to be our outlet from what I have come to hate which is the every year revolving door of area art shows.

Over the years of paying for, setting up, and removing my art at area art shows and exhibitions, I have gained little momentum and few sales. Even when there was actual feedback, a third place in 2019 at the Pablo, for example, did nothing to enhance this art presence. The why for this is that these type of art shows all reset every year. A new year means a new rewrite of art history for what I see myself as a local yokel art and artist. This type of yearly art experience puts art and the artist symbolically in a hamster wheel. Each new year, I started knowing that this art deserves recognition, but here I was again standing at the same starting line as the year before. After many years of painting and music, I needed to find a way out of this art cage. To quote Jim Morrison, I was looking for a way to “Break on through to the other side.” Let me also quote Einstein, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I believed that the forming of EmptyWallsArt was that different result. A year later, I now see and live with that idea’s naivety.

EmptyWallsArt was supposed to bring together talented and unique artists that would stand out from the crowd with the shared genre of all working in 3D. Instead, what has become apparent is the limitations of local 3D talent. What EmptyWallsArt is now marketing is 6 local artists and then me that produce art to sell to strangers. What I am seeing is what they have always done, and that is what I call their everyday art, selling to their everyday market. And that is fine. They create their art because it sells. They then create more of the same art, again because it sells. But this market is all built on the buyer as a stranger. I did not realize the extent of this until I was told so by an artist friend.

She sold a piece at the most significant local art exhibit at the Confluence Center’s Pablo annual art exhibition. She asked who purchased her art. They declined to answer her. I was taken aback by that. I also was enlightened by a comment from a member that is also a fine watercolorist. For the EmptyWallsArt group, he has gone, I would say, out of his comfort zone to make commercially appealing 3D works. What surprised me was his comment that he had only so much money to spend on this art. Lucky for the membership, he sold a 300-dollar work at the Spring Elmarro show. EmptyWalls art is what my brother Jeff would say: “It is what it is.” Although his words are honest, I dislike what sounds like accepting defeat. I prefer the words of Peter Gabriel: “Stuff coming out, stuff going in, I’m just a part of everything.”

Scott Von Holzen