In this latest studio, I have been finding it increasingly difficult to display my artwork on my historic easel system. For safety concerns, I even began strapping the artwork to the easels, which had mixed results. Finally, after 17-plus years of displaying this art on easels, I have placed all my easels in storage.

I first started using a similar style of Mabef easel pictured above in 2006, which I purchased on sale at Michaels, an art supply store. This reasonably priced easel had in-store availability, is not bulky, fairly light, easily and confidently adjustable, is on sale a lot, and has proven over the years to be flexible, strong, and sturdy.

Even early in this art, many of my works were two feet by four feet and even larger. Eventually, I needed more of the same Mabel’s easels, which I purchased whenever they were half-price, around a hundred dollars. There are other well-designed and sturdier easels. They were also a lot more expensive and did not provide the flexibility I needed. I could easily add more of these lighter easels as my music artworks became larger and longer over the years. For my Vivaldi’s Four Seasons series, I used seven easels to hold artworks from the series that reach a maximum of twenty feet. You can see in the Vivaldi photo the flexibility of these sized easels to adjust up and down to match the positioning of the artwork’s different canvases. And yet it was time for a change. I will from now on hang my works for viewing on 100-pound handers placed 16 inches apart across an unused studio wall.

I am near the finish of Closer. I am impressed with the sound of the music and will post the final image and the final music box music in a couple of days. Hopefully (every artwork goal) Closer is the One that will eventually shake-the-tree. To quote Meat Loaf from the song Everything Louder Than Everything Else, “If the thrill is gone then it’s time to take it back.” May this artwork be everything louder than everything else,

Scott Von Holzen