As mentioned previously, I was not at first convinced to paint Miley Cyrus’s song, “Flowers,” but I wanted to add additional music by women to my submission for the ARC Gallery. I was little surprise at this choice of this music for I have never painted a song so current. My general thinking is to choose only music that has stood “the test of time.” For example, I have another unusual second current project, Adele’s song, “Make You Feel My Love,” She released this music sixteen years ago. What convinced my choice of “Flowers,” were the statistics on this music, notable eight consecutive weeks as number one. For color ideas I watched Miley’s official video of “Flowers.” She started the video dress in the color of gold (also mentioned in the music). And ended with her dressed in black. I liked the video’s start. But found the middle “exercise part,” while understandable, excessive. That video left me disappointed. That changed.

Today, I searched for another live video of Miley Cyrus performing “Flowers” and luckily found her 2024 Grammy’s performance. I thought she looked fabulous, and her presence was outstanding.

As for the other project, “Make me feel my love.” Here is the 16-year-old link to the official video of Adele’s rendition of “Make you feel my Love.” This video and every live version by Adele I watched is similar, slow moving, right up to this 2024 performance that for me was disappointing. The sheet music lists 76 beats per minute. For the draft cover music of “Make you feel my Love,” I increased the beats to 90. I had to. Adele’s pace drags this exceptional Bob Dylan song to an exhausted but grateful Verse 4.

Here is the first image of the projects “Flowers,” and “Make you feel my Love.”

Scott Von Holzen