Author: Scott Von Holzen

I am currently renewing an artistic adventure that first started in 1974, and ended in the early 1980's. A casual comment restarted the quest in art in 2004. Now, at night I am surrounded by artworks done and in progress, shelves full of art books, my music collection playing through a classic NAD amp and a pair of solid, classic free standing speakers, my piano, violin, blues guitar, and saxophone. So all is musical no matter what I am up to in the studio. Since I was a kid I have had the urge to be creative Now, in my later sixties, I am determine to know. I want to follow this to the end to see what these paintings, and all this music amounts to. This is probably the last great adventure I will have, so I am all in. So, watch out for nonstop music, canvases with multiple panels, with paint spread thick or dribbled on, words with meaning, and results that will challenge, push the meaning of music, and may even splash back. This blog's real purpose is to document my story in the making, and you are welcomed to follow along. Thank you for your support. Scotty Von Holzen

S_V_H My Back Pages Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen2 Comments
Two Canvas with Aluminum and wood, 26 1/4 x 17 1/4

My Back Pages is one of the smallest of my artworks, under thirty inches in length, and has the least amount of music. Since there is so little music present there is also little in visual interest.  That is the reason I decided to go further with my use of words in this artwork. I took what I learned from Lovesong, and in a free poetic style I brought words together from different parts of the music.  I deliberately chose words that have meanings far beyond their appearance in the song, and then I placed them randomly.  It is the words that connect this artwork.  I think this trend will continue because it worked so well in My Back Pages and Lovesong.

I cannot but wonder what would have happened with my art if I had not stop painting in the early 1980’s?  Back than I had no connections to the local artist community, and few opportunities to show. Basically, when I started I had a dream,  a few art books, and a spare bedroom to paint in.  From 1975 to the early 1980s I painted a number of portraits mostly from photographs of family and friends. I than ran out of subject matter, and along with the demands of earning a living my artist ambitions faded. In reality an artist prodigy I was never. In truth the drive and the limits of painting portraits,  and the lack of interest in any other alternate artistic genre,  brought it all to an end.   That was back than: “Ah, but I was so much older than, I’m younger than that now.”  Twenty-five years later I found a vision and a genre, music, that offers endless possibilities. The internet gives me the start at building connections, and I now have the time and the money to pursue  it all.  The biggest difference from than to now is that I  finally have the knowledge, the drive, the purpose, the goal, and the ambition to see all this through. As I have said before I am in it for the long run, and I hope you as the reader find this pursuit interesting enough to check in once in a while.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H My Back Pages image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is the first image for a small artwork, My Back Pages.   Bob Dylan wrote the music for this artwork,  but I remember the song from listening to the band The Byrds.  The Byrds recorded a number of Dylan’s music, including Turn, Turn, Turn, and another favorite of mine, Mr Tambourine Man. I have always wanted to paint this music, mainly because of a line from the music:”Ah, but I was so much older than, I’m younger than that now.”   For me, they where words in a song that I liked and I guessed defined only as a 60’s feeling.  Today, I can probably best summarized their appeal by a quote by George Bernard Shaw “youth is wasted on the young.”

What convinced me to finally attempt this artwork was  this My Back Pages video, from 1992.  The video includes these artists: Bob Dylan, George Harrison (The Beatles), Neil Young, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Roger McGuinn (The Byrds),  and the back up band, Booker T & MGs:

I am using colors that give this painting that look of the 1960’s.  That means, I will be using browns, muted greens and blues.

One reason I picked this music  was that I could do a smaller work ( this one is under 27 inches in length), in a shorter amount of time. That did not work. It never works.  The size of an artwork only affects a predictable amount of time. The real unknown, and largest consumer of my time, is the problem solving in the constructing of these artworks.  That leaves me with my this reasoning behind doing smaller works, and that is that they are easier to store, and sell. Big artworks create a wonderful first impression, but since I am in the beginnings of adding Art Fairs to help promote this artwork, smaller paintings make sense in every way.  So there it is. Until I can find a Gallery to represent my work, I am becoming the weekend Gallery in a white tent. At least, I am not selling them out of the trunk of my car.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H LoveSong Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
33.5 inches in length x 19 inches in height. Two canvases, aluminum and wood.

The subject of this artwork,  Lovesong,  is finished.  This is an adorable little artwork. Little also helps to cut the considerable amount of increase time that it takes to put together a three dimension painting.  By focusing on smaller paintings this helps to keep up a reasonable timeline, which good for my focus.  That is also the reason I only do one project at a time: I don’t want two projects to complete for me time.

 

The colors chosen are what I think works for the artist like Adele. I rounded much of the music to soften the look, and to give the painting a more feminine feel. The words are necessary generic, but interesting.  Since doing Gently Weeps, and because of reading the story about the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,   I have added more words.

I have always thought carefully when adding words to an artwork, making sure that their meaning is more diverse than the music. Adding extra random words has finally lightened up this process up, besides adding interest. The solid color of the background puts the background right where I want it,  out-of-the-way.

 

I remember early in my artistic career  when I took the painting Fur Elise to the located Art Center in hope they  would display it in their gallery.  The work was decline.  The one comment that they made was that they thought the artwork’s interest would be too limited, appealing only to those with a music background.  Today, their point could still be valid. I don’t remember if I responded to them that day.  I doubt I did. Even today I am still not sure what I should have said in response.  I do know, that with each finished painting, I am once again spared the need to know what those words are.

Scott Von Holzen