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 Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix Image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

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Mon Coeur s’ouvre à ta voix, is an Aria from the French grand opera Samson and Delilah first preformed in the year 1877.

Here is another version by Elina Garanca, which I shared with you in the first post of this music:

Here is a very beautiful version sung by Olga Borodina:

Again here is another version by Olga Borodina, that is from the Opera in which this music is sung as a duet.  I like this operatic interpretation because for the man’s part, sung by Josè Cura, for he does not yell out his love for Dalila, like the other examples I have watched.  Instead his voice is full and strong in his heartbreaking statement of his love of Dalila.

 

As you can see this is another experimental work in the how of pushing the music off the canvas. This is not easy to do, which can be seen so far in my fairly primitive efforts.  These new ideas in composition are changing the philosophy of these artworks.  I am seeing a speeding up of the changes to my original idea for this art form, which came from sheet music.   Although, I have always been  abandoning different musical rules since my first musical artwork, I do see that trend becoming even more extensive, and obvious today.  These later paintings better display this art form in its efforts to portray the feelings, and uniqueness of the music,  while distancing themselves from any image that mimics what you see on a sheet of paper,

This artwork is interesting.  Not only is it being uniquely linked together differently from any other painting I have done, but I have found myself totally disappointed in the way I am  portraying the background for this music. I struggled with the background,  without finding a solution to this issue,  in my last work.   I am now convinced that after this painting, I have only the choice to change my approach to my backgrounds.  They are becoming boring, and repetitious.  I will eventually come up with something  that will even surprise me.  I just hope eventually, means in the next few days.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Mon Coeur s’ouvre á ta voix (Softly Awakens My Heart) image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

“softlyAwakensMyHeart_1Mon  Coeur s’ouvre á ta voix,” quoting Wikipedia, “..is a popular mezzo-soprano aria from Camille Saint-Saëns’s opera Samson and Delilah, known in English as “Softly awakes my heart”. It is sung by Delilah in act 2 as she attempts to seduce Samson into revealing the secret of his strength.”

This quote from Wikipedia explains the change made to this Opera song, that convinced me to paint this music:
“In the opera, Delilah is responding to Samson’s words “Dalila! Dalila! Je t’aime!” (Delilah! Delilah! I love you!) which he repeats between the first and second verses of her aria; these interjections are omitted in recital performances or sometimes sung to the changed words “Samson! Samson! Je t’aime!“; Samson’s part in the final 22 bars of the stage aria where he joins Delilah in a duet is also omitted in a recital, although some performers, notably Marilyn Horne and Jessye Norman, have sung Samson’s final words – changed as above, rising to a high B-flat (my emphasis).”

Here is the link to the video to a wonderful performance of this change to the music, beautifully sung by Elina Garanca.   At the end of the aria, starting  at 5:45 minutes, there is a small pause, and then she softly sings, “..Samson.., Samson, ..I love you.” That is the music of this Artwork.

 

 

S_V_H The Sound of Silence Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
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Sound of Silence L60″ x H22″


This is the final, final image of The Sound Silence made up of two canvas sixty inches in length. My color theme is Urban Gritty with dominant shades of blue-gray, and dull colored greens for the music, which is an interesting choice.  When I was in New York City this last fall visiting my good friend Tom,  there was not a lot of green in the streets. That is probably why I took one of my snapshots that day.

The real final image is the second version of the first final image which you can view below.  This came about, when I realized while writing this entry, that I had forgotten one last piece of the music. That missing piece appears in the second final image as a small wooden ledger line across three of my pieces of music. With that add-on I applied more of the street colors that caught my eye as contrast to the drab tones of the buildings. That finishing touch then allowed me to consider another change.

Throughout the later stages of this artwork I developed this feeling that the coloring was not quite there.  All of my attempts had only small affects or I washed them away. My thinking settled on that the coloring was okay, so leave it.  What caught my attention, after painting the add-on ledger line,  where those light violet colored musical stems.  The good color choice well with the background, but after looking at my images of New York that day, light violet seemed out-of-place, a little too packaged for me.  I decided to repaint all the stems with a color that better fit my urban color style. That made all the difference, artwork done, for sure.

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My take on this painting is that the basic theme of the colors works exceptionally well for my interruption of this music. The length of the artwork is a little long, but I wanted to use the same size notes as my earlier work, Under Pressure, so that is what worked.

I can see that I am now firmly locked into using cut-out wood pieces for the music. Now, just where I can take this is what has my curiosity. I do have a small change in an earlier opinion: the background does not have to disappear, or even be greatly diminished.  I can see in this artwork that the background is playing an important part in the mood of this work, and that effect cannot be underestimated.

What that means,  is that I will be looking for new, creative ways to bring to life the colors, and shapes applied to the canvases. The background for these artworks, as I see,  are going to make up a large part of my artworks for some time.

Scott Von Holzen