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 I Won’t Dance Image2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

IWontDance_2

I Won’t Dance is turning into an artwork for free flow of ideas.  Because this is a small work, I am letting my imagination move a lot quicker to the canvas.  There is a simple reason, after more than two years of Vivaldi I need to shake my brushes and see what flows from the brush hair. With small works the risk is minimal. If I do not like what I see I can quickly over paint these small canvases, if needed.  And I think it is time to explore a different direction in the use of my limited acrylic pallet. Obviously, I can tint or shade my favorite twenty or so colors, but I find by doing that most of the blues, greens, and whatever, look very similar even though the pure starting colors are different. What I want to do is change things up, move in a different direction, away from my default color style.  I think I Won’t Dance is a little step in that direction.  It is me not trying to use all my pallet of  pure colors with every artwork.  You see many different colors in the Vivaldi Series.  With I Won’t Dance I want to cut back on that pallet and see what results I can get with the same color used in many ways.

What makes music so memorable is its repetition.  You hear a piece of a song that you like, and then you hear it again, and again and probably again, again. It is those repeated phrases that hook you.  In this art I also repeat and that is the experiment you are seeing in this artwork. In past most of my works pretty much sample all of my favorite colors. That works, but at times when I needed a little emphasis, it was hard to find an unused color.  Shades and tints for the most part do not work for me at this stage.

Now, with I Won’t Dance you are seeing a lot of Light magenta, pink, and a few shades of blues all being repeated on all the canvases.  It simplifies this work and leaves a number of other options open for the music to flow across the canvases. That is the thinking today.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H I Won’t Dance

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

IWontDance_1

This is the first image of I Won’t Dance.

What appealed to me with this music, besides the up beat tempo,  is the back-en-forth dueling story telling between more than friends.  The music says this couple has a history playing out for our ears to enjoy.  Here is I Won’t Dance from the 1935 movie Roberta with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers:

This is new version of I Won’t Dance by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga:

In this cover the Woman Won’t Dance featuring  Jane Monheith with Michael Buble:

This jazz standard by Jerome Kern,  comes alive, even without the girl, in this outstanding live Frank Sinatra cover featuring the Buddy Rich orchestra.

I could not leave out this soft and easy to listen to, I Won’t Dance,  song by Fred Astaire:

I than became curious so I came up with a few other dueling duets: from 2011,  Gotye, Somebody I use to know:

Although, less combative, here is Elton John with Kiki Dea singing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart from 1993.

A little farther back, to 1981, is this sharp conflict song from Human League,  Don’t you Want me:

I might have even watched this wonderful performance from Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand at the 1980 Grammy Awards, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers:

It is hard to leave out Johnny Cash’s  Jackson.  Here he is with June Carter from Folsom Prison, 1969.

Lastly, I had to dig this one up, Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,  from the 1950’s movie Annie Get Your Gun,  by Irving Berlin:

Composed of four canvases, I Won’t Dance has a total height of twenty-six inches by fifty-three inches in length.  Because of the overall date of the movie, and style of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, I am going with an Art Deco look.  Already, In this first image you can see the that direction with the mix of sharp lines and circles.  To enhance the Art Deco look I am going to create a font in that style for the words of this artwork, which will be, dance, dance, dance. I usually try to use an entire phrase of the music in the artwork, but that made this artwork go way belong my goal. My wishful length for small artworks is forty-eight inches in length.  In this work, not so, but since I have pretty much reach my smallest downsize of the musical flow, cutting the phrase turned out to be the next easiest option, to get it close. I am thinking, for now, smaller is better,  for these reasons: artworks at four feet or less are easier to sell, easier to paint, and quicker to complete. One thing that never changes is the decision-making process for any work no matter the size. The time-savings is that those decisions have less canvas to fill on smaller works.  For the next few months, I would like to produce a new artwork a month.  I guess the Vivaldi series with pieces taking two to three or months to complete has exhausted my drive. Turning around these smaller artwork, will be refreshing, and will give me an easier excuse to try new ideas.

 

Scott Von Holzen

 

 

 

 

 

S_V_H Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Summer Presto Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen2 Comments

summerPrestoFinal

This is the final image of Vivaldi Summer Presto Third movement from The Four Seasons concertos. This twenty-foot artwork is  the last artwork in the thirteen painting Vivaldi series that I started almost three years ago, March of 2012.  I have always believed that I could actually accomplished this project.  The surprised is that this could be done.

This is the longest painting in the Vivaldi series.  I can say that this is also the most complicated painting from that group that took an incredible long time to complete.  Looking at my notes I put together the plan for this artwork on November 5th, actually starting the project on November 8th. I put a finish date on the back of this artwork of February 25th.  I actually signed it on the 26th, and on the 26th I realized I had missed a part I wish to add from the music. That small addition, added to all eight panels I finished on the 27th. Summer Presto was then photographed, and I created the video for the walk through.

This painting owes much to the other Four Seasons paintings, but like the other twelve artworks, this one stands out as its own unique work of art. When I approach this last artwork I kind of wanted it to be a summary of  the past works, or an artwork that took from the past, and turned it into more than the sum of the rest. That did not happen. Each artwork eventually finds it own way, and eventually I see that and then I do my best to catch up to the obvious in front of me.  They become something beyond me. They guide, they demand, they expect, and they always win. I do their bidding.

I became an artist, in the hope, to get back my definition of me,  that I felt I lost in 1993 (long story). That might sound ridiculous, and I agree, but I want to be known as Scott the Artist (another long story). A secondary goal is that I would like to be the boss of my life (silly but true).  I may eventual gain my identity back, but the boss I will probably never be. These Vivaldi artworks make it clear to me each time I sign my name, who is in charge. I am their caregiver.

After working on a single artwork for almost four months most of the excitement that goes into creating art gets spread  thin across such a considerable amount of time that there is little emotion left when done. Right now I feel good that this series is over, but I do not feel any urge to celebrate. I guess my feelings towards the Vivaldi Group will not change because the only way I can see all thirteen paintings is to view them on the website. Even though all the Four Seasons painting are within fifty feet of me stacked away where all I can see are the parts that stick out from storage. The only three paintings, I can view in their entirely,  are Summer Presto on my easels, Winter Largo that has hung below my bookshelf ever since I completed it  a year ago, and hanging in the living room wall is Spring allegro.  My joy and pride will be there when all thirteen painting are on view. I am thinking my reaction of seeing them all together would be the same as Vincent Van Goghs, when he first saw his artworks scattered all through the apartment, while visiting Theo in Paris.  When and how that day is going to happen is the next chapter in this story.

Let me talk about chapter two of the Four Seasons Paintings.  I will be putting together a new website dedicated to these thirteen paintings, to display, and to promote them. This website will have one goal and that is to give free to an art museum, hopefully in America, this entire Vivaldi The Four Seasons series. This will be an interesting chapter, that hopefully adds a lot charm to this story of a boy and the dream to be something more than me.

Scott Von Holzen