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 the Return

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is Day 75 that I returned home. This is also the number of days without a start of the next project. Instead, I have spent most of my art time searching, collecting from storage, repairing, and updating music systems. That effort resulted in twelve artworks now being exhibited in a two person exhibition in Wausau. This is my first show where I will have multiple artworks on view for an extended period. Below is a screen capture from the Center for the Visal Arts website referring to the show. Strange, but they are using an image from a previous group exhibition that I took part in.

Here is a picture taken at the CVA show setup in Wausau. We decided because of the fragility and the way this art needs to be handled, to help with the preliminary hanging guided by Madison Hager, the CVA director. We removed the artworks from their stands; I repaired them where needed, hung them, and tested the music that comes with each artwork. While there I asked Barbara to take pictures as I worked to repair the artwork Twinkle Little Star. To my surprised she did this walk through exhibition video.

The Center for the Visual Arts in Wausau Wisconsin May 11th

This is my current temporary studio.

In these images I am working on updating the Stereo systems on two of the twelve paintings in the CVA show in Wausau. Not much room to move around in, but with patience and acceptance, it all got done.

Yes, this next image is my temporary workshop where I do the woodworking.

Here is an outside and inside view of the progress of my new studio, which is in a separate building from the house. The new studio will have only these three large windows that face North. It will also be my largest studio, at 625 square feet.

My very first studio in the 1970s was a spare bedroom. Later it was in a back room of a motel we managed with no windows. When I returned to painting in 2005, I was back painting in another small spare bedroom. We moved in 2009 and the studio ended up in the unfinished walkout basement of our new house. Over the years I remodel that entire basement including the studio area creating two large bookshelves to hold my art books and other interests. Then we move again, leaving Wausau for Eau Claire. This time, we built our new house on a hill with a view.

The studio came about from the house plans. What I did was to convert a separate third car garage. This studio offered me, for the first time, some separation from the main house. Although I called it a studio, it basically remained as an upgraded, heated with air third car future option. It turned out that the window lighting was awful, the concrete floor was hard on my feet, and the space needed to work was noticeably smaller than my earlier walkout studio.

On the move again we are now living in the country, south of town with acres of land. I am also building a studio that is actually being designed as one. This studio will be the largest of them all and will include for the first time an attached workshop. In the past, I did my wood working in the garage. The hope is to be back working before the end of June.

The North facing studio windows

Here is the inside image of the Studio.

Inside of Studio

After 75 days of not starting a new project, it is time. I need to find a song. It always starts that way. But it is difficult. I need to find a song I can spend probably a month or more with and still like the music. That is tough. There is an incentive: starting now from this dinky temporary studio will be difficult but the end will be in the new studio.  Time is ticking a way. I need that song.

Scott Von Holzen

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S_V_H After the Gold Rush arrangement

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment
After the Gold Rush 72 inches in length by 36 inches

Here is the final image of After the Gold Rush, once again showing the artwork attached to its working 4 x 6 foot stretched canvas that is leaned up against the inside of the garage door so that I could get a reflection-free photograph.   Like the other artworks I created in this temporary studio, I have sandwiched this one between cardboard for protection. They are all now stacked in a fifteen-foot U-Haul in the driveway.  Tomorrow, I will take them to a temporary storage unit for the next two to three months until my new permanent Studio is ready. Until then here is my current arrangement of After The Gold Rush.

The instruments used in this arrangement include the piano, organ, bass flute, viola, cello.   For special effects I have included soprano and tenor voices, along with a tambourine and a little hand clapping. Even though I know my arrangement skills are young in their development the basic musical structure, I believe, is decent and progress is being made.  Finally, when I have a frame to attach this work to and have built it stereo system, I will post a video of the complete project, After the Gold Rush.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H After The Gold Rush Final Art image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen2 Comments
36 inches in height by 72 inches.

This is the finished artwork for After the Gold Rush art project.  Before starting the artwork, I first created an arrangement of the music.  I then sampled it as seen in this artwork.  To complete this project, I will work with my arrangement to create the soundtrack.  I have already purchased the mechanical license for this music, which of course is still under copyright.  I have the metal frame from Woodstock, so I will only need to put the stereo amplifier together, and then install the soundtrack.  Once all that is complete I will post a video of my arrangement

For this artwork, I wanted to make the music as large as possible.  I did that but ended up with both the top and bottom lengths being 32 notes.  That left little spacing between the notes.  That raised a long time concern about fitting my music in a restricted amount of space. 

This has been an issue from the beginning of this art.  That is why I would first set the music out on the canvas on a table before attaching it.  Since I am still in a small temporary studio, the only table large enough for this artwork is the ping-pong table on the lower floor.  Because of the softness of the top layer caused by the scratch technique, and not wanting the distress of moving the canvas with the music attached, I decided against using a table.  I felt I could better align and assemble the music with the canvas safely attached to a  six-foot by four-foot stretched canvas on the easel.  I had tested these same steps on the previous and smaller Christmas painting. 

I taped a string along the top of the easel so I knew exactly where to place the top of the note’s stems.  In this way, my arrangement had the correct up and down.   Then excited to make sure all the notes fitted before the glue dried, I quickly attached the music, which comprised four sample sections.  This well-documented concern caused me to forget to place the middle sections on different planes from the end pieces.  I simply forgot to run another string.  When I had finished, the top section I soon realized this error.  I was beyond the time where I could safely remove any of the music without tearing away the top layer of paint.  At first, I thought I would have to do the bottom layer also in one straight line, as I have done with most of my artworks over the years.  This time I choose not to continue down that well-worn path.  I move the bottom to two middle sections, one up and one down, and added some words along the artwork bottom to fill in as interest.  

This video tells the rest of the story:

As I am writing this, I have sandwiched up this artwork and others between cardboard for safe travel.  I have begun the slow removal of my temporary artist studio from a room that makes a better home office.

This is my 649th blog post.  As I have mentioned one goal of the blog was to match the number of letters Vincent Van Gogh sent to his brother Theo Van Gogh, 651. 

Scott Von Holzen