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 Bach Menuet image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is the third image of J.S. Bach: Orchestral Suite No.2 in B Minor, BWV 1067.  All the music is in place.  Every section of the music can move up or down with a loosening of a wingnut. The two middle pieces in the lower section have the added ability to move left or right besides up and down.   This art has become interactive with a push of a button that plays the theme music for the artwork.  Now, I have expanded the interactiveness of these artworks.  Instead of a viewer being only allowed to touch the artwork’s push button and then stand back to listen to the music, they can now loosen a wingnut and change the look of the artwork.  How interesting is that?  Now sure.  But,  I am sure that having this option to move the music about, connects this artwork to the malleability that is music.  Now that is interesting.

Here is another YouTube video from XiomMusic of this very catchy (minus the repeating) Bach Minuet:

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Bach Menuet image2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Bach Menuet in open position, L76″ x H31″:

Bach Menuet in closed position, L76″ x H24″:

My lovely wife asked me why I was doing this?  I saw that question as why spend a considerable amount of time adding this moveable feature?  Besides, losing time, solving the many problems adding motion causes and not knowing for what purpose, I had no answers.  The ability to move the music around the artwork adds nothing to its meaning. That we both could agree with.  My response was ” ’cause I can?”  Not an answer I could defend.  She did not ask me to.  Now I can.

If I may borrow a title given too many of Kandinsky’s artworks, “improvisation”, that is what I should add to the title of this artwork.  For me, improvisation means experimental. This is what this artwork is all about, beyond the music it represents.   I am in the mood for change.  I have grown tired of creating more 2019 art and want a fresh look for 2020. Although,  for many,  I am wondering if this will be the year they wish to forget and end.  For me, not so much.  Time is what I need a lot of, for this artwork needs explanation.  The time I have left in 2020 will not be used to search out group venues and to create works that match some made-up theme.  For this year, none of that.  I have lost my motivation to show.   For the rest of 2020 I am tired of the same-oh-same-oh and want another way to represent music. This artwork, for all of it still stuck in 2019 aspects, is going somewhere else.  Hi, ho silver! The masked artist is making a move.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H J S Bach Menuet image 1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is the first image of a Bach Menuet on a two foot by four foot canvas, the largest that I have used in years.  This music will be in two sections, top and bottom, which will spill over the side edges.

I have a stockpile of stretched canvas in many sizes I collected years ago.   Many of them are large.  That came about because of the momentum created by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons series.  This group of thirteen giant paintings took almost three years to complete, from 2012 to early 2015.  All of them required multiple canvases bolted and screwed together.  That allowed me to create artworks for this series from 10 to 20-feet.   That was years ago.  What I paint today looks nothing like the Vivaldi group.   I know this art is early it in evolution, but will I ever use up the vast majority of my larger stock canvases.  I don’t think so.  The advantage of using a larger canvas for this project has little to do with the music or my canvas inventory. All my previous works from early 2019 to my latest I Will, are similar in style.  I felt enough of that.  That is when, for this project almost randomly, I  pick a 2 by 4 canvas for a change.  My other reason to use a bigger canvas was to give me more space to test out my new scratch-off technique still in development.

After painting my big canvas in the tradition of 1950s Abstraction, I glued on a canvas copy of Bach’s two page original manuscript of this Menuet.  I followed this by covering the entire canvas, using a process,  that when done and dry, allowed me to scrap off areas of the top layer of paint.  This then reveals my abstract1950s background.  I am still experimenting with this scrapping technique, finding that some areas scrapped off as expected and other parts did not.

The dictionary spelling of minuet differs from Bach’s spelling  which is menuet. I have read on Wikipedia that a minuet is a social dance with a 17th century French origin.  Bach’s best known minuet (written by Christian Petzold)  became a pop hit titled “A Lover’s Concerto,”  This is  BWV  Anh114:

I did not go that direction.  Maybe next time (which may come sooner than I first thought).  Instead, here is the YouTube video titled, J.S. Bach- Suite No.2 in B minor, BWV 1067: Menuet mvt. 6.  I have a draft of my music for this artwork.   Since this song repeats all parts, I like the Tempo of this version for it moves this music along.  I  also like my forty-five second version of this music.

I picked this minuet for its simplicity and the entire song is has a lot of nice  “hooks.” that kept my interest.

Scott