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 Blue Danube Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
The Blue Danube (2001 Space Odyssey) 82″ length x 35.5″ in height x 4″ in-depth

I posted a final video on The Blue Danube on July 4th.  The video explains how I connected the Artwork to the music, to the movie.  I have been working on this project since May 23rd.  Following the lead of The Theme from Schneider’s List, the overall color range for The Blue Danube resembles the look of the movie 2001 Space Odyssey. The main colors are neutral,  a mix of black, gray, white.  Beyond the color blue, I added small splashes of brighter accent colors, found in the movie, to add interest and contrast.   My style now is to stay away from the rainbow look of using too much and too many bright colors creating art that is strongly punchy.  When I see a lot of flashy colors in a lot of today’s contemporary art,  I think baby toys.  All that mix of bright colors diminishes the impact and can be a fallback tool to distract from the lack of originality.

For this work, I thought I would experiment with another wood frame.  My thinking was that the white-painted wood frame would match the movie better than a bright metal frame.  I did not see a lot of bright metal in the movie.  Because of the length of eighty inches for the frame pieces, I found cutting the wood a challenge.  They required a lot of sanding.  One advantage of using wood frames is that the music, also made of wood,  adheres strongly to the frame.  This is not the case when I am using metal frames for I am gluing wood to metal.  What I like about metal is its strength, straightness,  and modern look.

I specifically created The Blue Danube project for entry in this year’s Major fall art show at the Eau Claire Confluence center.  Since it is important to always submit the maximum number artworks, I also entered Giant Steps and The Turkish March (rejected for last year’s show).  I received this news on August 7th.

“Dear Scott,

Congratulations!  You have been selected as an exhibiting artist for the Confluence of Art Annual at Pablo Center at the Confluence.

The work selected for this exhibition is:

The Blue Danube

Pablo Center has kept images of all the accepted artwork for use in publicity for the exhibit.
Exhibition Dates:     September 13-November 3
Meet the Artists’ Reception and Awards Ceremony: Friday, October 4, 5-7pm
Rose Dolan-Neill
Visual and Literary Arts Manager PABLO CENTER AT THE CONFLUENCE
128 Graham Avenue
Eau Claire, WI 547011.715.471.6130
Pablo center. org •    

The exposure will be valuable.  The Pablo show is the next addition to this artist’s best showings including Eau Claire’s ArtsWest, The Secura show at the Trout Museum in Appleton, and the current ROOTS exhibition at the Center for the Visual Arts in Wausau.  Being at display at the Pablo may offer a greater benefit of turning this unknown, unknown artist, into the unknown local Artist. Looking forward to the reception.

I am close to finishing my current project, Walking in Memphis, that like The Blue Danube will be my primary entry for another exhibition later this fall at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Wausau.

 

This is my 600 Blog Entry.  Vincent Van Gogh sent Theo 663 letters.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Walking in Memphis image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This Artwork, Walking in Memphis, has a constructed look similar to the previous project The Blue Danube (2001 Space Odyssey), and is a continuation of a style trend that first appeared in Giant Steps.  In this image I have added features to separate Walking in Memphis from previous music.  Examples are the obvious Elvis image (public domain).  It looks to me that this image is from the song Jailhouse rock.  In the video of Walking in Memphis it shows the gates of Graceland opening.  I was hoping to find a free-to-use image of Graceland music gates, but could not.  I found several interesting images like this one with Elvis in front of the gates.   Being also a photographer, I am uncomfortable using any images in my artworks that are not copyright free, or public domain.  For this artwork the high-resolution image of Elvis in action looks great and covers the mentioning of Elvis in the song.

26 April 1957: Elvis stands in front of the gates to Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee
Picture: Everett Collection / Rex Features

Just below the Elvis image, on the bottom section is another public domain image, but this time it is of W. C. Handy.  Marc Cohen mentions him early in the song.  According to Wikipedia he is the Father of the Blues, and was too first to publish Blues music, and who wrote the song Beale Street Blues in 1917.

Another feature of this artwork, I mentioned in a previous post, has to do with my notes painted in a color similar to Elvis’s Blue Suede Shoes.  I added to the look of those shoes even further by placing five little drops of gold paint on each note to signify a row of the five golden grommets on his blue suede shoes.  One last obvious mention are my musical ties painted to look like a piano keyboard.  That design represents the dominant piano heard and that Marc Cohen plays at the Hollywood throughout the music video.

Next up, adding the last of the artwork features and words, which are always difficult to do.

 

Scott Von Holzen

 

S_V_H Walking in Memphis image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Artwork over 80 inches in length.

For this image of Walking in Memphis I have used a spacer boards so I can display the two sections together.  Right now the length of the artwork is eighty-four inches.  My music for Walking in Memphis is all in place and portrays the ending of the song, where it repeats the beginning.  Here are those words:

“Put on my blue suede shoes And I boarded the plane.  Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues In the middle of the pouring rain
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues In the middle of the pouring rain.”
-Walking in Memphis Marc Cohen
The video for Walking in Memphis is in black and white.  I painted many of the shafts black and white with shades of gray in between.  I also picked a color to represent the Blues and painted the remaining shafts blue.  I arranged all the shafts into the two sections of the artwork.  To show my appreciation for Jackson Pollock, I clamped all the shafts from each section together.  Then I chose four different colors of fluid acrylics and pour each color into syringe like small plastic bottles.  I then squeezed out the fluid paint across all the wood pieces.  I chose the colors red, blue, yellow, and green for they appear in many of the Beale street neon signs.  Here is an example:
My version of Pollock’s style of drip painting when first applied mimics his style: swirls of paint.  My twist is that I then separate all the shafts.  This spreads the flow creating more movement and drama.
Finally,  I chose for the notes a mixed blue to resemble the color of the only pair of Elvis’s blue suede shoes:

In the four corners I have eight by ten canvases that I have covered with digital canvas night images of today’s Beale Street.  Later on I will add some much older black and white images of Beale Street, and other interesting items Marc Cohen sings about.

 

Scott Von Holzen