This artwork needs to be signed and dated to be finished. I am waiting because I am working on possibly adding music. For this blog entry I have darken the image to improve the shadows created by the painting. The shadows are not as pronounced as I would like, and the artwork needs to be brighter, but for this discussion this is what I have.
I cannot underestimate three important Artistic techniques (I hate thinking of art in terms of techniques) that make this work special. The first technique comes from an Artist Friend, Jeff Nelson, who commented on the interesting look of the emptiness in my artworks. For some reason I never thought that the open spaces between the music was that great, until he mentioned it. In fact my works from 2018 show me bringing the music closer together, especially in the artwork Africa. That should have also happened with Giant Steps. It did not.
As explained in an earlier blog entry, the second change comes from moving from a straight up and down, rise and fall look (Africa), to a more angled, swing to the left, than swing to the right look (So What). I believe I over calculated the effects of all those different angles. Since the frames where already built, to reach the ends, I ended up with larger spacing between the music. More openness allowed the shadows from the music to extend further, the third technique, the shadows. Those shadows seemed to come alive with motion because of the effect created by the back-en-forth angles of the music, and the wider spacing that allowed them to fade out.
I first became aware of the effects of shadows in 2017 with the Bach artwork, that followed So What. I took that artwork to an Art and Framing shop in town, for a frame, thinking that framing the Bach might make my art more acceptable to interested buyers. I now have found out that framing does not help. The owner did not have the frame I wanted, but he took an interest in the Bach work. He found an empty wall and hung the Bach to take a picture. That is when he mentioned the shadows on the wall created by the Bach music. It was that moment I understood the value of those shadows. I do not have a copy of that picture, but here is a picture of that Bach work now framed, without the shadows. It is in a nice custom frame, and will remain framed for now. Even out of the frame the shadows on the Bach would not have the same effect as they do with Giant Steps. The Bach music is straight up and down. It is the different angles of the music on Giant Steps, and the use of even smaller canvases than So What, that allowed more of the music to be outside the frame.
This is an exciting project that is going to open other big doors to new ideas and techniques yet to come. So it goes.
Scott Von Holzen
aRT iN mUSIC 