This video sums up this work pretty good. Although, I find my video performance lacking in production quality, they certainly reflect the person I currently am. They give me the incentive, and plenty of room to work with, to up my public image.
Category: Alternative music
S_V_H No Rain Final Image
This is the final image a tribute painting to the music of Blind Melon, called No Rain. What is different about this artwork is that I did not follow my normal flow pattern for the music: horizontally from left to right. Rarely does it move vertically, which this artwork does. In No Rain the music flows left to right starting with the top left panel. It then hops over to the top right panel. The music flow then moves, left to right across the larger bottom panel. In order to improve the logic of this flow I decided to physically mount each panel at a different depth, creating a step movement in this work.
The following side image shows these changes in canvas depth:
I did not have to do it this way. An alternative design, typical of this art, would have been one longer horizontal combination of panels. I could have also created a horizontal stepped look (actually never considered) to this work following such examples as this years Birthday Painting, and last years Up on The Roof. I choose neither of these paths, and at first I could not remember my original thinking about this artwork. Then I remembered: if you listen to the music you will hear a series of short pauses after the word ‘escape.’ What it came down to was I wanted to create an artwork without displaying these stops in the music flow. And yet I wanted to keep up the logical movement of the music across this artwork. I realized I could reach these goals by placing each ‘escape’ on a different level.
It all came down to this reasoning: what convinced me to paint this music was the word, ‘escape.’ I wanted this artwork to focus entirely on that repeated word, and so I eliminated the rests. The pauses are actually still there, it is in the change in-depth between the three canvases. I accomplished what the music does, but in my way. I think any viewer who sees this work and says that word three times, will understand and find their own meaning in this artwork. I know I did.
Scott Von Holzen
S_V_H No Rain by Blind Melon image 4
In image four you are seeing the colors from the video that will dominate the music. I could not resist taking the colors from the girls bumblebee outfit, that starts the video, for the background. Now, I cannot help but transition, as the video does, to the brighter greens, yellows, and blues, for the music. If it was not for the music video I do not think I would have ever used these color contrasts between the browns, and bright blues and greens. Now, it is important to assure this artwork ‘s success, that I find ways to transition the background colors into the music colors. This approach would be similar to what happens in the video.
The video starts with the bumblebee girl in a world that is neither kind nor understands her. Eventually she finds her way out of that disappointing, and drab world into a new reality filled with color, music and dancing. This low quality video can have a deeper meaning than that of a 90’s musical group, portraying their version of a 60’s Peace, Love, and Rock en Roll band out in the country for the day. Maybe, this video speaks to the magic of music to rescue people’s lives. Here is that video again:
If this video is about transition, then in its simple, predictable way, I would say, it speaks to my belief in the power of music to change people’s lives, for a few moments, or even a life time.
Scott Von Holzen
aRT iN mUSIC 