Category: christmas

S_V_H A Great Big Sled Christmas 2014 image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

bigSled_1

This painting, like all by artworks, is a tribute to the music of the artists that have given us songs to remember. This years 2014 Christmas painting is A Great Big Sled from the musical group,  The Killers.

Since I have been slow to blog lately, the image you see above is a lot further along than my usual image one. This artwork is composed of five canvases with a length of sixty inches, and a height of just over twenty-seven inches.

This is the eighth in the Christmas series. I had to do some research to find all the previous years artworks.  Here is the list:

2006  Joy to the World (I know this is not a Christmas song, but the title certainly fits that time of the year, and I liked the music of Three Dog Night)
2007 Winter Wonderland (a standard, Bing Crosby)
2008 Sleigh Ride ( a fun song)
2009 White Christmas (the greatest Christmas song, Bing Crosby)
2010 What Child is This (a strange choice that year, not my style)
2011 The Christmas Song (one of the best, Judy Garland)
2012 Let It Snow (my favorite Christmas look)
2013 You Raise Me Up (A tribute to Uncle Walt)

I choose this years Christmas painting early this year. It is these words form the chorus that made the decision easy:

” I wanna roll around like a kid in the snow. I wanna relearn what I already know.”

Those two lines took me back, reconnecting me to the boy I once was fifty years ago.

I appear to not be in the Christmas spirit yet, for I have not enthusiastically worked on this artwork. That may be changing for I need it done.  Once finished,  I can than photograph it, print copies to canvas, and send out this years Christmas Card, signed and numbered, before the Christmas mailing deadline, to all those that have purchased an artwork. That sentence exhausted me.

My overall feelings towards this work so far, are that I am not crazy about the design look of the music. It appears to be a little awkward.  I do like the heavy use of gold and silver which I consider perfect for a Christmas theme.  And finally, the most interesting part of this artwork is those lower images surrounded with multiple circles.

When I played this music for people there was the suggestion that I include the sound of the bell that you hear, that now appear along the lower part of this painting.  It was that suggestion that changed my  original choice of music. I move away from the lines I quoted above. Any of those choices would have been much smaller and easier to do. My original plan for this years painting was to do a small canvas similar to the Let it Go, and Fly Me to the Moon artworks. Instead I followed the idea of the bells, and choose this much longer, more demanding, more interesting phrase, that  I considered a greater challenge. I cannot turn away from my own test. If I consider doing an artwork a challenge, that pretty much guarantees that I will paint that image. I cannot help it, I know I need to push to be the artist I expect to be.

I must say that receiving feedback can be useful. The thoughts and suggestions from others, does offer me a different insight and perspective about this art.  Although, that is a little hard to say, at times the words from others are useful. It does not really change anything important,  for I know that it is a must for me to find my own artistic path, and not follow the wishes or trends of others. Still, a small amount of outside, unbiased exchange does more good than harm. I am mature which makes me smart enough to filter, never doubting nor forgetting, what makes me, is me, and not you.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H You Raise Me Up final image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

youRaiseMeUpFinal

You Raise me up 99 inches of all Christmas.  What is not to like about Christmas and Christmas Artwork. You see those two candy canes in the above image?  In the world of music they would be 16th notes, like these:

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In pointing this out I hope you can see that the real music is only a starting point, and that the artwork opens up into many different directions. I could not have it any other way, for copying sheet music to canvases would be boring, and meaningless.  It is how I see that music and how I depict that flow of the sound that is important, and what my objects, can and do not represent, has not substance, except in my mind. This has all to do in understanding the difference between art and wall decoration.  A Jackson Pollack painted by Jackson Pollack is art, but a Jackson Pollack painted by your local zoo animal is not. And a simple answer to the why of this is, because when a zoo animal paints an abstraction there is no subconscious attention to detail.  What separates art from imitation, is the artist grasping what cannot be held and knowing exactly how to use it to free the artwork from being absorbed by the wall.

This artwork is the largest Christmas work that I have done. Starting this series in 2006 with a single two feet by four canvases, we have now arrived at six panels and almost 100 inches in length. This painting grew so large because I needed to use two sentences from the music, “I am strong when I am on your shoulders.  You raise me up to more than I can be.”  It was obvious that the strongest words are “I am strong.” and “I can be,” and worked in perfectly to start and end the work. They also best describe my favorite Uncle who ill. Still this work could have easily been over ten feet if my flow notes would have been my normal 70 to 80 millimeters wide. In order to shrink this music, to a size that would fit my timeline, I dropped their size to 55 millimeters with 5 mil between. It is still big, but done.  My art is all big. I believe that is an issue, for most collectors do not have large empty walls, or they would not want one art piece dominating, like all these artworks would certainly do.  It is a concern for me.

Remember back to that uncomfortable situation I walked into at the U W of Madison Marathon campus, while walking with my music Professor down the hallways of the music department. He told me several times the different possibilities for hanging Blue Rondo that would not worked because the artwork did not fit. Then he walked me into the orchestra room and I thought here was a big space. That quickly turned to disappointment when he again began eliminating walls, until the only place left was ten feet up, above the windows. Well, after of months of waiting for him to call and tell me that the wall hangers for the painting are ready, I have changed my mind.  I am taking Blue Rondo back, and I will have a new construction for them.

BlueRondo

What I plan on doing is to paint another Dave Brubeck masterpiece, Take five.  Take Five is one of my penny paintings I did when first starting out.  This new version will consist of five panels and with a length of 60 inches, by no more than 24 inches in height. I will let the professor know, of my change of thought, when finished. Blue Rondo hopefully can be sold for $1600.00. The other option, for now, would be to hang Blue Rondo behind the front desk at the Jefferson Street Inn, downtown.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H You Raise Me Up image4

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

raisemeup4

This artwork, You Raise Me Up main components are in place. It is rough because there is a lot of clean up and finishing still to do, but what you see is a good look at what the final work will be. I part of the music that I would like to mention, is the lyrics, and how I pick them from the music. This sentence from the music appears over an over again in this music:

“You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.”

What I try to do is first to find a part of the music that would be interesting for me to portray. Usually I look for a short phrase from the music that has a sharp beginning and an end.  I may find a couple of potential pieces of the music that might work. I then look at the length and the words that are in the music. The length is important, for lately  I have trying to keep these smaller works under six feet. If I can keep the size down I then look at the words from that part of the music, and what combination I can use that when read together no longer just represents the music. In other words I choose the words carefully so that they are not apart of any particular piece of music.  My chosen words in my artworks can be found in any common conversations.  In the case of this music I choose the words “I am strong I can be.” Sure they can be found in the music, but the way I have placed them in the artwork, their meaning can be from the music, or their meaning can mean many, many other things. As always, I make it a must to separate the music from the art.

Talking about words brings me to a correction, or better an addition to an earlier blog post where I mention three things that separate this art from others, let say. Those three things are the number of canvas and they ways they connect.  The second is the backgrounds on these canvases are in many ways different form each other to the point that if separated each canvas could stand on its own. The third point is the way I portray the music that goes across all the canvases, and how that brings everything together as one artwork.  I need to add the fourth item, the words.  How could I forget that.  My words not only can capture the emotional feel of the music, they also can go beyond the music by reaching out the viewer and pulling them close in.  When words appear in an artwork I pick them carefully, to present the broadest range of emotional impact, which I hope will enlarge their meaning way beyond even the music.

Scott Von Holzen