Category: contemporary art

S_V_H Fast Car 1st image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Fast Car following the mini templates of the two previous works

Completed in the first image of Fast Car is the notation with the lyrics, “I had a feeling that I belong.” The small wooden painted pieces scattered about are the notation’s beams and slurs, also completed and waiting to be glued down.

I do not consider the song Fast Car a must paint song. I do like the music enough that I consider it a good fit as a mini project for several reasons. The lyrics tell a detailed story. The verses are nice and flowing, but, for me, they seem to drag on. What makes this song great is the chorus where the words and melody super charges the music, confirming a connection I needed. That this song was first released in 1988 and then became popular again with the Luke Combs cover in 2023 gave me the feeling that this music has legs. When I am deciding on a song to paint and I find a favorite from years ago, I always look to see if other artists have done covers of the music. The more current the cover, the better. This artwork can then be a reminder for future musicians to take another look at this music.

This is Tacy Capmans’ official video of Fast Car.
This is the 2024 Grammy’s performance of Fast Car with Trach Chapman and Luke Combs

Here is the rough draft of my cover music for Fast Car. Start date was April 22nd.

Base foundation of the cover music for Fast Car

I have some thoughts on these images I received from Ray, one of our group members that was checking out the spring members show at the Hopkins Art Center in the area Minneapolis.

In 2019, I exhibited and attended the reception at the Hopkins International exhibition. The show was impressive, showing a higher level of quality with some interesting art on display. And although I dislike stacking, they put on an excellent show. The images above are from their current members show which is local talent. Ray sent the group over twenty images. My take, which I felt scrolling from one image to the next, was I have seen this art so many times before. I see this members show, as small, local boring art. I am also a follower on YouTube watching a lot of different major art exhibitions and gallery shows. This art is no longer local or small, but that is the only difference from the local boring art. What I mean by boring is not that the art is, insert any negative verb. Oh no, most of the contemporary art, both local and especially not from here, is highly polished and skillfully produced and decorative in style. The art that isn’t decorative feels strained to its limits trying to act, look, or be different. The results with all this effort are sales and happy customers for a few spot on artists, and the rest of the art and the artists quickly fade to storage. And yet, galleries absolutely need this art in abundance to fill empty walls from the last take down of pervious filler art. I am thinking as a group we should become members of the Hopkins? And really do I want to hang on top or below next year’s spring members’ show, which is pay to play? No one said this was going to be easy.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Shape of my Heart

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment
Shape of my heart

My next project is Shape of my Heart, written and sung by Sting. The above image shows an artwork plan that will accommodate over forty pieces of this music. My note size is 2 3/4″ (64mm). In this image I have lined up 22 of these notes along the bottom area to make sure there was enough length for them. As mentioned before, to fit in our Toyota for traveling, I need to keep the individual length of these artworks under 72 inches, and even less if the artwork is wider than 24 inches. Although the two side 16×16 speaker boxes will be elevated above the supporting frame, right now the look of this artwork is reminiscent of the previous project. To give the artwork more depth, I am looking at adding curved 6 inch wide steel sheets, like in Crazy, this time attached to the speaker boxes.

Here is a YouTube video of a live performance of Shape of My Heart by String.

Shape of my heart – Sting

The plan for each new music box project starts with the creation of the cover music. That audio is below and although it is not finished, this cover music has all the structure that I want.

That means the music starts with an introduction that is followed by a combination of melodies that captures the sound and the emotions of the original music while staying close to a minute. The escape ends the music, hopefully leaving a listener happy and surprised, while keeping the music box music under one minute thirty seconds. Already from this cover music, I have selected the measures that the artwork will be sampling.

These are the lyrics from the cover that I will sample:

“I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that’s not the shape of my heart” – Sting

Draft Music box audio for shape of my heart project.

This rough cut of the cover music is all I need now to plan the artwork.

________________________________________________________________________________

This is the first four sections of the fifteen section poem I wrote on the passing of my brother. A new section will be added in each new blog entry. 

  
Roger’s poem

The sun in winter
is all too short.
Who knew as you move through our lives,
that yours would follow the winter sun.

Winter arrests time
for thought and reflection
that February afternoon.
Dressed for warmth
we venture out,
Into the soft light,
surrounded by stillness,
not an oak leaf stirring. 

The cold of that yesterday
 is heard in the crackling crunch
 of fresh fallen snow, 
 as I straddled previous steps
 along a well-worn path,
 deep into the woods.

Although I think
we are alone,
Zelda knows better,
her actions are telling. 
Life and the deer are about. 
Stopping with her tail up,
head sharply flipping, 
to-and-fro sensing something_, 
curious,
I also pause,
feeling a stirring in the air.
With her nose to the snow, 
Zelda looks to turn off the known path, 
to explore another trail, 
far less traveled. 
Her interest, I cannot foresee,
or know where it leads. 
....to be continued.


Sadly, for most of our lives, Roger and I lived many hours' distance away from each other. Reading a small part of his story and editing it for this blog site, I recalled that when together I cherished those moments, although I now realize that I never fully appreciated all of his wonderful achievements. I have those regrets, and like all brothers that are separated, I wished I would have found more ways to have been a part of his life.

Here is background information detailing my brother's education and employment.

Roger Von Holzen graduated in 1971 from High School where he was
was a high achiever, including Track and Field, where his running record stands to this today.
Roger attended and graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, with an education degree. He then returned to his graduating High school to teach history and computer science for 10 years. 
Roger then received a horticulture degree from Gateway Tech in Kenosha, WI.
Furthering his education, Roger obtained his Master’s degree in Computer Studies from
North Western Missouri State University in 1987.
He then taught Computer Science at Northwest Missouri State.
In 1993, Roger received his Doctorate in Instructional Technology
from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, in 1993.
Roger enhanced his career by being extensively involved in various technology initiatives undertaken by the University. These efforts of his lead to his appointment to the Director of the campus Faculty Technology Center, in the spring of 1999.
He retired on June 30, 2020 from Northwest as an associate professor of
computer science.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday image 1 & 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

 

 

itSoHard_1It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye is a painting consisting of three canvases, with a length of fifty-two inches.  I have three images to show how I advanced the background for this music.

When you get to the third image is of the ,done for now. Next up I will be placing in the music flow, once I have cutout the music.

IitsSoHard_2

itSoHard_3Below is my attempt to learn how to simile, without looking silly, like I lost it, or fiendish, the last thing that I am. I would say I achieved none of those goals. Actually, I will be including more pictures of me with the artwork, to better the connection between me and all you readers, viewers, visitors, or whoever, or whatever you are. My thinking is that I would like to counter the fact that I do not see a lot of Blog sites that have images of the Blogger. I have already added a Contact option to this Blog, to again add another point of connection. It is a learning, and understanding process I am trying to development to better connect with the public,  and not by becoming a door-to-door peddler of this art.itSoHard_3b

Let me get back to the story of this artwork, and why I picked this music for my last artwork for 2015. Early May I attended the funeral of my favorite Uncle, Walter Von Holzen. He was the first family member that had graduated from college. He was the one that said to me, why would you go to the tech when you can go to the University of Wisconsin.  I took his advice,  and it and he changed me.

Then within a couple of weeks later we had to put Roxy, our favorite cat down.  She was dying from an eye disease,  and starvation because of it. Having to make that decision made for some emotional moments.

Then in mid September I received a distraught call, at work, from my step brother, telling me that my Father had passed away. I thought I would handle this better than I did with Mom’s passing, but I have not. It is a Life reality check when you lose both of your parents, the only people you have known all of your days.

Finally, our favorite, Aunt Selma, who was still mentally sharp at 95 years old until she contracted pancreatic cancer quickly past away in October.

All of this,  and the need to consider other life changing decisions has had an impact on me.  And yet, I have found ways to move myself, and this art ahead, probably with the help of my Mother.  She told me many times, “Never cut yourself short.”  She must have always knew how lucky I was, but she obviously also thought that I needed constant reminding.

Life really comes down to what you do with the opportunities that present themselves in good times and bad. It then come down to this: It up to us yet type of people, to carry on knowing that the best is yet to come, that Time has granted us all a pardon, and oh by the way, just as a reminder,  don’t forget to never cut yourself short.

This painting will look back. This painting will also carry me,  into a better 2016 with these words from the music, ” And I’ll take with me the memories to be my sunshine after the rain.”

 

Scott Von Holzen