Category: contemporary music

S_V_H One Thousand years Final

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is the final image of the commission work, One thousand Years. Although this is not a favorite choice of music for me to paint, it is understandable that the lyrics and the music together have created a very popular wedding song.

I started to create the cover music for the artwork on July 18th and finished today which is August 11th. That adds up to three weeks and three days. My days in the studio have always been morning to evening.

For this summer I have a basic routine of in the Studio by 10am, a half hour lunch, a studio break at 5-5:30pm then maybe back in the studio until dinner. After which I return for another hour or so with my evening deadline in the studio being 9pm. I only do one artwork at a time, but not all my time is spent on current project. Some of my studio time is needed to write these blog entries, practice my instruments (should do more), educating myself on the different software, updating my prints sites (now in jeopardy) updating and maintaining my .com website (don’t do it enough), and a new alternative artist’s website, EmptyWallsArt.

One Thousand Years final thoughts.

Next up I plan to return to the larger format. These small works are cute. But, I like big. I like music that fills the room, I like art that makes an in-your-face statement.

Scott Von Holzen

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This is the added third section of fifteen sections that is my poem dedicated to my brother who left all those who loved him one year ago this last August 9th.

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.

S_V_H Crazy first image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen2 Comments

Final preliminary design

In my first layout below the speaker canvases, similar to past works are extensions on the sides. The width of this setup was around 45 inches in width, and six feet in length. I wanted to work to have a wider look away from the long rectangles in past 2020 music boxes. This first preparation image turned out to be too wide for our Toyota RAV to carry without dismantling. That is what I must do with all my previous 2022 works. I did not want that to continue with Crazy.

For Crazy I choose to keep the music for this artwork simple, and in four parts, so that I could have a more vertical work. The final design that was a good-enough-to-get-going arrangement is pictured above. This artwork will fit in the car being less than 42 inches wide and around sixty-four inches in length.

First layout.

As for my choice of the music, I remember I liked what I heard watching a guy dressed strangely, like an airline pilot captain, singing Crazy at the 2007 Grammy’s. I was able to find that performance on YouTube:

His outfit gave me the idea to go with a black theme accented with gold.

Early audio for this music box

My first step always is to create a basic soundtrack. Form that sound track I then choose the music the artwork is to sample. This current audio is lacking a lot, including drums. All that will be improved later when the physical artwork is near completion, and I am starting to build its sound system.

Scott Von Holzen

SVH Play that Song 1st image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is the first image of the artwork Play that Song from the music by the band Train. This is what I call the back image. I picked two shades of blue that represent the sky in the video. Since this blog is taking forever to write below is another image of the final top layer of paint, which consists of two coats of Bone Black and a third which is a more here-and-there coat of Payne’s Gray.

Image from the new Studio under construction.

The image above with the two examples of the attached music is a proof-of-concept test. I wanted to confirm that I can use magnets to attach the music to the canvas. This would then make it considerably easier to store and move the artwork about. Using magnets to attach the loose canvas to a frame, and magnets to attach the music to the canvas creates a constructed and assemblage artwork.

My past artworks using the scratch of technique involved attaching the wooden music to the soft and vulnerable top layer with glue. Making things worse, the canvas is attached with magnets to the support frame and not stretched. The attaching anything permanently to what is a loose piece of canvas to a layer of fresh paint that can be scrapped off, can be a challenge. Even with careful handling, the attached music can tear away from the top layer of paint and canvas. A solution was that by scrapping down to the original background canvas the glue in those contact areas would hold to the canvas. I am also seeing some evidence that over time the top paint layer may harden enough to diminish the attachment issue. Using magnets attached to the wooden underside of the music and then attached to other magnets placed on the backside of the canvas, eliminates the need for glue, and creates a secure, and a safer to move temporary hold of the music to the canvas.

This is the top background image. Once I paint on the words for the artwork I will then scrap this layer of paint, to reveal the blue and white original background.

This top image differs from my past efforts in that some areas of the background still show through. That happened because I only applied three layers of paint to cover the back layer. In the past I would apply many more layers until the background image was completely covered. I have given up on that idea. I don’t know why I was thinking I needed a solid cover background, other than that would be a traditional art technique that others would approve of. But I was never trained in traditional art techniques. I have only seen them in museums, books, and videos. At this point in this art’s development, my time is too precious to accommodate.

Scott Von Holzen