Category: Modern

Man’s World a quick update.  This music contains three musical slurs.  In sheet music a slur is just a slightly curved line, above or below, a number of notes and is used in music to indicate a phrase that is to be played in a smooth flowing manner.  Of course, what you see above is this artist rendering of a slur in the style of the just passed Cy Twombly.  There is a fairly expensive book about his art in this artist library called Cy Twombly  A Monograph, but it never created much interest. It was purchased because there was something about this Twombly’s swirling cursive paintings that caught attention.  But it was found that those paintings only occupied a few pages,  and the rest of the books  imagery offered no inspiration, so it was put on the shelf and mostly forgotten.

It was the need from the start of this work to try and breakout of a small rut, with one thought being to create a greater sense of movement across the canvas. That was why the swirling slurs just caught this artist in a pleasant surprise.  If you look at previous canvases there is the movement in this direction. It was the death of Twombly, however, that made the artist remember his book and why it had been purchased.  It all happened quickly.  Those three slurs had been put off for there was no idea, anywhere to be found, to how to draw them, and then the answer just was there.  Within a few minutes they where drawn in and later touched up to even out their flow.

Sometimes this artist thinks that there cannot be much more that can be done with this theme, and then it happens, the way forward is found and a new path or direction is suddenly in front of you, with plenty of choices to be tried.  That is when Art is fun. That is when this artist realizes just why there is no need to rush a work.  The artwork will eventually suggest the way forward, and all the artist has to do is stand back and patiently listen.

Scott Von Holzen

This is a Man’s world 24 inches by 6 feet, and it looks like this work should be completed this week.  Man’s World was started on about June 21st.  The first couple of weeks spent on a artwork is a given. It is only when a work moves into its third week that the push to finish begins to be felt, especially on the smaller works, such as Man’s World.  On the larger works, for example Thunder,  a month to completion is  presumed. As the number of days grow, beyond this imaginary point, the thought about wrapping up, and the sense of anticipation to what the next work will be, and how soon it will  have to be started, all become concerns. With the beginning of this attitude shift so also begins the challenge to figure out what can be done with the current work to bring it all together, to move it towards a finish.  You live everyday with a painting and it’s effects on your emotions which grows throughout the weeks. Near the finish mental fatigue  reaches a surface point because there has been so much of yourself buried in the canvas.  That moment then begins the process of looking for a end.

Then finally,  the artist meets all of the demands of the artwork and only then is the work signed, although there is still some cleanup left to do.  The signature is a major part of each of these works so it’s placement, color and size are important considerations.  When the signature is painted in, that then means that the signing off of the work has begun and letting go begins in earnest.  With It’s a  Man’s World the moment is not yet.  There is no signature.

Scott Von Holzen

Man’s world 24 inches by 6 feet. There has been a lot of color decisions and color removals trying to figure out just what this work is looking for.  There is an effort to try and not use colors that were used on the background, but the leftover options have not been inspiring.  A question is what does any choice of colors and their shapes have to do with the music?  The only answer is that some of the colors, light blues and greens, represent the feminine, and the browns and darker colors are then the boys colors. That makes sense since it is from the music of James Brown, but many of the versions of this music are sung by women  including Joss Stone, Etta James, and Christina Aquilera from the 2007 Grammies.  In that case does color really matter knowing that many of the musical pieces painted by this Artist have been covered by all types of artists with varied musical styles.  Consider that it has never been presumed that any of these canvases are based on any particular artist’s music.  So again, does color matter?

As for the different shapes used, they all comes from out of nowhere, for no other reason then to add interest, and to make the work stand out from all the rest. It could be that the music is just an excuse to doddle in color. Thinking back many years, when bored, with pencil in hand, lines, and shapes where drawn on paper for no other reason then to keep the pencil moving and try somehow, when it was finished to tie it all together.  Most of the time they where pictures of mazes to no where. Maybe, these shapes are just the Artist’s mood following the brush wherever it may go as the music plays.  Maybe, it is the desire to make the music solid, graspable, and available. Music starts and ends then goes to the next piece, and that starts and ends, and finally it all just fads.  Maybe, with this art a particular piece of music can be made to hold the ground a while longer with pretty colors and curious shapes.

Scott Von Holzen