Category: Rock music

S_V_H First Image Our House

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Here is a different first image of the project Our House. This came about because I wanted a new look and saw the hanging wire as an opportunity. That coated steel wire is now part of the artwork. This will add to the industrial constructed look. Leaning up against the wall is Our House’s companion artwork Just Breathe.

Throughout Rembrandt painted on rectangle pieces of wood or stretched canvas, which in his time was common practice. In my time when I began turning sheet music into art, starting with rectangle canvases placed on their long side made sense. A rectangle shape for a musical artwork was a good fit, reminiscent of a sheet music staff. And that worked as long as I thought that painting sheet music was the plan. But sheet music only plays a small part in what is music, and to grow this art I needed to find a better representation of what I think of music as a multidimensional experience. That thinking lead me to the creation of this art’s first 3D artwork, Sweet Little Angel by B B King in 2015. Currently, adding LED lighting is opening up another musical dimension. That brings me to this to visual step forward with this first image of Our House.

My latest artworks I am working on are Our House, seen above, and a companion work, Just Breathe. Their widths are only twelve inches wide. The incentive to go smaller comes from the recent challenge of fitting the three artworks of the Beatles Triptych into our car to travel to the Chippewa Valley Museum Winter Art show. We got them all to fit and well cushioned from each other, but the stack was high enough and the trunk door, as well as our seats, curved enough that we lost length as the pile grew. We had to move the seats up. It was good that this show was local. I made a second trip with Zombie, the fourth work in the show. That got me thinking what if I have a distance drive for an exhibition and I needed to take as many works I could fit in the car in one trip? One solution is these two recent works. They will fit in the same space as one of the Beatles’ work.

This was the first moments when I realized it would be possible to power together a stereo system and an artwork’s LED lighting, using my standard green momentum button.
Just Breathe, sung by Eddie Vetter.
This is the draft music for the music box. Just Breathe.
Live version of Our House from a long time ago.
This is the setup draft for the music box, Our House.

Here is the exhibit information and a few pictures I took after hanging my work at the very large exhibition room provided for our group show, EmptyWallsArt at the Chippewa Valley Museum.

Three group members: far left Ray Kaselau, then Aubrey Hogan, and on the far right Jeff nelson. Pedestal sculpture by Don Gaber
My Beatles Triptych
Group Member Terry Meyers metal sculpture. On the right side of the image a few of the very nice works by guest artist Susanna Gaunt
The Chippewa Valley Museum Winter Art Show featuring our group members from EmptyWallsArt and three guest artists.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Blood Brothers image2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This image two of Blood Brothers I have staged to show the music before I attach it to the background.   My original idea was to attach two photos of me and my two brothers.  The first image placed at the beginning of the artwork would have been an early childhood image with me holding Jeff the youngest.  Then at the end of the artwork I planned to place a recent image of us three brothers.  The more I thought about this artwork and the great time being spent on its creation,  I decided to eliminated the photos.  I do not produce a lot of artworks in a year.  A personalize artwork would hurt its meaning.  The theme of this artwork, the bond of brothers, is  universal.  I left the photos out of this project and instead changed the white color of the music’s disks.

Instead of photographs representing my brothers,  I picked three different colors to represent we three brothers.  For the top section of the artwork I painted all the disks blue.  That color represents my brother Jeff, and the color of Chevrolet blue, that is his business over many years.  The middle color is a violet color to represent Roger. Violet is a color band from the Rainbow flag.  Finally, I choose a red color for me.   I have always signed my artworks in red.  That comes from Frank Lloyd Wright’s signature.  I did a paint test of these three colors.  I went with the artistic norm of the day and painted them in plastic solid colors.  Solid shades of color that I call baby colors did not look to be a part of the artwork.   Changing my mind, I took a damp cloth to remove the paint.  I stopped when my random removal of paint resulted in a look that worked with the artwork.  I then took a file and scraped each note hastily.  I then lightly sanded each disk.  Last,  I applied a light-colored  glaze that matched the note color.  There is some thought behind why I damaged the paint.

This art made a breakthrough with the artwork, Will the Circle by unbroken (rejected this year, my the Trout Museum SECURA exhibition).  I gave that artwork a rough worn look that I thought better represented the story of this classic country song,  and early Country Music.  I continued that look and idea of that theme with Blood Brothers I think the lyrics of this song tells a story of struggle, personal flaws, and faith in a family no matter the shortcomings or misunderstandings.  Maybe this music speaks to life full of complicated conflicts. That is what this artwork reflects in its lack of exhibition quality prettiness.    No bright, perfect art here. There is enough of that crap out there already.  Here you find bits of the truth in canvas,  wood and paint.   This art’s meaning is in the emotions of seeing that first paint scratch on your shiny new car, the red wine spilled on white linen, that decision you should have never made,  or the perfect life, that you never had.  Each morning we pick up the pieces of ourselves, and press on.  So it is with this artwork.

 

Scott Von Holzen.

S_V_H Stairway to Heaven Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

stairway_finalIn this final image of Stairway to Heaven I have moved away from the video as my color guide. For the rest of the wood enhancement to this painting I decided to go with colors that work with the existing color theme. Late into every painting, including this one,  my goal is to bring the over all look of a painting into harmony, a double entendre of sight and hearing.

Here is my take on this painting: Times they are a Changin.’  This is not a large work in my Catalog,  but by the standards of most people of modest means, which have been my art sales clients,  have a  lot easier time finding wall space, and justifying the cost,  for a 36 inch artwork than they would one this size..  All galleries, that would consider hanging this painting, always have to deal with limited wall space. Their walls are already filled with art. To make room one for Stairway a gallery would need to remove at least two or more other artworks.  That is probably not going to happen unless my sales pitch is exceptional.  That is why I mentioned the 36 inch artwork limit which has these advantages over even this size work: faster to produce, lower price, and a lot easier to market and sell.  There are no trade offs by going small.  I give every artwork the same amount of care, ability, and creatively.  The main advantage in size is greater visual impact.

Looking at Stairway, I can see the size effect,  but I can also see that I could have used smaller canvases in an irregular shape.  Doing anything besides your standard artwork rectangle would have created a more dramatic visual look. That may then counter size impact, as long as the limited amount of open space on a small work is not overly busy or cluttered. I do not have this option in the unfinished artwork Satisfaction, but I do see me moving philosophically, to that 36 inch length, in the next project which is Please, Remember Me, sung my Tim McGraw, followed by When Doves Cry.

Scott Von Holzen