This image shows the progress on this next project, which is Concerto No. 2, RV 578 in G minor, 3rd movement: Larghetto. Larghetto, an Italian term, refers to a slight decrease in tempo, let’s say around 60 to 70 BPM. My draft music for this project currently has a faster tempo of 84 BPM for a reason.
The arrangement for this music is going to be close to 1:30 seconds. My earlier small works were all less than a minute. I thought a 1 minute limit fit with their size and a listener’s interest. Since this new project is already at 5 feet, and its Vivaldi, 30 seconds more music would be consistent with past projects. I thought I should, to move this music along, speed up the tempo which I have. I will fine tune this music’s beat when I return to complete the cover music. I want the visitor to enjoy listening to a 300-year-old nonclassic rock or contemporary pop song. Speeding up the tempo might turn this music into a catchy, upbeat melody.
Here is the YouTube video that interested me to do another Vivaldi. It was not only the quality of the music from its start that is so Vivaldi, and so embracing. it was what I learned from this performance. What caught my attention was how the musicians all made such quick and smooth changes in volume and emphasis. I see this as a direction to better evaluate the overall volume of my arrangements. This music confirms for me the importance of having the right sound levels at the right moments in the music. Improving my control of volume levels will add interest and depth to the quality of my arrangements.
The music for this artwork starts at the 3:50 and at 5:25 minutes there is a short duo violin run-down-the-scale moment that this artwork will depict.This is an early and bland cover of this dramatic music.
Snippet of What Have I done. (I have equalized the music in this recording, and all other recordings, to sound as best as possible within the limitations of the sound system built into the artwork)
This is the last in this art series. Up next will be an Antonio Vivaldi Classical work to clear my mind of pop music. When finished, I once again will return to do, this time three small artworks, with the theme, songs sung lead by a woman. What I have in mind is a solo show at the Arc Gallery down in the Chicago area that takes submission. Women manage it, with its primary focus, I believe being women artists. That makes sense. But they have male guest artists. My maybe-I-might-fit-in, if they take me serious, is to present them with an exhibition proposal that is all the music sung or performed by women.
To my surprise, I have painted four songs in 2024 with lead singers by Sia, Tracy Chapman, Dolores O’Riordan, and Linda Perry. I could reworked early artworks with women’s leads, but I would rather portray new music. I say this after looking through the list of finished artworks, now over 200 works. The music numbers of men I have painted vastly outnumber women. Disappointing, considering I listen to a lot of women singers.
I have noticed a trend over the last few years that when I am done with a project; I find it hard to find any new thoughts to comment on the final image. That leads me to just babbled out some generic that-a-boy thoughts. What I know is that after weeks of work, the passion is gone, and I simply need closure to move on. These feelings I have felt guilty about until I watched a YouTube video interview that Dan Rather had with Neil Young. At the 8 minute mark Dan asked Neil “if we’re going to play one Neil Young song what are we going to play?” Neil responded, “I can’t say,” “that’s what other people are for. I only create the songs I don’t …have the future of the songs in mind…….(this says what I feel)…….I will take care of it until it’s gone until I get it out there and then I feel like I’ve done.” Neil Young put into words what I surely felt when done the work is now out there, even if it is still in my Studio. What lingers on with every finished artwork is the hope that eventually others will discover, and feel, what I once felt.
Here are a few round up words about this artwork. First, I enjoy using my scrap wood, that comes with unlimited possibilities, that I should have made standard use years ago. My use of words will continue. Also, I know what the words are, and why they are there, so they don’t have to be so obvious. They just have to be there for the music. I also enjoy mixing up different color combinations, even if they don’t fit perfectly. It’s my art. This art has no rules, no frames, no one to please, and a simply message.
Each artwork derives its meaning from its melody, lyrics, story, or a combination of these features. This is where the conceptional part of the artwork comes in. For me this is innovative art, and not an example of today’s contemporary art: artists all grasping to find an unused hook. And if the art’s meaning is not obvious (Guernica) and therefore you have to read its info to figure out the works message, I say there is no here to see. I believe art should not teach, but entertain. If an arts meaning is not obvious, then I say quickly pass by. I don’t want any artist, of all people, to preach, lecture, or shower me with guilt. My philosophy comes from LCD Soundsystem, “Shut up and play the hits.“
Antonio Vivaldi’s RV578 Larghetto canvases. This is a late post. I have been working a week or more on this next project.
The official video of What Have I Done……their 1987 hit. The colors and Dusty Springfield’s hair style are so the eighties.
This 2022 video below gave me a much better idea of the colors the Pet Shop boys like to use.
What Have I Done…… live performance in Parque.
This is how I came about choosing this Pet Shop Boys song as my next project. It was on a walk that this Pet Shop Boys song caught my ear. I think for this project it was the lyrics especially, the repeating of “How I’m gon’na get through,” that are the “sampled” lyrics displayed on the artwork. In that moment those words were summarizing my directional concern for this art. To confirm my pick, I check online for the sheet music at MusicNotes and purchase it. I could cobble together the sheet music with the help of the music’s free preview sheet music, but still there would be a lot of guessing and certainly respect for the accuracy of music is important to me. Even more important, is the value of my time. For a few bucks I own my cover music guide I can trust. After completing the project, I then purchase a cover music license. I am required a minimum of 25 music boxes. That is fine, even though there is only one music box, and I do not know if I will ever need a license, or any of the 40 plus licenses I have already purchased. It is not my music. I am doing what I feel is respectful and adequate for now.
What have I done….. first image
Here is a pre-release rough draft of this music box’s eventual cover music
The Pet Shop Boys videos have a lot of pink tones, and other mostly pastel colors in their performances. I choose a combination of colors from the videos that differed from previous recent works and went to work.
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I forgot to post, so now I have added an update.
“What Have I done,” near finished
This is the finished image I need only to go over its details to make sure I have completed what I needed to and then sign and date this work. I will post a video and the updated cover music on this next blog entry.
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I have made a small but important change in my thinking and direction: I need to document my depiction of sheet music beams.
The image below is a typical of sheet music. The “beam” which is the wide bar that connects, in this example, two notes from sheet music.
Above is the typical example of the look of my beams I have used for many years.
Now above, and below, are my its-about-time whatever beams, including a double.
Earlier this year, I started experimenting with different beam shapes out of creative boredom. In this work, I finally abandoned the idea that all beams should look similar. The only rule in my art is to capture the flow of the music visually. While this beam change seems simple, my respect for the music and the importance of sheet music has made it difficult, and slow going, to fully let go of tradition. Below, I summarize that change.
The image above is an example of my mentor Christy Skuban wooden artworks, in which most pieces of every artwork she ever created were built from scrap wood other artists have given her.Previously, I would discard my wood scraps once the container was full. My mindset has now changed from hoarding scraps to actively incorporating them into my artwork. Thank you Christy.
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Finally, I need to document a short story about a meeting I had concerning the future of the art group EmptyWallsArt, that I help form.
After a surprising number of months I had an eventual coffee meeting with Jeff to discuss the future of our art group, EmptyWallsArt. Before our membership meeting I wanted to put together some kind of joint understanding. We needed to come up with something about the future of the group after the sudden passing of our co-founder, Christy Skuban, in January 2024.
Christy was the heart of our group. She managed a gallery, displaying and selling all the members art. Even though my works didn’t sell and she eventually asked me removed them, I still believed in her. Christy was a relentless marketer, always seeking exposure for the group. Now, with her gone, Jeff had no other choice but to become the group’s reluctant leader. But his loyalty, like the rest of the group, was to Christy and not so much to EmptyWallsArt. That is the reluctant part. Tom Petty’s lyrics best summarize the group’s current thinking, “Their A&R man said, ‘I don’t hear a single,” without her.
During my coffee meeting with Jeff, I suggested that to keep EWA going, we might need to replace members and consider admitting 2D artists—a significant shift from our original focus on 3D art. This idea arose from the limited local 3D wall art talent, which became clear to Christy and me at our last group show when we struggled to meet the requirement of adding three local 3D artists. Jeff seemed both surprised and somewhat reassured by the suggestion.
My surprise came when Jeff expressed excitement about a cruise line that buys and rotates art on their ships. I responded, “People on a cruise aren’t there for the art.” All that did was reinforce our differing perspectives on art. Thus began the beginning of the end of a conversation that soon dwindled off to what’s left to say. And, as usual with Jeff and our meetings, he had somewhere else to be. He got up, turned his attention to someone at the next table, and I got up and left.
On September 10th, the group will meet to decide EWA’s future. Jeff and I agree, this could be the end, with several members possibly quitting. Full membership participation or not, with the remaining members, will determine the future of EWA. Even if EmptyWallsArt ends as a membership, I am going to maintain the domain name, just in case. Once again, I regret my difficult position, and my hopes for this group’s future being summed up in Tom Petty’s lyrics: “Into the great wide open, under those skies of blue, out in the great wide open, a rebel without a clue.”
Scott Von Holzen
(This is this artist’s 775 Post, which first posted in January 2010)
aRT iN mUSIC 