ART – Page 30 – aRT iN mUSIC

S_V_H For No One first images

Published on 06/07/2023 by Scott Von Holzen

This next project’s music came into the light on a morning walk with my trusted companion, Zelda. It is on my Like Songs list from Spotify, so I have heard this music before, but that day was different. What I was listening to was a cover version of The Beatle’s song, For No One, from the 1966 Beatle album Revolver. It was the soft assuring voice of Anne Sofie von Otter, and the music’s simple and flowing melodic sound that caught that morning mood. The music lasted long enough in my head so that it then became this new project.

Here are the three stages of this artwork’s design:

Once I have my cover music notation, I than grabbed the Soprano Saxophone part of my sheet music that I would like to display on the artwork

*The highlighted notation will be a part of the visual artwork.*

Next, I decided on the size of the notation. Since my selected saxophone part comprises a small number of notes I knew I could go large. The biggest note I can cut from a 1/4″ thick aspen wood that is 3.5″ wide is 3.25.” I then chose two 15×30-inch canvases that were long enough to display 8 notes spaced. The two smaller 10×10 inch canvases will become the speaker boxes. The last addition was a piece of loose gesso canvas. It is on this that I will paint the words from the music.

I do not know what colors I am going to use for the music. I also do not know what colors or how I am going to handle the words on the loose canvas. Last, I do know this is going to be the 2nd in a series of three artworks where I am experimenting with ChatGPT. I am curious to see how much better of a poem I can coax out of it. I may even try different methods of handling the music’s lyrics to see what different rhymes that it may come up with. We shall see.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H One final everything

Published on 05/31/2023 by Scott Von Holzen

*Right side view showing the raised canvases*

Here I talked about using ChatGPT and lyrics that make little sense.

I started this project on May 9th. It feels a lot longer than that. Maybe it’s a summer thing, but I was not in the mood to do a major work. That is why the stereo system for this work is only the simple 2 watt system. I also choose to portray a small, simple part of the music for this artwork. I mentioned in the video that the music is covered based on the original version of this music. Although, what I choose to portray is my version of the notation from their 2023 album Songs of Surrender. The line I chose for the artwork is: “One life with each other sisters brothers.” The artwork depicts my notation rules that make for a condensed version of music, unlike the strict rules of sheet music.

The background canvas is five feet by three feet in wide. I have a few more of these left. I want to get rid of them is why I chose this canvas. The canvas, as mentioned, is not that sturdy or of high quality, but I have made it work. It is the four smaller ten by twenty canvases that are all the weight of this work.

When I first created the cover, I was not aware of U2’s newest version of this music. I had thoughts about simplifying my cover, or even updating its sound to better match the feel of the newest version. But I was too deep in the process to reverse my direction. Besides the stereo system used is only 2 watts with three-inch speakers. This system has none of the punch of my larger 20watt stereo. That means I have a sound quality limit for the cover. Therefore, any subtle changes to the cover would probably add little to what was already a decent sound, and a lot of waste of valuable time.

I may or not use ChatGPT in the future to take the lyrics from my the music and create poems and words I can use freely on my next work. I am sure I could create better poetry from a song lyrics. Would that needed time spent be worth the effort when ChatGPT can create poetry in seconds? That is what I am not sure of.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H One, final look

Published on 05/30/2023 by Scott Von Holzen

*Image of the artwork progress on May 21st.*

The background canvas which is 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide and has been in the storage area for years. Actually, I have three more of these. These were not overly expensive canvases when purchased. The wood is also lightweight and soft. Attaching the four smaller, higher-quality canvases to the weaker large canvas was a worry.

That concern became even worse with the finished work on the easels. I tried to level the work, and I made too much of a change, forgetting the artwork was still on the easels. Next was a loud boom with the artwork falling off the easels landing face down on the floor. After picking up the artwork I discovered what appears to be a mild crack in the frame of the large canvas. I placed a six-inch heavy metal bracket over it and screwed it in for support. This fixed any future issues that may develop. Otherwise, I was shown kindness. Besides the four attached canvases being a little looser, the speakers and the stereo were fine. The side image below shows the brackets normally used in wood frame constructions were here used to mount the four smaller canvases. Those four canvases are about 3 and 3/4 of an inch away from the base canvases. These angled brackets are sturdy pieces of metal. All I had to do after the crash was to add a third screw where needed and tighten the rest. Of course, this is not the first time these large heavier artworks have toppled off my easels.