Tag: ART

S_V_H Your Song image 4

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
The project Your Song layout laid out on the floor.

I ran into a problem of my creation by not calculating the project’s length. Until recently, I would count the number of notes and the spacing between each, and that total would give me an accurate project length. I would then put together the size of the background needed to support the music. Lately, instead of lining up my music in straight rows across the canvas, I have been stacking my music in an up and down zip-zag pattern. By doing this, I use more of the artwork’s vertical space. The benefit is I can then overlap the music. This can then reduce the require length of canvases. The trade off is the zip-zag method has variables a straight line does not. That then makes it difficult to estimate the final length of the project, and only a guess if the music will fit the background. That happened with this project. The music did not fit. It then took considerable time to find the solution. I finally had to calculate what my actual length of the music would be laid end to end. That turned out to be twelve and a-half feet. My four original prepped canvases had a combine length of six feet four inches. No wonder the music would not fit. The solution ended up being increasing the length of the background.

The original Your song canvases now with added bolted on black canvases. The last artwork that used bolts is When Doves Cry, in 2017.

This project now comprises three additional canvases that are bolted to the original design. The last project that use bolts was the 2017 artwork When Doves Cry. What also complicates the size of these artworks is that I need to make sure that any signal piece does not exceed the maximum length of seventy-two inches by twenty-four. That is the space I have in my car.

I have to say I actually knew I would be length poor and in trouble once I had the music in a rough draft. Since I had already finished, the background canvases I first considered attaching angled aluminum between the two center canvases, for a max length of 72 inches, and the speaker canvases to reach the length needed. The problem was the short length of my music sections. They fell into the space the aluminum created. I found no practical method to float the music. Finally, to attach the music, I went the easy way by adding canvases. Since I had already finished my background, I took another shortcut by painting the added canvases a shade of black with a lighter black glaze. To my surprise, I liked the contrast of the background canvases. I see more of this idea being used in future projects, and wondered if this logic is unique in the five-hundred years of canvas painting.

After years of trying to follow the worn artist path to victory, I am now going with Robert Frost and these lyrics by Ricky Nelson from the Song, Gardan Party:

“And it’s all right now, yeah
Learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself”

I simplified the thought behind these words to four piano notes: A4, F4, A4 D4. My first song with these lyrics: My art, my rules.

So it is.
Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Your Song image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This is the last stage of my scratching technique, when I draw in the words. I dislike art that includes words to enhance the works’ lack of purpose. My words go with the music. They are there because they belong. They exist to add interest and offer the viewer the option to choose their meanings. I have always applied words in that way. If the music has words, I like to use them. I see them as decorative graffiti. I then scratch through them. This technique downplays their value and covers my print writing, which is awful, but important. My hand writing connects me to the artwork, not unlike Jackson’s Pollack hand print on his canvas.

I should mention how I choose the colors for this artwork. The background color ideas that appear through the scratching, and the top white layer of white, come from Elton John’s outfit in an early video of Your Song. The silver I used for the words I found in the glasses of Lady Gaga’s performance of Your Song at the 2018 Grammies.

Elton John’s live 1971 performance of Your Song.

This is a technical note: This image above is after the scratching was done. Issues are continuing with getting a clean scratching across the entire canvases. The top layer, in places, is rubbery. That means the pallet knife tears the top layer instead of clean ripping it away. This issue could be caused by the thickness of the paint, or that it needs longer drying time. The solution is further complicated by the rubbery issue not being consistent across the canvas. What is known is that as the days pass, the top layer firms up on the artworks and my test canvases. Letting the top layer of paint cure for maybe weeks, with testing, could be an answer, except that does not work for me. I live with each of these projects until finished. Only when completed do I start the search for the next music project. Hum, so the choice is?

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Gallery pickup comments

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Top Beethoven’s 5th then Mozart’s serenade No. 13

This was what I saw when visited the Gallery where I have had artworks on and off displayed for sale since 2017.

The picture I took when I was about to leave. The Music teacher was on the left and a candy store on the right. Both are now gone along with my artworks.

May 2018
March 2019
November 2017

I took part in two one day shows at the Gallery back in my old Art Fair days. I was asked and had a month long show then in March 2018. When that show was finished, the Gallery manager, Christy (a loyal supporter) hung on to a few of my works. Eventually, she gave me a more permanent spot to hang next door to a music teacher in March 2019. Later, because nothing sold, I removed and hung the wonderful artwork, Africa. That also did not sell. I replaced Africa with two of my smallest works, a little Beethoven and a Mozart piece. I priced them to sell even though the Gallery would take 40 percent of the sale. They did not.

Christy and I talked and neither of us had any honest ideas about why this art did not sell. She mentioned another gallery that had new owners. I told her I would be embarrassed asking them to sell this art when years have gone by at her gallery with any offers. I told her I would be back when the circle comes around. She said hopefully to display this art again. So that is what it is.

Scott von Holzen

(I searched my bog entries, but I found nothing about the story told to me by the music teacher when I stopped in to replace Africa. He said he was sad to see it go, for his students would press the play button on Africa to let him know they had arrived. He said he would post a picture of Africa on his Facebook page. Maybe some day I will remember or find out who he was and post that image)