Tag: ART

S_V_H First Image of Flowers

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

As mentioned previously, I was not at first convinced to paint Miley Cyrus’s song, “Flowers,” but I wanted to add additional music by women to my submission for the ARC Gallery. I was little surprise at this choice of this music for I have never painted a song so current. My general thinking is to choose only music that has stood “the test of time.” For example, I have another unusual second current project, Adele’s song, “Make You Feel My Love,” She released this music sixteen years ago. What convinced my choice of “Flowers,” were the statistics on this music, notable eight consecutive weeks as number one. For color ideas I watched Miley’s official video of “Flowers.” She started the video dress in the color of gold (also mentioned in the music). And ended with her dressed in black. I liked the video’s start. But found the middle “exercise part,” while understandable, excessive. That video left me disappointed. That changed.

2024 Grammys

Today, I searched for another live video of Miley Cyrus performing “Flowers” and luckily found her 2024 Grammy’s performance. I thought she looked fabulous, and her presence was outstanding.

As for the other project, “Make me feel my love.” Here is the 16-year-old link to the official video of Adele’s rendition of “Make you feel my Love.” This video and every live version by Adele I watched is similar, slow moving, right up to this 2024 performance that for me was disappointing. The sheet music lists 76 beats per minute. For the draft cover music of “Make you feel my Love,” I increased the beats to 90. I had to. Adele’s pace drags this exceptional Bob Dylan song to an exhausted but grateful Verse 4.

Here is the first image of the projects “Flowers,” and “Make you feel my Love.”

Left to right: Make you feel my love, Flowers, All too Well, and a partial The scientist.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H New music Project “Flowers”

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

It happened again. I have missed another even more important exhibition than the Hopkins International: the MMoCA Triennial, the deadline of October 24, 2024. Of course like the Hopkins Center for the Arts, this is a major disappointment, taking away my positive attitude for the day. Yes, I mentioned this and got advice, but what I did was to add my email to their newsletter. That means in fall 2027, once again I will apply for the MMoCA 2028 Triennial. I had also found that I had submitted to the triennial back in 2019. The image I submitted surprised me and changed my thinking about missing this show.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is exactly what its name applies. Here is a peak at their current exhibition schedule. My initial thought was that my art style back in 2019 was very differed then to now, with the addition of playable music and lighting, thinking this would improve my chances. Then I looked at the artwork I submitted. This surprised me. I had sent them a stunning, five-foot-long piece, Giant Steps, by the legendary jazz artist John Coltrane. They turn this work down. That tells me the MMoCA is probably not where this art belongs. Their Contemporary art scene is probably also not my scene. Obviously, I see this art as ahead of its time, ahead of what is the current MMoCA Contemporary Art. Even more so now than it was back in 2019. So it goes. So do I. The MMoCA and I may never cross paths, may not be in the cards, may not have a ghost of a chance. And yet 2028 is not that far away. Considering how fast time passes, and the average lifespan in American is 79 years and I am currently 76. I probably take that one more last shot.

Another missed opportunity
“Giant Steps” ≈ H30xL63.25xD2+- inches
This is the amazing story behind a outstanding, stand-alone Jazz Standard John Coltrane’s Giant Steps of which became the artwork.

Today, I have moved on from yesterday’s words stated above. I am back to focusing on applying to the ARC gallery that is located somewhere in or around Chicago. Women run this gallery, and while it welcomes all artists and skill sets, I still wonder if it prioritizes women artists over older white men like me. I could be entirely wrong once I learn more, but this feeling altered my approach to this application. My plan is to submit only artworks performed by women.

I have painted artworks sung by women. But surprisingly, not as many as I should have, considering how many female artists there are on my Spotify Like list (a quick third on my first 300 songs). But it was my early musical comfort, influence and direction that came from growing up with The Beatles that set my course. Back then, I liked boy music, and boys singing about girls. Unexpectantly, and good timing, I completed four projects featuring women artists: Tylor Swifts All too Well, Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, Dance Monkey my Tones and I, Cheap Thrills by Sia, but only one song from 2023, What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes. I feel, to add more credibility, to this good start I moved to seek a couple of other songs made popular by women. I came with a short list of songs.

The two songs I thought of were Adele’s version of the classic Dylan piece, Make you feel my love, and the other is Love Me Like You Do sung by Ellie Goulding (two songs on my Spotfiy Like List). The Dylan song that was a simple choice, but I hesitated on Love Me Like you Do. I have always liked this song, but the lyrics I could not find a connection. I then looked at Myley Cyrus, finding this instrumental of her song Flowers, preform by Brooklyn Duo. This cover would help in creating my cover, so I went for it. And yet, after putting together my first draft of this music, I felt disappointed. This music reminded me of much of today’s pop hits: they all sound the same. That got me wondering if I was compromising my standards for this art.

The answer is probably yes, but this has been rare, mostly past commissioned art, and a Marvin Gaye song Ecology I did specifically for an exhibition, that rejected it. I vow never again to do that. But here I am and time is on the move and I need to push out this art. The application deadline is January 4th. Therefore, this decision is about gaining some recognition of this art after 18 plus years. If this popular hit would help that cause, why not? Besides, what surprised me following up on this choice was that Miley Cyrus’s song “Flowers” currently has 2,328,701,301 Spotify plays, 922,520,240 YouTube views, and spent 8-weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100. To quote the Wikipedia article, this 2023 hit was “a massive commercial success.” Oh, I see. Okay, this song is a worthy challenge to my cover music skills.

Miley Cyrus “Flowers” (Official Video)

So it goes,

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H All too Well final artwork & music

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
All too Well
≈ H45xL31xD9.5 inches

On an online video with Jimmy Fallon Taylor Swift mentions ” personnel favorites.” Her favorite on the Taylor’s version of the Red Album is the ten-minute long All too Well. I can relate to that in that of the 29 Taylor Swift songs on my Spotify Like playlist. five of them are different versions of All too Well. This music has a controlled driving beat, rhythm and harmony. It also comes in different versions, which also is appealing (video below). But it is not just the new ten-minute version of this music that finally caught my attention, it was the lyrics.

This is an alternate 10 minute version of All too Well (Sad Girl Autumn Version)

The lyrics for this music are exceptional (like “dancing around the kitchen in the refrigerator light.” But it is these specific lines that sparked my interest: “And I left my scarf there at your sister’s house, and you’ve still got it in your drawer, even now.” And then the much later circle back that convinced me: “But you keep my old scarf from that very first week ’cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me…….” These words sound honest and real life like to me, feeling genuine compared too much of pop music I listen to. Finally, I am always hesitant about choosing a fairly current piece of pop music, but the timing was right for this music to be a part of a first application attempt at a new exhibit.

Hopkins Center for the Arts

It was a disappointment when I looked to apply for a major art show and realized I was a few days past the deadline. The Hopkins International takes place this January at the Hopkins Art Center in Hopkins, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. I was fortunate to be chosen for their juried members’ show this fall, but The Hopkins International is a much larger exhibition that I last exhibited in 2019. Also, I was hesitant, which slowed my timing, to apply for this show. The drop off is only two days in early January, with the reception a week later requiring four winter drives through Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Missing this show made me think to pay closer attention to exhibition in the future. Encouragingly, my focus is now on three other open art calls to apply for in 2025 over the next couple of weeks.

I also have one current last opportunity for our remaining EmptyWallsArt group in a month long show at a wine and art bar this coming March. This project will be interesting, if this actually happens, for the theme that was agreed on was the four seasons. This takes me back to the thirteen Antonio Vivaldi artworks painted but never shown that I am still wishing to offer free to a public location and display. Ever since I added music, I have wondered about updating these artworks for a show that plays and lights up the music from the four concertos. The difficulty is that this would be a very large and expensive project to give away art so I can free up space for the future storage of art. But this bar exhibit allows me to test the idea.

My pilot plan opportunity is to build one artwork that will contain four canvases and the music from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. When pressing the music button, the first canvas, Spring, will light up and play a short piece from that concerto. Once finished, the next canvas will light playing the music from the Summer Concerto, followed by the Autumn and Winter canvases and concertos. I would like to keep the entire music cover around the minute and half goal I set for major artworks. I believe I can technically accomplish this build. If so, it will be interesting if there is any reaction or better interest that merits further development of the Vivaldi Four Seasons canvases.

Finally, here are my thoughts on All too Well. It is difficult to take a 10 minute song and trim it down to one-minute thirty seconds, without a lot of comprise to the music. This I regret. I respect each of these music box covers, and therefore I do my best to represent the music’s fullness. This requires following the songs flow from beginning to end and arranging the intro, verse, and chorus and ending accordingly to fit the demands of time I have set. I feel good about the growing quality of these artworks and of their cover music. I am unsure about the music owners, but I pay them anyway, even though the money value of this art is questionable. So it goes.

Scott Von Holzen