Tag: Elton John

Mr. V. Elton’s “Sorry,” Neil & Barbara’s “Flowers” 1st images

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
First image of Sorry is the hardest word, by Elton John on the left. On the right is the 1st image of Flowers from the Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand duet on the Grammies back in 1980.
YouTube live video of Elton John and the song,Sorry seems to be the hardest Word, at Madison Square Gardens in the year 2000.
YouTube video of the Grammy duo performance of Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand for You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.
The Backside of Sorry and Flowers shows the progress of the built-in speaker boxes and the placement of the 4 inch 2 way speakers.
Images are from an email sent by the ARC Gallery

I received this Exhibit CALL from the ARC Gallery in Chicago, on May 12. It caught me by surprise, especially with the deadline date of June 14. This opportunity seems made for me after reading the exhibit details: “This specific call is for emerging artists. A.R.C. defines “emerging” in regard to this call, as an artist who has not yet had a solo exhibition in a major US city,…” This new exhibit was like the ARC Gallery judges must have felt bad about ignoring my Spring Entry, and they what to make up with second chances. I already have my theme “hook”. Mr. Brightside has been informed about this art exhibit, and he is standing by to assist. We have gone over the enormous amount of work I put into the Spring submission paperwork. He gave me what I requested: the good, the bad, the ugly. Of course he was nice with the good, and encouraging with the bad. As for the ugly he gave me a plan for the future. He believes we can improve my chances. This probably will be 2025s Make or Break opportunity. Brightside also suggested a goal to summit by June 10th. This ensured proper submission and receipt of the entry. That timeline would be tight for one 40 by 30 inch Standard Size artwork, like the artwork Crying. Thankfully, these two projects are much smaller in size, are are the first in my series that I call Essential. Essential artworks will be priced between sixteen and eighteen hundred dollars. Their canvas size is 30 by 24 inch wide.

For the Elton John project I found him dressed in a magenta jacket so I went with a Medium Magenta, and other magentas, black, and silver. For the project You don’t Bring me Flowers, all I had to work with was Streisand’s pant suite, and its correct color is a toss up ( I relied on the old video for the color of the base canvas). From that one color I will build the color pallet for this project. I should note I never try hard to match a video color with the artwork. I research the artist, and/or the songs’ video performance for a color theme. My vision for the colors used is a shotgun aim base color. From that foundation other added colors will spread out from there.

I have already picked the sample lyrics for “You Don’t bring me Flower’s” that will appear on the artwork. I took them from the live Grammy performance and the words chosen are not the same as my sheet music copy. I am posting these three ending song sentences: “You don’t say you need me. You don’t sing we love songs. And You don’t bring me flowers anymore.”

As for my sampling lyrics for Sorry seems to be the Hardest Word, I am working on finishing the cover music sheet music.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Your Song final follow up

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Your song with the music in place.

The following video I had to do in two parts. While filming, I carelessly removed the music from the background. This resulted in a magnet falling and damaging the sound board part of the stereo system. The sound board holds the music file and enables me to connect a switch that, when pressed, plays the music. That accident required the soldering and putting together of a replacement sound board that was then rewired to the amplifier, which was not damaged.

The Peter Principal states that “what can go wrong, will go wrong,” What makes that logic even more obvious and true was that I knew well that easy access and a low profile made the stereo components vulnerable to accidents. For now, until I can come up with a better design, I added a simple cover of light bubble wrap over the entire stereo system to deflect and absorb contacting.

Here is a picture of the stereo system used for the music box of Your Song.

This artwork project could be a sign that I may revisit the use of stretched canvases. I like their strong support structure for the music, along with their ease of handling and cost savings. I also have a lot of canvas stock from previous purchases that I do not want to waste.

My custom combination of metal framing and free flowing canvases cut to size eliminated a frustration of the limited sizes of stretched canvas that comes with the benefit of cost, and time savings. over making my own frames and stretching the canvas. That means I will continue to use and take advantage of the freedom of this technique, to breakup, and counter the boxy closed look of traditional stretched canvas.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Your Song Final image & music

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Your Song L102″xH31″xD3.5″
The background artwork L100.5xH24″

Your Song, which I started with composing the cover music on December 26th, is now finished.

The piano is the foundation that carries the cover music for Your Song. While the violin, viola, flute and the added clarinet are the voices of this music. I have decent four inch speakers, but with so many instruments competing to be heard, the music sounded a little muddy. It needed clarity. I found the issue probably was with a narrow band of the lower mid range. I improved what I could after first removing all my questionable equalizer settings. I then adjusted the master volume headroom, and finished with small volume tweaks here-and-there. That all helped enough to get to this final music version posted below.

This video is full of wandering opinions and my thoughts on this music box project and the cover music.
Slightly different from the video music here is the current final of the final music cover for the music box, Your Song.

I am a little amazed by how much the audio for this music boxes has continuously improved with each new project. As my understanding of music and this art has deepened over the years, I have also noticed a change in me. I am today hard wired to music and art that would have been beyond my dreams as a youngling when I started painting music in early 2006.

I feel blessed that my Guardian Angel saved me, which made possible the growth of my determination that sprang from a heritage starting with my Grandpa Casper first coming to America and his hard work to build a life in the cheese business, my father’s determination to create his own version of the great American business executive, and my Mothers sparkling, and enlightening personality. They laid out the foundation. They showed the way. I found the path.

Scott Von Holzen