John Lennon – aRT iN mUSIC

S_V_H The Beatles Triptych

Published on 01/12/202401/12/2024 by Scott Von Holzen

Golden Slumbers music box

Carry that Weight the music box

The End the music box

I signed Golden Slumbers on December 15th and the others on the 17th. The surprise is that I started and completed all three works in a month’s time. This entire process came into focus when I had in stock three 36 x 48 inch background canvases. The close musical relationship also helped. I could then use the same overall style and color plan tweaked for each artwork. By following the same designs of the previous 2023 artworks, I saved considerable time and effort. This then allowed me to build all three artworks together through each stage of production. The last motivation to complete these three works as quickly as possible was the drop off date of early January. Even though I completed all the preparations for this triptych for the upcoming exhibition, I have a surprise.

The curator, Christy from our group EmptyWallsArt, for the upcoming exhibition has limited wall space for eleven 3D artists that will be showing. Eight of the artists, including one new member, are from our group, EmptyWallsArt. The host then required the addition of invited artists. This was a hard search in this area for me and, Christy who signed up three guests artists for the show.

Christy also informed me she wants to ensure that “all the artists have a fair amount of room since the exhibition wall space was limited.” Right away after reading that, I knew my Beatles triptych would not fit: I requested wall space of a bare minimum of twenty-four feet. I then offered alternatives directing her to my portfolio on the EmptyWalls website. I did not want to break apart the Beatles triptych. Between us we chose three other artworks.

The JS Bach work chosen I understood because of its narrow width. The other two where each about the same size as the Beatles works, but they added variety in color matching well with the Bach piece. I did update the Bach the stereo system from a 2 watt to match the systems in the other artworks. But, again to my surprise the plan changed.

This happened when I emailed Christy and told her the reason I created The Beatles Triptych was to show them in the upcoming exhibition. I then suggested another option that I was good with. I would show only two works: the center piece of the Triptych, Carry that weight, and Zombie. Finally, I would display two small photos of the other two Beatles artwork, one on each side of Carry. Well, Christy responded she did not want any photographs of artworks. She then asked for the dimension of the Triptych and Zombie. Her response after receiving the information was she would find the space to display the three Beatles works together. She also added Zombie, but that work would be displayed in a different location in the gallery. At most I wanted the Triptych, but Christy went out of the way in found space for a four. I thanked her.

Scott Von Holzen

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Happy Christmas Final Image

Published on 12/07/201912/12/2019 by Scott Von Holzen

Happy Christmas surprised me by taking only two weeks from start to finish. I like the melody in which I could stop at a good point in the lyrics. This enabled me to leave out the ending of the first stanza, including these lyrics “let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear.” This music is not only a Christmas song but an anti-war song. Lennon recorded this music during the Vietnam War, in 1971. Although those lyrics are still relevant, I wanted this artwork to be a celebration of Christmas.

If I had not included the word “Christmas,” along with those giant snowflakes in the background, visually this artwork is more in the style of the Blue Danube project, and nothing like my previous Christmas works. Over the 14 years that I have created Christmas paintings, I never attempted to create anything new. The take on all my Christmas artworks was to take the easy Christmas style route and create a summary work of the year. My main challenge was to get it done. Then I could take a picture, and print out a pile of eight-inch wide canvas prints, to put inside the year’s Christmas cards. Once the cards were out the door, like past Christmases, I will quickly store the artwork away to remain an unknown unknown.

Left to do is the music. I have some understanding of music theory but not so musical composition. That means I am early in my understanding of how to create and arrange a decent sound. That is why the music it not yet done. This year has seen the improved sound quality of increasingly sophisticated arrangements that are now a part of each project. I believe that adding sound to the artwork is becoming vitally important to the success of the artwork. That makes sense. This art, from the start, has been about portraying music.

From the beginnings of this art back in 2006, it was all about displaying, in a semi-abstract way, the up and down flow of a piece of music. What it never was about was to replicate sheet music which would stifle the creative effort. That style defined this art until recently when I added the play button to my artworks. I guess I thought my musical arrangements would allow me to follow the art. I soon found that difficult. Although the arrangement and the artwork share the same music, their artistic presentations are widely different. Like everyone else that enjoys this art, for now when I play the music I will listen. When I look at the artwork, I will then enjoy the artwork as I have always done, as a portrait of the music. So what we have is one sculpture with two features, with this one caveat: the artwork is the value of the project that represents the project goal which is to present itself as Art. The music is there only to support the Artwork. That is the difference. The Art can exist without the music. My music is meaningless without the Art.

The Art is the portrait; the sound is the hook.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Happy Christmas 2nd Image

Published on 11/27/201912/07/2019 by Scott Von Holzen

Happy Christmas is swiftly moving along. Right now this is a white artwork with too much metallic gold. I will fix that. Following the lead of my last artwork, The Circle (Will the Circle Be Unbroken) I have added and connected two canvases. I painted them white and placed store snowflakes on top of a wet white glaze. I then applied several more coats of clear glaze over the canvases to hold the flakes in place. I did tried to follow the instructions to fold a sheet of paper and cut out my own snowflakes, but all I accomplished was to create a lot of misshapen, jagged edges and paper waste. So off to the store I went.

I am planning on adding other colors to add some depth and interest to this project. Right now I am not thinking of sticking to the traditional Christmas colors, such as a bright red and green. I would rather use softer pastel versions of these and other colors. I want white to remain the dominate color. I will see what I can come up with. It is kind of hard to picture Santa Claus dressed in a light hot pink, red suit, but for this project it could work.

Scott Von Holzen

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