Tag: Miley Cyrus

S_V_H Flowers

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Flowers ≈H45xL31xD9 inches

Signed and dated, the only task left to do on Flowers is to add the LED light strip, which I will do in a couple of days. My main take away on this music box is I like the strong contrast between the canvas and the music. I will follow this trend into the future. The chosen colors work for the music and for the final lyrics I added the words “you can.” I forgot them at first and had to paint over sections to match the background to add them. I had the same issue with Make you Love Me when I chose the wrong color for that artworks lyrics. To my surprise, I could repaint and match the background for that work. That gave me the confidence to fix my word error on Flowers.

I will mention this one last time: I like this 30 x 40 inch sized artworks. What I mean by like is the look of the artwork because of its rectangle shape has the feeling of classical artworks. That works for me for two reasons. First, the size is large, but not too large to fit comfortably on a wall in any upscale home. Also, each finished artwork becomes the template for the next project, making production and storage a lot easier. I will continue this vertical look, that to me feels well balanced, and a radical change from the last 19 years of sheet music length art. This art current look is sophisticated, classy, and invitingly simple in appearance.

Final thoughts on the project Flowers. Music Box Cover begins at 8:22.

I stated in the video that much of today’s art, and this includes popular music, suffers from same old, same old overproduction. I acknowledge the high quality production skill and craftmanship, but find the results, at last, to be boring. Beautiful and attention grabbing art is being created. It just all seems like one continuing movie sequel, that charges more for diminishing returns. And then there are the artist statements that seem desperate to add depth and meaning to the work. I can go on, and on about ” much ado about nothing,” or “in the moment” art and music, but I think this quote for Peggy Lee’s 1969 classic hit sums up my feelings about today’s art and music:
“Is that all there is
Is that all there is
If that’s all there is, my friends
Then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is” – Peggy Lee

For giggles here are examples of random artist’s statements online, with little thought that I quickly pulled from the largest Gallery in the world, Gagosian. The actual art I see as “oh well, this is the art that is oozing money out of galleries today?“

“The Baroque always connects two extremes, like light and shadow, in one body, one painting. History outside against a wild body inside, cultured and uncultured, cooked and uncooked, greed and expressionism, rationalism and irrationality, cold and hot.“
—Adriana Varejão

Painting is an act that connects reality and consciousness. It is more than a collective codification of signs. It is a performance that awakens the delirium of vision.
—Richard Wright

Most are afraid of total freedom, of nothingness, of life. You try to control everything, but nature is uncontrollable. It doesn’t matter how you express yourself (words, image, electric guitar), what matters is that you have something to express.
—Steven Parrino

(If you have a long enough attention span, this statement says a lot about today’s art and music production for me)
Christopher Wool is best known for his paintings of large, black, stenciled letters on white canvases, but he possesses a wide range of styles; using a combined array of painterly techniques, including spray painting, hand painting, and screen-printing, he provides tension between painting and erasing, gesture and removal, depth and flatness. By painting layer upon layer of whites and off-whites over screen-printed elements used in previous works—monochrome forms taken from reproductions, enlargements of details of photographs, screens, and Polaroids of his own paintings—he accretes the surface of his pressurized paintings while apparently voiding their very substance. Only ghosts and impediments to the field of vision remain, each fixed in its individual temporality. Through these various procedures of application and cancellation, Wool obscures the liminal traces of previous elements, putting reproduction and negation to generative use in forming a new chapter in contemporary painting. His paintings can therefore be defined as much by what they are not and what they hold back as what they are.

Scott Von Holzen

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