Tag: Music Box

S_V_H Zombie final music and image.

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Zombie ≈ L69″xH41″x D9.5” Outstanding depth on and off the wall

I like this artworks use of ubiquitous words that also appear in this music’s lyrics. Some of the phrases on the artwork were scratched into the still wet paint, while in other words, I used the convenience of acrylic pens to write away in my distinctive style. I like the unusual overall use of red shades of acrylic paint on this artwork. The solid red looking of the notes works well with the background colors. The paints I used for the notes are Compose Rose by Holbein, and these Golden colors, Quinacridone Crimson, Pyrrole Red, Red Light, and Pyrrole Dark Red, mostly hand applied.

This Zombie project started building the cover music on October 25th. That means I have finished this work under three weeks. What helped to speed up the creation process for Zombie is that the music box is a single finished piece that has a length of under six feet and 42 inches wide. That is the limit I have for traveling these artworks. Otherwise, over 72 inches would have needed two separate sections. That would make the artwork a lot more complex and time-consuming, see the project Yellow. This artwork also uses 3 1/4 inch size notes. Their size limits the sampling numbers of the cover music, saving production time.

Zombie. Completed. Where does this art go now? Inspired by the lyrics of Waylon Jennings “Lord, it’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitar. Where do we take it from here?” played live with Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash. That is the question that I may or may not resolve. After 17 years, I still do not have a consistent market for these music boxes. Therefore, I could take this music, down size it, to a 3×2 foot one size fits all standard design music box. These sized to sell boxes I could then offer custom colors, along with music of choice. This would surely reap bundles of commissioned sales on Etsy ranging from 300 to 500 dollars. Nay, that will not happen. Or I could replicate my most popular Etsy print and its classic style pumping out knockoffs commissions with the theme of pick your color, name that tune, for a grand or two. Nay, been there and now see there in the work of my fellow members of EmptyWallsArt.

Canon in D 2009

Again, to repeat, “Where do we take it from here?”

I do like the sound of the 20-watt stereo system used for this project. I also know that I dislike the two watt stereo systems I have used lately with these projects: Shenandoah, One, For No One, J S Bach Concerto 2023, What’s Up, Yellow, and Flight from the City. My thinking was that they were all smaller, less important projects. I thought I could save money and time using the simpler two watt systems. This worked reasonably on those projects if the cover music was less full, and I limited the number of instruments. And yet, my overall feeling of the sound from a 2-watt stereo system was okay, but disappointing. Two watts through 4 inch speakers is not enough power to project when I wanted more from the cover music. Considering that I value the artwork and the music as equal contributors to the quality of these music boxes, all those 2-watt systems, I now feel the balance is questionable. That leads me to the decision to use only the time consuming and expensive 20-watt system, with the better 5×7 inch speakers. Unless some other consideration makes the 2-watt system the obvious choice.

A snippet of the cover audio track for Novembers Music Box Zombie

Final thoughts. I added Zombie to my portfolio at EmptyWallsArt. After which I listened to these years’ snippets of music. As an observer I admit, they impressed me. And yet, it lingers: this art has yet to find how to “…break on through to the other side,” I know this will happen, eventually. My question is the timing. At 75 I am still pushing to “Keep on keeping on,” knowing “If you build it, he will come.” While being inspired by these Neil Diamond lyrics: “They have sweated beneath the same sun. Looked up in wonder at the same moon. And wept when it was all done. For bein’ done too soon. For bein’ done too soon.” Not done.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H First image of the music box Zombie

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment
The Layout plan for music box Zombie ≈ L60.5″ x H42″

Once again, this is a small work. The music for this project is Zombie by the Cranberries. I have had an interest in this song for a long time, but I needed the right timing to spend the time to portray this music. That appears to have arrived. With the war in Ukraine and in Israel, and mass shooting after mass shooting in the United States, I felt why not? I am not trying to create a protest artwork, only living through my mood. That this music makes a statement can only add a little extra punch to the collateral damage that is priced in each of these projects.

The lead singer and writer of this music is the Irish singer Dolores O’Riordan. This song was her protest over the violence occurring in Northern Ireland. Researching the music and her story, I found, to my surprise, her tragic death at age 46. Knowing that, I hesitated to spend a month with this music. What made me move forward with this project was finding a dedicated cover of Zombie by Bad Wolves (never heard of them).

The girl in gold in the Bad Wolves cover comes from the official Cranberries Zombie video in which the girl is gold, is Dolores.

Another version of Zombie is by Brooklyn Duo. I thought would be a helpful to build my cover for it is also an instrumental. But all I took from their cover was the cello.

Over the years of painting music the primary requirement of the background was that it was long enough to support all the cover music notes that I was sampling. Then, in 2022, there was a noticeable change in my backgrounds. I wanted more depth in my work to truly separate my music notation from the flat two dimensionality of sheet music. I also felt that having my notation move out and back toward the viewer would better resemble the multi depths in the music’s sound. To help reach my artworks out from the wall, and also accommodate the speaker boxes, one simple technique I taught myself years ago was to stack my background canvases. The 2022 artwork, Crazy, is a good example of what I learned back in 2012. It was my Vivaldi’s Four Seasons series of thirteen very large artworks that I prominently developed this technique.

For this work I am using four different generic phrases that I found in the lyrics. I build their value on their repetitiveness. The viewer can either relate them to the original music, or let the repeating message they each represent mean whatever. For me I like the presenting my individual cursive style, that is or is not legible. That I couldn’t care less. My scribbling is fun, adds character and interest, and also depth to these artworks. What I write on these artworks directly connects me, and only me, to these paintings.

The main shape of the project Zombie

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Final Images & cover for Yellow

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

The new project Yellow offered the opportunity to use up some of my many shades of acrylic yellow. Or at less I could use those yellows that I had not dried out over the years. I have not used a lot of yellow in this art until this year. I have two music boxes where yellow is the dominate color. The other 2023 yellow was an experimental vertical for a Bach piece in which the music drops quickly. I thought the color yellow would add emphasis to the music.

Back of Yellow showing all the disconnects needed to break down this artwork for travel.

I work long on these artworks that when I finish them, I truly feel finished and wish only to move on. Here are a couple of reflective thoughts on this work.

My original idea for this project was to make a shorter and smaller work around six feet. Unlike the previous project, Closer, I did not want to do another long horizontal. Although that did not happen, even though early, I chose 4inch 2way speakers with a 2 Watt stereo system instead of the 5×7 speakers and 20watt used in Closer.

I always chose for the visual part of the artwork an interesting part of the cover music. But since the visual part of the artwork only samples a small piece of the music box, that part has to portray a stand out part of the cover, and more so also presents an interesting visual.

For this music box, there was only one section of the cover music that I thought would work. The pre-chorus has the visual look along with a nice beginning and ending (seen below in the worksheet). This choice then required a large reduction in the notation’s size to fit all the music. Even doing that, the artwork horizontally would have stretched to 114 inches. Yellow would be longer than the artwork Closer. To resolve this, I divided Yellow into two parts (similar to Closer) to under the 6 foot travel length. Then, to reduce Yellow’s length, I overlap the two sections to bring the artwork under 8 feet.

Sample taken from 8 pages cover of Yellow
The visual sample of the pre-chorus (seen in the edited sheet music above) starts at 26 seconds and ends at 45 seconds.

My other comment about this artwork was because of its divided sections needed for traveling. It was a learning and challenging experience to wire, and to balance for hanging, the two different arms of this work.

The speaker and controls wiring for Yellow

Scott Von Holzen