I started this artwork on June 16th with the creation of the cover music. I completed the project enough to do a final image, on July 31st. That timeline is about right for a large, complicated artwork project in the busier summer. Because of the many complications, notably hanging this artwork and keeping it from sagging over time, my wife suggested in the future not to go so big. I agreed. This project was one-of-one. Big art teaches big lessons, which I will use to improve the performance of a more reasonable eight-foot art project soon. Many of the issues I had with this project began with the need to break it down for travel. That meant three large pieces, about 48 inches by 42 inches, with detachable speakers. Connecting three such size pieces together to be a perfect rectangle puts a lot of pressure on the middle section. It would have been wiser and easier to have gone with two six-foot sections and detachable speakers. Although, with a lot of second, third and fourth efforts, I have the artwork hanging decently on the studio wall. For the next three weeks and three days, I will hang it at The Art Garage in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Will this large artwork make a statement? I doubt it. Will returning to making smaller, less expensive artworks make a statement? I doubt it.
In the early years of this art I received my first rejection letter. It was from a submission I made to the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau, Wisconsin. The artwork was my classic and wonderful 2007 painting of Beethoven’s Für Elise. They told me this artwork’s market was too small and would only appeal to musicians.
I thought differently. I believe this art would appeal to anyone who liked music. It actually sold on my Etsy stores because the buyers knew the music. This art might have succeeded early if I would have developed a simple and easy painting style and did all commission works of requested songs. But, I hated the idea of doing commission works for the money. Besides, I wanted to paint the music I loved. And in time, all those early Etsy buyers slowed to a trickle for my artworks and even my prints sales fell over the years. I let the artwork store go, as shipping costs rose, and my style changed. The original plan for my two Etsy stores and even my Amazon store was to get this art’s name out there. That never happened. Like my exhibitions, I do the work and pay the price to show, and the results have always been the same: nothing to talk about. So it goes.
Scott Von Holzen
aRT iN mUSIC 