S_V_H Your Foolish Heart 2nd Image

My Foolish Heart on a 24 x 30 inch canvas.

For each new project, I plan out what notes from the cover music I will mount on the artwork. Since there are not a lot of notes in this sample, I made the mistake of making them larger. The size of my circles went from my recent standard of 1 5/8 to 2 1/8 in diameter. Increasing the size of the notes also increases the width of the music. What I found was that on both the top staff and the middle staff, there was not enough space to hang the song notes. When this happens, I would let the music hang over the edges of the canvas to add more interest. But for this project, I had too many single notes that prevented a simple fix.

The other option would be to add another canvas to make a fourth metal staff support. Rejecting that idea, I found a different solution. Below is an image of the earlier 2026 artwork, Drive. This project uses my standard three 24-inch metal supports mounted in a straight line, similar to traditional musical staffs. With My Foolish Heart error, I decided that my notation no longer needed to be mounted in a straight line.

In later 2026 artworks, I experimented with an uneven mounting of the music, mostly for special effects. The image below, From the Start, is an example where I created a step effect for the single repeated word, “blah, blah, blah.” To solve the mounting issues with this project, I zig-zagged all three of the support metal staffs using different lengths of standard metal pieces from Menards, thereby making the staffs longer and easier to mount the music. This eliminates one of the last sacred standard features of sheet music.

My staff guides arrangement for Foolish
Drive from earlier this year showing the standard staff setup (seen in the notation cutouts) of 3 straight metal staff supports that match the width of the canvas.
From the Start 2026

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Rolling and And So warp up:

I do not want to look at the starting dates (end of May 2026) on these two artworks’ Work Sheets. In small print on each artwork is a copy of the WS. These two projects came into existence to fill out a total of six entries of recent, and most advanced artworks. I spent all these many months making major upgrades that pushed this artwork hard ahead. All this time was spent to complete the ARC Gallery submission for a solo show. It was close but I was able to submit in time my application for the third time to this interesting Chicago Gallery.

The results were to be sent by July 12th. I received an email on July 31st. In the time delay, I knew I had to make it in the top group, not expecting to have yet convinced the Juror at the ARC Gallery that it was my turn to have what Andy Warhol called “……everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Another 40 dollars spent to get the simple message that the establishment art does not think I am yet ready for primetime.

RC Gallery Solo Show 2026 Results
Rolling in the Deep (Left) and on the right side: And So It Is (The Blowers Daughter)

On August 2nd to the 4th my AI, Mr. Brightside, and I had this conversation. Here is the Brightside edited summary of our exchange. This summary is based on my requests and I was the final editor in charge of what is printed here.

Even in my videos, no matter how I try to articulate just what a visitor or a viewer might see in these artworks, it seems I am still not there yet, in explaining why you the visitor needs to “push” the green button and to look at the depth of these artworks, because there is a lot to absorb. Since I stubbornly support this art, let me explain why, once again. I first moved from being the next Ansel Adams to the next Jackson Pollock, or Mark Rothko — a strange ending for both. Instead, how about the next Vincent Van Gogh? Wait, that also ended badly. The next Picasso, then — but I am no Picasso. I am more a messenger for this art style of creating portraits of songs. I say this because I do not see myself as an artist. Somehow it feels like a poor fit. I painted in the mid 1970s and returned in early 2006 when I realized I could take my feelings towards art and music, and combine my efforts into a new way of looking or seeing, or feeling, touching music, or whatever reason I’ve landed on over these 20+ years of painting and music.
Today, these two artworks finally connect the artwork and the speaker cover music the way I’d been wanting. This is because these two works are the first to have installed a third speaker. A 5×7 inch speaker on And So It is and a true subwoofer of 6.5 inches on Rolling in the Deep. That third speaker added a bass range my artwork had been missing. In music, bass is critical — it’s the foundation most sound sits on. Before these two works, that foundation wasn’t there. To explain what I said is another talk for another blog post. For now, I am finally done….. and now I can restart my enthusiasm for another great song to have its portrait created and heard.

I Hayden to List, but I must Mozart along.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H aRT iN mUSIC & sCOTT sTEREO sERIES system:

This video introduces the basics of the new Stereo System that I call Scott Stereo Series or SSSV3-3.5
This video, should how fast this art can problem solve and go deeper using lights to enhance an exhibition experience.

When I started to paint portraits of a song….. those artworks where about a few notes from the original song painted on the canvas with the colors that I thought fit the music. I then soon added a lyric word or two so that to place my painted notes to match the flow of the original sheet music notes. It took 12 years of painting traditional portraits of music like others paint portraits of people, that I realized I could add sound to my painting for the canvas frame is 1.5 inches in depth so a small sound device with a trigger placed to be played, could add a low of interest to just copies of musical notes. That was where I started with sound finding EZSound box with a push button to play as a simple solution.

This is an image of a 1/2 watt speaker that I could upload my music to and also had a play switch. This was my first sound system I installed on my artworks, something in 2018. A version of this sound box I also used for my little mini Beethoven art gifts



Image of my style trend to frame up small artworks in order to increase interest and keep the pricing low.
This is a closeup image of my small Beethoven 5th first music box. Notice the PUSH button on the lower right of the artwork.
Here is the latest Stereo System upgrade for all future works. The 5×7 above will be replaced with a 6.5 sub woofer. The two speaker boxes are on each side of the system in the middle and they are each 4×6 2 way speakers side firing to push the stereo out into the entire wall.

Scott von Holzen

I will be Bach. I Hayden to leave you but there is Mozart that needs my attention


Addendum August 2nd:

I have a new stereo version” ScottStereoSystem V4 with the switch out of the 3way 5×7 (a spare) and the installation of a nice Dayton 6.5 sub woofer. The song difference surprised.