Tag: Music

S_V_H The Beatles Triptych image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
The Beatles Triptych main canvases from left to right: Golden Slippers, Carry that Weight, and The End. In front of each is their completed musical notes. Each canvas is 30 inches by 36 inches.

This is the first time I have used Liquitex acrylic pens for the cursive writing on these three panels. I learned quickly their use writing the words for Golden Slippers on the left. All did not go well. I made adjustments and the last two canvases’ appearance improved. I am a better printer than a cursive writer. That you can see in the cropped Vivaldi’s image below. But this current is no longer a product of that time.

When I saw the handwriting of Jean-Michael Basquiat, that gave me the excuse I needed. I needed an excuse? Before Basquiat I would tolerate the time-consuming perfection of the printed words seen obviously in all thirteen artworks of the Vivaldi series. When I looked at Basquiat paintings, I realize the difficulty of beautiful penmanship or calligraphy was no longer a necessity for this art. I could move on. That I could print or write in my own unique style was a relief. That is when I switched from printing the word to cursive.

My reasoning is cursive writing is more natural, and more fluid for me. Also, cursive, in my handwriting style, is so bad that at the time it takes on an abstract look, that printing lacked. I like that a lot. I am now comfortable with the look at my words on these artworks. Importantly, every letter carries with it the look of me. Therefore, I do not care if they are legible, knowing that by repeating them eventually the viewer will be figure out what they say.

A close up of my formal words, in Italian, of Vivaldi’s summer allegro 2013
This is a good example of Jean-Michael Basquiat printing of words from the Whitney

As is obvious from the opening image, I am putting together all three artworks at once. I am also sharing their style and the colors used. What will separate each canvas are the words, the arrangement of the notes, and the placement of the speaker canvases. When finished, these three works will hang as one artwork.

Here is an early logo for the upcoming group show of EmptyWallsArt’s first major show of 2024

I am creating these three artworks, as a triptych, to make a statement to my art group, EmptyWallsArt, and to the artist community that I am, I guess, still a part of. This needs to be done. I am well aware of the importance of what I am doing. I am also aware of how difficult it is for others to see the value of what is being done. The why answer is simple: this art rarely sells. That is my fault, for my emphasis has never been on selling this art. My focus, from day one, was to push art history forward in a different direction. Never was it about making money. Although, I would certainly love to cover my art expenses that run thousands of dollars each year. The failure to promote this art may be in not figuring out what marketing direction I should focus on. What I know is that cheap everyday contemporary arts’ value is in decoration, while art sold by Christie or Sotheby’s auction houses is an investment. Neither of those ideas is realistic for me. So it goes. So, I need another find another market idea to keep this art on the move.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Beatles Triptych

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
The first layout plan for the music box Carry that Weight.

I have a number of large canvases left over from my Vivaldi Four Season project from many years ago. Three of those canvases each 36 inches by 48 inches are going to be the base for three Beatles songs from their album Abbey Road.

After finishing the music box Zombie I had no clue what song I was going to paint next. As always in this situation I would go through my to paint song list. This time, nothing clicked. I actually cross through a number of songs that I have been skipping for months, if not for years. Not on that list was Golden Slumbers, that was on one of my play lists or it may have popped up into my head while listening to Spotify while walking my dog, Zelda. The song is from the album Abbey Road, which has always been a favorite of mine. The timing of this song also felt right for me. Besides, I have always thought it was a wonderful pop melody that would be a good fit for piano and maybe the violin. My only hesitation was its release date, which was 1969, over 54 years ago.

Trying to find music that was a little closer to this current decade, I found the Spotify, a playlist of 73 songs called Best of 2000s. The list contained two songs I had already painted. A favorite was by The Killers, the 2004 song, Mr. Brightside, (no audio) painted in late 2016. The other was a 2014 commissioned work, Chasing Cars, by Snow Patrol (That was last I heard of that group). As for the rest of the music on that playlist I found I knew 17 more, but none I wanted to paint. That brought me back to the Beatles. I brought up YouTube to see if there were any covers. I found a cover of Golden Slumber by Dua Lipa.

The Official Audio only by Dua Lipa

Finding a current pop star doing a cover for this classic Beatles song gave this music credibility and a fresh connection to the music. I have always felt that of all the bands from the sixties, the Beatles would have the best chance to live on. Dua Lipa is a small proof. Finding her video lead me to another significant find that finally excited me to start another project.

Paul McCartney on piano. And it looks to me that Phil Collins is on drums and a young Eric Clapton on guitar. The other person McCartney recognizes looks to me to be George Martin.

The video above is of Paul McCartney singing Golden Slumbers, followed by Carry That Weight, and ending with a third song from the album Abbey Road, The End. Right away, I thought, Triptych. An artist triptych is three artworks that share a common theme, and are usually similar in size. I then checked my canvas inventory, and came up with three main 30×48 canvases, and six speaker-size canvases 11×14 inches.
Because of the size of the main background canvases, I stayed with the larger notes on used on the previous artworks, What’s Going on, and Zombie. The thirty-inch canvas height also allows two rows of notes.

These images for this triptych each show a layout for the music while keeping each work under six feet and forty-two inches wide.

Golden Slumbers
Carry the Weight
The End

I have this technical note, shown in the image of the stems, to document a change in design. This started after finishing Wildfire in January 2023. What I have done was to return to a previous idea of standing the stems on their edge in order to add depth to the music. This worked fine until I used the larger 3 1/4 wide notes. Those projects include What’s Going on, the last work, Zombie, and this current project. The problem was that the 1/2 wide wood I use for the stems is only about 10mm wide on edge. That look is too narrow for such large notes. The obvious solution would be to go to 1 inch wood, but that is expensive and would add considerable weight to the artwork. A better idea to accommodate the 3 1/4 wide notes, came from the 2019 artworks, Giant Steps and Over the Rainbow. In both works I attached to the stems, for support, 3mm plywood about 14mm wide. But instead of attaching them to the backside of the stems as seen in those projects, I am mounting those 3mm strips on the front side of the stem. It is the 3mm 14mm wide plywood that shows out to the viewer. Another equality important result in this design change is I am now eliminating a considerable amount of tedious sanding. The 3mm plywood is a finishing edge. Little sanding needed. Enough of that.

Scott Von Holzen

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