Tag: Music

S_V_H Just Another Day & Beethoven’s 5th

Published on by Scott Von Holzen2 Comments
Just Another Day L68.5″xH45″xD6″

This video, of course, is a two-dimensional display of a three-dimensional artwork while the sound heard is a reproduction of the actual music. This artwork needs to be viewed in person to grasp its physical size, depth, and the sound production that is generated from within the canvases. That speaks to a key problem I have with what I now define as Sculptural Music Boxes, or SMBs

I will store this work with the previous project, Your Song, for now, in the studio behind the main easels. And like Your Song, I will use this artwork as a reference. Otherwise, I have no plans for a public exhibition of it or of any other artworks. I have come to a display halt hesitant to show these works in public. Some of that feeling comes from the disruption caused by COVID, when all exhibitions either went away, or came back as an unexceptable virtual event. The rest comes from within.

What am I to do with my Etsy storefront where I once listed dozens of artworks for sale? Since I open that store I have sold 14 items. The first year I sold seven artworks with the first selling for $260 in early 2014. The two most expensive paintings I sold occurred the following year, one for $1045 and the other for $1050. Then sales slowed to one here, one there. The last artwork, a commissioned work, I sold through Etsy in late 2017 for $575 dollars. Looking at the site, I see I let 50 listings expire in 2019 and put 21 in inactive status. My pricing range for the expired listings was from $325 to $2,800, plus a small shipping charge that varied, but was under $100. That reminds me of my local gallery experience when finally, after hanging and expensive work for a long time, I exchanged it out with two smaller pieces priced under $1000 each to see if cost was the issue. In time, the Gallery asked me to remove them. They knew what I have known: I don’t sell.

All those previous artworks were standard two-dimensional canvases and not interactive. My current artworks are all three-dimensional and interactive, which makes them a lot more complicated, expensive, and fragile to handle. The thought of trying to ship one of these new artworks in some kind of packaging bubble that would be required concerns me. It would not only be a timely endeavor, it would be an expensive package to produce, costing hundreds of dollars to ship. Then my next issue would be the unpacking after it arrives at its destination. Who and how will they unpack the artwork? Will they hang it safely? Finally, will the music actually play? I am speaking from experience of handing each of these artworks. I have had equal concerns with exhibition professionals handling these artworks and have communicated directly with them to insure all goes as expected. Trying to explain, or fix, or help or understand a buyer on a phone, a thousand miles away, whom I know little about, reminds me of a past that is that, past. Add in that selling on Etsy comes with high customer satisfied bar and what do I do if the customer is not happy? That too I would rather leave in the past.

Although all this hassle is to be expected when selling online, I believe no amount of financial compensations would overcome the complications and the difficulties of selling, packaging, and customer satisfaction needed to sell. I know what I know and that known is no matter what; I don’t sell. Updating this artwork store would end up being nothing more than a vanity Etsy store, with monthly renewal bills from Etsy. COVID is going out the door; I am going to shut the door on this store. For now.

For my next project. I have decided for no particular reason to challenge myself with the opening movement of Beethoven’s fifth Symphony number 5. I actually painted an artwork that sold in 2014 from this movement.

Beethoven’s 5th, rough draft audio (BEST HEARD WITH VOLUME UP) first 7 minute movement finely trimmed to 1:33 seconds.
Beethoven’s 5th symphony 2008. I believe this looks to be a 3×5 foot artwork.
This is the on the floor canvas guide setup for the Beethoven 5th project.
Image from the LACMA Exhibition catalog Frank Gehry

The building pictured is by Frank Gehry. I am planning on using the building’s facade and colors on the main three foot by four-foot canvas in the setup image. For the two smaller side speakers’ canvases, I am considering a Beethoven quote. So it is to be.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Just Another Day image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Just another Day L64″xH44″xD6″

This is the project Just Another Day, with the artwork music in place. I changed the original design by dropping the bottom canvas lower, which allows easier access for attaching the music.

The Dancing house images from the LACMA exhibition catalog.

I have found the inspiration for this artwork in the architecture of Frank Gehry. It is his freedom from standard architectural rules, made possible through computer software, that allows him to create the buildings that match his imagination. His accomplishments give me the encouragement to break completely from any of my own artificial limitations I made up for this art. Now what works for me, I will make work for these artworks. That sounds simple, but the getting to this understanding has taken years.

The definition of this art starts with sheet music and accordion lessons when I was seven. My appreciation of music has grown ever since, including the grasping of music theory and my interest in learning to play different musical instruments. It was knowing the fundamentals of reading sheet music that I discovered a unique painting technique.

Before I started painting music, I searched “art in music” and what I found were paintings of people playing musical instruments, or abstract images given a title of a song. I chose a different way to paint music by using the up and down flow of a song seen in its sheet music. I felt I could paint this approach if I kept this art to only representing this movement. I wanted the viewer to visualize the music in an artwork built around a song’s pitch changes, and not a painting of sheet music. Now, with Frank Gehry’s creative push over-the-ledge, I am letting go of those artistic restraints that have forever defined these music works. It just took me forever to get to this point of seeing the value of Gehry’s designs, along with a little help from Bach.

I see Gehry’s finish, especially his commercial projects, as high craft, especially in his use of speculator materials like titanium. I do not consider my artwork high craft and do not present them that way. I understand the beauty and high craftsmanship of great art that is favored. I just think it is a waste of time and has little to do with my message. I see my approach, for example, in the varied model pictures of Frank Gehry’s “the Dancing House.” I feel these models harmonize better with my artistic style. Add to that a little help from a rediscovered 2020 Bach project.

J S Bach Minuet 1067

This Bach artwork was experimental, for it allowed me to slide the music sections about using mounted arms. Those two white mounted arms in the lower middle of the artwork are examples of what I used to connect the music to with bolts and wing nuts. When loosen, this then allows the music to slide up and down those arms. This Bach work is the first attempt at what I now take for granted. The problem back then was how to secure the arms of the artwork, which turned out to be not reliable.

It was the CVA show the summer of 2021, that this Bach artwork got the worse of it, coming home with pieces of it in a tote. This artwork was a mess, and an irritation that I ignored for months. The worse issue was the mounting arms that pushed out the music a lot further from the canvas. This exposure and the weakness of the mounts resulted in more parts of the artwork being loosened or even falling off at the show and breaking loose on the U-Haul truck rental drive home. Eventually to store, I repaired the damaged from the CVA show. It surprised me I was only missing one small piece. Although still fragile to the touch, I took what I have learned since its build to strengthen the attachment of the artwork to the canvases.

After the repairs were done, I took another look at this work, and how the music stood out three inches from the canvas surface. This distance creates an amazing look of depth lost in a picture. Also, the beautiful curved white shapes give a superior strong look of motion across the artwork.

Taking my current mood, the depth and style of the Bach’s work, and Gehry’s let-it-all-hang-out style, the results are in. Just another Day’s looks results from the largest canvas being painted like the look of corrugated sheet metal, the curving of wood pieces, and an eighteen-inch steel plate, resulting in an artwork with a depth of six inches.

I believe in my early days of group exhibitions, I could only find one standard art genre name that fit somewhat, which was Mixed Media. When I added a push button to play the music, the artwork was portraying, I then went all-art-genre-in and came up with the description of Interactive constructive sculpture. I now have simplified this genre down to Sculptural Music box. We will see how long that lasts.

Up next, I will work on the installation of the stereo system, which will complete this music box project.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Just Another Day Image 1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
This color theme comes from a building. I will explain.
The setup
This is an advanced version of the music box software created in the StudioOne DAW software.

Just Another Day is music by Jon Secada. Here is a better live video and sound presentation from a Stound Stage performance in 2017. This music was originally released in 1992.

This music is not a classic from my past. I do not remember if I ever listened to it when it was first released. It is a nice catchy pop tune that I thought I could work with. I have new drum software and this music has a simpler drum beat to start the learning process. Also, I wanted to do a smaller artwork and the song’s chorus length works for the artwork and the cover music.
I must admit that I have forgotten any other motivations I could have for painting this music. Many of my music choices just happen. I probably heard this song on a Spotify Daily Mix, and it fit the mood and the size of the music I wanted to paint.

The plan was to use canvases from my ample stock for this project. These blog images and the audio sums up what I have been doing, for 60 to 70 plus hours 7 days a-week, since the middle of February. The smaller image is the setup for this project. I should have done that on Your Song. One goal of Just Another Day was to reduce the over length of the artwork by placing the speakers inside the artwork and not attaching them to the outside. This would create a smaller size work easier to store when that time comes, and it will. This project will be under six feet by four feet in height. Because of the limits of these four canvases, I had to cut back my original music sample. When laid out, the artwork music stretched to ten feet.

As for the larger blog photo, the colors and the design come from these Images from the LACMA Museum exhibition catalog, Frank Gehry. Not only has this art style been influenced by dead artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Henri Matisse, and Jackson Pollock, it also has many other influencers, including the living architect, Frank Gehry. On the large canvas, the striping did not photograph well with the iPhone. The silver color looks awful, while the contrasting color is a lighter shade of black, meant to represent the Gehry image of corrugated metal.

As for the cover music, I am astounded by what I have accomplished with the software. Even though what I am doing is basic, simple, fairly straightforward, and nothing that anyone could not also do. I cannot help but being pleased with my growth and understanding of digital music, created using the (DAW) StudioOne. So it can be.

Scott Von Holzen