On the Musical Nature of Art

When you start committing to selling your artwork, then you begin to realize you really need to figure out what the heck you're trying to sell. For some people, the art itself is enough and for others, they'll want to know more about you and your process and the meaning of it all. I'm pretty sure a lot of artists would agree with me that if they could express the meaning in words, then there wouldn't be the need for the visual. The visual embodies nuances that words don't have. 

But alas, as an artist we still need to have statements and bios and all that stuff. Context. And I'm learning to become okay with that because I understand that only I've lived my life so only I know how those marks came to be.

So continues this exploration of the influences and themes in my art. Earlier there was the element of a potential calligraphy heritage, but lately I've been thinking about music. One day as I was painting, it occurred to me that it would be helpful (for me) to put together a playlist of music that embodies the same spirit as my work. I asked myself, what does my work sound like?

 

And as I collected the songs, mostly coming from my former studio playlist, I realized that there were patterns in the song collection the same way there are patterns in my work. The elements of the songs... vocals, instrumentals, pacing, lyrics... are like elements of a piece of artwork - media, color, line, composition. The songs I collected all have a softness to them, which is no surprise. Many are piano-based and they all have a certain kind of emotional build, a mix of reserved sadness and everlasting strength. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but that's where I'm at.


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