Final Thoughts

Sorry it's late Tony, these days just seem to slip by unnoticed, and then you look up and realize it's already Friday. In most cases, that would be a good thing, but when I've left behind unfinished work and have now only mere hours until my next final, the minutes I no longer have are the ones I need the most...

It is difficult to sum up an entire semester in a few short paragraphs. This is made all the more challenging when one considers how uniquely exploratory this semester has been. A class whose goal is to explore a world as rich as American folk, and seeks to understand the complex set of interrelated events, artists, songs, chord progressions, styles, lives and feelings which comprise such a realm is certainly one in which a very powerful community will form, with music at its core.

When you add on the facts that we not only explored the music intellectually, but physically and emotionally by singing every week, an even deeper connection begins to emerge. Further still, weekly art pieces based of these musical artworks seeks to bridge the musical and visual, creating some newer way of experiencing both. Truly then, we have done something not merely amusing, but deeply profound. I can say, without doubt, that I have learned an invaluable amount about American folk. Artists I never knew existed have now entered into my lexicon and become key players in the musicality of my life. Stories I couldn't tell for lack of wisdom, knowledge or ability, have now shaped the way I look not only at music, but at people, and myself. Discovering in this class how much I enjoy singing has inspired me to audition for choir next semester. Watching Tony's, Gigi's and Max's fingers dance beauteous fury and delicate grace has rekindled my desire to play styles of music I once shied away from.

Here then, am I, not as I once was, but as a more grown yet still growing, maturely childish, knowledgeably curious and dangerously explorative creator of ideas and worlds. And I think we have all become creators of ideas and worlds. Or, perhaps we always were, but there requires a catalyst for such potential to be released. Through VS 185X: Songs and Places, I think the process of reemergence has begun, and I believe the realms of artistic expression, both musically and visually, hold all of the answers. It is simply a matter of searching for them.

Week 10 - Gospel

The work for this week was actually done over the summer in a small sketchbook while I was traveling through the south of France. I felt a strong connection to those memories while listening to the gospel music because many of them were done while in or looking at large, magnificent Gothic cathedrals or cathedral cities. Here are some selected drawings.

Week 11/12 - Blues

The blues is sort of like the emperor of modern music. It is the seeds of life which flourish into everything that has come since. It is also beautifully spontaneous, emotional and without form or guidance.  I believe the blues is not something so clearly defined, because it is based in the infinite sorrow of the volksgeist of the 20th century man. Born from the souls of black folks, it somehow grew into something so much greater than the sum of its parts, I think because each of these parts alone is so strong than together, they form something wholly uncontrollable.

I did not think nor did I try anything for these two pieces. I simply put on the blues and created them.  While not blatantly blue-ish or saddening, they are experimentations in the spontaneity and explosive quality that the blues has the potential for.

Week 9 - Woody Guthrie

For this week, I tried to do something very different from everything I have done up to this point. I am struck by the basic 'power' Woody Guthrie has as a musician and a man. I felt he transcends over the rest of us at a very fundamental level.  So, I tried to create two inverted mirror images, one representing "The Enlightened Man" Woody and others who have that certain je-ne-sais-quoi which makes them stand out as a collective genius. The other, entitled "The Man I Am", has the same desire, hopes, and willingness, but results in an inversion of what an enlightened man (or woman for that matter) has.

 

Week 8 - Leadbelly

Leadbelly is such a complex character, and this week I became very frustrated with a piece I had wanted to work on. So, I decided to return to the forms I worked with last week for MJH, but drew it win pencil instead of colored pencil. The two 'arms' extending from the orb are representational of a perceived influence upon Leadbelly by his more innocent, maternal qualities so hus more violent, masculine ones. The strings follow the course of his life and change based upon what seems to be dominant in his life along the timeline.

week 7 - John Hurt continued

This was an experiment with colored pencil, and an attempt to express the complexity of the overlap of varying elements in John Hurt's life.

Week 6 - MJH Among Others

I felt a bit overloaded my the amount of music this week.  But I mean that in a good way.  There is such a plethora of amazing MJH music, and it all began to swirl around in my ears, forming something I wasn't quite sure what it could be. So I just kept listening, and began to look for inspiration outside as well as inside the class.  Incredibly inspired by other artists, especially some from our class, I started experimenting with a relatively unfamiliar medium: digital.

I began on illustrator, using every tool which looked interesting until I came up with a very abstract formation of light and energy.  From there, I do what I always do (and I mean always) when I am entering a critical stage in my artwork.  I put on my headphones, turned up the volume and put on Dark Side of the Moon.  With 48 minutes to go before my work would be done (it always happens to work out just about right). The similarity with my images and the DSotM cover is coincidence, although I do think there is some power in the idea of looking to the cosmos. I began experimenting further with effects, quickly realizing I was finished with adding new forms.  One of the most difficult things for a visual artist, at least for me, is to know when to stop.  It is a subtle art in of itself, being able to step back and say "maybe it isn'y perfect, but...maybe it is".

From there, I moved the image into photoshop and had an epiphany just as "Us and Them" began to play.  This image takes on a completely different form with one simple change: the background color. So from there it was only a matter of time before I came upon the posturize tool, and as "Any Color You Like" filled my eardrums, one image became two, and two became 8. 8 forms of the same form.

And, when I had finished, a short listen to Mississippi John Hurt's "My Creole Belle" summed up the whole experience pretty well. 

"When the stars do shine

I'll call her mine

My darlin' baby

My Creole belle"