Week 4 - Banks of the Ohio

"Banks of the Ohio" is a song which, to me, represents a sad truth about the power of emotion.  Love, they say, is the most beautiful and powerful emotion of them all.  I also believe it can be the most sad and evil. There is such a strong sense with love, that all else seems unnecessary.  And just as love can bring joy and tranquility, it can also bring pain and fear unlike anything else.  "Banks of the Ohio" shows just that. How quickly a man can turn from jubilant hope to bitter, violent defeat all in the name of love. Not just 'love', but the same love which he possesses from the first line turns this man from good to evil.  

My drawing is a response not to the events described in the song, but those which would have to follow. For the song is about Willie and the murder he commits, not about the aftermath.  What struck me most was the fact that this young girl is dead, and what that means going forward.  What must the sheriff do now, once she has been identified?  How he is tasked with the burden of informing her family, and how they are burdened so much more, unfathomably so, by his words.  This emotion struck me very firmly, and I drew a semi-gestural image of a woman who, standing in her home, has just learned her daughter is dead.

Week 3 - O Mary Don't You Weep

The first image that came to my mind was of a woman's face, and a young boy's hand softly wiping away a tear from her eye.  I also felt inclined to attempt a new style of visual response.  I made a wireframe model of a a woman's face and a gestural line representing the hand.  It was all connected by smaller pieces of wrapped wire.  While the final result did not possess the level of detail or craft I wished, I believe it was a good first attempt at this type of 3D representation.

The piece is not necessarily a response to any particular line or thought from the song, but rather the idea of caressing away someone's sadness.  I took the song not to be a piece about sorrow, whether it be an embracement or acceptance, but rather as a song intended to make someone feel better.  This is what I tried to express in the piece, which I feel is still unfinished.

Week 2 - Down In The Valley

"Down in the Valley" follows a flowy 3/4 pattern, and is arranged about two major chords, F and C.  The love ballad's rhythmic, tantric melody fills my ears with the same sense of blowing wind described in the lyrics.  The line "hang your head over" for some reason instills in me a sorrowful image of loneliness and even death. I think the imagery stems from the idea of both the gallows (to which I do not believe the lines refers) and also the sense of disappointment or sadness involved in the heart of a woman with a low-hanging head.  

The allusions to nature ("Roses love sunshine, violets love dew") and religious imagery ("Angels in Heaven") create a strong poetic element and further strengthen the beauteous nature of love. this is continued throughout the song. I am particularly fascinated by the lines "If you don't love me, love whom you please/Throw your arms round me, give my heart ease".  At first listen, it seemed to me a contradiction of logic - to let free the heart of a loved one, and then asking her to embrace to again embrace the singer.  This is perhaps an allusion to the conflicted nature of love, and suggests that a warm embrace, even while the romance has gone elsewhere, is still a powerful remedy for the stresses of love. 

Both the stanza about Birmingham jail and regarding the castle to me represent the same metaphorical or literal structure.  While perhaps a literal reference to being imprisoned, I think the jail is also a representation of a trapped heart, one forever in love with a woman.  The castle is this same environment, but in a world where the woman herself, the object of his love, "builds" him a castle to rest his heart in. Similar to the idea of the warm embrace, it is perhaps a symbol of easing the pain of love, so that she herself builds this castle, and lets herself still have some part of his life (such as the embrace) as she goes by to another love.  The Valley to me is also a metaphorical environment for his trapped heart.  He is surrounded on both sides by rising cliffs, encircling him and towering over. This is symbolic of being trapped in a jail as well as being wrapped in a loved ones arms.

I used a bamboo reed pen with black dip ink on this drawing. I wanted to use the dip pen because I like the unpredictability and rawness of the line produced; it allows for more emotion and less thought to come through in a drawing.  At the forefront of the drawing is a lone mane, standing on the roof of his castle, plucking away a tune to his lost love, as she sails away on the river along the valley floor. 

Week 1 - You Are My Sunshine

Norman Blake’s version of “You Are My Sunshine” is a nice and light version of the tune. By that I mean it is not so minimalist such that it reflects the story of only a lone guitarist, but the additional banjo and even perhaps mandolin add a subtle layer of depth which keeps the quality of the tune from being overpowered by superfluous instrumentals.  The ability for a song to convey its message and emotional quality with minimal production is something I respect greatly.  Blake’s version embraces the art of efficiency, and the beauty of simplicity.  It has the rolling, bumblin’ and tumblin’ quality that makes much folk music so easy to listen to. I think this version was chosen because it is very pretty, and does not fall victim to the childish quality which so often take prey of Jimmie Davis’ classic.  

Blake also manipulates the lyrics of the song, beginning with one of its saddest stanzas before going into the chorus. Many versions of the song switch around the stanzas, and by starting with such a sad lyric, he immediately sets the mood of the song, foregoing any mystery to whether it had a "happy" ending or not. I think this sets the tone very well, because while the music seems cheery, “You Are My Sunshine” is actually a terribly sad ballad.  I like this juxtaposition between melody and lyric, and the added layer of depth to the narrative being told.  It is as if the narrator is jubilant to sing of his lost love, while being unable to escape the sad tale he tells.  

In my first attempt at painting, I tried to abstract the progress of happy thoughts and memories towards the sorrowful result of the narrative by moving from warmer colors to more cool ones.  The sky is a light purple wash of slanted lines and the sunset is a deep red, symbolizing the lack of “shine” left by the final verse. The stars were supposed to trace the sheet music of the song.  I used watercolor on non-watercolor paper, another allusion to the dueling nature of the song’s melody and narrative.  However, this was problematic in execution, and ended up looking very chaotic.  I then decided to repeat the scene on watercolor paper, and place the two images side-by-side.  I attempted to trace elements of the narrative and musical quality through the image, using mostly warm but also cool colors to represent the conflicting nature of the song’s music. I wanted the image to reflect the initial feeling of listening to the song, wherein the heart feels warmed by the devotion of love and the light tune, but elements of sadness persist throughout. Again, the “stars” a representative of the musical notation.

France 2011

Here is some artwork from a recent trip I took to France.  It was a two-week adventure through the south of France, along with my design professor Chip Sullivan and some classmates. Wine, cheese, friends and art. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds.

Why I joined VS 185X

I am a Berkeley student, entering my junior year and I am very interested in VS 185x: Songs and Places.

My name is James Piacentini, I was born in Great Neck, which is a Long Island suburb on the north shore close to Queens.  I moved to Southern California when I was 5, and grew up in Santa Monica. I am majoring in Architecture with a minor in History of the Built Environment. 

I have been playing acoustic and electric guitar for 10 years, and begun to study the piano this summer, and I have a basic understanding of music theory.  I spent much of my life taking art classes, have taken ED 11A, and spent two weeks this summer in France drawing and painting.

I am fascinated by the topic of the class - Songs and Places - because the relationship between a culture and its music to me is one of the most intricate as well as one of the truest and most powerful elements of understanding a society and a place.  Music is one of the few things that has existed in every modern human society going back over 35,000 years ago.  To me, that is just amazing. Because music is biologically engrained in the human psyche, and our brains are naturally attuned to find melody and rhythm, music is such an integral part of identity, just as is one's physical environment.  I like the topic of the class because it combines all the social and emotional elements of music with a more scientific approach to the way culture and environment affect and are affected by music.

Also, I love to draw, paint and write, and during my experience, music always accentuates and improves the visualization process.  To be able to really explore that in depth, and to share my work and learn from others is a such a rewarding experience.