Very often I will try out a visual music painting on my larger canvases to experiment and try out things and to get the hours in on the music paintings.
Good post!! And today’s prompt from CreativeSprint is to respond to sounds around. At the time I read it, I was in a very low sound environment, with some ambient sound “music” playing very low. Seeing your pieces now- fitting right in. Thanks
I think loops and zigzags are in our DNA! My junior high school textbooks were filled with these looping scrolls and zig zigs in the margins and I drew them endlessly. They seemed to help me concentrate and also gave me a feeling of control. Malcolm Greer, the graphic designer, taught his students how to use their whole arm, not just their wrist, in order to feel the gesture of the continuous looping lines. And there are so many ways to work with these patterns, as Josef Albers has so vividly and brilliantly done in his graphic and color studies, especially the ones that reference music.
Josef Albers is about the last guy I would think of in terms of musicality. Anni Albers on the other hand was often very musical in her work I thought. Of course with Albers I always think of the square color studies. that was the current thing when I was in school back in the 70's.
There are a lot of different ways to conceptualize the cohabitation of the visual with the musical - the eye and the ear. But a lot of them don't satisfy me, they don't have the dynamic punch and the kind of endless range I am always on the hunt for. Miro? Yes! musical, visual, poetic. Albers... hum.
Coming to zigzags and loops, you might be right about that! And they are so different from each other. but they do seem to have a very primitive origin for us humans. I will be thinking about, writing, noting, drawing, researching for the next several months and posting all of that to the Touchonian. I feel like I am on a mission this winter to really dig into to the subject. Currently my idea is to lay out my vocabulary step by step and show my process and thinking and theory. I want to show how to look at my works to understand how to unravel them. Like listening to a symphony instrument by instrument. And I want to be able to articulate it clearly. I am not sure a viewer can understand how to look at them in the way I intend.
Good post!! And today’s prompt from CreativeSprint is to respond to sounds around. At the time I read it, I was in a very low sound environment, with some ambient sound “music” playing very low. Seeing your pieces now- fitting right in. Thanks
Wonderful paintings, Cecil!
I think loops and zigzags are in our DNA! My junior high school textbooks were filled with these looping scrolls and zig zigs in the margins and I drew them endlessly. They seemed to help me concentrate and also gave me a feeling of control. Malcolm Greer, the graphic designer, taught his students how to use their whole arm, not just their wrist, in order to feel the gesture of the continuous looping lines. And there are so many ways to work with these patterns, as Josef Albers has so vividly and brilliantly done in his graphic and color studies, especially the ones that reference music.
Josef Albers is about the last guy I would think of in terms of musicality. Anni Albers on the other hand was often very musical in her work I thought. Of course with Albers I always think of the square color studies. that was the current thing when I was in school back in the 70's.
Then there is this https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2019/sonic-albers/press-release.
There are a lot of different ways to conceptualize the cohabitation of the visual with the musical - the eye and the ear. But a lot of them don't satisfy me, they don't have the dynamic punch and the kind of endless range I am always on the hunt for. Miro? Yes! musical, visual, poetic. Albers... hum.
Coming to zigzags and loops, you might be right about that! And they are so different from each other. but they do seem to have a very primitive origin for us humans. I will be thinking about, writing, noting, drawing, researching for the next several months and posting all of that to the Touchonian. I feel like I am on a mission this winter to really dig into to the subject. Currently my idea is to lay out my vocabulary step by step and show my process and thinking and theory. I want to show how to look at my works to understand how to unravel them. Like listening to a symphony instrument by instrument. And I want to be able to articulate it clearly. I am not sure a viewer can understand how to look at them in the way I intend.
I'm thinking specifically, regarding the loops, of Albers' graphic works; The Sea, 1933, Embraced, 1933, Aquarium, 1934, Eh-De, 1934. Velocidad, 1940, Involute, 1944 - those curvilinear drypoint etchings and linocuts.
Right, loops. I really like Velocidad 1940 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/134498
Eh-De, 1934 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/372224
Those are up my alley as having potential.