Playing by Ear / Playing by Heart
I was recently invited to join some incredibly talented artists and musicians at Conception III. Since it’s a group show, there’s limited wall space for my paintings and most of them won’t fit, so rather than just put one or two up, I decided to try to get some new, smaller works ready in time. I’ve had a few smaller canvasses that had been abandoned lying around, and this was one of them: an improvisation that went nowhere – originally titled “Improv in F”.
I started by flipping it, paintin the parts that I didn’t like blue, and adding a violin’s F hole. Still not much happening.
The big inspiration came when I realized that the painting needed heart.
Heart looks like an Octopus. Hmmm – this needs a tentacle.
Somehow the violin made a reappearance in the end of the tentacle. Came up with the title “Playing by Heart”.
Now the blues started to look too plain so I started messing with them. That seemed to carve out an upside-down ear shape on the left.
So I went to work on the ear, but to do that I flipped the canvas over. Now I like it better this way up. Maybe I’ll call it “Playing by Ear” instead.
…or maybe it should be the other way. I’m not sure. I guess it can go either way. When I show it tonight, I think I’ll label it both ways.
WOAH! This looks cool. Pity I can’t do this with paint.
Come check out the painting tonight at Conception III
