A CLEARER VIEW OF SYMPHONY SNIPPETS

THERE IS SPACE BETWEEN the layers of sound in a symphony. This layering is what I have tried to capture in my Synesthetic art.

Without layering the shapes and colors of sound would mix into one mess of a shape when you see them.

IT IS DIFFICULT TO SEE THE LAYERS OF SOUND represented in the Snippets when using a frontal shot from the camera. Seeing the actual painting is the best way to understand what I mean.

HERE ARE TWO ANGLED SHOTS from one of Copeland’s symphonies and one of Stravinsky’s showing the actual depth of the paintings.

WITH THIS TECHNIQUE the base and melody can now maintain their own level of importance in the visual as they do in the audible.

Hope this helps.

CONCEPT ART, means to me, that the creation of the artist is a concept or idea of a particular situation, place, happening ,etc. manifesting itself in a way others may understand and even relate to themselves.

This is a lot like walking into the head of the artist.

ONCE YOU ARE IN THAT HEAD SOMETIMES what you are seeing needs to be explained. Especially by the owner of that head.

{I am sure every artist suffers when hearing someone else describe what they think the artist is “saying”.

I paint ideas.

Here is an explanation of my painting EMANCIPATION.

This painting is really in two parts…before and after.

Check it out on my web site for a closer look. ( 35″ x  12″  Acrylic on canvas )

Here is a sculpture portraying the feeling one has when s/he is trapped in a world of sameness. Blending into the environment almost to the point of oblivion where there is only the collective consciousness motivating one.

This atmosphere of conflicting opinions, viewpoints and  complaints were constantly bombarding his very being. If there was only a way to burst out of the mire of shared angst and quietly think things through a bit.

THE FIRST PAINTING shows this concept after the sculpture has mightily and successfully removed himself from that dilemma.

THE SECOND PAINTING shows the concept of the sculpture in an atmosphere of peace and calm where there is space to stretch, think and act from his own individual understanding. It is free to find and listen to his own ideas. This freedom to think also requires the right time and place to do it.

Now, what he does with those ideas would be another painting.

Just so you will know whose blog you are reading ………here are bits of info:

The most important information I can give you is that I am in my paintings……so look for me there. I paint ideas.  All of my abstract paintings express a particular conceptual idea that I want to release into the world of other ideas.

FAskedQ: What kind of painting are you doing right now?

FAnswered Q: I paint music.   I don’t paint to music. Meaning than I am not painting to the beat and rhythm of sounds (music). When I hear music the sounds appear as visual shapes, colors and textures in layers.   That is what I paint.

IS THIS AS WIERD AS IT SOUNDS? PROBABLY, BUT THERE ARE EXPLANATIONS. I have the gift of Synesthesia (a combination of senses) that allows me to see the music I hear and hear music in what I see.

For years I have realized that my interest and appreciation of music was way out of the norm in far too many ways.

I have hardly any music memory.             As I hear music it flows through my consciousness as a nowness experience.          At the same time that the sounds are recognized I see shapes, colors, forms, texture as layers floating in their own individual space.

IT GETS MORE WIERD: I have always been distracted by the words in songs and would turn off music when the singing began.

As I listen, the voice (as words) tend to overpower the colorful beauty of musical sounds.              The argument is that singing is music also.

In my world instrumental music and vocal music each have their place……… just not together or at the same time.

I have always wanted to just ———hold on to melodies———freeze them in time———appreciate their existence ———–and look at their beauty——— before they are whisked away to another dimension.

With much experimentation, patience and inspiration I have come up with my own way of presenting music as a visual art.

Symphony Snippet (Stravinsky)
mixed media on film
image size 8″ x 11″
framed size 22″ x 18″

© Jane Denison 2009

From what I have read about the evolving techniques an artist goes through I wonder just what is the major influence that precipitates those changes. Often they seem to be abrupt and at other times one technique flows gracefully into another one. What is the major influence for the creative mind? Should all artists have something to say embedded in their art?
Observation and personal experience gives me the answer to some of these questions.
Looking at the changes of Frank Stella, for instance, is an illustration of big changes in his creative presentation. In my own experience I have found that representational painting has lost its fascination compared to expressing ideas in more abstract and non representational forms.

I am taking a four week Blog Triage class with Alyson Stanfeld and Cynthia Morris . My homework for today is to describe the people I want to visit and read my blog. So whoever you are guess you are in this “learning experience” with me because I have to do the homework on my blog.

Having visited other blogs from time to time I am well aware of what holds my interest and what turns me off very fast.  Am assuming that could be true of others.

MY GOAL IS     to learn how to have a blog that I wouldn’t mind taking my own time to read.

TIME IS PRECIOUS. I will try to have a blog that would not be a waste of time to read but would leave you with something pithy and thought provoking about whatever the topic of the blog may be.

MY HOPE IS  that my blog readers would also share their ideas.  Not particularly heavy just something interesting.

IDEAS ARE EXTREMELY FASCINATING TO ME.

ALL of my paintings are based on particular ideas that can’t wait to be expressed visually.

ALL have a story to tell about the ideas that motivated me to paint them.

When I have the opportunity to explain one of my paintings I have found the conversation both stimulating and interesting for all involved. From time to time I will explain the ideas that are illustrated in my paintings.

MY NEWER PAINTINGS and many of my other paintings have a connection with MUSIC.

I will explain this later. After I figure this blog thing out.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver has a fascinating lecture series     with the catchy title of Tag Team Mixed Taste Lectures On Unrelated        Topics.
I attended one of the lectures in mid July with Hilliard More, Art Dealer    and owner of Great Western Art Gallery where I show my paintings. The  topic was Fractals and Vance Kinkland.
Both Hilliard and I are members of the Vance Kirkland Museum so were  eager to hear its’ Director and Curator, Hugh Grant, talk about his friend Vance.
The supposedly unrelated topic on Fractals was presented by Nicholas Ormes, a Math Prof. at Denver University. From my perspective these topics were uncannily more related than one would generally think.
To quote from the succinct overview of Vance Kirkland on the museum web site, he “saw musical explosions and vibrations, mysteries and forces, rhythmic and discordant, in his imagined galaxies and had the artist’s drive to capture these visions on canvas.”
The reason for my deep interest with the paintings and unusual techniques of Kirkland is that both of us have been blessed with the gift of Synesthesia.
My particular gift allows me to see music as colors, shapes and texture in layers as I hear it. This works both ways: I can see certain art (abstract and non objective) paintings and hear music.
Paintings of Kirkland were imaged on the wall during Hugh Grant’s lecture. When I saw his works depicting his vision of the Nebulae I heard very clearly “The Music Of The Spheres.”

The image here is Vance Kirkland in front of one of his paintings. Can you see the Music of the Spheres in his painting?
Awesome, to say the least.

I WILL BE THE FEATURED ARTIST AT THE GREAT WESTERN ART GALLERY IN DOWNTOWN DENVER UNTIL JUNE 12,2009

YOU CAN SEE TWENTY FIVE OF THE SYMPHONY SNIPPETS SERIES.

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Sonja Elingboe of The Littleton Independent Newspapers interviewed me.

This is her article.

MUSIC AS COLOR AND FORM          ARTIST SENSES MUSIC AS COLOR , FORM

Synesthesia: one sense is experienced through the perception of another sense. For example, one may see numbers in certain colors, or one may hear music when observing particular colors,

When painter Jane Renau Denison, who is gifted with this sensitivity, listens to music, colors and shapes form in her mind. That leads to sketches and a series of transparent, brilliantly-hued, multi-layered paintings, framed to emphasize the depth, shapes and shadows. “Music has layers and I see melodies and movements of music as shapes and colors.” Changes in the time of day, as well as where the viewer is standing, will offer a  new view of these floating works, allowing the viewer to “see the music around us.”  She views the wide white mat that surrounds each painting as “the quiet of the music hall.”

A new series of paintings, “Symphony Snippet Series,” by Denison, who has homes in Sedalia and Littleton, will be exhibited May 9 to June 15 at Great Western Art Gallery. An opening public reception is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 9.

“”Mixed media” is the category where these paintings would be classified in an exhibit, but each one is different and may combine several traditional techniques. “I do lots of experimenting,” Denison says quietly.

The back is a white mat board, which may be left plain, textured in white, painted a textured black or color, or have a material such as wrinkled silver foil attached in collage style. She then paints images on one or both sides of a sheet of duralar, a non-yellowing, flexible material. She applies acrylic and transparent inks in precise forms, lines and loose, “floated” forms, always careful that it not get too thick (or it will peel). The sheets, one or more frequently two, with different images, are fixed between pieces of matting to allow space and light between layers.

Next, the whole collection of layers is placed in a thick brushed silver metal frame.

Denison remembers lengthy conversations with the gallery framer in order to get the effect she envisioned. Now they have it down to a formula, using a Larson Juhl high quality frame with the other materials, including museum quality glass, she says.

Welcome to my Blog.

I intend to post information and ideas that will help clarify where I am coming from along my never ending and ever changing adventure of the creative process.

Where I am going is yet to be seen.

An artist that I have studied with and that has influenced me the most was Dale Chisman.

History

Paintings by Dale Chisman

Fall

We had a student teacher relationship as well as one that was friend to friend.

Over the last few years that he was with us I would take lunch to his home/studio about once a month. We would have marvelous talks about art and (interestingly) metaphysics. We also talked on the phone when there were more things we wanted to share.

Dale was such an inspiration not only for me but for countless students and friends that had the privilege of knowing him.

The following is my tribute to Dale Chisman.

Dale Chisman, teacher by Jane Denison, student

I first met Dale when I was a student in his Master Class at the Denver Art Students League.

I had the privilege of being one of his students for several years. A Master Class means that the artist already knows how to paint but wants individual guidance from an instructor.

Dale’s class filled two rooms. You had to sign up months in advance and there was always a waiting list. In the 2007 Art Students League Exhibit of the Students of Dale Chisman it was very obvious, because of the variety of techniques, that each student had been allowed to maintain and develop his/her own style of painting. This creative freedom was the primary attraction to his classes.

Dale had the uncanny ability to reach students where they were in their development, see their potential and nurture this creativity all within his own good humored manner. He had a vast knowledge of the works of other artists around the world and would recommend to a student just the right ones to study and research to better enhance the direction of their own styles.

Through this exposure I am developing my own library of artists who continue to influence and inspire my creative curiosity. You would not only learn from his comments to you but from his conversations with other students as well. He was teaching us how to better critique our own work which is an art in itself.

From time to time his students had the rare privilege of going on gallery or museum tours with him and listening to his explanations of Contemporary Art. I told him that some day I hoped to be able to understand his style of painting. He explained this would come from an appreciation of what he called “High Art”.

When I heard him expound with delight the nuances of a huge painting in the Museum of Contemporary Art I began to understand where he was coming from.

He saw the entire canvas as an exciting arena full of colors, tension, harmony, shapes, relationships, layers, etc. all playing off each other in endless activity. Each form and color in the painting was appreciated for itself. By the very nature of the boundaries of a canvas a painting can seem restricted. A contemporary abstract painting has a sense of expanding forever because shapes and colors seem to extend beyond the canvas. This was a style used by Dale in all of his painting. From his urging I learned to try not to have shapes look like they represented a thing or a familiar object. These would be intrusions stopping the eye and demanding the mind’s attention. The viewer would then lose the flow and entertainment factor so essential in abstract painting.

Dale expressed his ideas in a variety of sizes but most enjoyed painting on very large canvasses working on several at the same time in his big studio. He always encouraged his students to expand their paintings to larger and larger canvasses. As Dale would talk about his own work you had the sense that he was entering into the canvas and surrounding himself with the ideas he was painting. He gave each piece a lot of thinking time as well as painting time. He no longer did sketches of what he wanted to paint but let the painting itself develop as he worked on it. It was in constant flux until he felt it was a finished piece. Sometimes you could see an under painting of shapes he had covered over as the painting developed. If there happened to be a drip or a dribble of paint he would leave it alone. I learned that those techniques showed the hand of the artist and gave the painting depth so was left with purpose.

An example of his interest in his students was when last year Dale came with me to The Great Western Art Gallery to see my paintings and check out the gallery. He enjoyed seeing my work displayed and commented on each piece with great insight and enthusiasm. That experience was an art students dream come true.

2008