Life (Not Exclusive to Earth)
Existential vibes/consciousness/daydreaming. An exercise in questioning what sounds and colors mean to you, creation, transcendence—> “What is life?”
11x15 Giclee fine art print; watercolor on watercolor paper
Existential vibes/consciousness/daydreaming. An exercise in questioning what sounds and colors mean to you, creation, transcendence—> “What is life?”
11x15 Giclee fine art print; watercolor on watercolor paper
Existential vibes/consciousness/daydreaming. An exercise in questioning what sounds and colors mean to you, creation, transcendence—> “What is life?”
11x15 Giclee fine art print; watercolor on watercolor paper
Artist Notes: Life (Not Exclusive to Earth)
Link to playlist
This was the first painting I did after quitting my teaching job, and it was before I had come up with the idea for Eyes and Ears Artistry. I was lost, small, and searching for my new path/purpose. Because this was before I had the idea of doing paintings with playlists, this playlist was made retroactively. I painted this with a lot of Santana and Titan to Tachyons on repeat; trying to bend the watercolors the way Santana bends sound and trying to create images that could express the dense, intricate vastness of space like the tumultuous music of Titans to Tachyons. After I had finished this painting, I began working on Dark/Light and the idea for Eyes and Ears Artistry came to me.
I knew I needed to include some of the music I was listening to while I was painting this, but I also wanted a balanced playlist. The first song that came to me was “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes; in some ways, that song could be the theme song to this whole operation. The vibraphone suspends you into a weightless moment before almost perfectly stumbling into the momentum of the drums. I knew that the next song would need to bring in the questions of meaning in our lives, and the opening lyric from “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate” came to me instantly; “love in our life is just too valuable, oh to feel for even a second without it”. This song, to me, is one of the most beautiful existential songs that offers both meaning to life as well as a gentle release into accepting the fleeting nature of life. Naturally, after disintegrating we continue to float through the air/cosmos on the wings of insects and into reincarnation and the outer realms of space chasing stars. “Mono No Aware” brings us (somewhat) back to Earth, heavy with critique on the human condition and society while still being anchored in an empowering chorus that gives a big middle finger to existential dread.
“The Starthinker Is Obsolete” might be the song on the playlist that was listened to the most while painting this piece. I absolutely love the way this band juxtaposes minimalist moments with intricate technical moments in jazz/metal style crossovers, and this song in particular is sort of the heart of the playlist, inviting the listener to interpret how the twists and turns reflect in their own ideas of thought and thought patterns that could be obsolete. After such an introspective ride, I wanted to ease the listener back in with a sweet little tune about love and space (harkening back to the Flaming Lips lyric). “Formless and New” beautifully and playfully gives a moment of rebirth to remind us that it’s never too late to change course or reinvent ourselves, and to be patient with each other as we morph and grow in our lives. I really liked the idea of the reborn infant (from “Formless and New) being drawn to the cosmos, and there is no better soundscape than Sun Ra & His Arkestra for this moment in the playlist. Once knocking on the Door of the Cosmos, we fall into the dimension of time and space crafted by prog masters Yes and allow them to bring our mind back down to one of the most pleading, existential indie jams of 2022, “SAGA” by Hurray for the Riff Raff.
On any other playlist, this would be the finale; Alynda’s artistry on this album is unmatched and they really came into their own after coming out as nonbinary and bringing their queer community front and center for the music videos. However, right after “Sound & Color” came to me for the intro, “A Return to Earth Below” came to me for the finale. Metal can be an aggro-dudefest at times, and Cammie Gilbert-Beverly is a breath of fresh air as she sings with soulful emotion. This is not the operatic over-the-top female fronted metal of the 90s/00’s, this is an ethereal heavy hitter where the biggest punch of the song comes from the cleanly sung lyric, “I have spent my whole life running, and I have tried, I have tried to flee from myself.”The line is delivered as an *almost-deathmetal-breakdown*, but lead by her voice rather than a down-tuned bass and chugging guitars, and then leaves us hanging in the air, with the final words, “Here I stand, purge my fear and make my claim.” Here’s to purging our fears that get in the way of Life.