Movement and Music in Art

All of my works show movement -- the ever present movement that lies beneath.

Scientifically it is impossible to be absolutely still. For instance, the heart continues to beat and due to the rotation of the earth, even the most flagrant couch potato is moving through space.

There are many different kinds of "hidden" movement. Change is inevitable and ongoing, always but in the now.

Elementary physics theorizes that all matter is actually comprised of wave-like motions of energy. There are called strings, membranes, which is shortened to branes. A rock is energy in extremely slow motion and densely packed. Our bodies have constantly changing energy fields that have been measured by science for over 39 years.

Reconciling to the ever present change a hand, going with the flow, can make us feel empowered, and well, to use another catch phrase, in the flow. Resisting change can make us feel stuck and various ills often stem from such resistance, including physical, psychological, career and monetary and also relationship problems.

If each of my strokes can be seen as a unit of time, in which each stroke represents its unit of creation. Thus a painting is an aggregate of time. A memory made physical in the present. This can be said for any painting. In modern art Monet and Van Gogh's works best reveal this to me. Those strokes that I can feel were applied so quickly with such vivacity.

There are times when I can almost image the sound, the vibration of an artist's (Such as Monet or Van Gogh) brush upon the canvas.  It is the sound of painterly music and although it seems a romantic notion of mine, I am aware that scientifically waves are made by movement, but that our ears do not generally pick them up. However, some animals can hear or feel physical movement, which is outside the range of human perception. What is unscientific is to deny that these sounds exist based on our inability to hear them as we have developed machines that detect them.

Normal human perception misses a great deal of the movement of the energy and waves that surround us, in our own individual space at any moment. For instance we see only a tiny limited part of the light spectrum, missing the colors of ultraviolet light and z-rays.

So a simple movement, such as a nod, may produce waves of energy that reveal colors, sounds, textures, smells and tastes that we fully miss due to our limited perceptions.

If a stroke in a painting stroke can be compared to a sound note in music, then some works can be seen as symphonies while others are mere jingles. It is a way of seeing art that makes for interesting gallery hopping or a trip to a museum. Ask yourself, "If this painting were music, what would it be?"  

May 22, 2007