Years ago, I walked out of a used book store with the book Point Engraving on Glass. Most likely it was the nature-themed cover that drew me to the book. The author, unknown to me, had an engaging writing style as he described the evolution of glass engraving and highlighted various masters of the craft. I read it, enjoyed it, and put it away to gather dust. But it was not until this week, in a roundabout way, that I realized the author, Laurence Whistler, was a master craftsman himself. Following is a youtube video of the glass prism memorial he created for his brother, the artist Rex Whistler. I hope you have a chance to view — with sound — from beginning to end. And here’s a link to my continuing experiments photographing a shard of glass. Enjoy.
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
glass images
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged art, book, glass, glass engraving, Inspiration, Laurence Whistler, light, music, Photography, Rex Whistler, video, youtube video on July 10, 2013| 2 Comments »
why am I listening to gustav holst – the planets, op. 32?
Posted in Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes, tagged blue, colors, Gustav Holst, imagination, music, musings, nature, Photography, the Planets Opus 32, water on April 19, 2013| 11 Comments »
Well, I live in an area that is currently on “lock down” until the final suspect involved with the Boston Marathon bombings is caught. That tragedy, in combination with a bad back, gives me lots of time to sit and muse. So when I finished playing with the following picture (of water beaded on a petal) all I could think of was “planets.” And what better piece of music to pair with my blue tinted orbs than Holst’s The Planets.
random musings: words images music
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged Inspiration, movie soundtracks, music, musings, Photography, relationships, storytelling on July 3, 2012| 1 Comment »
Recently I had a conversation with that fellow in my life about how we have used music to better understand each other. Where words have failed, sometimes our different reactions to music have revealed something important about the other. The most humorous moments have occurred when he has tried to share classics with me like Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and in my head pop images of King Arthur racing across a moonlit field to battle (i.e. the movie Excalibur by John Boorman), or as he talks about Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries and I suddenly hear “Kill Da Rabbit” … or the whir of helicopters blades in Apocalypse Now. He quickly learned that I have been well schooled in music … through the movies. Since he’s more into books than cinema, I compiled a CD of mostly movie-related music — pieces that move me, that I feel sweep the listener along on a journey, that make a body pause and feel.
“I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ever since …“
I now realize that I lost the CD and made no backup. I didn’t even write down the playlist. But below are some of the more dramatic pieces that come to mind this bright day. Warning, there is a certain sorrow to some of the songs, but there is uplift as well. See what you think when you have a few moments to procrastinate. FYI, in the spirit of pairing words/images/music, these are all links to YouTube renditions but these videos are just a tease. I highly recommend viewing the entire movie to see the scenes and/or hear the music in context.
- A Change is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke, 1963 (moving movie moment is the conclusion of Spike Lee’s movie Malcom X)
- Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 (moving movie moment is the conclusion of Julian Schnabel’s movie Basquiat and there’s also the beautiful final scene in the movie Fearless)
- Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (played throughout Oliver Stone’s Platoon)
- Especially after sharing Adagio for Strings with my guy, he introduced me to Ralph Vaughn Williams . I love his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis but it is Vaughn Williams’ Dives and Lazarus that I most often listen to when working past a writer’s block.
- Anything by composer James Horner moves me deeply, but especially his music for the movie Glory. And then there’s the campfire scene.
- I’m still not sure if I like the movie Cold Mountain but Gabriel Yared’s soundtrack makes me think of home at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is the sacred harp singing that makes S. weep each time. I always see fields of gold when I listen to this song.
- There’s that repetition by composer Philip Glass that drives some people crazy, but even if you hate his music, please close your eyes and listen to the music from the final scenes of Martin Scorsese’s Kundun. Ah, when that flute sounds …
- There is Hans Zimmer’s Journey to the Line in Terence Malick’s Thin Red Line. First time I saw it, I found the movie too chaotic. I did not want to like it. But I could not get the words, images and that music out of my mind. It’s now one of my favorite movies.
- And, finally, Moby. There are two songs in particular that I bow down to him for producing. The first is the music underscoring the final scene in Michael Mann’s movie Heat as DeNiro and Pacino have their final confrontation. I believe the song is called God Moving Over the Face of the Waters. The second is the song Natural Blues.
Music as the Medium: The Artistry of Clay Rice
Posted in Guest Contributor, Inspiration, Music, tagged art, beauty, Clay Rice, culture, family, interview, music, paper cutting, storytelling on June 5, 2012| 4 Comments »
Imagine the troubadours of old as they walked the back roads of … some quiet place, with mandolins or banjos in-hand, a song on their lips and through those songs telling stories. Not of fantasy or fiction. They sang stories of lives simply lived. That is the imagery conveyed by a conversation with Clay Rice about how music influences his visual art. You see, Mr. Rice is famed for his silhouettes of children, nature and life along the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
He carries on a family tradition, first made notable by his grandfather, Carew Rice. Most of the biographies I found about the Rices emphasized their artistry with paper, but during our brief chat, Mr. Rice made it clear that music has always been a part of his family’s life, and that songs have always been woven into his work, especially his children’s books. Read more of our conversation here. Enjoy!
Silent Moments: Music and the Art of Donald Langosy
Posted in Guest Contributor, Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes, tagged art, beauty, Inspiration, interview, life, light, music, nature, reflection on March 22, 2012| 1 Comment »
Speaking of light … just click on the picture to see more of the luminous work of Donald Langosy, and to learn how music … and the lack of it … influence his art.
Or click here. Enjoy!
Music as Muse: An Interview with Artist Zoe Langosy
Posted in Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes, tagged art, creative process, fashion, Inspiration, muse, music, nature, Photography on March 12, 2012| 1 Comment »
For Somerville Open Studios 2012 (May 5 + 6), I once again have the great pleasure of collaborating with illustrator and collage artist, Zoe Langosy. In this first of a series of interviews, she talks about her creative process, her muse, and how she decides which images to use for collage.
From creating garments out of shards of butterfly wings to using constellations to create cityscapes, I find Zoe’s vision to be quite unique and inspiring. Click on the above picture to see what you think. 😉
More CD Light
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged art, beauty, colors, Inspiration, light, Photography on January 31, 2012| 3 Comments »
Sometimes, all we are is dust in the wind …
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Music, tagged abstract, colors, dust, humor, Photography, photos, white on December 29, 2011| 3 Comments »
Musical Moments
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged collage, Inspiration, music, paper crafts, photograpy, visual art on December 14, 2011| 1 Comment »
Well, one day, I was helping a young friend print a musical score. We were using her laptop and my printer and we kept hitting print and all sorts of buttons but nothing would happen except occasionally a blank sheet of paper would emerge. We chalked our failure up to bad software-hardware communication. Days later I realized that one of the printer’s cables had been improperly connected. I fixed it and began printing documents that I needed for work. The printer chugged out a page but on the page was not the text I was trying to edit, instead I saw musical notes. Now you may have picked up from this and other posts that I am not an especially technical person. I knew I needed to clear the printer queue but I had no idea where to start. Eventually, I figured it out. By then, I had many pages of music. What to do? Hmm…
I still have three sheets left which I think I will save for a future “musical moment.”
Red Waters, Red Moons and White Butterflies
Posted in Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes, tagged art, beauty, butterflies, design, Inspiration, leaves, life, moon, paper craft, Photography, reflections, relationships, travel on November 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The Dublin Moon Series … that’s what I’ve decided to call this week’s creations of papery moons and butterflies and tiny poetry-laced leaves. The lunar inspiration is clear. Dublin is in reference to that certain scientist fellow I write about on occasion. In our time together he has been an unexpected source of creative inspiration. He’s certainly expanded my thinking about light and angles and even about getting grubby to get the best shot. Earlier this week he traveled to Dublin for business. As I helped him pack, we came across a small notebook not much bigger than a matchbook. It lay at the bottom of a bag he’d taken on a previous trip fishing on the high seas.
I remembered giving him that notebook because on that trip we wouldn’t have much phone contact. And because I love a good story, I told him to take notes so that he could tell me later about all of his adventures with appropriate detail. Well, upon his return he managed to tell me a very good story without ever pulling that notebook from his bag. So nearly a year later we flipped through the pages, chuckling as he deciphered his notes. Then he came to a phrase that made him pause. Imagining that he had recorded seeing a mermaid, I laughed and shouted, “What is it? What is it? What did you write?”
Well, what he had written was this: “Let me try to see the world through her eyes.” Now, over the years, I had gathered that as he traveled he sometimes took pictures of things for me like rose clouds in the sky and trees reflected in blue waters. Once he had texted from a different boating adventure, “As I look out over the ocean, I see a lone butterfly and it makes me think of you.”
I did not create all of these paper works for this fellow, but I do recognize that this form provided a creative outlet for me to engage with him. I was compelled to imagine what it was like for him to be out on that boat and seeing the butterfly over the ocean, and when he’s traveling in Japan, how he sees the red sun. Anyway …
I think my paper period is done. He shall be home soon, and I’ve got a backlog of writing, photography and exhibit-related tasks to focus on. Though, I must admit this morning I did find myself humming Blue Moon. 😉 And I do have a lot of blue paper left.
We’ll see …
Words + Images 