
Reflecting on new life after this sad year. Gardening is one of my go-to happy-making activities.
This morning because I felt the need to be restored to center, I found myself listening to Terry Riley’s “IN C”, and re reading from “Susan McClary “Rap, Minimalism and Structures of Time in Late Twentieth-Century Culture.” in Audio Culture, Daniel Warner, ed, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, pp 289 – 298.” (Yes, I guess I am a little geeky when it comes to my reading habits). What struck me, although I am using it out of context, is her phrase “subjective struggle toward triumph”.
Repetition and geometry have helped me “center” (thus avoiding struggle) over my whole lifetime: saying the Rosary, looking carefully at the elegant design of flowers, dancing, taking joy in understanding equations, and being attentive to the comfort I find in the structure of Minimalistic music. The exhaustion from my strong emotional response to the pain and brokenness in society as the sides “struggle toward triumph”, has directed me back to the nurture I find in the cyclic repetition and geometry of the music of Terry Riley.
8.5″x11″ Canson Museum Rag, archival inks
8.5″x11″ Archival Inks on Canson Museum Rag paper
Some days really are easier than others.
“The Colors of the 12 String Guitar”
I have four pieces in this show which will be open until February 22, 2020 at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts, 17 Algonquin Drive, Lake Placid, NY 12946.
Silk on linen, cotton and metallic floss and thread 30″x36″
“All Things Go” with a nod to the song “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens. I just finished this as part of my “homework” for my “DJ Culture Class” The other 8 students have to do DJ mixes, but as the only visual art/non music student I do 2-D art inspired by music.
” 30″x30″ silk on linen with metallic and hemp floss, and cotton and metallic thread.
International pianist and synesthete, Dr. Svetlana Rudenko, used my art, “And, But and Not”, as a basis and inspiration for her musical composition, and then as part of her research resulting in a paper she delivered last week at Trinity College Dublin Ireland.
The drawings she used for musical influence were mine. GH
“Ameriques by Edgard Varese” 34″x40″ sewy based on the work of this French/American composer. His piece “Deserts” was the first avant-garde piece of music I ever fell in love with at age 20 and it changed the trajectory of my musical listening life. “Ameriques” is my synesthetic hand sewn response in silk over linen, with metallic and hemp floss and metallic and cotton thread.
If you want to listen, here it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq8SKwi-ycE — in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.