Paintings inspired by music

Paint to music paintings (2020-present)

I am an artist in residence teaching and making art with patients and caregivers at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. During the pandemic, our music therapist, Andrew Ghrayeb and I began a new collaboration to increase our reach to our students and patients using Closed Circuit TV. These “paint to music” sessions consist of 30-40 minutes of improvisational music and painting where Andrew plays and I paint to what I hear. This is an abstract interpretation of the music although we usually have a theme. The theme is very general, maybe having to do with feelings and general concepts like gratitude, patience, get well soon, or farewell. It is like explaining or expressing to someone without words, how things are going in that moment, using only colors and patterns. During these sessions, I paint on the spot to what they play, with the rhythm, melody, texture, intensity, and pace of the music influencing the movement of my brush. I respond to the beats and have occasionally been known to use my brush like a drumstick. The musicians respond to how I move my brush as well.

Over the past few years, I have begun to apply this practice of time-limited painting to improvisational music in my personal artmaking outside of work. While I sometimes listen to music I have selected because of its improvisational nature, I most enjoy painting with improvisational musicians in real life and am always in search of collaborative opportunities with such artists. When I paint to music I am familiar with, I can focus on the rhythm and beat, but it is most exciting and interesting for me to paint to music I have never listened to before, because of the unknown, unanticipated nature of where the music is going. The added benefit of live collaboration is how my painting can also influence the music I am hearing. In 2024, I began teaching workshops and classes on "Expressive Painting to Music" with my musician colleague and friend, David Smith, at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. This improvisational “paint to music” practice is a form of meditation for me. It helps me to overcome the distraction of my thoughts and my constant concern about the problems of the complex world we live in. When I am making these pieces, I am completely in the moment, responding to what I hear. This practice has given me a new way to express my creative impulses.