Secret, secret, I’ve got a secret…
I’ve been working on my “Earworm” series of paintings for awhile now, and it’s been a blast. Anyone that knows me, knows that I’ve always been a huge music fan, so I decided to mix my painting with music for this body of work. Here’s a snippet from my statement on the theme:
I realize that my extreme love of music isn’t unique; a lot of people define their lives in part by what they listen to and how often. My music taste came of age when I was a pre-teen and teenager in the 1980s, and I took in nearly everything I could. I saw no problem with a diverse rotation from 60s rock to 70s country to late 80s hairbands. I still don’t.
ear·worm /ˈirˌwərm/
noun
a catchy song or tune that runs continually through a person's mind.
One of my earliest music passions was early 80s pop music. It was everywhere on the radio and all of the video shows that came before my family got MTV. This genre certainly might not be the finest music ever written and recorded, but it sure was catchy. Some of it can be a little too catchy as it stays in our heads over and over!
I wanted to create a series of paintings inspired by the lyrics to these classic songs. These portraits contain references to the stories in the songs but aren’t all completely dependent on the source material. Obviously these works are rooted in nostalgia, taking viewers back to a special time and place.
I know I’m not unique in my hatred of glitter, but I recently saw an artist who uses it in his own unique way; I liked how it looked. So against my better judgment, I picked some up and one thing led to another and now I have a painting on the easel with shiny pink glittery letters on it! Wish me luck…