Connections: Stories From Vinyl Art Owners

First seen in this post last April, here's how Michael has his painting displayed. Given to him by his girlfriend, Melanie, the piece looks cool in their music corner. Melanie says he likes looking at it while he plays his guitar. This is my first post of what I hope is many showing how owners of my work have their pieces displayed.

This one has three stories associated with it. I love how they interrelate.

1) Melanie, who lives in Florida, was referred to me by her friend Dee. My wife and I had met Dee and her husband, Tanner, on line at the House of Blues in New Orleans for the Kings of Leon. Obviously big music fans too, as they'd driven from Florida to New Orleans, Dee ended up buying one of my paintings of Miles Davis as a surprise birthday gift for Tanner. Dee's feedback is the 3rd one on my testimonial page.

2) Michael's feedback about the Flaming Lips is on that page too. Melanie gave it to him as an anniversary present. It was supposed to have been a surprise birthday gift, but I got it to her so fast, she couldn't stand it and gave it to him a month early. I say to give me a month to turnaround a commission, but I really try to get it done before that, especially for surprise gifts.

3) Melanie was named after Melanie Safka. She has several LPs of the folk singer that she hopes to have me paint on someday. It was around the same time I was painting the Flaming Lips that I also painted Melanie for a guy trying to get her inducted into the Hall of Fame. I love it when my art connects with people so passionate about their music that they take a public stand on something related.

That is really why I do this, the individual stories of love for music and humanity. I've received a couple other photos of my work in place either on shelves leaning against a wall or hung. I'll be posting about them soon, and I hope to get more responses from other owners!

Peace.

Passion

Melanie is for a fellow passionate about his cause: getting her nominated and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is the audience I am most trying to reach with my art: the people who believe so strongly in the music they love that they champion causes to get that music the attention and recognition they feel it deserves.

I feel fortunate to have a means to express my own passions for art and music. Passion, though, has several meanings to humanity. It can be warm, deep affection, but also can be intense agony and suffering. According to Biblical writings, the Passion describes the process of Christ's crucifixion. It signifies strong emotion and desire. Overwhelming.

So it happens that two of my favorites albums are related specifically to the Passion of Christ: St. Luke Passion by Penderecki and Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ by Peter Gabriel.

The first is a contemporary oratorio composed in 1966 by a Polish composer who I was introduced to by my high school physics teacher. Playing for us "Utrenja", another composition about the entombment and resurrection of Christ which was used in the Soundtrack of Kubrick's "The Shining", over the huge speakers in his room that really projected the music's atonal wall of sound, Mr. Layton opened my mind to a whole new type of music. It's certainly not for everybody, but it demonstrates music's capacity for communicating raw emotion.

The second is the album created from Gabriel's soundtrack for Scorcese's controversial film based on the 1961 book by Kazantzakis. It too communicates powerful deep feelings, accomplished with Middle Eastern and African rhythms and harmonies. In a Q&A for the Florida Music Festival, I was asked who my favorite musician of all time is, and I responded with Peter Gabriel. His music has inspired me the most over the years, from his days with Genesis, to his innovative MTV videos, to his own passion for "world music". I was listening to his most recent album, "Up", while painting Melanie. The song "I Grieve" made me burst into tears, thinking about Jason.

I'm sorry to leave this post on a sad note, but I am this week powerfully, miserably sad. I miss Jas terribly. I had a dream with him in it, the first one I could clearly remember that he was in, and awoke hollering "Help!" because I was drowning. Sobbing, I couldn't go back to sleep for hours. Since that, I can very clearly hear his voice again in my head. Remembering that is good and bad, stirring up happy memories and heart-wrenching grief. I guess that's why "passion" applies to the range of intensely felt emotions of humanity.

Peace. Be well.

The Pearl And The Mirage

Ah, Vegas. I wasn't sure we'd be up to going so I didn't post about our weekend plans until now. We drove up Saturday to see The Verve play at The Pearl at The Palms and drove back Sunday. We made it, though there were several moments we seriously thought about turning around. The sensory bombardment of Sin City probably was a bit much, but the gig was awesome!

Our time on the Strip started out terribly. We checked in to The Mirage to find it lives up to its name. From far away it looks beautiful, but that fades quickly. My wife stepped into the bathroom in her socks to find the shiny marble floor soaked with water from a leaky toilet. Two hours later we ended up in an older room with an $8 pair of socks comped by the hotel. What a runaround, so badly handled. Don't stay there. I have never been one to complain privately, let alone publicly, so this is serious. Don't stay there.

Then we drove to The Palms off the strip. It's the hotel with the Playboy fantasy tower attached where Paris parties. From an excellent parking spot we walked right to the Pearl, which is just off the casino. It also lives up to its name, a jewel of a venue. We had assigned seats, unlike in London, so we didn't stress about waiting in the line to rush down to the floor. That gave us a chance to check out the concession stand. In London, it had closed by the time we got to it, so we didn't get to even look at the shirts and such. At The Pearl, though, we had plenty of time, no line, and I was able to get one of the $10 keychains. I needed a new keychain to replace the mini Sharpie that Marc Ford previously of The Black Crowes had used to sign a ticket stub, which I had lost at the Phoenix airport a couple months ago. This was perfect. The show was perfect. Great seats at the back of the front section so we could stand or sit and not worry about people behind us. We could relax which was nice because we've been so exhausted lately. The acoustics are incredible too. It was such a treat to see Nick do his dance on the guitar pedals. We could hear him so clearly this time; his sound level had been low in London. Someone apparently shouted out up front that he was the "Picasso of guitar". Pretty appropriate.

I've been distracted by a Windows Vista glitch on our HP laptop the past week as well, so art doings have been sidelined, but I figured it out this morning thankfully. So I can get back to business. I've got a commission of Melanie to do, the Florida Music Festival coming up, and I'm in contact with another artist from San Francisco whose daughter is doing an art project partially inspired by my work. She might put me in contact with some places to sell my work in SF as well as some musicians who might want paintings of themselves!

I'll get back to work and soon I'll let you in on a cool promotional idea I have brewing.

Peace.