I am a music groupie of sorts................and love most kinds of music. It seems to me that musicians and visual artists alike trust their intuitions to make the music, the painting, their own. For me, playing the piano became the source of great stress. I just couldn't get over the performance anxiety and the feeling that I was continually being watched and judged. But I continued to admire those who played, those who went inside of themselves to interpret the music, to make it their own. Both art forms resist words. And so, along with paintings of those who labor, I have found that paintings of those who make music have always pleased me. I think I have painted dozens of musicians over the years. "Renaissance Man" is a painting done of my nephew George while he was still in high school and played the viola. Even then, the shapes of the figure merged with the background and rhythms took a higher priority than the figure itself. The triangle created by the musician's head (with intent gaze), the hands and the instrument is so important and symbolizes, to me, the going beyond the self, the letting in of the thing that makes one greater than the self. Head. Heart. Instrument.
