As We Drift: Where Music Becomes Art
I had no predetermined image in mind. No sketch. No plan for where the work would lead me.
Again music came to the rescue. It was the fourth track from Neither Present Nor Absent, the collaborative ambient album by Steve Jansen and Maiya Hershey, became the starting point for this work.
The actual title of the artwork is, “As We Drift - Neither Present Nor Absent”.
I listened to “As We Drift” repeatedly, allowing the music to move beyond simply being something I heard and become something I responded to visually.
Letting Intuition Take the Lead
Instead, I tried to put rational thought aside and let intuition take over. I allowed the music to dictate the colours, shapes, marks and forms, responding to changes in atmosphere and rhythm as they appeared.
Some decisions were deliberate, others almost instinctive. I took chances, made mistakes, covered them, revealed them again and kept moving until the work began to tell me where it wanted to go.
For me, this is where the freedom of abstraction lives.
Bring the atmosphere of “As We Drift - Neither Present Nor Absent” into your space.
Years spent observing nature have taught me to look closely at the unexpected: weathered surfaces, shifting light, organic patterns, erosion, repetition and the subtle relationships between positive and negative space.
Music has taught me to listen for movement, rhythm and silence.
Poetry has taught me that something does not always need to be explained to be deeply felt.
All of these things have become part of the artist I am today.
As We Drift is therefore not an attempt to illustrate the music. It is a response to it.
The delicate, almost weightless upper field emerged through this process of listening and responding, while the stronger horizontal bands arrived as an intuitive interruption, bringing colour, rhythm and a sense of structure to the work.
I have always believed that making art requires a willingness to take chances.
To let go of what I think I know.
To allow accidents to become possibilities.
Freeing the Inner Child Through Colour, Shape and Form
Perhaps most importantly, I try to let the inner child free the adult brain.
That means playing.
Experimenting.
Making decisions without always knowing why.
Following a mark simply because it feels right. Allowing curiosity to take the lead and trusting that something meaningful might emerge from the uncertainty.
As We Drift grew from that space between listening and making, between intention and accident, between the rational mind and something much more instinctive.
It is a work about letting go, drifting, listening and trusting the unknown.
Explore the music that inspired the work on Neither Present Nor Absent by Maiya Hershey & Steve Jansen
