Modul 70_51
Modul 70_51 began with track three from Nik Bärtsch’s SPIN. As with much of my work, I wasn't interested in illustrating the music or attempting to translate it into a literal image. Instead, I wanted to see where the music could take me if I allowed it to shape the direction of the work.
When Music Leads the Way
When I begin a painting inspired by music, I try to put aside rational thought. I don't want to decide beforehand what the painting should look like, where a particular mark should go or what the finished work should say.
I listen and respond.
A sound, rhythm, repetition or change in intensity might influence a gesture or a colour. One mark leads to another, and gradually something begins to develop. I allow the painting to evolve rather than trying to impose an outcome upon it.
Putting the Rational Mind Aside
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This is an important part of my approach to making art. As adults, we spend much of our time analysing, judging and trying to make sense of things. When I am creating, I try to temporarily step away from that way of thinking.
That doesn't mean abandoning skill or experience. It means allowing intuition to have a greater say in what happens.
For me, there is also an important distinction between being childlike and being childish.
Being childish can imply immaturity. Being childlike is something quite different. It is about curiosity, openness, play, experimentation and the willingness to make something without immediately asking whether it is right or wrong.
I want to retain that sense of the inner child when I work.
Allowing the Work to Develop
With Modul 70_51, I allowed the music to become the starting point rather than a set of instructions. I worked through colour, gesture, texture and layering, responding to what was happening on the surface rather than following a predetermined plan.
Sometimes a mark works. Sometimes it doesn't.
Sometimes something unexpected happens that changes the entire direction of the work.
I don't necessarily see these moments as problems to be corrected. They are part of the process of discovery.
Making the Invisible Visible
Ultimately, this is what excites me about making art.
Making the invisible visible.
Music is invisible. A feeling is invisible. A thought, a memory, an intuition or a moment of connection is invisible. Yet through the act of painting, these things can become something physical and visible.
I don't claim to know exactly what a painting means before I begin. I'm more interested in discovering what it might become through the process of making it.
Modul 70_51 is my response to that process… listening, letting go of rational thought, allowing the music to shape what comes next, and giving the unseen somewhere to exist.
