Visualizing Jazz & Blues
Artist Karen Hollowell, 50, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, captures music with her art. "I'm constantly challenged by the notion of how to capture the emotion of a song in a specific moment in time," she explains. "How can you paint what is heard and not seen? What does the sound of a performance look like? What colors best reflect the mood of a particular tune?"
Hollowell calls herself a huge fan of jazz and blues, and she sees many parallels between songwriting and creating a painting. "A song begins with a backbeat," she says. "I begin my paintings with bold strokes--which, like a backbeat, create structure. A song is made up of multiple tracks layered together. I do the same by layering many different textures, colors, and shapes to express certain notes that I'm hearing. For example, a delicate light sound might be a pastel color painted with a feathery texture. Vocals, on the other hand, which are always 'out in front' in a song, might be stronger, more passionate colors, taking on bolder forms."
In her paintings "The Economic Meltdown Blues" (above) Hollowell tried to capture the image of the 1966 Howlin' Wolf song with the lyrics: "When you ain't got no money, you got the blues; When you ain't got no money to pay the rent, you still got the blues; When you ain't got no money to pay the rent or buy food, you damn sure got the blues."
To see more of Hollowell's music inspired paintings visit www.karenhollowell.com.
