Synesthesia: September 29-October 6, 2022
The Mission:
This is officially the first time I’ve used WebMD to define art:
“Synesthesia is when you hear music, but you see shapes. Or you hear a word or a name and instantly see a color. Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another. For example, you might hear the name ‘Alex’ and see green. Or you might read the word ‘street’ and taste citrus fruit.”
Painting by Melissa McCracken
For a while now, I’ve been moderately obsessed with the art of Melissa McCraken. Melissa has Synesthesia, and says:
“…the most wonderful ‘brain malfunction' of all is seeing the music I hear. It flows in a mixture of hues, textures, and movements, shifting as if it were a vital and intentional element of each song.”
McCracken uses her condition to create oil and acrylic paintings of songs, by listening to a song and painting what she sees. I find many of these abstract paintings to be beautiful in their own right, but the idea of them being the visual representation of a song really speaks to me.
None of us has Synesthesia (or maybe you do - what do I know?), but let’s try a version of McCracken’s art anyway. For this week’s mission, choose a song to listen to — probably one you love, but I’d imagine one you really hate would also evoke some good emotion. While you listen to the song, create visual art of some kind — it does not have to be a painting — could be a sketch or a collage or whatever. Most likely it will be abstract art, but could be realistic if you prefer. Let the song inspire you and try to recreate some version of what you “see” or feel when you listen to it. If you don’t want to listen to the same song over and over while you create, feel free to choose an entire album instead.
Include the song title (and, ideally, a link where we can listen to it) with your submission.
The Submissions:
by Heart of Darkness - “About Today” by The National
by Anoymous Frau Redux - “About Damn Time” by Lizzo
Grab your spandex britches, blue eyeshadow and ready the Aqua Net. A submission from Anonymous Frau Redux gliding into your electronic mailbox just “ROLL WITH IT.”
Recently caught part of Lizzo’s performance on SNL. The beat and vibe of “About Damn Time” reminded me of disco with a touch of funk added (the bass line).
Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” repeated five times for this work. Have to admit disco and roller skates take me back to an episode of CHiPs where Ponch and John meet some ladies for a skate date.
When completed with markers and pencils, I referenced the artist’s official video. Had not viewed it previously and thought my feel for it was close to her vision. Check it out.
(Side note and PSA- Every time I refill the mower gas cans another CHiPs episode comes to mind where a man was overcome by gas can fumes in his closed car- so I use the truck bed for hauling or ventilate the jeep well.)
by Captain Quillard - “Thinking of a Place” by The War on Drugs
Wow, did I have a hard time choosing a song for this. I like so many different styles of music, and so many songs make me feel certain moods or “see” certain things. At one point I almost went much harder with “I Fought Piranhas” by The White Stripes. In another moment, I was flipping through jazz songs. Several Andrew Bird and Jeff Tweedy tunes were in the mix, but I felt like I’d mentioned both of them on here too much already - although Tweedy’s band, Wilco, had some strong contenders since I’d just seen them live (again) last night.
Lately, though, I’m finding myself really into songs that feel like they have complex sonic layers to them, where the instruments and arrangements build exponentially on each other to create a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Even more so, I’m latching onto those songs that feel ethereal and (for lack of a better word) otherworldly. I’ve always liked that kind of music, but I suspect the state of the world and my anxiety levels are driving me toward a need for escapism these days and, thus, the pull toward music that transports me elsewhere in some way. Given that I’m about 30 hours into a vacation in one of my favorite places on earth right now and still struggling to decompress and embrace “vacation mode,” that likely makes sense.
I also had a hard time deciding whether to pick a song that consistently gives me a specific visual sense in my head and then try to recreate that imagery, or to just put the song on repeat and create art from it without preconceived notions. I chose the latter, and the end result doesn’t really look like what I think I typically see when this song comes on. And yet, I can see the song in what I ultimately created. I guess this time around it was less about what a song looks like to me and more about how it felt at a particular moment while creating.
Next Week’s Assignment:
Haiku Your Week:
Hopefully this one will be simple and fun. Write seven haikus - one for each day of your week (Oct. 7-13). Each one should be about something that happened in your life that day. Up to you if you want to make yourself actually write one each day or just sit down on Thursday, remember things that happened during your week, and write them all then. Title each one with the day of the week it’s about.