Musical Immersion

When I hear live performances that are particularly inspiring, I tend to see the music in colors and abstract kinetic compositions. Because the music exists in “time,” there are many “pictures” within the larger context; for example the movements of a symphony have smaller “pieces” or passages that stand out to me. The vivacity, elegance, and style of the pianist, the harpist or the flutist, fill me with inspiration and hundreds of mind pictures. Sometimes I experience “heaven on earth” in the concert hall or in churches such as St. Sulpice in Paris, where the organ reverberates for almost 30 seconds. The double choir there transported me to the heights of esthetic and spiritual fulfillment. I am compelled to translate such experiences into paint—-whether the music be a Fauré or Duruflé requiem or improvisational jazz.