Collaborations with Ursa Ensemble continue

Draw with me this Friday!

Collaboration in Concert: melody & line by Ursa Ensemble

13 November 2015 | 7:00 pm

The Ursa Ensemble is a Chicago-based Chamber group that seeks to present uncommon music to audiences in unique ways, unconventional places, and with individual interpretations. Ursa Ensemble members are fiercely dedicated to making Western Art Music less intimidating, but still deeply moving, to the uninitiated listener. Their Collaboration in Concert events give listeners the opportunity to create a unique art piece under the tutelage of a professional painter, poet, author, photographer, or other artist, while gaining direction from the ensemble’s live music.

This program features works by German, Austrian, and American composers:

• Horn Quintet by Mozart
• Symphonie No. 9 by Haydn (arr by N. Jeffery)
• Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola by Paul Chihara
• Ruckus by Pierce Gradone
• Ursa Dances by Joe Clark

This Collaboration in Concert utilizes artistic collaboration, unique spaces, and audience participation. Chicago painter Melanie Brown will guide the audience through a few basic points of her specialty, then engage with audience members as the ensemble performs to create an artwork based on the music itself. 

$20 for General Admission & $10 for Students | Purchase Tickets

Here We Go Again!

In case you didn't notice, I've been a bit absent from the blogging. Why, you ask?  Well, 2013 was all about making and giving birth to son number 2 and now I have a brand new studio companion!  At 8 months we are now getting into a routine and I'm starting small with some observational work.

Two kids are definitely more of a challenge than one, but I've made some changes to my work life and have carved out more time for art making.  I've been updating the website and have added new work to the $200 and Under section and plan to add more as the days go by.    I'm also hoping to resume the Song Path Project I began before the baby in the very near future, so look out for more work shortly!

Thank you and be well,
Melanie

Song Path Work Continues

I'm spending a lot of time in the studio with my ear buds listening to Ryan Ingebritsen's Whitewater Songpath Project.  There are many reasons this project is so incredibly engaging to me. Yes, it is the beautiful sound of nature with its silences, water, bird chirps, and all you would expect from a recording of a hike through nature.  But more deeply, it is the experience of being inside a composer's head and the chance to experience the audio landscape as he experiences it. 

Exploring marks, texture, and combinations of materials is what drives my visual work.  It happens to be adding up to landscape imagery right now, but it is the love of each part that makes the whole that thrills me as I work. As Ryan composed his Songpath piece he did so by physically moving through a space and listening to the texture, combinations of sounds, acoustics, and I can't begin to guess as to what other many  other subtleties.  When speaking with Ryan, I was delighted to find he was thinking of his piece as more of an abstraction of sounds that happen to add up to a landscape, but it's not a portrait of a landscape.  He was moving through a space with particular sound properties which he used to compose a piece- by moving physically through the space he composed a symphony.  His symphony just happens to have an instrumentation that is an entire ecosystem.

detail.

detail.

The following drawings are done to specific portions of the Songpath recording spanning from 4 to 10 minutes in duration.  These represent the first 20 minutes of the piece so far and are in order.

Here is Ryan talking about his Song Path project.  Enjoy!

New Project

I am enamored by texture, mark, and color, the possible juxtapositions of which are endless.  Through my many years of painting and drawing from observation I have digested an enormous vocabulary of ways space can be created.  When I allow the material to work in tandem with my memory and imagination I tend to arrive at landscapes- maps of my moods and the structure of my thoughts.

With this new project I have embraced the landscape by listening to Whitewater Songpath from composer and musician Ryan Ingebritsen and have allowed the audio to influence my decisions.  I am very excited about where this is headed and quite pleased that Ryan is enthusiastic as well.  This is the very beginning, but I will be posting as more work is made.

I have always surrounded myself with musicians and have in the past privately used drawing as a way to connect with performers while sitting in the audience. Making work to music allows me to actively and physically listen to sound- my marks are dance steps that are coaxed into choreography by the influence of the audio.

Improvising the Landscape

Small improvisations:

Improvisation: Pink

ink, acrylic, dry pigment

Detail: 

Improvisation: Green

ink, acrylic, dry pigment and charcoal                                                                            

 Detail:

Swarm Landscape with Fence

ink, marker, acrylic

Sketching Reunion

I received a beautiful sketchbook and fountain pen for Christmas and it has brought me back to my love of sitting around and sketching. My son is to the point that he can play independently for a little while, so I've been finding little pockets of time here and there to sketch at home. Until now my mommy-painter life has been focused on working in the studio and I've missed that quietness.

I also feel myself in a bit of transition in my current Bird series- the past few pieces have contained very few birds and more of the landscape. I'm starting to feel like I'm hanging onto the birds when all I really want to paint is the landscape. We'll see where I go. Here are a few recent paintings:

This one is about 4' wide- it's not so easy to see it here:

My first "bird-less" landscape in a while:

And this one is still in progress. I put a moon in for my moon-man child:

Hope you all are safe and warm wherever you may be-

Melanie

Making Spaces.

Just a quick post of what has been going on in the studio lately. I've been trying to create more variety of spaces within my paintings lately and also work on a larger scale than my 12" and 18" squares of Phin's early childhood. Since I'm working with acrylic, I don't have to gesso my canvas before I start work. I've been employing different methods of starting a painting- leaving the canvas raw in some parts, gessoing others, and priming some parts with dark brown. I don't have a concrete image in mind when I begin and use a general idea of what kind of spaces I want to create and the finding of at least one bird to anchor my work. I love making marks and splotches of color and the way that I can use the act of painting to find and describe worlds.

Well, onto the images. I'm not much of a writer:

This is an 18" square:

This one is maybe 3 feet wide- not sure:

And this one is day 2 of my latest. It's about 4 feet wide:

...Wait, that's day one, here is day 2 (and closer to the actual color):

I'll be working on the piece above this Friday from 2-6 during Lillstreet's "Sip and Shop" on Nov. 26th. Grab some wine downstairs in the gallery and come on up to the 3rd floor. You can visit me and refill your cup!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all- I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to make work.

Best,
Melanie