When Flowers Sing & Dance-Color Songs Opens 7/17

Remember the delight of seeing flowers dance and sway in a breeze? 

It's as if they're moving to music, the symphony of nature.

That's the beauty and magic that will be on view starting this month with the exhibition Color Songs: Musicians As Visual Artists, and I'm thrilled to tell you that the curator for this show chose two of my flower paintings to feature in the show: Nocturne (The Flowers Dance) and Reveille (The Flower Awakens).

Color Songs opens Friday, July 17, at Bridgeport Art Center's noted fourth floor gallery with an evening reception. The exhibit runs through Friday, September 4.

Come To The Opening: Friday, July 17

Please join me at the opening reception, which runs from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday, July 17 at Bridgeport Art Center.

I will attend this event and look forward to seeing you and showing you my paintings.

As with the Beautiful Noise show earlier this year, it's my honor to have not one but two of my artworks selected for display. Curators and jurors for art shows generally choose one piece from each artist they want to participate in a show, so in the rare cases when they decide to display more than one work from a single artist, that's a special honor and recognition.

About Color Songs: The Magic Of Music & Art

Recognizing art as a universal language with many modes of expression, Color Songs curator Yaoundé Olu, PhD, focused on a marriage between the disciplines of visual art and music.

She sought participation from visual artists who also create music as well as musicians who compose visual artworks via painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, fiber arts, photography, installation, and other media. Although she encouraged entries addressing music as a subject, she did not limit works of visual art featured in Color Songs to this theme.

My Musical Background

Although my primary artistic focus remains visual arts, particularly painting, my background includes extensive training as a musician in both piano and voice.

Growing up in a musical family exposed me to numerous musical forms and styles, especially classical music, and outstanding music programs in the schools where we lived as well as private lessons gave me deep training in music theory and history as well as performance.

About Nocturne (The Flowers Dance) And Reveille (The Flower Awakens)

Hearing about Color Songs: Musicians As Visual Artists inspired me to enter two flower paintings to this juried show.

Both pieces marry lively visual form with a sense of musical sound, yielding paintings whose flowers appear to burst with energy and dance across the paper.

Each one carries a name, colors, and visual form attesting to its musical sensibility:

• Nocturne (The Flowers Dance) shows two colorful, iridescent flowers in watercolor on handmade black paper, referencing music historically written to evoke the night time and giving these little flowers a chance to dance gently, as they wish, in the moonlight.
• Reveille (The Flower Awakens) shows a white chrysanthemum  on bright red handmade paper. The flower bursts with lively "wake up!" energy, indicated in part by the kinetic lines dancing around the petals, which inspired me to use the word Reveille in the title and brings all the powerful associations with the tune played on the  bugle at U.S. military bases to rouse soldiers in early mornings. 

As with my other paintings on Asian paper, I mounted these artworks myself, by hand, on handmade cotton paper.

Each piece received custom framing to bring out the painting's unique colors and qualities and showcase the transparent papers on which it is painted and mounted.  Nocturne (The Flowers Dance) has a dark frame with medium pink mat that brings out the flower petals' colors, while Reveille (The Flower Awakens) appears against a black mat with chrome coated frame to complement the subtle metallic sheen in the chrysanthemum's petals. 

Both paintings float over their mats, allowing them to breathe freely behind the glass covering. Both have conservation glass, with Nocturne sporting a special museum grade glass to eliminate glare and allow the black paper to show to best advantage.

See More Flower Paintings

You can see more of my flower watercolors in the Flower Collections area of this website. 

Check out the Branching Out collection for vibrant colors on interesting, often rugged branches.

Or see the Spring Morning collection for the wonder of flowers when life bursts forth in springtime or the Gentle Flowers collection for delicate blossoms to make you smile or to bring calm to you and your space.

All flower paintings are available for purchase. Simply order directly from the painting page or contact me directly.

Visiting Bridgeport Art Center

Color Songs: Musicians As Visual Artists opens Friday, July 17, at Bridgeport Art Center and runs through Friday, September 4.

Bridgeport Art Center is a multi-disciplinary creative home for artists and other creatives at 1200 W. 35th St. in Chicago. This repurposed warehouse space houses art galleries, artist studios, and other arts spaces.

Gallery and office hours are Monday through Saturday,  8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon. 

To visit, enter on the building's north side off of Racine Avenue and 34th Place. Free parking is available on the north side of the building; visitors may be directed to additional parking areas if needed during large or multiple events.

For more information, call (773) 843-9000.