Music and art are both very emotional, but sometimes they need each other to fully reveal their layered emotion to the viewer.

 

One of my favorite things about art, art galleries, or museums is taking the time to really get into the artwork. By ‘into’ I don’t just mean staring so long at a work that the people around me think I’m crazy, but also by finding a certain and individual understanding of the work, as if it’s speaking to me and just me.

To successfully do this, I have turned to another great love in my life: music. I have found that if I go alone to an art exhibit, bringing my phone and headphones, I can get the art to speak to me by associating a song to a work. Music and art are both very emotional, but sometimes they need each other to fully reveal their layered emotion to the viewer.

At Gallery MAR, I chose a few pieces that I was desperate to get into and understand. I shuffled through my songs, until one spoke to me in the same way the work spoke to me. Then I asked myself, “why?” What connection did I see in the song and painting? What did it make me feel? What was it saying? Sometimes I could not put these thoughts into words, instead letting the music and art simply sweep me away.

Here are those pieces and I wonder if you can hear and see any of the associations that I do. And want to get in the mood yourself? Well then, here is a playlist, for the accompanying songs: Ellie’s Artwork Play List. 

 

 

“White Barn” by Sandra Pratt was the first piece that caught my eye on my first at Gallery MAR. Something about the crude and jagged lines making up the ground which supported a large, blemished expanse of white pulled me in. The blue cramped between the two shades of gray seemed melancholy: a storm approaching, suffocating the blue sky. Leading Me Now by The Tallest Man on Earth called out to me for this piece. The twangy melody associated with a dusty farm, Kristian Matsson’s ragged voice that reminds me of the rough brown and black foreground, and the lyrics about putting trust in someone despite fear and difficulties felt like the perfect fit.

 

For the longest time I could not tell if this painting by Hunt Slonem seemed sad or happy to me. Was it butterflies trapped in the delicate netting of red on gold, or were the butterflies dancing happily with their colorful friends? Best I Can by Micheal Cera and Sharon Van Etten captured this confusing mix of emotions. The song takes turns being a lilting, silly melody and then coalescing around Sharon Van Etten’s heartbreaking voice. The butterflies are both free, but also trapped: stuck in time and in paint, caught by the viewer’s eyes, but free to be subjective and relative to the viewer’s mood.

 

 

My favorite piece in the entire gallery appropriately became paired with my favorite song, Hand-Made by alt-j. Delicately put, this piece is chaotic. Lines of paint dribble and spray about, while in other places, the paint fans out in a dry brush that obviously reveals the artist’s hand. It takes a long time to really see this piece and when I finally saw it, all of the noise dissipated and there was this sense of peaceful harmony. Each brushstroke and dabble of color fit together and formed something like a green pasture at pink sunset. Hand-Made is a quiet song that I listen to when I need to feel grounded and I think it can also ground this work of art.

 

 

A river of stripes and shapes and color, this piece immediately called out Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order. This piece by Jylian Gustlin is so fun and quirky, bubbling over with patterns. It strikes me as happy and excited, almost like the funny interpretive dances my friends and I have performed to New Order. The wavy lines of white want to move, they extend off the page, taking up space in the imaginary where they dance.

Written by Ellie Lemonnier, Gallery Intern

Tags: art that speaks to you, artwork and music, Ellie Lemonnier, Park City Art, Playlist
Posted in Gallery Insights