Solar and lunar cycles profoundly connect all people, transcending time, geography and economic status. My ongoing mixed media series of "Etudes" studies relationships between the movements of the sun, moon, tides, earth and our bodies. From the visual patterning, I transcribe music, which has been performed and recorded for the project by flutist, Jo Brand. Her interpretation invites a sensory awareness of the rhythmic effects on our movements and breaths. My interest in the moon began with a Japanese Moon Haiku project (translations by Joan Digby) for which I was invited to create black and white moon monotypes.
Studying relationships between the movements of the sun, moon, tides, earth and our bodies, I charted sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, as well as high and low tides for each season of 2010. Time ascends for AM and descends for PM in a mirror image — noon and midnight meet each other in the center.
After measuring concert harp strings, I transcribed the lengths of the vertical lines into harp music, with tide/moon phases and positions for flute, and suns for piano. The collaged images include monotypes made with block printing ink on metal leaf Chinese paper joss.
Special thanks to flutist, Jo Brand, for her inspiring, wildly creative interpretation of the music, to artist/photographer, Amy Burchenal, for the use of her concert harp and all of her support for the project, and to Lou Gimenez for his recording magic at The Music Lab.
Solar-Lunar Serenade, along with September Etude 2009-2012 and September Etudes 2, was exhibited as part of "Radial Patterning" with Kira Greene, Jamie Lee, Serena Buschi and April Vollmer at Cheryl McGinnis Gallery.
Through different projects, I have been studying the relationships between music, visual art, and the rhythms of organic cycles—universal languages that connect us, transcending geography and time. While certain pieces visually examine musical structures and cultural traditions, others have been transcribed from music, or have had music transcribed from the images.
My interest in exploring interdisciplinary connections, musical form, and multiple levels of patterning was first stirred by reading Douglas R. Hofstadte's book, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Inspired also by Zen Buddhist haiku and ink drawings that capture the essence of nature, I have included a gallery of my haiku as well as poetry collaborations with other artists' work.
