Minimal Blues in Black and White
Buddha Board Takes Beating
You will notice in this video-painting that the Buddha Board has taken a beating, the result of numerous experiments with tools for manipulating the medium. I learned that things like metal palette knives can scratch the surface. Luckily I have a second board, which I will treat more judiciously! But I do like the battered look and the graininess of the marks here.
Connecting Painting and Sound
There are three things going on here from a musical standpoint. One, there is the simple chord progression in the left-hand that doesn’t change until near the end. Two, there are the squiggly little figures in the right hand, less melodic than figurative. Finally, 40 seconds in there is a theme in the right hand that sort of converses with the figurative material.
Consciously or not, Jeremy incorporates all three elements into his painting. He sets up big strokes beginning with the thicker part of a brush, then reacts to the little squiggly figures using the bristles. And when the theme comes in, he uses the hairdryer to clean things up again, to, in essence, give the theme space to operate. It’s a matter of translating music into image‚ two different languages trying to work together
About the Artists
Jeremy Harrison recently retired from teaching art at The Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts where he was on the faculty since 1988. His teaching included drawing, painting, printmaking, and digital photography. He earned a BA from Kenyon College in 1982 double majoring in studio art and religion. He earned his MFA from the University of Iowa in 1985 majoring in printmaking and minoring in drawing. Inspiration for his landscape images comes from his experiences in the wildernesses of Canada, the Adirondacks, and Maine. An experienced canoeist, he helped lead a six-man, 800-mile canoe journey across the Canadian tundra to the Arctic Ocean. He continues to canoe and hike in Maine, Massachusetts, and the Adirondacks while making paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs as often as possible.
With a deep jazz-and-blues core, Peter Saltzman has produced a broad career in the music industry as composer, pianist, singer-songwriter, and author. Various ensembles have performed and recorded his work globally—the Czech National Symphony Orchestra recorded his orchestral dance suite “Walls” (1996), and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre performed “Walls” during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The Dallas Morning News reviewed Saltzman’s music as “powerful stuff.” His second album, Kabbalah Blues/Quantum Funk (2000), earned critical acclaim for its jazz/classical/pop fusion, hailed as “ambitious, richly layered, wonderfully accessible.” Saltzman studied jazz at Indiana University (Bloomington) and composition at Eastman School of Music. He was an adjunct professor of music at Columbia College Chicago, where he taught music technology and piano. His concert works are published by Oxford University Press; his film and television works are published by Wild Whirled Music. Saltzman’s music has been licensed for television shows, jingles, and industrials, including My Name is Earl (NBC, 2006).
