This painting is called “Muse”. It was not based on a song; I just wanted to capture the amazing picture that was taken by one of my awesome Twitter friends, a fabulous Lee Fan, @yoyosassy. (Thank you Yolanda for letting me use your photo!)
**this one is not yet finished. I had too many other ideas that I had to put this one on hold. But just to give you a visual, I have a special wooden frame idea in mind for this one. I’m going to paint each side of the frame with the designs from Lee’s guitar straps. As you can imagine, this will take some time… bare with me. It will be awesome though**
Since this painting was not inspired by a specific song, I had to think of a title for it. Right off the bat, no question about it… I thought “Muse” was the perfect Title. It’s the first thing that popped in my head the first time I even saw the picture.
What exactly is a Muse? The muse is something or someone that has the ability to excite our creative passion and call forth our creative spirit to create. It is an interesting character. At one level it is a figment of our imagination and doesn’t exist. At another level it is very real and vital to our creative endeavor and without them we are robbed of our creative power (this definition was taken from this site, which has all the different kinds of muse definitions-
http://ryuc.info/common/creation_process/muse.htm )– My muse is the later part of this definition. My muse is very real and vital to my creative endeavor. You hear that lee DeWyze? If you ever stopped making music, I’d be robbed of my creative power…haha, so…keep doing your thang….I can not create unless you create (no pressure or anything)
It’s hard to explain exactly how I feel when I paint these, even to other Lee fans because there just aren’t words. The best way to describe it really is this strong, overwhelming unconscious burst of creativity every time I hear his voice. Sounds a bit dramatic, I know…but that is what it is. Having something affect you this strongly is rare. For some reason, I just connect with everything about this music, his voice, the lyrics… something is driving me to paint… so why would I ever want to stop that? Why not roll with it, ya know? Again, I do not expect people to understand it because I still don’t; I just create when my heart tells me to.
I have to admit something though, sometimes it is frustrating because painting these songs truly make me happy… it’s what I want to do….but it’s not like I can paint Lee art as a career. So then I think, what am I doing this for? (The answer is that it’s my outlet, but I mean on a broader spectrum) Haha. People at work ask me all the time “why are you here?” “Why don’t you get a job doing art?” Like I said before… I’m not happy doing art just because I am good at it. I have to FEEL it and right now… this is all I feel and this is what I want to do. It makes me happy, even if it’s a path that leads nowhere. End of story. I hope that at least makes a little bit of sense…
Now… here are the perspectives of my sister as someone just view the art as is and Mare, as a Lee DeWyze fan…(passes the torch…)
My sister, Danielle Mazzo:
Muse.....this painting explains my sister and her journey into her own mind. The birds flying from the feather to me is my sisters creativity flying into action...taking off from her once....I wanna paint but...into her OMG I have to paint!!! My sister has always been a great artist to me...because well she'd kick my butt if I didn't say that...jk but since she found her ”muse" she has grown into a phenomenal artist. This muse has given her art structure...heart....feeling!! Muse is not just a painting of a musician's ink....its art taking flight from the perspective of artists both in lyric and on canvas!! Many years my sister and I didn't really know each other as we are two very different people...but since her Muse came along I can finally catch a glimpse into my sister's heart mind and soul. So I guess thanks Lee DeWyze is in order. The more you inspire her the closer we get. Who would've thought a musician could do so much without even knowing it.
And Mare :
Inspiration..... we all need it. With it comes joy, clarity, creativity..... It comes in many forms for each of us. But for each one of us.... inspiration breathes LIFE into our days. It influences our emotions, our thoughts and our actions....and sometimes it can bring people together. When the sole, original inspiration is so influential, that it creates a circle of creativity... what comes out of that can be amazing.
Music. It speaks to all of us. It’s a form of communication... and often times, it takes the place of words. With the “right” music.... it speaks to those dusty corners of our soul. It creates stories, pictures, new ways of thinking.... an outlet for the words we can’t find ourselves. Sometimes those notes and words create a visual, a vibe, a feeling, a snapshot of your own world. When you connect to music, it becomes YOUR story.
During the day, I am a pediatric speech pathologist. I LOVE what I do. I think communication is important. It’s how we connect as human beings. Communication isn’t always speech. It’s a touch, a look, an expression, a feeling, a posture, a drawing, a picture, a painting.......music. Music and writing are a large part of my life. It’s how I express what speech can’t. Words and notes inspire me..... they breathe life into what gets trapped by “thought”. Add to that, someone who can take a feeling of mine, an intangible “thing”... and allow me to see what it looks like.
I’m an extremely hard person to get to know and understand. I have definite walls....Writing for the music and art makes me REALLY look inside myself. I have to be able to let myself FEEL.... dig into my own heart.... and then let people have a glimpse of that. My thoughts, my heart.... It makes my walls come down when I write. Being inspired enough to trust and let go..... I’d say a “muse” is a very important part of life....
Hope you enjoyed this one, it started out close to my heart already ... But adding Danielle's & Mare's points of view just set it off.
Coming up will be my picture book album review of Lee's new album "Frames" I'll be posting the paintings for the each song in the order they appear on the album... Stay tuned! Excited!!!!!
-Jenn
...a beautiful painting inspired by the most beautiful music i ever heard by the most talented and inspirational soul i ever came across in my life: a certain deWyze man named Lee DeWyze, who's always filling our hearts with song & our souls with happiness, and 2 beautiful stories that show how we're all connected & inspired & touched by each other & how love can make us feel ...this is the circle of life. thanks for sharing this. it really touched my heart. annie s @dewyzefan6
ReplyDelete500 wd Response to Muse:
ReplyDeleteAt first glance, it's a tattooed arm of a musician, his hand over the strings of his guitar, ready to strum. The black inked feather stretches across his arm, the tips break into a flock of silhouetted birds flying free...We might not know the full story for his inspiration for the tattoo, but its creation (2011?) coinceded at a time when he seeking his own musical voice/in transition into an uncertain time, full of creative-ripe freedom.
Birds are synonymous with flight, freedom. There's a double meaning in the feather--It's a feather, but look again, it's an inked quill, ready to write the words of a story or a song, the birds, ideas of creative inspiration fly free as the author or rather, songwriter, writes—a perfect metaphor for the creative process.
“From your head to your heart to your arm to your pen/Singing your anthems to your only friend” is a line from “Castaway”, an early Lee DeWyze song about creativity. We see this musician isn't only a guitar-picker, he's a writer of songs.
The Greek and Roman muses were thought to be nine godesses who held the inspiration and knowledge for the arts (poetry, literature, music, visual arts, drama, etc) Euterpe is the traditional muse for music. He has his personal muse (not shown to us) but the title is a play on words--as a songwriter, he is also the "muse"as the stories in his songs inspire unique connections for the fans who listen to the words. And as fans listen and "muse" on the lyrics, new inspirations are created...and who knew a “little” song could do so much?
Take a popular song and this expands on a greater scale—the countless fans inspired over 40 years by Simon and Garfunkel’s "Bridge over Troubled Water" or Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind for example. Or take the “little” Sunday School song “Jesus Loves Me.” Written in a book published 1860 by Anna Bartlett Warner, it was set to music in 1862 and became one of the most popular Christian hymns worldwide. Or consider the Christmas songs “Silent Night” or “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, which started out as popular songs and became classics that color our emotions during the winter holiday season. Whether pop, religious, or holiday tunes, these songs become the “muses” in our stories.
The "little" story of the musician bumps into our own, and it multiplies. And music, combining rhythm, words, and melody, has the ability to hit straight to the emotions more than any other art...Listening to music directly affects how your brain feels, so MUSIC becomes the Muse for us, to describe and express what we feel.
Yet in that, is warning and encouragement: a warning, to be careful which Muses you let in, and encouragement to find music that allows the "good" Muses to affect your life, for the better.
This musician will let his ideas fly and craft his songs—as you listen, may it write itself into your story.