"Oil & Water" visual Review: track #2 "Oil & Water"

Track #2 : Oil & Water , By Lee DeWyze

 

I think there is a reason this is the title track. Before I get into the art that was inspired by this song… I’d like to talk about the song itself.

 

“Oil & Water” is automatically one of my favorites because even though  I am more of a lyrical person; It’s the music that pulls me in right away.  It’s quite possibly one of the most soothing melodies I have ever heard. Doesn’t it make you close your eyes and just...sway in contentment? Just like the rest of the album, this song is a prime example of how Lee masters the craft of songwriting. Have you ever listened to a song  where the lyrics were so vivid that it makes you feel like you lived through it yourself? That is what happens to me every single time Lee sings, which is why it is so easy for me to be inspired by him. His lyrics already paint the picture... THAT is what makes him such an amazing songwriter. He pours his heart into his songs and just knows what to say to capture that experience and emotion… then make you feel it too. He is Brilliant. I could go on and on…

 

I guess you want to see the art now, huh? My original plan for this piece was to actually use oil & water to paint it. I saw an amazing youtube video on how to mix watercolors and oil and how their seperation creates art on it’s own… Turns out, it was not as easy as I thought…. I got this….

…. It has grease marks….

Luckily I had a plan B.

I love the way watercolors bleed into each other 

and although it’s the exact opposite of oil & water….It worked well because it also represents hope that  those two things he loves so much, could someday come together…. So I made the background of the piece bleed together with colors to copy sun set AND sun rise to take you both  from “Cause I’ll be gone in the morning light” to  “every time the sun goes down…”…

 

For the actual focal point, I did a continuous line drawing of him putting his gear into a taxi yet again… leaving one love for another….

I also had an idea of having Jonna’s hand holding that string that  formed the lyric and image, however that looked better in my mind than on the paper. I am extremely happy with this one... It's simple & to the point....I hope you love it as much as I do!!! 

 

Here’s is Mare’s point of view……

“Gotta separate what I want and what needs to be done….” Oil and water… They never mix together to become one thing, but you can combine them and somehow they live side by side. Lee is talking about the two things he loves most in his life: being home with family, and being on the road sharing his music…. and the struggle of not being able to do both at the same time. Oil and water. As a human being, I love and understand the lyrics of this song because I have had those feelings about parts of my life many times. As a fan, it’s hard to hear the lyrics because I don’t ever want “the road” to be something that “has” to be done..I don’t ever want sharing music to be a difficult thing for him, because the music means SO much to me. See? I have an oil and water reaction to this song. Lee is a brilliant songwriter, which means his words and the melodies he puts those words with can mean so many different things to different people... make them feel so many different things. In a broader and more personal way for me, this song makes me think about two different areas in my own life. The way we love the people in our lives and how we go about that. We all show love differently…. sometimes those ways mix well…. and sometimes… they don’t. I also think about head versus heart. This is a BIG struggle in my own life… and they are ALWAYS like oil and water. 

Jenn drew the exact oil and water moment…the moment when Lee is leaving one thing he loves for the other. I love two specific details about this art besides capturing the exact moment when you try to mix two loves…. She made this a continuous line drawing. If you think about it, this music life he leads is like that. There is no beginning or ending to all the feelings that surround what went into this song. As long as he keeps making music, it will always be that way. Jenn also used part of the lyrics, to create the look of sunrise and sunset (which happen to be my favorite times of the day) to build from the continuous line drawing.... An endless amount of time and part of the idea of a continuous line.... because as always, she is magic. Because the details matter when you care so much about the music… when you are making the music... And when you are making that music visual.

And here is Danielle's view point. In Her case this time, the art was TOO simple to write to on it's own, so she did listen to the song first: 

"When I first listen to Oil And Water, it makes me think about someone being confused. He has to "do what needs to be done", and he THOUGHT he knew what he wanted, but at the same time, he regrets the strain it puts on the important parts of the life he wants to create. It's like having a conflict between two important parts of his life and they don't mix well together. When I see the art, it makes me feel like he is leaving the world he created for a repetitive necessity. A heavy feeling he feels over and over again. " - Danielle 

Stayed tuned for our next post for track 3: "Stone"..... 

Until then, you can hear "Oil & Water" here: http://youtu.be/2rLLMCRpdMI