The idea of “synesthesia” came across my mind when I was looking at Jackson Pollock’s paintings. There are many ways to interpret modern art, and the way I want to interpret modern art is by figuring out what the colour is saying. I do not think that I have synesthesia; however I do believe that I sort of have synesthesia. To explain my idea, I chose the painting, Shimmering Substance (1946) by Jackson Pollock (on the left). The majority of this painting is in the colour, yellow. The meaning of the colour yellow is happiness, optimism, and brightness. As I remember from the class “Focus on Major Artist,” Van Gogh used a lot of yellow in his painting because it was his favourite colour. The sun, and the wheat field, which describes nature and the feel of comfort, is shown in Van Gogh’s painting in yellow. The use of light yellow does not stand out, but it gives comfort to our eyes. This colour, to me is the colour of comfort. The light hue of yellow doesn’t catch the audience’s eyes, and it is in a similar colour to the ones that Van Gogh used to paint The Yellow House (1888). The vibrant yellow with short strokes painted on top can be connected and that line would outline a big circle. The shimmering substance of the title is this bright yellow. The pop of yellow makes the painting seem as if it is sparkling. It is really interesting because both of the yellows seem to be screaming the note A or G at me. I usually have different tones that I hear with a different hue of a colour, or sometimes I don’t hear any note. The Green is D, the purple is G, the blue is A, and the red is E. It is really fascinating how I hear the four open strings on the violin in this painting. It is a mix of an open fifth and the yellow (A or G) is constantly noticeable. Maybe the background yellow is the key of the composition! Looking at each painting with its colours speaking out makes the analysis of modern art very interesting. I am not sure if Dr. Berman also sees a modern painting and hears music or just looks at the techniques and analyzes it. When looking at a painting done by Di Vinci or Masaccio, people can analyze the painting by the techniques and how it is proportioned. On the other hand, Modern Art is very hard to understand but maybe the voice of each colour used in the painting would help many people to be moved by modern art.
Funny story: my accompanist, not from Juilliard, marks her piano part with coloured pencils because she has synesthesia! She marks her key changes, dynamics and characters with colours and they are all colour coded. For example, all of her pianissimos would be in the colour green and fortes are in purple. I did not know about it until she posted a picture on Facebook and told me her way of teaching piano to her younger students (of course, with colours). I think it’s mind-blowing how someone can see colours in dynamics; it would help many musicians.
Journal #2 (January 15th 2016)-Absent
The video of the Jackson Pollock painting on the floor was unique. I know that many people did not paint on the floor and the whole idea of dripping paint over the canvas was new. The amount of control over the brush and his body is so well coordinated. Drip painting technique happens so quickly that everything needs to be planned out to create harmony within the painting. The paintbrush is dipped into a can of paint, and it is then quickly moved above the canvas as the paint from the brush drips down to the canvas. The direction of the paint could vary depending on the type of brush and how far the brush is away from the canvas. In the video, I realized that sometimes Pollock slams the paintbrush onto the canvas to created thicker lines or have the paint splatter. I need to go and physically see the painting but I wish I could feel or see if there is a 3D effect to the art. Instead of just putting the brush onto the canvas, Pollock moves the brush in the air. This reminded me of the idea of musicians creating the sound in their head while the bow is still in the air, not making contact with the string. Before playing the music, the musician needs to focus and set the character, in order to deliver their art in style. When it is set, the arm comes down to the strings, creating pressure and movement, and the body moves to make the music flow as the bow hair comes in contact with the strings. I have discussed the colour aspect of modern art, and now I want to talk about the articulation of the paint. When the brush is flicked, that is like the fingers on the bow hand flicking, creating short strokes, like staccato. The brush strokes that are in a “U” shape are similar to Sforzando in music. The brush is touching the canvas to create the stroke is like the bow on the string creating the note, and when the brush is not on the canvas, but above it, the bow hand is in the air creating music. The dripping of the paint is interpreted in the fingers of the bow hand. Depending on the length of the paint, the notes that are in the fingers will imitate. By putting it this way, I could think about different types of sound that I hear with different articulation of the colours.
Journal #3 (January 19th 2016)
I have been doing some research on music that is based on Jackson Pollock’s painting, The She Wolf (1943). It turns out there are a few that I have found on YouTube. I wanted to research this is because in my previous journal entries, I wanted to know if people could see modern art with sounds. The first version is by Bachittar Singh in the collection of Meditations on Jackson Pollock. It consists of an organ-like sound holding the note B and E, which then moves to a dissonance and resolves to G and B. It was interesting because when I see the painting it has a lot of lines and colours going on that I would not personally think of as calm and church-like.
The other recording that I have discovered is a cyborg Jazz, which is in my own term: music created with the sounds from the soundboard that could sound like jazz. I do not have the perfect definition but this is how I interpreted after listening to some cyborg jazz. I personally am not a big fan of this kind of music, but it is interesting to see how much people can create music without using real instruments. This version that I heard showed a completely different side of the painting that the previous recording, which was very calming, did not have. There are a lot of rhythms that remind me of native tribes dancing around the fire, and the use of high pitch notes bring out the colour red in the painting. As I was listening, I looked at the painting to see if I could find any connection between them. As the notes are raised in pitch by glissando, my eye caught the beige lines that are outlining the she-wolf. In addition, the drum that is playing the rhythms are the black lines that are scattered around the painting but still visible. The red of the colours in the painting are the other types of sound that were used in the recording. I find that the articulation in the recording also shows in the painting, which makes the music more connected to the painting.
Journal #5 (January 26th 2016)
After studying a few works by Jackson Pollock, I was able to catch some of his techniques that have influenced other artists. One of the artists is Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997). A series of Brushstroke paintings (1965-66) that he painted uses Pollock’s Drip Painting techniques and also uses dots that make up the painting, creating a unique effect. I wondered why he chose to paint the idea of brushstrokes. It was meant to be a satire and funny.
However, when looked at from a serious point of view, I personally think that this is a very new and convincing idea of painting. For example, in my past journal, I discuss how the brush stroke is similar to our bow that plays on the string. Many of the artists who come to do master classes do not talk too much about how to use our bow or how it should sound the moment it touches the string. (Most of the time the artist would talk about the phrasings or the colour choices). When speaking of a certain idea, it could vary depending on the piece, the artist, or the instrument. When I see the Brushstroke (1965), the vibrant colour of red expresses one note, and the hand holding the brush on the left corner is similar to the hand holding the bow. The dots that are used in this painting could be interpreted as words that describe the artist’s idea or vocabulary describing the process. Maybe there are better ways to describe the use of the circular dots that are repeated in the painting in the background. The defined black line, which outlines the brushstroke, brings the brushstroke forward (similar to a 3D effect). The hand, on the other hand, is not coloured in, but it is dotted, meaning that the focus point should be the brush and the brush stroke, not the hand. I wonder why Lichtenstein added the hand, if it was not meant to be the focus point, because he does outline it, and he could have just painted the paintbrush without the hand. Overall, this painting spoke very straightforwardly to me, and the idea was very unique.
Copyright © 2016 Ji Soo Choi