Music interlude

I always listen to music when I'm working on pictures. I think most people who paint do that. Most of the time it's just background sound, real familiar, mainly because I play the same stuff all the time. I made a CD with about 100 songs I like, and that's what I listen to. I guess it takes about seven hours to play the whole thing. So, here are three of the songs on the CD. Only the last one has had any influence on what I paint.

 First up, Taylor Dayne, "Love Will Lead You Back." It's not just that I like the song. One day I looked on youtube to see if there was a video of the song, and I found this one. I don't know how many times I've watched it, but I never get tired of it because I think she's absolutely beautiful in this video and I find her voice incredibly powerful and expressive.

Next, Badfinger's "Baby Blue." I hadn't heard this song in ages. Then, earlier this year I was watching the final episode of the TV series "Breaking Bad" and this song came on during the last scene. If you've never seen "Breaking Bad," I recommend it. It's the best TV series I've ever seen. The odd thing is that the first time I tried to watch it I didn't like it. A couple years later I gave it another chance, and I don't know what was different but I was hooked. (If you look on IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes you'll see that the series received "universal acclaim" with both critics and audiences.) Anyway, even though I like this song on its own merits, the association with "Breaking Bad" pretty much guarantees I'll continue to listen to it... a lot.

Finally, Pearl Jam's "Given to Fly." There are a number of songs I've listened to repeatedly while painting, but no song other than this one has ever affected my painting. I actually have a number of pictures that I refer to as "given to fly" pictures. And the picture that was accepted for the Shenzhen Biennial Watercolor Exhibition last year was titled "Blossom: Given to Fly." (They make you put titles on them... I don't really do that as a rule.)

If I remember to do so, some time I'll post something that explains how this song, along with some books I've read, is what sort of gave birth to all the blossom pictures I've done.