A One of a Kind Creation for an Expressive Music Lover

The making of a recent commission piece was an exercise in artistic freedom.  There’s nothing quite like creating an expressive work of art for a like minded person especially when there are no boundaries.  “Crescendo” is a 16” x 20” mixed media work of art created in the style of expressionism.  This original work of art was commissioned by a lover of the arts and of music.  The patron had requested a piece to accompany an acrylic painting he had acquired earlier.  In the previous painting entitled “Prelude,” I had painted in total response to music and what came across on canvas was an opening, a door, representing stepping into something new. 

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Keeping within the same theme, “Crescendo”  was painted in response to music, but the initial inspiration came from someplace else.  Having gone out and walked the fields near my home sometime after a hard rain, I was drawn to these cracks which had formed in the soil.  Looking closely, I could see the individual grains of sand, new growth, and shadows where light had not yet reached.  Within these fissures, it was like the anticipatory build up to an eruption.  Maybe, it’s the thing that marks the ending of one and the momentous beginning of something new like life springing forth, the first cry of a baby, or the realization that this is it.  This is what I walked through that “door” for.  

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In music,  this eruption is referred to as a crescendo.  It is the highest or loudest point reached in a gradually increasing sound.  As the sound builds, the suspense increases in anticipation until the final eruption much like the excitement of reaching a crescendo in your own life.

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