Rhythm: Art in Conversation with Music
 

Rhythm:
Art in Conversation with Music

Presented by

King Street Arts

The Gallery upstairs in The Storey Building

11th - 19th October 2022  10 - 5pm


There is a long history of links between art and music; throughout the twentieth century many artists made links to music, a few examples are: Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942) and Matisse’s Jazz (1959) and further back Nicholas Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time (1636).

This exhibition seeks to explore some contemporary connections between visual art and music. We asked artists to submit work they had created which had been inspired by music. We also asked musicians who also had a visual art practice to submit examples of the work they create. Accompanying the artworks are short statements about the artists influences. 
What we have from these 50+ artists in over 90 art works is a snapshot of the range and individuality of the creative spirit coming from many regions and cultural backgrounds sharing a common interest and fascination were art and music come together, with clear examples of a shared language/values encompassing a sense of rhythm, tone, colour, shape and form. All this, we believe is another example of how art and creativity are a conduit for expressing our shared humanity.

We hope you enjoy the exhibition and please take a little time to vote for your favourite piece for the artist to have a chance of winning a visitors prize and share your thoughts on the work and the exhibition in general. It would be greatly appreciated.


King Street Arts: Roy Smith and Kath McDonald


Please note the images on this page are not to scale.

If you are interested in purchasing one of the works 
please click below and email your contact details and
the art work that interests you.


Email Link
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Barbara Holt
artist


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Malcolm Snape
artist & ex musician

Music Link:


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Ethan Lemon
artist

Each of these artworks have been inspired by the visual appearance of the musicians and their alter egos'. The initial inspiration however, comes from listening to music non stop whilst working on my art. Musicians inspire me through there skill and there lyrics, so much so that I will inevitably end up painting them. I have to paint to music as it enables the flow state that I enter when creating. I see music as an escape just like art, you can exist in your own reality, be as creative as you wish and live life to your own rhythm. I believe it is important to create art inspired by the music you love as it creates the visual connection between two creative human expressions.

Music Links:



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Lucy Rogers-Smith
artist

Music Links:


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Ben Winter
musician artist

As an artist and musician my practices co-depend on each other and the themes and techniques I
explore in one bleeds in to the other. My music is minimal and based around soundscape, found
sound and ambient melody. The paintings reflect these elements through the use of colour and
negative space. The characters within portray events over time through movement.

In my paintings I attempt to establish and destroy rhythm to create what could be a parallel rhythm
of colour, shape and tone.

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Bob Armitage
artist musician

Dancing rythms and moves, partners in Rock and Roll and Tango

Music Links:



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Ceris Jones
artist

Our house is one of guitar music and art. Here, in these drawings, the artist, through observation, catches the fingers of the guitarist, Jim Sloane, working hard on the fretboard, as the music rings out. You will, however, have to imagine the sounds yourself!

Music Link:


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David Ian Bickley
artist musician

David is an award-winning media artist whose body of work spans the primitive technological of the 1970’s to the digital cutting edge of today. His media work has manifested as television, installation, electronic music and video art. His work has been shown in many major
museums, galleries and festivals around the world; including the CICA Museum, Korea; Science Gallery, Dublin; A & I GALLERY, LOS ANGELES; HAUN TIE ART MUSEUM, BEIJING; The Electric Picnic and the Glucksman, Cork. LUX London distribute his video art along with [S]edition online. In the early 1980’s Bickley’s video work won 1st prize at the Sony UK Festival and after a move to Ireland in the early 90’s he was fundamental in the evolution of Irish electronic music, earning a Hotpress award in the process. Besides producing video art Bickley has also made important arts documentaries including The Man Who Shot Beckett and the Celtic Songlines. His themes reside in mythic and folklore motif and often use landscape as a form to reflect and process these ideas.

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Denise Keen-Junk
artist

Music Link:


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Helen Jones
musician artist

During my Masters in Ceramics I began to investigate the phenomenon of synaesthesia through my
project 'Songs in Clay'. As a singer and an artist I was fascinated by the concept of interpreting music
through clay and trying to create a response which communicated the rhythm, texture and timbre of
the music. I began by picking music that was special to me and evoked a sense of nostalgia and
increased emotions. I painted a graphic score response for each of the pieces and then began to
attempt to draw and paint in clay, trying to keep the making of the vessels fresh, an interpretation of
the 'song'. 

Music Links:





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Ian Irvine
artist

I am an experienced collage artist, and the two submitted use images of historic portraits with
pictures of famous album covers inserted in a way which 'fits' the original image of the paintings. In
doing this I have made a single work from two distinct art forms, making an unlikely 'marriage' in the
process.
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Camry Ivory
musician artist

I am an audiovisual/transmedia musician and visual artist who has long been fascinated by the symbiotic nature of music and visual art.
Driven by my desire to merge the two disciplines, I created a unique instrument called Coloratura that uses paintbrushes as midi controllers, allowing me to paint and create music simultaneously. Each of the 12 paintbrushes in the instrument interface plays a different note in the musical scale (or a different rhythmic tone) when touched to the canvas, and a foot-controlled pedal board allows me to
switch to various instruments, change the octave and loop notes to create polyphonic soundscapes. Traditionally, my work has focused on the relationship between colors and musical notes, but I have begun to experiment with ways to paint and create atonal rhythms. Each of the submitted pieces explores variations on visual representation of rhythm.




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Jaime McGlinn
artist

These works are a record of my journey listening to DJ John Digwood during lockdown. His livestreams seen people connect worldwide to listen to his live streams. His music is very inspiring to paint as it's full of magic and different tempos and emotions. The feeling of people connecting through music with a common love inspired these landscapes. It's kind of my recording of the place I ended up at while \I painted live to his music.

These are two of around forty works that followed that process. The Bunker series. Some now hang in the studios of DJ's and fans across the world. Jamie is also represented by a gallery in Paris and has work in an exhibition in Madrid as well as having had work in exhibitions in The Saatchi gallery London.

Music Link:


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Diane Armstrong
artist

Edward Plays The Spoons

Edward is living with dementia and used to spend “making days” with me at my home. Our routine began by making cheese scones. 
“I can’t make scones” and he would hold up the whisk and ask what it was. He would then bash it against the mixing bowl and the music would begin. He used the utensils and cooking implements as instruments and we would make up tunes together as we made food.
While the scones baked, we would chop vegetables for our soup lunch. “I can’t make soup” he would say and bash the potatoes together making a different sound. He would sometimes line up the vegetables and strike each one with the chopping knife as though he was hitting chime bars. The regular “chorus” from Edward was - “Come on, we need to get them in”.  He had lost interest in the activity and needed to go outdoors. I am still not sure who we were getting in. I can only assume the cows from his farming days. The risen scones taken with our morning coffee would always be a welcome surprise for Edward (who insisted he had had no part in making them.) The soup ready, we would walk the dog first. Edward would hum as he walked and we would play “name that tune” He whistles like the sound of a bird in greeting strangers and if we engaged in conversation he would sometimes strike up his chorus-
“We need to get them in”, and I would know it was time to move on. After lunch he would tell me “I can’t make blackberry pie” but soon a different set of instruments would be played and we might dance too. Edward didn’t like the pastry on his hands so it was my job to mix and he would roll, but not before he played the rolling pin on the work top or off the side of the sink and bonked the top of his head! Singing, “Yeah yeah we’re all shook up”- ever the Elvis fan. We would “get them in” a few times during the afternoon while painting or sewing as the pie cooked. He would often use the paint brushes as conductor sticks if we had decided to have background music playing. If I heard him say, “Arrh I like it here” when moving into the lounge for afternoon tea and pie, that would be music to my ears. He felt at home and it usually meant he was tired enough to sit down. Just occasionally I would hear him snoring. ZZZZZ


Edward taught me dementia isn’t about living in the past but very much about living in the now. The more present I could be with him the more fun we shared.

Musical notes on the pages:- All Shook Up  -  Lean on Me  -  Food Glorious Food  -  Tell out My Soul  -  All of Me  -  Let it Be  -  The Sound of Silence.

Music Link:




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Gilli Slater
artist

To me Rhythm comes through movement stimulated by music. As the music plays and the dance begins the Rhythm takes over be it the wild beats of earthy Morris or the joyful vintage feel of jazz that I've tried to capture through the movement of my pens on paper.
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Jane Shimmin
artist

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Jo Brown
artist

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Joanna Powell
musician artist

Joanna is a figurative artist and musician with a passion for music. Her inspiration comes both from the
music performed by the musicians she sketches and the shapes they make, as they become lost in
the rhythm of the music. The musicians depicted in these 2 paintings are all from bands she is
particularly interested in, from Greg Lawson(the Fiddler) based in Edinburgh and part of the band
Moishe’s Bagel, to her friend Tom (The Whistler) from sessions in Edinburgh. She has a particular interest in Balkan music
which is reflected in her style, described as ‘Modigliani meets East European folk art’. She also performs her own music with her own duo Lunetide. 

Music Link:


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Helen Bretherick-Stewart
artist  

The psalms of the Old Testament come from a collection of sacred songs in Hebrew scripture, forming the prayer book of ancient Israel. The writers’ emotive language and imagery may be quite visceral - full of anguish, fear and warning, but also reassuring, thankful and jubilant. To me they seem to proclaim much about the human condition which surpasses time, language, belief and culture. In Christian liturgical prayer the verses are sung by a cantor. The congregation, in turn, sings the repeated response. When I take part in this rhythmic, melodic call and response, the words often resonate more deeply. I have tried to translate something of the contrasting themes felt through hearing and singing the psalms: Lament; Hope; Rejoice.

Music Link:


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Ian Tothill & Phil Moody
These Men
musician artists


James Mackie
musician artist 



James is a Lancaster-based artist and musician. In recent years his bands have included The Convulsions, Get Carter, Heroes of She and North Sea Hijack. He plays Hammond Organ and Tenor Sax. His musical career started in the 1970s playing sax in the Pharaohs in Lancaster and then going on to record two albums as a member of the Two-Tone band the Selecter and later to play piano for Madness in live work, festivals and TV in the UK, the continent and America. He then composed music for theatre, dance, radio and film for many years whilst also developing as a specialist architectural painter/gilder and mural artist. He now paints full-time while music remains a continuing passion. “People use the same words to describe music and the visual arts – words like tone, rhythm, colour, mood, balance, composition, dynamics, harmony, theme, structure etc. I know if I’m working on a particular canvas there is definitely such a thing as appropriate and inappropriate music to be listening to. 


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Dabin Kim
artist

Étude series are drawings based on choreography scores on musical composition. I am interested in the visualisation of the auditory and how we can also symbolise different visual elements. I’m exploring choreographic scores with musical elements such as a rhythm, musical notes, composition and classical music theory. The musical notes consist of various connotations that instruct us how to articulate certain ideas. The various signs on the note without the sound will contribute towards the construction of imaginary narratives. 

The choreography scores without the performance make the viewer draw their own imaginative movement. This interaction with different senses creates the virtual performance piece based on their unrealised rhythm. In this Étude series work, the Labanotation, a system for analysing and recording human movement is created based on musical composition notes. The transformed Labanotation makes new performative scores. It will be practiced in the viewer's mind and will also be used to create visual rhythmic poems. In this journey, it could create various creative elements, such as rhythms and compositional structures.

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Jane Walker
artist

I am an artist inspired by music. 

Music Link:


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John Shapter
musician artist

As a musician, I am quite often `seeing` colours and shapes in my work. I work and produce in the ambient genre especially using field recordings and natural drone sounds. However, this doesn`t mean there is not rhythm in my music, it is just a little less discernible. My rhythms are the long term cycles of nature, the accidental patterns of waves and the complicated harmonics that appear as one
note melds with another.
The visual art links into the way that repeating a melody is never predictable or even-sounding as the energy of each sound wave reaching our ears is `coloured` by the remnants of the previous one as well as the natural sounds that alter it on the way from the instrument or speaker on it`s way to our ears.
My music is mostly improvisational or at least working around a few given notes at the beginning of a piece. Twice this year I have played in an art gallery, responding to the imagery around me. My music is also meditative and quite often used in the arena of wellbeing, although just as valid to enjoy as music alone.


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Sue Marsden
artist

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Jenette Coldrick
artist

For this opportunity I explored the work of “Linear” an American freestyle music trio which incorporated linear progression with a rhythm beat. The outcome was a fluid line composition tending towards the figurative which is often a feature in my work.
(Linear progressions prolong harmonies through elaboration, or filling-in with dissonant notes, of a leap between two consonant notes from different voices in a chord.)

Music Links:

Linear, an American freestyle music trio:



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Carole Bennett
artist

The first music that we all hear is the heartbeat of our mother. It is this rhythmic sound that gives us life. It is subliminal, yet it is a constant which follows us out of the womb. The cord is cut, only at the point when we begin the journey along our own rhythm of life.
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Emma Ronay
artist

Emma Ronay makes work using a variety of two dimensional media. Painting, printmaking, drawing ,cut-paper collage, digital photography and film.  


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Julie Saul
artist

Listening to music whilst painting in the studio is part of my daily routine. Recently I’ve been listening to Tems a Nigerian singer/songwriter, her music is about story telling and moments in time. Through layers of textured paint and washes I try to express my own experiences and moments in time

Music Link:


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Kate Eggleston-Wirtz
artist


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Kevin Bell
musician artist

I am a local folk musician based in Kendal. I host weekly music sessions and the these entries are both
linked to titles of famous, iconic songs. I play and sing trad folk and pop music.

Music Links:



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 Rosemary Cutler
artist

All 3 pieces relate to ‘ Sketches of Spain’ by Miles Davis and ‘ my memories of Spain’ through colour and print. Deep velvety purple’s of the night, flashes of yellow and clashes of thunder light up and resound around our valley in Andalusia. Daylight brings hot orange’s, yellows and the white heat of summer. Layer upon layer of colour that shifts and changes with the beat and tempo of ‘ Concierto de Aranjuez ‘ uniting both music and print.


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    • Liz Chapman
    artist

    Botanic Synthesis is a series of digital works, including a sound reactive digital installation accompanied by two digital prints of compositions produced by a rhythmic reaction to my favourite musical pieces. The digital installation reacts to sound, creating a composition wholly decided by sound and rhythm around the piece. I grew up surrounded by music of all kinds, which created a
    passion for music. My Mother with varied and extensive music taste, and my Father, a talented musician who plays multiple instruments exposed me to music of all kinds. The piece is inspired by how I feel about music and the synaesthesia I experience when I close my eyes listening to music. Botanic Synthesis is a visual representation of symphony and musical composition. Each element reflects the variety of sounds produced in a musical piece coming together as a whole to create a composition. 
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    Matthew C Vaughn
    musician artist

    Artist, musician and carpenter, My practice explores emerging material relationships and the rhythm of human and more than human agencies. Sound, thought of as vibration, is a keystone of the practice used as a relation-maker and an investigative medium that reveals material relationships between things, spaces and ourselves which are often left unconsidered in the perception of our environments. I am a classically trained musician and have played in many orchestras as I grew up. I was in a touring band playing the bass guitar for 10 years which immersed my life in the live performance of music. This side of my life is now coming out through my artistic practice, exploring
    the physicality of sound and the merging of sound generation and sculptural materials.



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    Leo Crane
    artist

    L’amour rebelle explores sexuality and conflict by reimagining Carmen from Georges Bizet’s classic opera. Rhythm visual and sonic) is integral to the piece, which began with one of opera's most famous arias (Habanera). It is a collaboration between Figuration animation studio and Electrifying Opera.

    In this new project, Roy Joseph Butler plays Carmen, disassociating the character from their gender, race, place and time, leaving a 21st-century figure and the opera’s oiseau rebelle (rebel bird), two alter egos competing for love. This struggle leads to rebirth and a new future.

    The project includes a historic NFT collection, with unique vinyl records, original charcoal drawings, a film in two parts, as well as a Time Capsule created and sealed at the world premiere of the live opera on 29 March at NFTLA, Los Angeles. 

    Please note full credits: Directed & animated by Leo Crane Musical arrangement by Zachary Whitney


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    Lisa Banks
    artist

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    Andy Shackleton
    artist


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    Lisa Pitchford
    artist

    After 3 years of no travel, I escaped the country this year to relax in hotter climes and was unexpectedly hit with inspiration for a new collection of drawings, the first live music I had experienced since the pandemic restricted us to our homes and starved us of access to the joy of seeing performers at their very best - in the flesh ! There is nothing more infectious than hearing the beat of live music in the great outdoors, and I was struck by the amazing skill of the artists, converting notes from a score into something that gets into your soul and makes you want to move to the rhythm.
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    Michael Bebb
    artist

    Music Links:


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    Milan Ivanic
    artist

    Much of my painting in the studio is accompanied by the sound of classical music

    Music Link:


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    Nick Cash
    musician artist

    I am a drummer and artist. I play with  punk band The Members. As an artist I make collage using advertising hoarding material and am inspired by the Nouveau Realists. These drum heads were used by me and usually would be landfill when discarded. The collage elements are cut to fit, each piece tessellating with another, i,e the pieces do not overlap.


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    Paul Kharade
    artist

    We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper. - Albert Einstein

    Everything in the universe resonates at its own individual frequency. These resonant frequencies that form the basis of sound, music and rhythm harbour a hidden world of form and structure. Via the medium of ceramics, I explore these invisible worlds, in an attempt to offer an alternative perspective of sound and music, making tangible that which is beyond our reach. Through my research and utilisation of cymatics (the study of wave phenomena), I have devised a technique of capturing these frequencies and manifesting them into three-dimensional forms. The methods I employ are a fusion of modern technologies such as 3d modelling and CNC machining, coupled with the more traditional technique of mould making and slip casting.

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    • Paul Hartley
    artist


    I always listen to music as I work (either jazz or classical), and use it as a source of energy and rhythm to accompany and influence me as I draw. I literally find myself at times drawing faster or slower as the music progresses from track to track times to inspire the vigorous pencil slashes across the paper. This is tempered by collage elements more carefully placed after the graphite marks to
    create the compositional structure that I feel works for the piece. I am constantly seeking to represent an abstract distortion of reality based upon my own shortsightedness and, as is often the case with abstract art, based essentially upon natural forms and elements.

    The mixed media images made with graphite, paint and/or collage, are comprised of apparently confused multi-layered marks that relate to the ‘glasses’ format and which invite the viewer to untangle them.
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    Pete Marsh
    artist

    I am less concerned with topographical detail but much more interested in the overall rhythm, mood and atmosphere of live performance. Whenever possible I prefer to work from life and will sketch members of a band during the sound-check and the live show. I only produce work inspired by concerts which I have attended, feeling that first-hand experience of the atmosphere is crucial to my work. “Artist-in-Residence” The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Colne. Lancashire.

    Music Links:



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    Rosa Mackinder
    artist


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    Rachel Evans
    artist

    Every two months, Manchester based music producers Joey T and Levi Love send an original tune of theirs to each other. They have until the end of the month to remix it, and I have until the end of the month to create the cover art for the EP based on those four tunes. Each final artwork is named after the two original tunes and, whenever possible, is created live in Levi's studio whilst the remixes are
    finished. Whether we like it or not, the outcome is released through the label Bambanani on Bandcamp. This project deliberately pushes each of us to the limit, and is an exercise in 'just doing it', not being precious or caught up in the details. Each month we raise the bar for each other, get  incredibly stressed out and have loads of fun in the process. Oh, and create something to be proud of! This is our creative rhythm and emotional exchange. We aim to release a compilation on vinyl next year.....if our nerves can last that long.


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    Richard O'Meara
    artist

    Birdsong has long been an inspiration for classical music and remains a constant background soundtrack in all our lives. These two images are made up from wildlife photographs I have taken and brought together to celebrate the joy they bring to our lives.

    Music Link:


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    Rob Bee
    musician artist

    Music and art are my life! As a professional musician I play piano, saxophone and sing. I also compose and arrange music, and perform improvised music. My art is always inspired by music one way or another. Creating music and creating art are inextricably linked for me.
    I create what I call ‘BeeMAP’s’ (music art poems) where I combine all the disciplines to produce one work.


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    Scab (Rory da Silva)
    musician artist

    The working title 8-1-1 is based on the atomic numbers of the elemental components of water. As a producer & an artist I wanted to paint a piece for my album artwork. The two track album has a water theme with samples of water flow through each track. I had the album on repeat in headphones, whilst outside I let the rhythmic beats transfer into my paint brush & hands to create the flow on the canvas. Layers added over time are a visual representation of the wave forms. I attempted to get into a meditative state during this process, allowing the subconscious to control the splashes. Rhythmic dancing.
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    Sue Dawes
    artist

    Music Link:


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    Shane Johnstone

    Music Link:


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    Tess Baxter
    artist

    I nearly always work my video art with creative commons music. The process starts with collecting visual material, then finding music that I feel would relate to it (which can take just as long), and the visuals are then tight edited with the music. I use a broad range of music from classical, jazz, folk and contemporary, where rhythm, pulse or space are important. This is one where rhythm is most
    apparent in the music, and the editing works with it. I have used the band's work in two of my pieces of video art - their approach is very much like mine, often mixing and blending material across time and influences.

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    Thank you for taking the time to look through the work from the exhibition:

    Rhythm: Art in Conversation with Music

    Presented by

    King Street Arts


    The Gallery upstairs in The Storey Building




    King Street Arts: Roy Smith and Kath McDonald


    Please note the images on this page are not to scale.




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