The Influence of Music in my Art
Most of the time it's the atmosphere. Once in a while, it's one line that changes everything.
I have always been someone who feels deeply. The type who can buckle under an offhand comment and then spend hours spiralling if she's in a certain place. My moods have always gone up and down like a children's roller coaster – not massively low lows, but enough to notice.
I used to think that it was linked to my body's natural cycle, but even after menopause it continues, so it must be something else or just me.
I read the room. I pick up on subtle mood changes. I even used to sympathy cry at pre-school. Over time I have realised it is simply a part of who I am.
And finding music to accompany my moods to sooth or energise or sympathise has always been part of me too. Music has always been a large part of my everyday life.
I have never actually done anything in music myself. One off hand comment from a boy at school put an end to my singing in public, but listening has been a constant presence and one that influences my art more than I probably realised at first and maybe not directly.
My taste is what you would call eclectic. Classical, film scores, divas, pop, 80s, indie bands, punk, a bit of rap, club music, drum & bass, rock, the list goes on. The only music I consistently can't listen to is country – sorry Dolly – it's me it's not you. Other than that if I like it I like it or love it! I love finding new music by new artists too. The kids know when I have found a new song I like as it is played back to back several times until I have almost absorbed it.
Depending on my mood I could be listening to Sea Girls or Sub Focus, Radiohead or Raye, Hans Zimmer or Fontaines DC, The Cure or Coldplay. Throw in a bit of Queen, Eminem, Whitney Houston and The Fall, and you might get an idea of how varied my taste is.
The one thing that all these artists have in common though is that they make me feel something. It won't be the same thing, I have music to uplift, music to think to, music to remember, music to feel sad to. But when I feel something it makes me want to create something in paint.
Most of the time it's not a specific thing, it's the whole atmosphere of a track, the mood it puts me in while I paint. Sometimes the music makes me think about something that translates into an idea for a painting, sometimes I already have the feeling and I subconsciously choose music that fits. But every now and then it will be something more direct, a lyric, sometimes just one genius line.
I painted a piece called For A Minute There I Lost Myself, inspired by a line from Radiohead's Karma Police a few years ago. It was painted during a particularly hard time in my life when I had just lost my Dad. He was also an artist and a mainstay in my life. He made me feel safe, and looked after and suddenly he was gone. I didn't really have time to grieve as I was straight into caring for my lovely Mum who was 88 and now living alone. I felt completely lost, submerged in emotions I couldn't quite express and unsure what the future held. The world had been skewed on its axis. Nothing quite made sense.
I listened to a lot of Radiohead around that time. It suited my mood. My son calls it my depressing music but strangely despite what was going on at the time I didn't find it depressing – I found it deep. Deep is where I needed to be to eventually find myself again, and that one line stood out. For A Minute There I Lost Myself. I had lost myself and their music helped me to express that in paint when I couldn't express it in words.
I have painted under the influence of many different genres of music. They all reflect different parts of me and the different emotions we all experience.
Because life isn't just one feeling, just one mood.
And neither is art.
- Jewels x