What Do Artists Listen To While They Create
By Susan Twardus Faith
Through The Decades
The influence of music on the creation of visual art and vice versa has been well documented, discussed, examined and debated for centuries. During the Age of Enlightenment, for example, the gaudy gold style of art and architecture changed drastically, as composers steered music into a new era of classicalism and melodic harmonies.
Creation of visual art as well as music were both mastered with composers, Felix Medulson and George Gershwin who were also talented painters.
Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky played the violin from an early age and was deeply inspired by music using musical terms as titles for his paintings.
Music was so important to Marc Chagall that the term was the theme of an impressive exhibition of his work, Chagall, Colour and Music.
For a time, Georgia O’Keeffe was occupied with the idea that music could be translated into something for the eye. This led to the creation of several abstract works inspired by music.
These examples as well as others were the inspiration for this feature. We wanted to know,
What do Artspan Member Artists listen to while creating their artwork?
So we asked that very question with a survey. The results did not disappoint.
What the responding artists listened to ran the gamut between, what you might expect, to nothing at all.
The Survey Says..........
It was no surprise that Music came in at number one, for our artist’s listening preference. Artists also listed that they listened to: Sonic Loops, Solfeffio Frequencies, Binaura Beats and simply Silence.
The type of music coming in at number one, was shared by, Rock/Classic Rock/Heavy Metal and Classical at 36.44 percent each.
The next runner ups were, Jazz, Blues and Contemporary/Pop/Soft Rock
There were also some interesting "Others" listed which regestered 27.12 percent and they included, New Age Celtic, Prayer, Rain and Nature Sounds, Sonic Loops and Ticking Clocks/Metronome
Let's take a look at some of the artist members who introduced us to their musical muses.
We also asked the question,
What Decade Shaped Your Musical Taste?
The survey came back with the
60's 70's and 80's
being the most influential.
The type of music was quite diverse and music was not the only thing our members listened to.
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