Sound and Music Drawings

It was a small leap from going to to concerts and drawing pictures of what the musicians look like, to drawing what they sound like. Most of the drawings here are from the Suoni Per Il Popolo festivals in Montreal. These are drawn with my eyes closed, using both hands, often holding four utensils (like chopsticks in each hand.) I usually make one drawing per song, following the music as carefully as I can: ascent/descent, volume, percussion, rhythm, harmony, dissonance, the mix of instruments, atmosphere, etc. These drawings are a both a description of, and a response to the sound – somewhere between recording what I hear, and improvising along with the music – playing a silent instrument (silent except for the scratching of pens and pencils.) The physically immersive qualities of live music, plus drawing with my eyes closed, allowed me to work from touch as much as from hearing or seeing. I can’t help thinking that the closest parallel would be to dance.