MUSIC

Music

12" x 18" Mixed Media Drawing on Antique Parchment

I've had this piece on my easel for quite a while.  I've marked on it some adding a detail or two but just haven't had the push I needed to get it finished.  Each instrument is significant to me and a music themed piece is something I've had lots of customers request - I just never picked the drawing when it came time to sit down and work.

This weekend, like so much of the country, we were snowed in.  Other than binge watching Netflix and baking lots of treats, I finally decided it was time to bring this drawing to life.  I really enjoyed my time with it and hope it finds a suitable home where music is loved and enjoyed.

Like I mentioned, each instrument I selected from a vast array of possibilities, has some significance to me.  My daughter played the saxophone, my father played the clarinet and I played the french horn and mandolin (this one by the way, came all the way from Florence when I traveled there after high school).   I took a few violin lessons and my older sister played some, too but the little violin is a tribute to my German grandfather who played the violin at every wedding, barn dance and funeral in southwest Kansas.  My mother often described him as moody and mean but she said her fond memories of him would be hearing him play his violin.

Finally the old piano keyboard is by far my favorite part of this drawing.  I love the dingy and indented keys and I deliberately drew some of them sprung.  It reminds me of the old, upright piano in our rural, country church.  I became the pianist at church when I was still in junior high.  By then few people occupied the farm homes scattered around the area and even fewer came to the run down building on Sunday.  The pews were handmade, you could see daylight through some of the wall boards and there were deep grooves on the keys where many pioneer fingers had played "Victory in Jesus" before me.