rubyudys · Playlist · 9 songs
I always listen to music when I paint, and I'd like to share some of the songs that were the background music for my creation of 'Miscreation', or that accompany the disposition of the piece well...
Listening back to this playlist takes me back to precisely the moments of time as I painted this piece.
I have never publicly released an artist statement for 'Miscreation', as I do with my other pieces. I don't think I plan to either. Sometimes the intention behind art is indescribable, but I believe that these chosen 9 song illustrate the 'mood' (buzzword!) that went into this piece.
'Out of Time' by Deb Never.
This song is so moody, and so was I in July 2020, when I began painting 'Miscreation.' The title vaguely alludes to the exhibition the piece was featured in, 'One Minute to Midnight: a Nuclear Apocalypse Exhibition.' It's dire, but in terms of climate change, I feel that we are pretty much 'out of time.' 'Miscreation', was however, not painted with the exhibition in mind, it is just visually a natural sibling to the concept of universal catastrophe. What could have gone so wrong for this to happen to a skull and or a pomegranate?
'So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth' by Grimes.
As aforementioned, while I was paining 'Miscreation', I did not have the 'One Minute to Midnight' exhibition in mind thematically, I did however, listen to this Grimes song quite alot, which is totally set in dystopian hell-scape. I paint pretty slowly and often sit quite still for hours on end. This song is floaty, calm and almost dissociative. A song to listen to as you enter that 'flow state.'
This song sounds like a vigorous painting process. It is also a sound which my wonderful friends made. Not only is it painterly, but it keeps me inspired in the way of, "look how wonderful and creative your friends are, aren't they clever!?" The world is full of art that makes me get up and go for it too, this is an example of that. I want to be a part of the creative landscape. This ! song ! is ! Mighty !
Shout out to the homies <3
"Tracing thin threads through stems,
the botanist affixes fine stipules."
"One side forever wilted. The other never dead
Ambrosial elements caged in forceful arrogance,
ignorant wisteria the lesser of two."
"To bruise the petals and see a dream where all the colours fade into me, you must find for yourself what this all represents before it's life swiftly withers."
'I Don't Know You' by The Marías.
I had just gone through a breakup with my first 'proper' boyfriend at the time when I began painting this piece. There is nothing quite like a first heartbreak! It was certainly emotionally driven, and that emotional pain is most definitely an undercurrent for this piece. I love The Marías' soft sensitive music. I'd really like to curl up inside the timbre of their music and daydream for a while. In terms of album art and aesthetic of the band too, they are distinctly my taste. Superb.
'Possibly Maybe' by Björk.
'Possibly Maybe' is one of my most favourite songs of all time. Even recently in a 'ice breaker-get to know you' type activity for uni, I claimed that it was my favourite song. Now, thats commitment. This song will accompany me through many painting sessions to come. It also happens to be a song featuring some thematic emotional pain. Is there a recurring theme here? Possibly maybe.
You're eruptions and disastersI keep calm admiring your lava"
'Simmer' by Hayley Williams.
Unfortunately, this song came out after I finished painting 'Miscreation.' Ms. Williams came through in 2021 with a cutting, mighty and very necessary, (what I feel to be a breakup album) 'Petals for Armor'. I needed this song in 2020, and I will need forever. Again, the emotional undercurrent!! Ooooft.
You think that you've tamed it
But it's just lying in wait"
"If I had seen my reflection
As something more precious
and if my child needed protection
From a fucker like that man
'Cause nothing cuts like a mother"
'Demolition Lovers' by My Chemical Romance.
My Chemical Romance were my first love. This song is able to conjure up some teenage sorrows, and it is sonically quite volatile. Heartbreak + musings of the past + volatility = vital ingredients for creative work.
In my brain, or as per my chromesthesia, ("sound-to-color synesthesia, in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of colour" (Cytowic, 2018), this song is most definitely magenta. Red and purple and therefore, magenta, is the punctuation for the emotional sensibility of this piece.
Finally, 'Hot Faced.' To me, this song sounds like a pivot in thinking. A moment where you say to yourself, "I can make something interesting from my sadness." This song also sounds, to me, slightly bitter-sweet romantic, but rather than romancing others, I thought it might be time to romantize my self and my art. It's an acknowledgment of intense emotions, but also doing something better with it, if you can conjure it within yourself. A contemplation of all that you are, and all that you could be.
Insane, what they all say
Cry hard, you're not that serious"
Now the king will see you
Slowly, softly, sweetly, slowly"
'Miscreation', Ruby Udys, 2020, oil paint on 120x120cm canvas (SOLD).