Practice Makes Perfect

As I thought about what to possibly make my video on, I considered something I do just about every single day-- practice piano. It isn't glamorous, it isn't always fun or relaxing, and it doesn't produce a sound I would consider pretty. As is discussed in McLuhan's "The Medium is the Massage," digital media allows us to be involved in each others' lives in a way that has never before been possible. On another note, the advent of the digital camera and film has allowed artists to present the world to their audience by showing them only what they want to see, which is different than seeing a play or traversing a landscape. I wanted to force the viewer to experience or listen to something they may not find fascinating as a means of understanding what goes into a practice session. This is the reality of being a classical pianist!



"The eye--it cannot choose but see; we cannot bid the ear be still; our bodies feel, where'er they be, against or with our will." -- Wordsworth

Xiaohong Zhang: "Traversing Medium & Re-Approaching Motifs in Contemporary Art"

"Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of 'time' and 'space' and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale" (McLuhan  16). This phrase demonstrates exactly the spirit of Xiaohong Zang's work. Her paper cuttings and digital work blend traditional Chinese art styles and mediums with modern day issues. These cover not only those of the working class in China, but across the globe. The interconnectedness of people around the world is evident in her work, in the mere fact that audiences are interested in art centering around the struggles of those whose lives are far different from, and far away from, theirs.

A prime example of blending of current-day issues with traditional styles would be Zhang's print "A Thousand Miles of Mountains." The print when viewed further back has the appearance of a characteristically majestic ancient Asian landscape painting. Upon closer inspection, however, one can see that this work depicts construction rigs, cranes and smoke stacks from factory buildings. This commentary on the environmental issues that plague modern China is made all the more poignant in masking it as a traditional scene, which creates a longing for the landscape of the past destroyed by human hands.

A Thousand Miles of Mountains, digital print on canvas, 2017

Another illustration of the artists' concern for issues of the present era is her series of digital prints "Last Kiss," a set of works in honor of the losses at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. Using herself and her family as models, she captures an everyday exchange between siblings and parents before school, the viewer painfully aware of the tragedy to come. The scenes combine paper-cutting with digital processes, with newspaper headlines pasted onto the work.

Last Kiss I, II and III, digital print and paper-cutting, 2012-2013

My World

I’ve never been able to fully express my creative vision with words, because so much of what I make seems to happen without them. It would be comparable to chasing after a butterfly, grabbing it for a second and taking notes on it. In a similar way, the art that I’m inspired by is also like a butterfly-- there one second and gone the next. Most art that I find great joy in I can only best describe as giving a sudden wash of feeling or energy, all there and gone in a fleeting instant.

I love to explore the reaches beyond the familiar or known. Rich, outlandish, alluring, eerie, it is one that can only be experienced deep in the depths of one’s own mind. It is my artistic goal to draw the viewer or listener of my art, through illustration or music, into another environment. As McLuhan says in The Medium is the Massage, “Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique rations of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act-- the way we perceive the world” (41). That being said, the artists I love tend to create larger-than-life microcosms or characters one would never find simply walking down the street. The musicians I love, Iron Maiden, Nightwish, Ghost, and Death Grips to name a few, present intensely dramatic stage personalities, inviting the audience into another universe with their music. They’re eccentric, bold, and unapologetic. To many they might seem garish or tacky. These artists make me feel alive. Maiden’s anthemic power metal bursts with heart-racing energy, Bruce Dickinson owning the stage with delightfully corny theatrics. Tarja Turunen’s angelic vocals of pre-2005 Nightwish perfectly harmonize with the symphonic metal band behind her. This group in particular is a wonderful example of how classical and metal can be combined. Papa Emeritus, chanting eerily above the crisply performed heavy metal hymns of Ghost, is pristinely haunting. Death Grips’ extreme and jagged electric experimental hip hop bumps and buzzes with life, frontman MC Ride never failing to deeply rattle the listener. My idols change, certainly. But all of these artists express something profoundly in tandem with what my creative spirit says, something I want to capture musically as well.

The women I paint are mystical, alluring, their appearances hinting at the wild and unusual lifestyles they lead. The beholder is filled with wonder and awe as they see her in the precise moment the sun hits perfectly. Each work is crafted as carefully as the pieces of music I enjoy most. The vibrancy and contrast is bumped to an extreme. Each one expresses a clear and distinctive identity. They are brave warriors, heroes, villains, temptresses, nymphs, and demons. They come from another time and place. While my music and art are two different media, the inspiration for both comes from the same world. Each medium opens a window onto it in a different way.

http://izzieandries.wixsite.com/andriesportfolio

My artist website

https://soundcloud.com/isabella-andries/riffs-and-shreds-beethoven-fantasy/s-czF0t

A short piece I wrote for composition class last spring term that I would love to be played on electric guitar

https://soundcloud.com/isabella-andries/night-shift/s-pGN1B
An electronic piece that resembles sounds of a haunted factory at night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWNdjEafof8

Death Grips Lost Boys

https://youtu.be/f3aM0XjYdBA

Nightwish The Kinslayer