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ahead of myself

Self Portrait - Dan Beck - digital painting 2007

Multiple meanings are to me as much fun as multiple solutions - and generally more obvious than all the different ways to get to a solution to a problem…

and yes I believe there is almost always more than one way to solve any problem.

In most cases, I find myself thinking through all the things that need to be done in a project and try to foresee the obstacles. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that the most efficient way was the best way.

I am no longer certain that either that is true or that there even is such a thing as the best way. Sometimes the longer route is the better - and most of the time we can not see our way around all the obstacles anyway.

In art and music - I seem to know this. I start and work around the problems as they come up; but in life - I sometimes think I can no more teach myself than I can anyone else …

such is life.

Listen or View

• Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself - track 4 of the Red Eye Recordings | Dan Beck | 1danband - they say “you can’t see the forest through the trees” but if one is only focused on the forest one can’t see the trees either
• Listening - outhouse studios commentary on what this means and the recording process- although it does not touch on my recent assertion that listening is one of the most important things separating music from noise
• Where teaching oneself and listening coincide - this sounds like some young question and answer session - but a good answer and pertinent I think

slow release

Red Eye Recordings - cover art - digital art (painting) - Dan Beck 2007

There is no right moment and yet I find myself waiting.

If we find ourselves sick - we wonder what we were waiting for -

We can understand life is a gift - that the amount of time is limited - but none of us - including me - embrace it until we really feel the fear of death - we see ourselves immortal

we put off until tomorrow - how can we not?

I don’t know why it is time today to release - the music from last Spring - but I believe it is.

Free to listen, free to download - free to donate - I doubt that I will be able to put all the pieces in place today - but I have to start somewhere - and to quote … well Hillel as it turns out “If not now, when?”

proving once again - that one of the most innovative things about music is that melody helps us remember content.

Listen or View

• Red Eye Recordings - alone & contageous - Dan Beck | 1danband
  • Track 1 - Red Eye 1
    
  • Track 2 - Do What You Believe In
• If Not Now - acoustic guitar and vocals - video - Tracy Chapman - a beautiful melody and partly why I remember the phrase

after seven years observing, I have finally seen the air hoe

Air Hoe 3 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

There will be art prints available for the above piece - but I am in the process of rethinking how I want to offer these. So be patient or not, and I will figure it out.

Almost a month ago I featured a new digital painting. At the time I commented that I would explain the posture of the last figure at a later date. It was not consciously trying to recreate what I had seen, but when I sketched in the figure, I saw I had included a figure a lot like the above.

I will say - that I actually saw a field worker playing his hoe momentarily like a guitar. Since I didn’t hear any music, I assumed it was not plugged in and he was playing the air hoe.

For reasons I will not explain here, I used the same figure in three different digital paintings - proving once again - that I have no issue with breaking my own rules.

See Also

• Field of Hoes - first of the hoe paintings - perhaps I am working on a virtual hoe series
• Virtual Air Guitar Totally Rocks, Dude: Science Fiction in the News - not the hoe sound but how silly and amazing is this? - music from the modern mime
• LOOK CLOSER » Air Guitar Championships - I think I like it better with the hoe, but what do I know

so much to do - difficult to move

Finding it difficult to blog this week - my website has to be moved to a new host - yesterday - and it is a more complicated process than it should be - images and pages case sensitive where they weren’t and htm/html endings a necessity and more problems to discover. 

Even though it came from a different place I keep hearing this song:

I can’t stand still and I can’t move on
And it’s way too hot to be writing this song
I can’t stand still and I can’t move on
It’s a common theme, but maybe nothing’s wrong

Patience, Virtue, Assertiveness,
Listening, Asking, Believing in,
Connecting to what counts

We can’t stand still and we can’t move on
And it’s not like anything has even gone wrong
We can’t stand still and we can’t move on
There’s so much to do and it will take so long

You can’t stand still and you can’t move on
And you might not know why I write this song
You can’t stand still and you can’t move on
So it’s not all good, but then there’s nothing wrong

See Also

• Can’t Stand Still
  Listen to song - music from 1danband | dansingnew - lyrics music and instruments played by Dan Beck - recorded end of last year
• Escape from Cubicle Nation: There is nothing wrong with you
  sometimes things seem wrong when they are not - including ourselves

connections to 9/11, and how seeing only the small picture is misleading

Looking at the small picture (thumbnail) of any of these digital paintings above, practically lies about the artwork. Together stacked up they are even more confusing and even a bit ugly.

It is the fifth anniversary of 9/11, a perpetuated climate of fear, and a day of grief and remembrance.

There are no poignant words to help someone grieve - there are no surefire steps to help someone move on.

What I can offer today -is a piece of my own grieving process - a song I wrote in the spring of ‘03 - having gone through divorce, my mother’s death and on the eve of having to put my dog Max down. He was with me when I wrote the song, but already gone when I created this image of him for the original Outhouse Studios logo.

There is an additional connection to 9/11 - which is that I finished mastering the song "Has Life Turned a Corner?" on 9/11 the following year for the About Time CD. 

I believe it to be emotionally accurate.

See Also

• Has Life Turned A Corner? from “About Time” CD
  First time in my life I ever really had thought the past might be a better place to be living than the present - how I have dealt with grief - words, music, performance by Dan Beck
• Original Art-chives
  above images are all found there - archived partially because their thumbnails show such a misrepresented image
• 9/11 was a Hoax: The American government killed its own people
  stumbled upon this article - I personally don’t understand evil - and haven’t studied 9/11 enough to recognize what is true or not - but I have seen money and power corrupt - who knows?

Digital Painting and Music: Interview

Music at Outhouse Studios

Thought it was about time I posted the first podcast produced for Outhouse Studios. The first audio file includes original music and an interview.

Dale Bayless asked various questions about the origins of outhouse studios and the inspiration for my art and music.

There are numerous areas which of course didn’t get covered, but I think it gives a sense of what I value and what I hope people might get from my work.

For further insight, in addition to blog articles, there is information at about and contact information.

There is a feed to be alerted of future podcasts. Some of what I hope to do in the future is to introduce new music and give insight and perhaps further explanation as to where a piece comes from and what it means.

See Also

• Digital Painting and Music
  Dale Bayless interviews Dan Beck
• RSS Feed - Podcast Channel
  Keep abreast of future podcasts

Creating Art from Concept and Pleasing to Look At

About Time CD Cover - Fall 2005 - Hear Clips

So above is another example of art designed specifically for a musical CD.  This was for a production last fall. The title has multiple meanings, but was important to me to convey that the subject matter was indeed time itself.

The tree theme is also laden with references to family to time span to stretching in space; and the tree is one of the first images I ever drew or painted.

The sky reflects the seasons as well - going from the bleak gray pallor of Winter to the crisp blue color of Fall.

As I have previously discussed, creating art from a concept provides a wonderful guideline - a limit which in many instances is welcome. But it is every bit as important to me that in whatever concept or impression I try to convey it is also pleasing to look at.  That is always my hope and intent.

See Also

• Listen to Music at Outhouse Studios
  Info and excerpts from 3 musical Albums/CD’s
• The Genealogy Home Page
  Extensive resource for developing Family Tree
• IStockphoto.com: Seasonal Skies
  Many photographic examples of sky seasonality

Lyrics to first song which sets tone for album

New CD - 1danband | dansingnew - available now!

The first track on the album as well as the first clip on the music page is probably my favorite song - not best song, not best on album, not best played - but song I probably like the best - at least this week.

As the first song - it sets the tone of the album - it is a bit amusing, definitely energetic, serious, but not all that serious. At least so I hope. The lyrics are included below - based on current observations of life:

Something must be wrong ‘cause I’m enjoying life
Seems I’m conditioned to not be this way
I’ve been way too happy, so there must be something wrong
Everybody knows, you’ve got to pay to play

 

We’ve been given this time
We don’t know when it will end
It’s our nature to squander
Our lot to pretend

We’ve been given this time
We might not get it again
It’s our nature to squander
And miss life staring ahead

 

There’s a price we all carry
For the pain of the world
Hurting our self
Just by being alive

There’s a price we all carry
For suffering through
We are all quite connected
It’s just one universe

Please go to the music page or listen to the excerpt from this song directly. 

See Also

• Here is the first paragraph, which sets the theme, tone and direction of my booklet:
  Good example of how a beginning sets the tone
• Marc Sabatella’s Jazz Improvisation Primer: Jazz Fundamentals
  Another example of the beginning setting the tone
• Listen to music at outhouse studios
  Excepts from 1danband | dansingnew - and purchasing info

Music and Art Reflecting Each Other

Caribbean 4 - CD Cover option - the one that got away

I did a CD cover for a friend of mine’s new album. I gave him a few options. He used some of all the other artwork I sent him but not this particular piece.

His is a Latin jazz album - just being released but I will put the link to his site anyway - latinquarterjazz.com. I don’t know when info on the new album will hit his site, but I will show off the album artwork when that happens.*

So this colorful piece came from a song list of which I only knew some, the sound of some previously recorded music, and some instructions about the album being Caribbean and Romantic.

All I know is those would be mighty nice legs to be owning - particularly this time of year - certainly a place I would like to be.

* Apparently it has been updated since I last checked - CD art and album info now visible.

See Also

• CD Information at LatinQuarterJazz.com
  Info on new album - with Cover art by Dan Beck
• Red - Music Related Artwork
  Example of someone else doing artwork for CD’s

Communication, Improvisation, Uncharted Territory

View Flipped Out Jazz - Digital Painting - 2005 

Like my first attempt at portraying jazz (Jazz 1)in a visual medium, I used the obvious references to jazz instruments, sun glass coolness, and fingers and strings.

What I did in this piece which is actually a bit more jazz-like is that I went somewhere with the piece I had never explored before. I landed upon some uncharted territory which is the ultimate in improvisation.

Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner is quoted in the Telegraph Arts  "I can’t predict the directions my music will go. For me, all music is a journey of the soul into new, uncharted territory." Whether that comes through in the above piece without having said so is probably no more clear than whether a listener will recognize new musical space.

Part of my hope in portraying jazz was to touch on the type of communication used by musicians. The instrument clues provide a starting point for conversation, but there is an energy of play found clearly as well.  The final thing which was new to me and the uncharted territory in this case, was to let the computer flip over and/or reverse certain sections of the piece - thus the name Flipped Out Jazz.

See Also

• CSMonitor.com - In jazz as in life - err on side of adventure
  Lesson in communication of musicians and people
• PBS - Jazz Exchange - Recording Ban
  A bit of Jazz history - recording ban and “uncharted” bebop
• Telegraph: Young Turks and old revolutionaries stir up London’s jazz festival
  Preview of London Jazz Festival - quotes McCoy Tyner
• PBS - Profile of McCoy Tyner
  History and some music