Painting to Music

Today, I painted a picture to music. Now I am no artist when it comes to things like drawing or painting. But that's not what this was about.


The Harmony Project Choir

I sing with a 200-voice all-volunteer, community choir called The Harmony Project whose motto is "Sing, Serve, Share." We're a nonprofit that puts on raucously inspiring concerts to raise money for area charities. In addition, during our season we do various service projects to give back to our community. 

One of those service projects is The Unison Project, a choir consisting of adults who are transitioning from living on the streets of Columbus, Ohio to permanent housing. This project brings people from the big choir together with members of our community who have been marginalized by factors like mental illness, addiction, disability, and lack of work to work together toward unity and harmony in our community.

This year, our director engaged an artist whose medium is painting to music. For her, certain music evokes certain sensory reactions and influences what she paints.

According to Wikipedia, synesthesia is a neurological characteristic where the five senses in some people's brains get a little jumbled up. For instance, some people, when they hear music, see colors and patterns. The colors and patterns they see depends on the type of music they're listening to.

So, backed up by members of our band--some of the best jazz musicians in town, btw--playing a bluesy version of "This Land Is Your Land" that our director arranged, our charge was to listen to the music and paint, letting the music run through our brains and down through our fingers.

I am usually intimidated, as I'm sure many are, by a blank page and a paint brush. But for some reason, once we had listened to the song a few times, sang through it, and let it wash over us, many who are not artists just leapt right into the blank canvas, spreading color all over, creating designs that evoked everything from land and sea to community and harmony. It was a fabulous ride! Here's a sampling of our work:

My meager offering. Some said it was a sunflower.

This one says it all:



What a wonderful afternoon it was, singing, serving and sharing. I am truly thankful.

This post is linked to the following killer blogs:
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