Thom Yorke: Analyse (WIP)

Thom Yorke: Analyse (work in progress). 2009. Oil on canvas. 20"x24".

This weekend I painted the portrait portion of the next piece in my "Illustrated Music" series. The series will continue to explore the idea I had for painting how I visualize the sounds in of some of my favorite songs, which was first entertained in the Bjork: Bachelorette piece I did back in 1999. Much more information on the concept behind the series can be found in that blog post.

Photoshop was used to tone down some of the shadows that showed up when I took the flash photograph. Right now this canvas is sitting in front of a fan set on full power in order to speed up the drying process. When I tried painting the colored shapes over the black and white portrait of Bjork, some of the underlying paint mixed with the song layer, which desaturated the colors a bit. Hopefully that won't happen this time when I come back to this once it has dried.

This is the third time I've worked on a piece with Thom Yorke's image, the previous two being the Weezer vs. Radiohead piece in 2002 and the graphite portrait in 1999. For this new painting, I'll be painting the sounds and shapes that come to mind for the Thom Yorke song "Analyse," off his 2006 album The Eraser. It's a very haunting and melancholy song, and so the lines and shapes for the song will reflect that when they are later painted in the vacant areas around his head and shoulders. For now though, I thought I'd post the portrait part of the piece to give some background into the next painting in the Illustrated Music series.

I'll be painting The Eraser's LP version of "Analyse." The song starts at 4:55 in the video below:

Bjork: Bachelorette

Bjork: Bachelorette. 1999. Oil on Canvas. 14"x30".

This is the first piece I painted with a synaesthesia motif, a phenomenon where music and text are assigned inherent colors. The condition exists for a small number of people, which I learned during my research on a paper in college. In making the Bjork painting, I would close my eyes, listen to her song again and again, and create shapes that represented each part of the song. After that, I would assign each shape a color that best represented the sound to me. The final piece is a straightforward portrait of the Icelandic singer Bjork surrounded by swirling colored shapes that each represent an instrument or sound effect in the song. Here is the key to each shape:

light blue line: vocals
orange lines: violins
green shapes: "scratchy" sound effect
red line: piano
purple shapes: bass
maroon dots: jingle bell

The shapes along the "song stream" were placed with respect to when they actually are heard during the song's timeline. It is my goal to do a series of paintings using this concept, through the lenses of different artists and songs.

I didn't have an easel or worktable in my college dorm, so I had to put the canvas on my bunkbed and paint it while standing. It makes me appreciate my current drafting table all the more.

To hear the song, click the link below. Try isolating each layer of sound in your mind as you listen, and see what shape and color appears for you:

Bachelorette (Family Tree Version) - Bjork