Artist Statement

I am a painter; I am a musician. In the past I often struggled with the dilemma of having two great devotions, until I realized that I need not treat them as separate entities, but instead as a single, powerful venue through which to share my ideas and visions with the rest of the world.
I begin by listening to a piece of music, letting my mind create its own landscape of color and texture. Then I let the paint go onto the surface, and it begins to take on a life of its own. I work on the piece until it feels complete and holds the same character as the music that inspired its creation. I use color, brushstroke, and texture to represent different qualities in the music. For instance, heavy impasto paint in bright colors signifies the sound of the brass instruments. Softer, muted tones represent the more gentle sounds of the stringed instruments. Different sounds and textures emerge from the surface of the painting, just as they emerge from the sounds of the orchestra. Texture holds equal significance to color in my paintings, because both are equally important to music. Sound textures and tone colors are what make the music exciting and rich. I see silence as an empty void from which sounds materialize, each sound having a different form. This is what I emulate with paint through texture and color.
-Valerie Loomis-