Drawing Music :: Synaesthesia Social Workshop with Veronica Lawlor

Jamie Orfanella and Leo Schott

This past Sunday I had a fun opportunity to drive up to Scranton, PA, with my mentors & dear friends who founded Dalvero Academy, Veronica Lawlor and Margaret Hurst, to draw live music at a weekly happening called Synaesthesia Social, organized by a talented artist, teacher and delightfully rambunctious guy Ted Michalowski. 

Thumbnail of Jamie Orfanella playing didgeridoo

Veronica taught a drawing workshop for the first part of the day, setting pace for both, music and drawing. The 5 musician were incredible as individuals and as a band. It's worth noting the unorthodox mix of instruments: theremin vox, gong, upright bass, jazz drums, didgeridoos, flutes, trumpets and other wind instruments with mysterious origins and names, bagpipes, saxophone, and a plethora of digital gadgets. I felt right at home with such variety of instruments,  having myself brought a full bag of mixed media. We were kindred spirits with musicians in that regard.

Music

During the workshop, Veronica urged us to draw the auditory landscape, rather than render musicians' likenesses. She introduced the language of marks, lines, shapes and color, pacing, mood, proportion-all the things that make up Design. And since the music was more of a sublime stream of consciousness, it felt natural to let go...

Thumbnail of Leo Schott playing the bagpipe

Experiences like this are outside of time and space. I didn't notice how the day went by, in one breath. It was beautiful. 

Doug Smith

Jamie Orfanella on didgeridoo

Jamie Orfanella

Jamie Orfanella Doug Smith and Leo Schott

Jason Smeltzer on Theremin vox

Jamie Orfanella

Tyler Dempsey (drums)

Jason Smeltzer's hands on theremin vox and the band

Doug Smith (bass), Jamie Orfanella (trumpet), Leo Schott (sax), Tyler Dempsey (drums)

Jamie Orfanella

Jamie Orfanella's beautiful trumpet solo

Winter Freeze

I was in Mystic Seaport with Dalvero Academy this past weekend, and boy was it cold! But nothing stops us from drawing, especially when there is so much beauty that only freezing winter air and light can create.

Day 4 of the 5 Day Art Challenge: illustrations for Alan Lightman's book "Einstein's Dreams"

I accepted the Facebook 5 Day Art Challenge nomination from my friend and artist Audrey Hawkins. Day 4 is a personal project I haven't shared before, as I work on it intermittently: illustrations for Alan Lightman's book "Einstein's Dreams". The book is a meditation on the nature of time, and every chapter asks a "what if..." question.

• 26 APRIL 1905
“At some time in the past, scientists discovered that time flows more slowly the farther from the center of earth.”
-Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"

• 8 MAY 905
“The world will end on 26 September 1907. Everyone knows it.”
-Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"

• 3 MAY 1905
“Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic. Most people have learned to live in the moment. It is a world of impulse.”
-Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"

• 20 MAY 1905
“People have no memories. For it’s only habit and memory that dulls the physical passion. A world without memory is a world of the present..”-Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"

Day 3 of the 5 Day Art Challenge: Painted Ceramic Plates

I accepted the Facebook 5 Day Art Challenge nomination from my friend and artist Audrey Hawkins. Here's my Day 3: painted ceramic plates. I sent these plates to Moscow recently, to our family's close friends. Hi, my dear Moscow friends, if you're reading this :)

Day 2: Facebook's 5 Day Art Challenge.

I accepted the Facebook 5 Day Art Challenge nomination from my friend and artist Audrey Hawkins. Here's my Day 2: Swans, thumbnails.

Day 1: Facebook's 5 Day Art Challenge.

I accepted the Facebook 5 Day Art Challenge nomination from my friend and artist Audrey Hawkins. Here's my Day 1:  drawings of Indian dance performance by Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, seen at the MET a couple of weeks ago. Odissi is one of the oldest dance traditions in the world. The dancers were performing invocations of the Mother Goddess with her “elephantine gait, compassionate gaze and benevolence”. Accompanied by poetry reading, many beautiful metaphors came to life through the interpretive dance of two graceful, barefoot dancers.

Life Drawing, Part 3

This is the 3rd and final installment of the figure drawing series from Dalvero Academy's winter 2015 session (here's Part 1 and Part 2). I find this David Hockney quote most appropriate: "Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make." So true. Let's just add that this "game" has to end. I look forward to the next life drawing class: there's always so much more to do and to explore!

Life Drawing, Part 2

Drawing is not the same as form; it is a way of seeing form. ~Edgar Degas