Fields of Gold is one of several paintings from my Nantucket Island series, the rest of which I'll continue to share throughout the year. Please click the image for a better, larger view and feel free to listen to the accompanying audio (link directly below) which inspired the name of this painting.
"Water Night" first took my breath away when I heard it performed on "From the Top" by the highly aclaimed Norman North High School Chorale in Oklahoma. This translation of a Spanish poem, adapted by Eric Whitaker, is a beautifully evocotive, metaphorical piece formed in a series of vignets about the connection of the water to the soul, and the quest to find the innermost spirit in ourselves. Further interpretation reflects the experience of holding something difficult inside over a period of time, and finally letting it go to find peace.
"Water Night" is the inspiration for one of my upcoming paintings.
(Please press play. Feel free to read along with the lyrics below.)
Water Night
Night with the eyes of a horse that trembles in the night,
night with eyes of water in the field asleep
is in your eyes, a horse that trembles, is in your eyes of secret water.
Eyes of shadow-water, eyes of well-water, eyes of dream-water.
Silence and solitude, two little animals moon-led, drink in your eyes, drink in those waters.
If you open your eyes, night opens, doors of musk, the secret kingdom of the water opens flowing from the center of night.
And if you close your eyes, a river fills you from within, flows forward, darkens you: night brings its wetness to beaches in your soul.
Octavio Paz, 1914-1998 (Adapted by Eric Whitacre, Translation by Muriel Rukeyser)
**The original poem is "Agua Nocturna" by Octavio Paz. Peace is connected to a long tradition of "night" in visual art, poetry and music.
Before you read on, first click the above music link!
Autumn had just begun turning leaves copper and gold when I painted this scene of the Savage River last year. I was hypnotized by the rhythm of leaves, sunshine and water skipping along boulders then smoothing into a deep ribbon along the calm, mossy bank.
A beautiful adventure of life leading life.
Then, just last weekend, as my husband and I basked in our first indoor fire of the season, listening to Dvorak's 8th Symphony, I was instantly transported back to the scene of my painting.
Take a listen to Dvorak's gorgeous symphony singing the emotion and adventure of life that so spoke to me when I painted "Prelude to Fall on the Savage River".
What pieces of music do you associate with Autumn?
Fourth Prize Winner Kyu Yeon Kim; Third Prize Winner Eric Zuber; Second Prize Winner Alexey Chernov; First Prize Winner Alexander Schimpf, Photo by Roger Mastroianni
The Cleveland International Piano Competition is a ten-day marathon of musical performances in which 30 of the world’s greatest, young, concert pianists compete all day in front of live audiences and an international jury. Held each year at Severance Hall, one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls and home of the world renowned Cleveland Orchestra, the competition is the epitome of extreme challenge and competition. At the end of each round the jury votes, advancing a number of pianists until the final round of four competitors. The final four then perform with the Cleveland Orchestra, after which the $50,000 Grand Prize winner is announced. The Winner’s Recital, which I had the pleasure of attending with my family, is held the following day.
Watching the brilliant performances alongside my family, for whom music is a deeply woven bond, was an emotionally charged experience to say the least! I’d have equipped myself with a smart supply of tissues had I known each and every pianist would take me to the point of fighting back tears. However, it was the passion of Eric Zuber’s performance of Chopin’s Etudes, Op. 10 Nos. 1, 3, 5, 8 & 12 that had the power to bring those tears down my cheeks and seemed to suspend time itself.
I’m from a family of musicians. My parents are both amateur pianists. Both my grandmothers were also. Back in the late 1940’s you would have found my Grandma Hazel accompanying the Cleveland youth ballet at the piano in their studios at the top floor of the IBM building downtown. Meanwhile, halfway across the country, Grandma Orene, a third grade teacher, was teaching children piano lessons after school in her home.
It’s no surprise, decades later, the music of my parents playing the baby grand Steinway overflowed every room of my childhood home on a daily basis, reaching the far corners of the basement to the highest rooms in the attic. Mom, a highly disciplined person, (and phenomenal visual artist), practiced two hours each morning, while our father accompanied family sing-a-longs and joined in duets with my sister (violin) and me (flute). When he played alone, he often favored Chopin; and as an adult I’d never found anyone who came close to capturing the passion of Chopin like my father does. Until that is, I heard Mr. Eric Zuber’s performance…
My heart broke open, magically suspended on a wrinkle in time between those childhood memories, of listening to my father perform the very same pieces, and the present, seated beside him decades latter, that Sunday afternoon of the International Piano Competition Finale.
Please share with me, a taste of Eric Zuber performing Chopin below…
Summary of Top Award Winners First Prize: Mr. Alexander Schimpf of Germany $50,000 Second Prize: Mr. Alexey Chernov of Russia $25,000 Third Prize: Mr. Eric Zuber of the United States $15,000 Fourth Prize: Ms. Kyu Yeon Kim of South Korea $10,000
Severance Hall, Gestural Pen & Ink on Lanaquarelle Paper by Juliane Porter
Before you read on, first click on the above link! Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni is one of the most brilliant pieces ever written in celebration of this magnificent season of Summer! My painting, Vivaldi Summer, speaks to the soul of this piece; the vibrant, childlike freedom and passion of Summer...
When life reminds us to let go, to be free and be loved.
First, via the gorgeous voices of Il Volo, a young trio with voices of gold who've already gone platinum in Italy. Their name, “Il Volo,” meaning “flight,” was chosen to signify the feeling that these three young tenors were about to spread their wings and fly. And indeed they have! You will be blown away! (Thank you, Kaye Cloutman, for introducing me to Il Volo. Visit her lovely website, Clout&About)
And my second tribute to Italy, a painting of a peaceful olive grove in Umbria. Umbria is the region of Italy often compared to Tuscany, without the touristy aspects. Jim and I picnicked beneath these beautiful, old trees enjoying wine, salami and cheese. It was a blustery day, like today, sunny one moment, cloudy the next.
"In the Umbrian Olive Grove" by Juliane Porter (Oil on 18"x14" canvas ~ Click for a better, larger view)
I recently had the great fortune to attend Richard Strauss's masterpiece, Capriccio, at The Metropolitan Opera, starring world renowned soprano Renee Fleming.
Brilliant.
Perhaps because it is a consummation of all the fine arts,(literary, orchestral, vocal, visual & frequently ballet as in Capriccio),opera hits me on myriad levels. Breathtaking music from a phenomenal world-class orchestra accompanying the premier soprano of our time - in the setting of an 18th century chateau near Paris... all within the complexity of a great literary work.
A feast for the senses!
Take a peek at the final scene of Capriccio being performed at the Paris Opera House by none other than the magnificent Ms. Flemming herself. Don't do anything else. Just close your eyes and let the music sweep you away.
Capriccio, Strauss's final opera, is a dramatized aesthetic debate over which is more valuable, music or words? Swathed in achingly beautiful music one is likely to be persuaded by the former, though the opera itself ends without a decision cast one way or the other.
As I toyed with the question, I flipped and I flopped.
Words?
I find generally, the fewer the better... as they're usually ego's favorite vehicle on a direct path away from authenticity. Yet I couldn't do without Tolstoy, Bronte, Wilde...
Music?
It has an emotionality that breaks open the heart.
Ah - Why choose. Especially when one there is opera, the consummation of all the arts! Which happens to be the very resolution of Capriccio's story itself.
What would you choose if you could have only one? Music or Words?
Russell Braun, left, is the poet Olivier, Joseph Kaiser the composer Flamand and Peter Rose the theater director La Roche in Richard Strauss' "Capriccio" at the Metropolitan Opera. (Photo by Richard Drew, Associated Press)
Last Saturday, Jim treated me to Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Kennedy Center Opera House. The sold-out performance was absolutely magnificent, closing to a standing ovation, bravos galore and me (and a whole lot of other people) in tears.
Set in Japan, depicting the love affair between the 15-year-old Japanese geisha, Butterfly, and a young American naval officer, Madama Butterfly is beloved by music lovers everywhere for its wealth of melody and poignant, heart-on-the-sleeve emotionality. Take a peek at the opera through its spellbinding aria Un Bel Di Vedremo (note; same opera, different production than one we saw).
Perhaps the roots of my love for opera go back to my maternal grandmother who was a trained opera singer. My parents, avid opera patrons, first exposed me to performances via the Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcasts, aired each weekend, spicing up our family's weekend chores. However, it wasn't until my late twenties, during a performance by Placido Domingo, that I became permanently transfixed, on a whole new level, by the passion and power of opera.
It delights me to see the appreciation of opera on the incline, perhaps due in part, to the Met's high definition simulcasts, making first-rate opera available in theaters around the world. Have you been to any of these fabulously up-close productions? If so, which opera did you see?
For an extra treat, here is footage into scenes and music from a very old production of Madama Butterfly, featuring the glamorous Maria Callas, one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century.
Oil on Archival Linen Covered Board (Click Image for better, larger view)
Recent Comments