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100 Days of Colorful Songs

Artboard 1_2x-50-min copy_edited.jpg

See full project here

One thing I love more than anything is music. Before college, I spent most of my time in music-related activities, particularly in choirs and musical theater. In fact, there were some days where I would be singing for up to 9 hours in total! Music is, I think, the best way to understand a person's true essence. When I listen to music, I entirely invest myself in the song. I also feel like melodies, and the emotions contained within them, are profoundly connected to color. While I don't have full synesthesia, I do still attribute colors to music, language, and emotion. Watercolors uniquely allow for explorations of color through layering so it seemed the perfect medium to portray interpretations of some of my favorite songs.

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I chose to do abstract paintings, with each piece representing one song which I would listen to (on repeat) while painting. I am stronger with color than I am with creating form through drawing, and I wanted to avoid creating scenes as they would likely be reflective of the songs lyrics, but not necessarily the music itself. When looking at music on my computer and phone, I noted that the square album covers reminded me of the squares in a quilt. I wanted to create watercolor paintings that were the same sized each day, so I could "sew" them into a digital quilt at the end of the 100 days.

At first I felt the need to cover the entirety of the 4x4" square, but as I grew more confident, I was less scared of leaving parts of the surface exposed.  To present my finished product, I created a website so I could pair the paintings with their respective songs and allow my audience to "listen to the painting" more readily.  The link to the website is https://mhcagan.wixsite.com/100days.  Below you can see how my skills progressed.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Rhiannon
Stairway to Heaven

Song #1

Sunday, Bloody SundayU2
00:00 / 04:42

Song #49

RhiannonFleetwood Mac
00:00 / 03:47

Song #92

Stairway To HeavenLed Zeppelin
00:00 / 08:03

Some of My Favorites

Landslide
Wait for Me
Morning Glow
LandslideFleetwood Mac
00:00 / 03:18
Wait for MeHadestown
00:00 / 03:35
Morning GlowPippin
00:00 / 04:16
Take Me to Church
Take Me to ChurchHozier
00:00 / 04:02
Gravity
Eleanor Rigby
GravitySara Bareilles
00:00 / 03:54
Eleanor RigbyThe Beatles
00:00 / 02:10
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