On February 27th, 2016, I had the pleasure of creating this painting during the Mile High Freedom Band’s “We Have a Dream” concert, throughout the course of two pieces of music: “City Trees” and “A Movement for Rosa.” Like most I do live, this artwork was created in one moment from a blank canvas. The audience and music combine to inspire me to paint the emotion I am feeling. My emotion and the energy of the moment create the art, not me. I truly believe I am just the instrument of that energy outside us all.
My thanks go out to Artistic Director Derek Hebert and the Mile High Freedom Band for this opportunity. The particular focus of this concert program was the shared dream of the human family and a celebration of those that have fought to realize that dream for everyone. The musical selections highlighted equality and our fight for a life without barriers or other artificially created limits that interfere with the possibility of reaching our full potential. This concept deeply touched me to my very heart.
To prepare, I spent some time reading the program notes on both scores. I pondered the inspiration for both pieces and what motivated each composer. I found one to be general in nature and the other specific. In this preparation, I found common threads connecting the motivation and journeys of these composers to my own life journey and that of everyone I know.
The painting was created in two phases. The first phase was inspired by Michael Markowski’s “City Trees.” Markowski’s composition commemorates the marginalized LGBT community through the metaphor of trees growing in a big city despite all the literal concrete deterrents. Through the trees he observed in New York City, Markowski was able to draw parallels to the LGBT community, which also has to survive and thrive in an adverse environment that is anything but supportive.
As I walked out onto the stage, I could not see an empty seat in the audience. I could feel the energy of the night and the hope of something exceptional. This feeling was so tangible that I could taste it in the air and feel it in my bones. I was ready to begin.
Derek raised his baton, and as the music began, paint began appearing magically on the canvas. “City Trees” opened with a slow and peaceful melody. I felt the quietness of a soft sea breeze over open waters, and this was reflected in the painting. As “City Trees” moved into more dramatic phrasing, I created the mountains in the background. I wanted a feeling of lofty goals necessary to achieve the dream. Notice the range starts small to the right and gains height as you move to the left. This marks the slow progress of our dream as it becomes reality. The red at the top of the mountain represents the tension that is always threatening to take us away from the dream. Along the water line to the left is a grove of trees that is clearly seen under the red sky. The trees stand in a vast landscape of undefined green fields. This open space, reminiscent of the plains of Wyoming, is an environment for tremendous winds to develop. Here, the winds are forces of bigotry and ignorance. These winds gather strength to overwhelm the trees to the left at any time.
To conclude “City Trees,” Markowski’s score dwindles to quiet. In this resolution, I felt the quiet frustration of the vast majority of us who remain unseen—those quietly living their day-to-day lives, struggling and waiting for signs of the dream coming to fruition, the dream of living without fear. In my painting, this is represented by the reflection of trees in the water without actual trees casting such reflections. The trees painted above the waterline to the left are the leaders, role models, and other individuals who happen to find themselves vulnerably exposed to the winds of destruction, possessing the power to sweep them across the plains of bigotry into oblivion. After seven minutes, “City Trees” ended, and the first half of my work was done.
The painting’s second phase occurred during Mark Camphouse’s “A Movement for Rosa.” In this piece, Camphouse told the story of Rosa Parks, her life before and leading up to that one moment in which she made the choice to stand up to the overwhelming pressure to allow herself to be marginalized. As history has proven to us, her life changed in that moment, and she thus became one of the symbols of the American civil rights movement. Her story is a testament that one average person in one moment can change the world.
“A Movement for Rosa” begins with an opening that keeps building and building into a crescendo that is quite uplifting and majestic. Everything about this beginning spoke of an eagle flying high to me. Initially, my inspiration was to paint several birds, but that idea was quickly replaced with the inspiration of one single, large bird representing one unified act of courage: The one moment in one’s life that can change the world, a moment just like Rosa Parks had. The eagle’s intense eye is focused on the dream. The eye is exuding the defiance, intensity, and passion needed for survival. The white on its back wing symbolizes willful motion needed to catalyze change, and this is juxtaposed to the larger wing that is solid and firm, holding balance in the air. The eagle was then done. Eleven minutes later, after this powerful piece of music reached its conclusion, so did my painting. In the silence after the director cut off the finished piece, I signed the completed painting.
This painting is a statement of pride and identity! We are here. We refuse to give in to marginalization. This painting is a testimony that we can have the audacity to dream, to fly high, to be free, to find and live our true authentic selves without any fear or oppression.