“We have these guitars that are beyond repair… let’s have an art exhibit with them…” — GMF TEAM
When the Gasparilla Music Foundation, which is behind the Gasparilla Music Festival approached me earlier this year to curate an exhibit with broken guitars, I started immediately getting excited about the potential to do something impactful.
Gasprailla Music Foundation is based in Tampa Florida. It is an organization which helps to give the gift of music to children in need by repairing broken instruments to give to Title 1 music classrooms and students.
As a muralist, lifelong artist, and curator of Mergeculture Gallery, my own experiences have taught me about the power that artists have to breathe new life into environments. A white canvas is not very interesting until touched by imagination. Artists convert energy in our material world, by taking the time, and carefully caring for surfaces the work on, and this process changes the vibration of matter, as explained further in this article — colors have vibration because the reflection and bending of light, slows down the oscillation of the electromagnetic light waves.
When a new mural is painted in a neighborhood — people clean up around the building, they pick up trash on the ground, and they care just a little bit more about the space, because they just appreciate the beauty around them. It’s a respect for what it took to make that surface into more than just a solid color..
Art has an affect on the emotions of those that experience it. This is why studies show that art programs reduce crime, and art therapy session reduce anxiety. Mural programs and festivals around the world are interested in crime reduction data because art helps cultivate a more positive social identity about a particular geographic area. Flint Michigan’s program, Flint Public Art Project, ran by Joe Schipani is a great example of this effect. So artists actually make people happier by inspiring them — inspiration comes from an open mind.
It’s comical that studies have be done to tell people what they already know — that art and music programs reduce crime and negative feelings. There doesn’t need to be a study to explain that people love to be entertained, people also really like to get gifts, and giving them… When your ears hear a musician, you’re receiving their gift through the senses — and when your eyes see a piece of artwork, you’re receiving their gift. These are simple things that make human’s feel good, so why do we even need to study it… just fund more art programs to make the world a better, more peaceful place!
GREAT ART CURATION STARTS WITH A GREAT STORY
As a curator, I absolutely fall in love with the process of the story that is told through artwork — visual art, performances, or otherwise.
Whenever I think about a visual art exhibit, a performance, or an experience — I see the story. The connections and interactions — I feel the potential and inspiration, and then artists come into my mind that are perfect for the story. Any great curator does that. You can tell when you take in an experience touched by amazing curators like Roger Gastman, of the Beyond the Streets exhibits, or Evan Pricco, the editor in chief of Juxtopoz magazine. Or, when you step into an experience such as Shine on St. Pete, or The Skyway Exhibit in the Tampa Bay Region (which is an innovative example of collaborative curation spanning multiple museums), and finally, one of my favorite experiences; Pow Wow! events, which were conceptualized by artist and curator Jasper Wong prior to 2010 and really helped to rapidly popularized the outdoor art movement. A final amazing example of this, is Wane One and Persue’s movement, Wet Paint. All of these experiences have a story that you can follow, and a story is like a song.
Wet Paint is a traveling art show, curated by Dave Persue and Wane one, that captures the palpable tension between the MTA and graffiti writers in New York City. When the authorities clean up subway station graffiti by painting over it, they routinely hang these “Wet Paint ‘’ signs in the area. — Persue www.wearewetpaint.com
WET PAINT EXHIBIT IN SHANGHAI
THIS LIFE IS A SYMPHONY
The reason I’m explaining art curation, is because there are similarities within the roles we play in life and what makes a symphony work. A great curator is like a conductor of a symphony. It’s obvious if you switch some letters around curator and conductor aren’t too far off. Every single role we play is analogous to music, really. You’re either playing the conductor one day, or sitting in the percussion section the next keeping the beat, sometimes your the one just holding the triangle…Ding….Some days you’re unable to play because you just got in a car accident before the concert. This is life, and it’s all about how in tune we are through each experience we face.
In a symphony, nobody tries to play a broken instrument, or one that is out of tune, the conductor wouldn’t allow it, because that one instrument would be out of harmony.
MUSIC AND VIBRATION
What makes an instrument out of tune is the vibration of the instrument.
Today’s sound healers, and chiropractors have an understanding of this, because the strings of the instrument of the human body are in our spines.
Modern science has been studying the vibrations of the human body to prove what ancient science has already stated. These universal truths prove that music has a role on our vibration, and so does visual art. Our vibration is regulated by our energy in motion (emotions) — which is simply kinetic energy of atoms and molecules — the way to change that vibration is through higher inspiration. This is how, art literally changes peoples lives through inspiration of the senses. It lifts people up, even if for a moment. Anytime we can absorb the vibration of LOVE with a capital “L” with any of our five senses, our vibration is elevated.
It’s not anything magical, it’s just a universal law of kinetic energy — K.E. = 1/2 m v2.
All life responds to music, because all sounds originate from the sound of OM.
In 1962, an Indian botanist conducted several experiments on music and plant growth. He found that certain plants grew an extra 20 percent in height when exposed to music, with a considerably greater growth in biomass. He found similar results for agricultural crops, such as peanuts, rice, and tobacco, when he played music through loudspeakers placed around the field.
- Read more at Gardening Know How: Playing Music For Plants — How Does Music Affect Plant Growth
LIGHT and VIBRATION
Also, color has vibration as well, and as science points out, it’s all just a reflection. Objects don’t actually “have color” we only perceive color. The colors we see, and how they are arranged, affect how we feel. Visual art is an arrangement of colors with a conceptual purpose and intent — there’s a lot of energy put into it.
Did you know your surroundings may be influencing your emotions and state of mind? Do you ever notice that certain places especially irritate you? Or that certain places are especially relaxing and calming? Well, there’s a good chance that the colors in those spaces are playing a part.
Color has vibration, or to put it truthfully, we perceive colors because of the subtraction of pure white light, based on an objects’ vibration that causes it to reflect.
OK, colour seems to be quite real according to the science above, so why is it really illusion? When light goes into your eye and travels deeper to your retina, it hits certain protein molecules which are pigments inside the retinal nerve cells. Pigments are molecules that take in and are activated only by certain frequency ranges (and thus wavelengths) of light energy. Different nerve cells contain different pigments and so they respond to different frequencies and wavelengths of light.
-Truth about color, from a life devoted to truth — Dianne Trussell
“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”
- Albert Einstein
Modern thought-leaders like Dr. Joe Dispenza are doing research on this subject. Changing our vibration starts with our nervous system, which radiates from the brain, and the path to a higher vibration is through the opening and unblocking of energy centers in the body. This ethereal and ancient knowledge is slowly resurfacing in today’s physical world through the merging of eastern and western philosophies and religious ideas (as explained in Sri Yukestwar’s book, The Holy Science.
Come Together Now.
The correlation between light and sound, and shifting vibrations isn’t coincidental — For this exhibit, I couldn’t help but see a perfect group of artists to resurrect items so out of tune and broken. As the pieces were all set up in the exhibit, seeing all of these broken guitars that can’t be used by performing artists anymore… it was analogous to the idea that anyone can have a fresh start at any time.
I also saw the connection between the 6 strings on a guitar, and the 6 main energy centers in the body (there are 7 but the Sahasrara is etheral). One of the most intriguing pieces of the exhibit was this pairing by Daniel “R5” Rojas, who created these two pieces pretty much using the colors of each chakra, and his guitar even had colored strings that also corresponded with all six body energy centers. This was the only “rebuilt, working guitar” in the exhibit. All of the other guitars were held on the platform with magnets or hanging from the wall, but this one was just resting on the stand under the piece of artwork — it was still perfectly balanced, up against the wall and under the Daniel’s gorgeous piece. Below is a description of the artwork, his piece was definitely a catalyst of the exhibit.
Artwork:
Title: Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Source
This piece is inspired by Hopi/Sunni kachinas. They represent the 4 elements of nature.
Air & Water on the left figure, Fire & Earth on the right figure.
Situated in front of a golden arc beaming with light of creation, emanating from the source we all come from.
Guitar:
Title: Señor ChorDude Tonesta de Lira
This piece is inspired by the inner being and musical entities present within the various tones and harmonies of music and its instruments of sound.
Acrylic on collage with reflective tape & acrylic resin.Blacklight reflective tape & strings.
Flash & light reflective.
A fresh start. Why this exhibit is historical — it is perfectly timed. Coming off of the heals of spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth — there is an energy of immense change in our world right now. What better way to display the concept of bringing new life into something in dis-order… That’s what art is supposed to do.
The majority of the population lives with an anxiety disorder, according to adaa.org — their statistic says 18.1%. (I am right now going to call bullshit on that number.) Scientists like to define “disorders”, and who knows how half of these studies are performed, but you can walk around daily and see people honking at others, arguing about masks, and trying to be right about their individual life experience, exhausting themselves to convince other people they should see it their way, without any care or understanding that they are part of a bigger picture. Any of that behavior is “out of order — or a disorder.”Like a chain reaction of negative energy that just keeps on building. If an entire violin section at a symphony was out of tune — it would sound terrible.
Anything out of harmony is out of tune.
Sometimes people want change — they don’t want to honk at everyone until they race to the next red light… becuase in reality, all life moves away from suffering to evolve — but most people don’t know how to get help or often they don’t have someone close enough to help them because the closest people to us are the mirrors to our own radiating energy — be it negative, or postive. Most people don’t even notice their negative behavior because it is formed from habits, and they just think everyone is miserable, and life is miserable…so they need help getting help… I feel like artists can really play a role in that space.
That’s what makes art and music so beautiful — it can dissipate anxiety. A gorgeous mural on the side of a building can make you stand still, outside of time, this is the same feeling you would have if you were witnessing a symphony in an open park… These moments inspire you to make your own artwork, or take up piano lessons. Even if you see a piece of artwork you don’t particularly like, or hear music that isn’t your taste, it still makes you expand your mind.
So these guitar pieces, really show the impact and power that artists have, and we’re seeing this story play out in our world right now. As the lines between “low and high brow” artwork start to become more blurred because of an expanded human collective consciousness and focus on energy rather than material things, we can start to see how previously unaccepted styles of work are crossing into museums and research institutions. Further, into the ethereal digital space through NFT technology — all of these changes open up new opportunities for inspiration within communities. These are incredible ideas weaving in and out of the Global Arts Community without boundries.
The final viewing of this exhibit is in Tampa, Florida on September 24th at Mergeculture Gallery.
After the final gathering of these pieces at the closing reception, the works will be dispursed to various collectors within Tampa, Fl, to keep the collection together and continue radiating positive energy in the city.
The full list of artists for Acoustic Dreams is as follows:
Cory Robinson, Jujmo, Nate Dee, HOXXOH, Atomik, Nico, Weerdo, Brian Butler, Emiliano Setacassi, Noah Deledda, Brian Butler, Daniel “R5” Borojas, Illsol, Scumrag, Weerdo, IBOMS, Ron S., SURGE, Jujmo, Fotoset, Ashley Cantero, Chris Preston, Conrad Garner, Melanie Posner, Sleepyyuzu, Chad Mize, Cosmicaela, Tammy Archer (art and design).
The collection is managed by Ame Art Consulting.
NATE DEE, MIAMI FLORIDA
ATOMIK, MIAMI FLORIDA
BRIAN BUTLER, MIAMI FLORIDA
ASHLEY CANTERO, TAMPA FLORIDA
CHAD MIZE, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
CHRIS PRESTON, TAMPA FLORIDA
CONRAD GARNER, TAMPA FLORIDA
CORY ROBINSON, TAMPA FLORIDA
COSMICAELA, TAMPA FLORIDA
EMILIANO SETTECASI, TAMPA FLORIDA
FOTOSET, TAMPA FLORIDA
IBOMS, TAMPA FLORIDA
JUJMO, TAMPA FLORIDA
RON S., Tampa Florida
RYAN LAGASSE, Tampa Florida
SCUMRAG, Tampa Florida
SLEEPYYUZU, Tampa Florida
SURGE, Miami Florida
TAMMY ARCHER, Tampa Florida
WIERDO, MIAMI FLORIDA
