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About this Piece

Now to speak on my experience and the art, the introductory talks and the compositions were really inspirational. I really enjoyed being in both locations visually, and this was my first time being at a shared theme concert like this. It was as though I could envision each composer's ideas on various elements of lived experiences in California so clearly through their works. Such a great experience to have. I pulled my inspiration from these things and tried to work quickly and in the moment.

The painting was first meant to be landscape format but since each composer's works was so distinct I thought it best to work vertically to perceive the hill-like mounds as if they each belonged to a composer. I don’t believe I ventured as boldly as I wanted to with micro and macro elements with  landscapes in mind, but I wanted to incorporate some ideas from M.A. Tiesenga’s music on how it traveled between both. The house-like figure around the center of the piece and some of the scratches of pen and ink remind of this in a perceived way. The red mound in the middle that the house-like shape sits on representeds the red sky in San Francisco that inspired the piece by Dylan Mattingly, and the overall textural feel of oil pastels on a rougher paper was inspired by the words and sounds of Samuel Carl Adams. Trying to bring these thoughts to paper was a gift of an idea, and I enjoyed the exercise almost as much as I enjoyed the concert. I'm looking forward to staying tuned into more. —Mtendere “Teebs” Mandowa