I’m sure it’s no secret by now after reading my posts that this blog is a form of therapy for me. My emotions and creativity have been all over the board again but that’s nothing new. An unexpected surprise; a renewed interest in music continues after a very, very, very long sad draught so I’m happy to report that I’ve been hanging out in that world again lately. Visual art is still being made, but there are a lot of pieces in limbo so we’ll be taking another trip down memory lane for today’s studio closeup.

Today’s painting died in the flood and is the artwork intended for the song “Forbidden Fruit” by my old band Sweet Jelly. Our writing process was unique. Aaron lived in Milwaukee and I lived two hours away. Aaron would send me MP3 scratch tracks of songs he’d come up with out of nowhere and I would add lyrics and vocals. I really enjoyed it. The internet made it possible to write songs together despite the distance and that was new at that time.

After singing this past Monday for my Carolaoke project, I decided I was finally in a place where I could revisit Sweet Jelly Land again. I started going through the old lead sheets Aaron had painstakingly put together in Illustrator and I thought I’d revisit those old tunes we wrote together. Oh, boy that was a trippy trip trip. I’m not promising anything, but perhaps some of these 70+ old abandoned Sweet Jelly tunes might show up in a new way on Music Mondays here.

Title: Forbidden Fruit
Year: 2000
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Collage, Canvas Board
Total Dimension: (2) 6 x 4" Canvas Board Panels 1/4" apart