Reflections on Our week with Fine Artist Katie Swatland
We were delighted to invite our very first artist-in-residence Katie Swatland to the Bay Area for a week of collaboration from January 16-23. The week included workshops, discussions about the intersections between visual arts and music, and the process of creating three new musical sketches inspired by Katie’s work and process.
Composers Nicholas Main, Skyler Baysa and Karna Mendonca all created new works for violin and/or piano inspired by Katie’s artistry.
Nicholas wrote a musical sketch called “Schizzo Notturno Degli Angeli Saggi” inspired by the imagery of angels, owls and women best exemplified by Katie’s painting, “Athena’s Owl.” The gestures in the violin part are supposed to represent the motions of the owl as suggested by the painting.
“Athena’s Owl” by Katie Swatland
Skyler wrote a piece for solo piano titled “Et Dukkehjem: A Doll’s House” inspired by the layering process by which Katie creates new works of art. Skyler’s piece includes a section called “Priming,” similar to how Katie primes the canvas before adding form (see below for an example). Skyler leaves it up to the performer to play the ‘priming’ section at the beginning of the piece, end of the piece or not at all.
An example of Katie’s layering process.
Karna Mendonca wrote a musical sketch for violin and piano called “Rhapsodic Sketches” inspired by the way that Katie spontaneously draws new colors and shapes out of her existing material. Karna’s piece blends a variety of musical textures, similar to the way that Katie incorporates multiple textures in her paintings.
Post-week celebration!