Atrium Display: Free Improvised Paintings of Live Improvised Music by Ethan Cranke
In April of 2018, Ethan came to the Center for New Music to paint the sounds of Gino Robair, Tom Dimuzio, Tim Perkis, and David Samas. Their ecstatic improvising was captured here in bold, gestural acrylics. Many people are familiar with the idea of improvising from a visual score, but it is less commonly know that abstract painters often live compose paintings to the music that inspires them. Performing together, all the elements live on stage, is what makes this sort of collaboration rare and satisfying.
-David Samas, Curator
Having been a professional painter for over twenty years, Ethan Cranke continues to challenge himself within his daily art practice via a plurality of approaches and methods, the results of which have currently led him down the path of abstraction. Although Ethan is in no way new to the abstract, having originally made his way into art school as an abstract painter, he has been painting landscapes almost exclusively over the last five years, and is very excited to be rediscovering the musicality of his mark making.
Artist Statement
I have always looked at my palette as a keyboard/fretboard/etc. Having received my first electric guitar and amplifier at age five, plunked my first piano keys much earlier, and having spent many years singing with my sister and mother (a trained classical musician and choral singer), learning harmony, pitch, key, etc., the relationship between my approach to a keyboard and my palette has always been quite simpatico. Rhythm, harmony, and key are always foremost in my mind. So, to combine a performance of my mark making skills and the sound making skills of my fellow performers seems like a perfect fit.