The workshop activity of this week is ‘study about an artist, photographer or filmmaker to get inspired’. I follow a lot of people who work in different creative fields, but this time I decided to study more about some artists I know personally. They are my sister, Trang, who is an illustrator, and her partner, Minh, who is a musician. I love listening to them talking about their works, yet I never look into their creations by myself.

After searching and scrolling through their online portfolios, I found a video that included the works of both.

The watercolor painting, drawn by my sister, is her representation of Minh’s piano melody. To her, this painting illustrates a bright, dreamy sunshine kind of feeling. Trang told me that the jam session was not planned, she just randomly painted while Minh was playing the piano.

I thought what they did was very stimulating, so I listened to the music with my eyes closed to see where my imaginations take me. Surprisingly, I thought of a late afternoon, perhaps around 6 PM, when the summer sunset has yet to come. Natural lights are leaking into a kitchen, and there is someone preparing dinner. The mood is relaxing and chill with a bit of sorrow.

I expected my feelings to get influenced by the painting even with my eyes closed but my interpretation turned out so different from Trang’s. Hence, I got curious about what elements could have contributed to making our illustrations distinctive from each other. I thought about our sensory system and personalities, also about the environment we were in when we listened to the melody. I’m going to do some more research, but I already know this is my primary inspiration for Screen Project 1.

References

Freeman, M 2021, Autumn flu, YouTube, March 30, Mia Freeman, Hanoi, viewed 28 July 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS4QJZt-tQ8>