Using Music as an Inspiration

Los Angeles and great music go hand in hand. You can always find big names, up-and-coming bands and underground artists at one of the hundreds of clubs throughout the city. So it's hard to pick just one show to go to or one artist to profile. But last weekend was an easy choice for me: I saw New Found Glory and Saves the Day, two of my all time favorite bands, at the House of Blues in Anaheim.

Growing up I followed these pop/punk bands all over Southern California. They were a huge part of my teenage years so it was no surprise that I became a screaming teenager all over again. I want to take the emotion of my teenage years with the excitement, awe and adrenaline of the live concert and replicate it on canvas. I captured some images and video using my iPhone that I will use for inspiration for an upcoming piece.

In the first image, I really love the colors and shapes that came out through the black background. In the second image, the silhouettes of the people against the colorful background has a really unique contrast that I think will transfer beautifully to paint and canvas! I think I am going to paint both of them and see what comes out of it.

Here's some video from the show too. It didn't come out the way I wanted it to- sorry for the loud bass (you may want to turn your speakers/headphones down a little), but I couldn't resist showing off my old favorite bands!