Nancy Mooslin's visual music

Associated media

The Colburn School is currently exhibiting works by Los Angeles artist Nancy Mooslin. The exhibition, titled 'Painted Music', is a natural fit for The Colburn School. The visual representation of musical ideas, musical compositions, and musical harmonies speaks directly to the performing arts students and the public who visit the campus for the School's wide variety of concerts. Mooslin’s work also exposes the students to the possibilities of interdisciplinary art practices and the expanding world of collaborations between artists from different creative fields. The relationship between visual art and music is particularly strong and Mooslin’s work explores that cross-over with clarity and depth.
 
According to Mooslin:

the work investigates the comparison of color with musical pitch, form and texture with timbre, and proportion and measurement with rhythm. The content of the work also includes symbolic references to cycles of time, planetary motion and the interconnection of our perceptions. As an artist I feel the links between visual and audio media very deeply and believe that abstract art and music are closely related aesthetically, conceptually, scientifically and intuitively.
 
Included in the exhibit is Mooslin’s new series, called 'Water Music', which explores the musical, rhythmic qualities of water in constant, repetitive motion and the rich tradition of musical compositions inspired by water.  The series includes studies of the surface of water in a variety of media; photography, print, drawing and watercolor. These studies led to the overlay of musical harmonies and compositions on top of the patterns created by light and the water’s movement.
 
According to Colburn’s President, Sel Kardan:

The theme Painted Music also speaks to the school’s presence on the Grand Avenue cultural corridor – side by side with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center of Los Angeles County, the new Central Los Angeles High School of the Visual and Performing Arts, Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral and art patron Eli Broad’s soon-to-be-built contemporary art museum. Mooslin’s work has a universal message that is applicable to many facets of The Colburn School experience. 'Painted Music's' theme is a powerful one that affirms the importance of the work of The Colburn School and its collective inspiration.
 
Opened in 2003, The Colburn School Conservatory of Music has become one of America's leading conservatories for highly talented college-age students pursuing the most rigorous classical instrumental music performance training.
 
The exhibition will run through 28 May 2013.

The Colburn School is located at 200 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012