Songpainting
SONGPAINTING
Songwriters Illuminate the Masterpieces.
Artists Illustrate Songs. Poets Inspire.
We Imagine.
canary yellow, cerulean blue
deep vermilion’s orangy hue
brown like oak, green of sea
are the colors that you give to me
(Footprints in the Snow)
A 20 Year Musical Journey!
SONGPAINTING MUSE PROJECT & BLOG, 2011.
“Songpainting was one of your best concert performances ever. In an era when literature, music, and the arts tend to come in a distant second to “reality shows” and endless sports drivel, it’s a life-renewing and hope-affirming moment to hear the great music and artistry of the your group. I am a firm believer that music and the arts are the ultimate achievement and healing balm for world-weary souls.” (John and Mary, Elmhurst, IL)
With the launch of the SONGPAINTING MUSE BLOG, a new cultural arts collaboration begins with Jamie O’Reilly and singer/songwriter Michael Smith at the helm. Songpainting presents artists, writers and musicians who share and swap images, music, lyrics and conversation. Material is shaped for performance pieces, recorded and released on singles and CDs.
ABOUT SONGPAINTING
The Songpainting music features Jamie performing songs of Michael Smith and others, with a musical ensemble consisting of guitar, cello, oboe, bass and percussion. Harmony vocals are by the Three Muses: Sarah Chang, Nia and Meg O’Reilly Amandes. Live shows feature projections of art by the masters, Picasso, Van Gogh, Seurat and Magritte and others.Concerts have also features work from a roster of artists including Iwona Biedermann (Photographer), Leopold Segedin (Painter) Gabriella Boros (Paintings on Wood), and Deborah Maris Lader (Mixed Media).
ABOUT THE SONGS
Songs from the original production of Jamie and Michael’s revue Hello Dali: From the Sublime to the Surreal are heard in this evolving program, with new material being generated on an ongoing basis.
Mona Lisa, is seen in various renderings, sketches and satirical take-offs. Don McLean’s Vincent is accompanied by Van Gogh’s oils. Paul Simon’s Rene and Georgette Magritte with their Dog After the War is a doo-wop ode to the surrealist painter. Photographer Iwona Biedermann’s “visual haiku on the subject of blue” a rendition of Lucinda Williams song Blue. Compositions by Michael include Hey Kid, inspired by Leopold Segedin, Blue Guitar, setting a poem by Wallace Stevens, and Waving to Picasso. The Ballad of Dorian Grey (appearing on Michael’s next CD) is seen with Caravaggio’s “Narcissus”. Sunday in the park is captured by Anne Carson’s essay, set to Michael’s melody in Seurat. Portrait of Isabel, (a ghostly ballad heard here in the media player) is shown with a painting by the late, undiscovered Chicago artist Margaret Kennedy. Jamie’s lyrics are heard in In the Garrett, a tribute to the artist and the muse, and in Footprints in the Snow, inspired by Gabriella Boros’ Woman of Valor Series, with Peter Swenson’s musical arrangement.
ON THE RADIO
Women’s Media Group’s The Feminist Lens radio show Songpainting Women: Women + Art aired on WFMT Fine Arts Radio during Chicago Artist Month.
Jamie and Gabriella Boros talk about Gabriela’s series of paintings Woman of Valor, acrylic on birch panel, which inspired the song Footprints in the Snow. Listen to the podcast of the program at wmgchicago.com. The featured artwork is Boros’ painting She Fears Not Snow.
HISTORY OF SONGPAINTING
The idea for the Songpainting Project began more than twenty years ago.
In 1989, Jamie received the diary of German Expressionist Kaethe Kollwitz as a gift. Kollwitz’s stories of motherhood and her work for humanity struck a chord with Jamie, who was then a young mother. Jamie created a solo musical piece, From the Place I Was Born at the Chicago Cultural Center for Women’s History Month.
An original musical revue Hello Dali: From the Sublime to the Surreal, was written by Jamie and Michael, and ran at the Victory Gardens Theater during its 2001 Tony Award-winning season, under the direction of Paul Amandes. The cast included Beau O’Reilly and Jenny Magnus. Dali garnered “Best New Work” and “Best Ensemble” After-Dark Awards for its “thrilling” songs and the “mesmerizing slide show,” (Chicago Reader.) The slide show was designed by Northwestern University Theater Department Emeritus Samuel Ball. Hello Dali was featured in the Chicago Humanities Festival “Words and Pictures”, and in tributes to Gertrude Stein, and later the Tree Studios, at the Chicago Cultural Center.
A NOTE FROM JAMIE & MICHAEL SMITH
We began the Songpainting project in 2009, adding songs and images to the
fun show we created over ten years ago.We debuted the new piece at SPACE. Artistic Director Stuart Rosenberg, suggested we start a website, and make Songpainting a community project. Even in these 2 years, much has changed for artists and performers, in the era of Media 2.0. To us ART is about community.
The Blog SONGPAINTING MUSE will be an ongoing conversation with you, about our songs about what, and whose work, inspires us. We want to inspire you to hear live music, purchase the recordings and view paintings and photography of our collaborators in-the-flesh.
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Visit this website for more about Michael P. Smith.
