Music and Art

Music - the listening to AND the making of - reaches in and squeezes my heart, making my soul somersault-happy.

My entire family of siblings and offspring all play at least one instrument and sing; while on road trips and driving, my radio would be blasting and many times all of us in the car would be singing along with it. I was given a child-sized learner's guitar a few years back, and up until now had used it as a still life object for art students. Then one day - epiphany! - my young grandson loves doing things with his Zio (my son #3), so.... I have begun repairing and reconditioning the guitar and am now in the process of completely repainting it with Smaug, the dragon from Tolkien's The Hobbit.  My grandson is enamored with Smaug and dragons in general. When he receives it for this upcoming Christmas, he also will be getting basic guitar lessons from his Zio. 

First I used a wood-burning tool to etch the drawing and the two names into the wood before I applied color. And, even though it is a child's beginner's guitar, I still didn't want the weight of paint to change the tone, so I elected to use Speedball calligraphy ink as it is almost weightless when applied. 

​This is only the front of the guitar...stay tuned for Part II: the back!

The slide show below illustrates the progress of the work from the beginning to being glazed at the end.