By Ketsy Ruiz
A Little Musical Inspiration
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Listening to music while I paint – even while I brainstorm about painting – is the only way I function. Music and dance is as big a part of Latino culture as the Spanish language itself.
I learned how to dance salsa right around the same time I was learning how to manipulate acrylic paint. Naturally these two elements fused their way into my painting practice.
But I don’t always listen to Latin music and lately I’ve been really conflicted as to whether or not the music I listen to while painting is, or should be, affecting my painting process.
Well, turns out it totally is. Sure enough as I was daydreaming about my next pieces I came across some amazing musical inspiration for my new body of work.
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It Started with Salsa Painting
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Early on as I was experimenting with abstract art, I found a way to incorporate my love for salsa dancing and music into painting. I literally danced my heart out on a massive 9 ft canvas, every brushstroke mimicking the natural arm movements I’d make.
The piece is still a staple in my portfolio to this day. So much so that I was recently commissioned to create another work similar to it over 10 years later.
Ever since then, music blasting in my studio while creating is a must have. My best work comes out of the music that helped create it. No lie, I could probably tell you what I was listening to while painting all of my favorite pieces.
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Germaine Franco & the Encanto Motion Picture Soundtrack
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Like many Latino households over the holiday weekend, I watched Disney’s newest animated film Encanto. I loved the musical so much I played the soundtrack nonstop during a 3-hour drive home.
Halfway through the soundtrack I came across the original scoring by Germaine Franco and it set off an assemblage of images in my mind.
My current body of art isn’t anywhere near the realm of abstraction. In fact it’s very illustrative and has elements of storytelling so this made perfect sense. My goal for the new pieces in the Emerging Artist’s Grant exhibition is to create work that uses metaphors to tell these stories. The messages and topics I had been brainstorming to paint for weeks were suddenly coming to life for me, listening to the scoring of scenes.
It affected me so much that I’ve even thought about changing the theme of some of my pieces. Many of the instruments used are those of different Latin cultures making it easy for me to envision the stories I want to tell about Puerto Rico. As a child I would listen to movie scores a lot and make up my own scenes to them. I never once thought about revisiting that brainstorming process until now.
So yea, I guess the music I listen to IS a big part of my creative process. Going forward I definitely want to be more conscientious about how I’m using music in the inspiration for my work.
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You can follow Ketsy Ruiz’s creative journey at sketzii.com
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