Eighty-One and the Sun

For two or so years I had this piece hanging in my creative space right next to where my drum machine and synthesizers were. I would often daydream while starring at it and listening back to the music I was attempting to compose on my step sequencer. I'm not going to get too heady into my "process" as it's forever changing and evolving against my own logic and ability to self finance it, but at that point I would stand over a bunch of equipment on a rack against a wall and zone out, sometimes 6 or 8 hours on my feet in one extended session. I recorded every session. Sometimes I would play it back and decide to make something further of the files I recorded, but mostly it felt like a positive kind of exercise. Working this way, off a computer screen but still locked into electronic blippy bloopy hardware instruments, any sort of visual distraction during playback was welcomed. Working on a computer, during playback of long sequences or pieces, I surf. Working off a computer, I daydream. 

During those sessions, I had written a track called Eighty-One and the Sun is Setting, titled from a tweet from one of my then favorite novelty twitter accounts. Nightly, A photograph of broccoli would tweet out the temperature in Fahrenheit just as the sun was starting to set. I could never figure out where the account was located but I always assumed it was somewhere on the east coast of the USA as I'd often find myself scrolling by NEW and finding the tweet aligning with the sunset I was then experiencing. It's a simple feeling, but without prompt became a bookend on the end of my day and start of my evening. 

I eventually self-released that track on an EP with a few other cuts. It can be heard over here. What's notable about this is when it came time for album art, I wanted to make use of this piece.

My wife had an old piece of really rough tapestry laying out the creative space. I picked it up and placed it over this image. By closing one eye, I was able to imagine this tapestry superimposed over the image. I jacked the contrast on the image and had an album cover!

So that's an easter egg for an album you've probably never listened to, but some personal backstory on this specific piece in it's short lifetime with me. It's instances like this one that really make me think about the lived experiences of these pieces. Catbowl is another piece I have that a musician later turned into album art work. 

As for the artwork itself, this is a framed reproduction print of American artist Fredrick D. Odgen's 'Seascape'. You can find other paintings in similar nature and 'scape' scope, notably Riverscape, Landscape etc. around the internet. 

Not a whole lot of information exists online about Mr. Odgen but it's known he died in 1948 in Wisconsin. A interesting clue on the previous owners of this piece is revealed on the back with a note.

"Misses Lloyd Reed, Paul. $1. Sept 8, 1954". Which reads to me as being purchased off "Paul" for a single dollar on a date that just hit it's 70th anniversary a few days prior to me writing this. So this print piece has been floating around owner to owner, inspiring AT least one of them for seven decades now. Could you be next?

This is a larger piece and frankly would cost me money to package nicely and ship to the west coast of the USA. Because the price of shipping is included in my pieces, and because this piece is quite sizeable, a considerable discount (email me!) will be added if you decide to pick up locally.