I first heard Gary Husband and Alex Machaceh’s Now some time in late 2013. I have for many years been immersed in John McLaughlin’s work, and Gary is a long-time member of John’s group, the 4th Dimension. Alex’s work was quite new to me, and took me by surprise, especially as I am a neophyte guitar player.
This music resonated with the innermost part of me, and I found that repeated re-playings never tired me.Its resonance became a reason I took the challenge to paint with the music, not as a re-expression of it nor as an illustration, but as one person’s personal presencing. The experience challenged my painting so much that the journey to completion crossed six years.
These paintings became interplays between backgrounds and foregrounds, and never static in a 3-dimensional in a 2-dimensional space.
Each object is the background for another object. Each object is related to the background by its tone sequence, this sequence depends on the background for its development.
So a painting grows but always in relation to the dimension on which it is painted. This structure is as complex as the world itself. Colin McCahon
The language of music and the language of painting are different.
The place of connection between music and language is one which invites the enveloping and embodying of the other.
My hope is that in some small way these painting serve to do this.
Now Gary Husband and Alex Machaceh (2013).
Abstract Logix ABLX041
With thanks to Gary Husband and Alex Machaceh, as well as to Souvik Dutta from Abstract Logix for granting permission to use the music from Now.