Painting Auction Inspired by Mahler 4’s Himmlische Leben
In collaboration with the Arpeggione Ensemble.
50% of proceeds support the ensemble’s mission of building community through joyful, accessible, immersive chamber music performances.
May 2026
30 by 40 in.
Acrylic on canvas
Valued at $2,500
Auction: 2026 Gala- Songs for Friends, May 24, 2 - 5 PM EDT, Danvers, MA
Artist Statement
This painting was inspired by the Arpeggione Ensemble’s new recording of Mahler 4’s Himmlische Leben. The lyrics describe heaven through sensation — sound, taste, movement, and color, and a longing to return to a state where joy feels uncomplicated, suffering distant, and the world overflowing with beauty and abundance.
I improvised this painting alongside the music in my new home studio in Boston in May 2026, as part of a larger project called “What if you could see music?” in which I paint both live on stage with performers and alone in the studio, using my mirror-touch synesthesia to translate the emotions of the musicians into a visual form. As I listened to the music I could hear the birds, feel the warm breeze and the sun on my face, see the bright colors and endless shades of green, and I layered acrylic rapidly in response, letting the composition emerge intuitively.
As I worked, I kept returning to a childhood memory: sitting in the backseat of a car on a beautiful spring day, mesmerized by the landscape blurring into streaks of color.
The music was arranged by Thomas Carroll — clarinetist of the Arpeggione Ensemble and one of my closest friends for nearly two decades. Somewhere in the painting I found myself back in a particular Oberlin spring — sophomore year, after a long, gray, and sad Ohio winter, when his creativity and zest for life in our collaborative work helped restore my love for being alive.
I wanted to abstract the vivid colors of spring so they could exist freely — celebrated for their own beauty rather than confined to representation or form. I began with a palette drawn from recent long spring walks: bright greens, glowing blues, purples, oranges, yellows, and reds. Circular motifs emerged organically, inspired by sunlight filtering through leaves and patches of sky between branches. The dots and blobs expanded into a visual language of their own.
What fascinates me most about color is how dramatically it shifts depending on what surrounds it: how red becomes more alive beside blue, how green intensifies against orange. That relationship is why I’m drawn to abstraction — it allows color itself to become the subject.
In the final layers, I incorporated generous amounts of gouache to heighten the luminosity and energy of the surface, intensifying the sparkle, saturation, and depth. The resulting style is entirely new for me, emerging directly from the emotional atmosphere of the music.
Ultimately, the painting became an expression of gratitude — for color, music, the earth, spring, friendship, beauty, harmony, and the gift of being alive.
