The Session:
Music: Brother Yusef
Artwork: Matt Beard
Artist's Statement:
Technical glitches may have interrupted this live feed, but they didn't stop the art though. I was able to stream Brother Yusef's show as long as I wasn't streaming back out, so I spent the rest of the night enjoying his high-energy one-man assault on a future without music. It was a noble effort and by the end of the night this painting was the result.
Continuing on my current path facing our times with my art I am still consumed by visions of fire- we're all watching this world with so many lives, so many livelihoods, so many dreams burning to the ground. I only hope and pray that just like a forest needs a good fire now and then to stay healthy, perhaps this will be the fire we need. My heart goes out to all who are hurting and feeling loss- everything about this hurts. Deeply.
But the element of fire, the burning sun, is the source of physical light and warmth that makes earthly life possible. It's an element that in some ways defines our humanity as well. Our passion to create will never be put out. For folks like Brother Yusef, his music burns brightly. Others burn with art, or poetry, or dance, or any number of these creative things- unessential all of them. We can’t eat them. They don’t protect us danger or disease or death. Some of them can’t even be taxed. And yet these are things we can't live without- and even if we did we could hardly call it life at all.
Sales from these Lockdown Live Sessions will be split 50/50 between artists and musicians. A way for me to give back to the music-makers out there. From one non-essential to another. Love to all.
-Matt Beard
The Finished Artwork:
Trial by Fire II
15" x 15"
Acrylic on Canvas