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Welcome to the Sun Valley Museum of Art!
Don’t know where to start?
This guide is for you – anyone and everyone. Look inside for fun stuff to see and do at SVMoA.
Pencils only, please.
This GUIDE will lead you through the exhibition with discussion and activity prompts. We encourage you to respond to the prompts and use this guide to create your own artwork inspired by the exhibition.
Help protect the art!
Please do not touch artworks or get too close –three giant steps away is a safe distance.
Cover: Anne Patterson, Year of Wonder [detail], 2020
The Color of Sound
JANUARY 13 – MARCH 18, 2023
Think about the five senses – taste, touch, sound, sight, smell. Do you ever experience more than one sense at a time? Can you hear color? Taste words? Feel noises? Do numbers or letters look or feel a special way?
The Color of Sound explores the connection between art and synesthesia, a blending and scrambling of the senses. People who have synesthesia are called synesthetes, and they live in a mixed-up sensory world. Synesthesia can happen in many forms, but seeing sound as a color or shape has been a powerful and inspiring tool for artists to translate music into visual artform.
The artwork in this exhibition ranges from paintings, drawings and sculptures to music, film and fullbody experiences.
TURN & TALK
Art and music often share a similar language. What do they have in common?
EXPLORE THE ARTWORK
PICK an artwork in the Museum that features the color BLUE. Focus on this painting and respond to the prompts below:
MAKE A MIXTAPE
• What sound does the artwork make? Make the sound for the people around you.
• Does the artwork bring to mind a particular song or piece of music?
PATTERN RECOGNITION
When lines, shapes, or colors repeat, the result is a PATTERN (or design).
FIND and DRAW three patterns in the boxes above.
• How many patterns can you find in this painting?
• What pattern is your favorite?
• Are there any parts of the painting that don’t have patterns?
Daniel Mullen is a painter based in the Netherlands who collaborated with artist, writer and filmmaker Lucy Cordes Engelman. He works with thin layers of paint on linen to create clear layers of color that stretch beyond the surface of the painting itself.
There are three large paintings made by Daniel Mullen in the Museum. CHOOSE one to focus on.
• What is its title?
• If you could give this artwork a new title, what would you name it? Why?
Daniel Mullen
Anne Patterson is a synesthete who sees shape and color when she hears sound. Walk around the Museum and find her process drawings, which combine Patterson’s notes with quick sketches made while listening to classical music.
LOCATE the artwork with 31 watercolor drawings. This is a project inspired by a book called Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day.
Can you FIND this watercolor drawing on the wall?
Anne Patterson
LISTEN to a song on the playlist of music that inspired each of Patterson’s drawings in Year of Wonder installation.
CREATE your own!
MAKE CONNECTIONS
On the way home, search for something that reminds you of the artwork, or part of it – a shape or color, perhaps a word, even a sensation like taste or smell.
Artist Brad Johnson has long been interested in creating multisensory experiences for viewers and listeners. Enter the room and surround yourself in his work Lost in Deep Time.
• What senses are you using?
• What tools does Johnson use to tap into those senses?
LOOK for shapes around you.
DRAW them on the next page and use them to create a work of art.
Brad Johnson
LIST words that describe what you’re feeling when you’re in this room. Turn those words into a poem!
Title: _________________________
• • • • •
FIND the gallery showing the films titled Rhythm in Light and Color Rhapsodie.
Mary Ellen Bute was an animator and director. She used images, patterns, movements, and sometimes color to bring her artistic vision to life alongside the classical music that inspired her work.
AT HOME
RIP a piece of paper into scraps of different shapes and sizes. Combine the scraps to create an animal, person, or familiar object. Then REARRANGE the scraps to create a new figure.
• How could you turn this into an animation?
• How does light change what you see?
SHARE your animation and/or SNAP a picture.
TAG @sunvalleymuseum
Mary Ellen Bute
KEEP EXPLORING
FIND a window in the Museum and look through it.
• Does the window look outside or into another part of the Museum?
DRAW what you see.
• Will you include only what you see through the window, or will you include something from the room you are in?
Vance Kirkland’s paintings reflect the colors he saw when he listened to music. His early works were often based on the landscapes of Colorado, where he lived.
SIT on the floor in front of this painting. Look closely. As you look, IMAGINE the sights, smells and sounds you would experience if you stepped inside.
• Where would you explore? Where would you hide?
• Is it hot or cold? Still or windy?
• What do you see around you and off in the distance? What might you discover if you walk around?
• Is it loud or quiet? Will you whisper or shout when talking?
Vance Kirkland
Find a painting from Kirkland’s dot painting period. Do you see any patterns?
Patterns have rhythm and make our eyes dance. Like the beats in a song that make you want to groove, visual patterns move our eyes around and through a painting.
TRACE A PATH
What do you first look at when you meet an artwork? Where does your eye travel next? And where does your gaze come to rest?
Make your own MAP by plotting the points and connect the dots in the box below.
“X” is where your eye comes to rest, like a treasure map!
SKETCH PAGE
See what else is happening with The Color of Sound at SVMoA!
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Mary Ellen Bute: centerforvisualmusic.org/Bute.htm
Brad Johnson: bradjohnson.com
Vance Kirkland: kirklandmuseum.org
Daniel Mullen: danielmullen.info
Anne Patterson: annepatterson.com
FIND THE ARTISTS ON INSTAGRAM:
Brad Johnson: @bradleyallenjohnson
Daniel Mullen: @daniel.j.mullen
Anne Patterson: @annepattersonstudio
@sunvalleymuseum
#SVMoA
As a contemporary art museum, SVMoA is a place for learning. We are a non-collecting museum, allowing us to focus on timely, relevant and engaging programs and exhibitions that resonate with our community.
At SVMoA you can explore paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, sculptures, films, and performances. As you move through the Museum, think about what surprises you.
Sun Valley Museum of Art
191 Fifth Street East
Ketchum, ID 83340
svmoa.org
