Rock & Roll Lifestyle

I recently saw a hilarious documentary film called "Air Guitar Nation", that puts forth the notion that for many, playing air guitar is a bizarre form of performance art, where the "wanna-be" guitar player pretends he or she is rocking out on an invisible instrument, and this piece is my depiction of a guy playing his "air guitar" for all his devoted "fans".

There actually is, surprisingly enough(!), an "Air Guitar World Championship" held every year in Finland --(you can't make this stuff up!)--and this guy hopes to make it there.

It's no big secret that the "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" is a "rough & tumble" one to say the least. With a battle cry of "Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll!", it's a downright dangerous, messy, and chaotic lifestyle, and that's the feeling I am trying to convey with this piece in the splashes of colors layered on top of one another; and scratchy, rough textural areas as well.

His name is Tommy, and he's got quite the active imagination. Tommy really lives for his rock & roll music. You can see him here practicing his "air guitar" getting ready for the tryouts, which will hopefully lead to the finalists in Finland.

Just like any (real) musician, Tommy goes to the rock & roll nightclub and plays his heart out in imaginary "gigs" to sold out crowds that give him standing ovations every single night! Ok, well, in his mind, they do anyway! He's got a whole entourage with a groupie following included, just like any other "real" rock star worth his salt!

You see, Tommy plays his "air guitar" so well, that you can almost "SEE" the rhythm and sound here, and you can almost "FEEL" the beat of the music.

There is a lot of movement throughout this piece and the red splashes of color especially seem to be floating "musical notes" emanating from his imaginary guitar playing.

The way I created this piece was I began with laying down the texture paste. Then I painted the background a light yellowy beige color, and proceeded to paint the man. I then layered on the colorful splashes surrounding him and glazed splotches of differing colors making sure to scratch and scrape for even rougher abstract textural effects. Then I rubbed on a rust colored (burnt sienna) glaze around the perimeter of the entire piece, that gives it an organic framed effect and finally I painted the sides in that same color.