A letter about Gas Station Roses & Art
I’ve played music my whole life. It was required in my house growing up. Like doing your homework, making your bed, doing the dishes, you practiced your instrument. I was also severely dyslexic. I couldn’t read or write a note but I tricked everyone, including my violin teacher, by learning by ear and pretending to read along. Until, of course, I got caught…
“We’re going to sight read this piece today,” my teacher said.
At this point in the past I would always say, “Can you play it first?”
To which she would always reply, “Sure.”
But this day, for some reason, she said, “No, not today. You play it first.”
So I did what you do when you’ve been found out: freeze, try to come up with a quick escape (“Uh…can I just go to the bathroom first?”), lie, cheat, steal (kidding!)…and then, cry. My secret was revealed.
I started seeing a tutor and working with my teachers at school for my dyslexia. One of the exercises we used was to copy what I saw- shapes, objects, images. I learned how to replicate lines and soon I was reading and writing with almost no problems. I was reading music too!
Through the repetition of copying lines and shapes, letters and numbers, I learned to draw. I don’t know if this was the beginning of the way music and art have been inextricably linked for me. It might have been the visual way I’ve always experienced music or the lyrical quality I find in the images I’m attracted to. Whatever the genesis, music and art have been my dual passions for as long as I can remember. But they’ve been separate. Music has been emotional for me. Drawing and painting, more intellectual. They’ve fed each other, informed one another but they’ve remained in different compartments of my brain and heart, often battling it out for attention!
In the last few years, I’ve started combining music and art a little more by painting some album covers- first Willy Porter’s last release (How To Rob A Bank) and then the cover of the first Winterbloom EP (Winterbloom: Traditions Rearranged.) But I still haven’t completely merged the two disciplines. Until now!
My amazing team at Market Monkeys and I have come up with a way to fundraise for my new record, Gas Station Roses. Instead of simply pre-ordering the record and receiving a signed copy before its official release (which you can also still do), you can also purchase a piece of art. I’ve created a series of paintings based on the title song and you can order a print, an original or even custom order something for me to create for you. There’s levels of involvement and you can choose which you’re able to do. Each rung of the ladder is named after a famous patron of the arts and this time that patron is YOU.
After the record is out, this combination of music and art will continue through a virtual gallery on my new website. As I continue to paint, I’ll put images up in the gallery for browsing and purchase. (I hope to eventually invite my visual artist friends to be guests in my gallery too!) It’ll be an ever changing and growing space that will speak to and about the music I continue to create and vice versa.
I’ve never been more excited about my creative endeavors nor found a way to merge the two that feels as relevant and cohesive. I invite you to take a look at what we’ve created and I hope you’ll tell me what you think.
At this point, the music is done. The artwork for the record is designed, waiting for little discs to be popped into place, covers to be signed and sent to you! I can not wait to share this record with you all. It is, by far, the best one I’ve made. How could I go wrong with musicians like Willy Porter (who also produced the record) on vocals, guitar and banjo, Dave Schoepke on drums, Bryan Mir and Todd Sickafoose on bass, Meghan Toohey on guitar, Ray Bonneville on harmonica, Aaron Gardner on sax, Sara Milonovich on fiddle, and guests Adrianne Gonzales, Garrison Starr and Patty Larkin on background vocals? It’s a collection of songs filled with images. Now it’s also a collection of paintings filled with lyrical imagery and soaring color.
Thank you so much for your continued support and love.
Nz
INSTRUCTIONS:
The great folks at NIMBIT have made it easy to choose your level of involvement and contribution and order safely online.
To check out all your pre-order options go here: http://nataliazukerman.com/music/pre-order-new-album/