NYAB Event - Daniel Genova “Ditties”

Daniel Genova “Ditties”

Giacobetti Paul Gallery

This event has ended.

Daniel Genova is originally from the Rockies but has also spent the past 30 years in New York. His latest exhibition, DITTIES, is a series of paintings inspired by the bits of music that get stuck in his head from time to time. He studies, interprets and re expresses them in paint and canvas. This is his attempt to reorganize and manage these ditties that often take on a life of their own, beyond our control.

“We have all had them… those bits of melodies and lyrics that come from pop culture and become stuck in our brains like flypaper. It may be a something as witty as a Frank Zappa lyric or as irritating as an Air Supply song. Or is it the other way around? Who knows? To each their own. Regardless, we have no control over how often or when these beauties or monsters raise their heads after stowing themselves away in ours. They may become triggered by an ole time radio station, someone humming, a commercial, an indirect association, memory and/or experience .For instance who can ever look at a yellow ribbon without thinking about the Tony Orlando song? This series is my attempt to take this “brain clutter” and channel it into visual interpretations that bring new light to lyrics when taken out of context. Whether the original artist would approve or not isn’t relevant. I hold them accountable for their poetry (good or bad) and how it gets transformed into permanent pieces of furniture in the “living room” I call my brain. This way of working has not always been easy. What it has been is both challenging and enlightening, two things I always strive for in my work. Although initially I might have known and repeated only a couple of lyrics from a song (for years!) in my head, I have made it my duty to study the full lyric sheet of every song. I interpret. Ever read all the lyrics to McArthur’s Park? Whoa daddy! Who knows what they all mean? There is a gold mine of visual metaphors, both abstract and representational that an artist can tap into.in this one song alone and I am not talking illustration here… In summation, I think I have only hit the tip of the iceberg by working in this direction and will continue to do so until I get bored or restless…. hardly the case now. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I enjoyed making these pieces!