Artists find visual inspiration at every turn, but many also gravitate toward books and music. In the new exhibition The Listening Room at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina, more than 30 painters and sculptors will present brand-new work inspired by a favorite song or piece of music. The results are beautiful compositions that show the intersection of visual and performing arts.
Julie Beck, Circles: The Wind Set Down in Funnel Form, oil on panel, 12 x 9"
Exhibiting artists include Adam Hall, June Stratton, Brett Scheifflee, Adam Vinson, Patrick Kramer, Alexandra Becker-Black, Aaron Nagel, Megan Aline, Timur Akhriev and more.
“The gallery is filled with music every hour of every day, whether it’s someone on the piano that’s popped in to play or by our curation,” says gallery director and show curator Curry Ernst, who is married to a musician. “I loved the idea of giving the artist’s an opportunity to invoke the viewer’s other senses while looking at their work, creating a more immersive experience.”
Denise Stewart-Sanabria’s paintings are “anthropomorphic culinary dramas, staged with backdrops, characters and props that I source from historic and current consumer goods,” says the artist. Her work in the exhibition, Jolene, was inspired by the song of the same name by Dolly Parton, and it’s also a tribute to the artist being based in east Tennessee. 
Denise Stewart-Sanabria, Jolene, oil on linen, 38 x 44"
“I actually have a yard of fabric that I used for the background reference, with Fragonard’s The Swing printed on it, that says everything about a woman like Jolene,” explains Stewart-Sanabria. “I baked two cakes to represent, as landscape, the two women in the song. The artificially colored red velvet cake is up on its own pedestal, with glitter-encrusted fake flowers. It is cut, used and spilling out yet-to-be ‘popped cherries.’ I contrasted it with the naturalistic Bundt cake, which appears as a mountain with flowing streams of green icing into a lake where bok choy trees grow and prosper.”
A musician named Mike Doughty has been someone artist Julie Beck has often turned to for title ideas and inspiration. Her painting Circles: The Wind Set Down in Funnel Form is one such piece. “The poetry of how he plays with words, rhythm and repetition are analogous to how I compose a still life,” shares Beck. “His song Circles was the seed idea for this painting. While I typically lean toward diamond or triangular compositions, this one is circular and the objects all have circular elements. On the conceptual level, I am exploring the cyclic nature of our lives and how we choose to pull together and surround ourselves with people and things that eventually make us who we are. We are all made of those elements, like a tornado is made of the matter it consumes.”
Patrick Nevins, Under Pressure, oil on panel, 8 x 8"
Another still life in the show is Denise Davich Craig’s Walk This Way, which was inspired by the iconic Aerosmith song. “During the pandemic I made a goal to walk 40 miles and paint 40 hours a week. When I walk I almost exclusively listen to Aerosmith,” she says. “In the painting you will see images from the lyrics: a cheerleader, a kitty, hey diddle diddle and a cow jumping over the moon and the word ‘walk.’ If you happen to look under black light you will see hidden things about the group Aerosmith in the painting. All my current paintings have a star somewhere in the painting that represents our hopes and wishes coming true.”
Diane Davich Craig, Walk This Way, oil on panel, 24 x 30"
The Queen and David Bowie collaboration Under Pressure was the inspiration for Patrick Nevins’ painting. “Although the song has been interpreted in many ways—from the stresses of life and love, to sexuality, drug use and homelessness—to me, the overall message is how life is so fragile and not to be taken for granted,” Nevins explains. “In the piece, the delicate speckled egg is precariously placed between the antique C-clamp. Even the slightest of pressure applied by tightening the C-clamp could cause the egg to crack.”
To go along with the artwork, each has details on the song that inspired it hanging on a label below. The gallery also has created a playlist that’s available on different platforms to stream or download. —
Robert Lange Studios
2 Queen Street • Charleston, SC 29401
(843) 805-8052 • www.robertlangestudios.com
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