PAINTINGS > The Oliveros Response Project (2020)

"Listening is not the same as hearing and hearing is not the same as listening." - Pauline Oliveros

The work below is a commissioned piece in response to the late composer Pauline Oliveros' Sonic Meditations, specifically Sonic Meditation 5: "Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears."

These pastels are a record of the shifting color and light on my studio walls at different times of day. I keyed the values in each piece to match the grey of the paper as closely as possible, in an effort to make the drawings disappear into silence when seen from a distance. It is only upon closer inspection - "deep listening... in every possible way to every possible thing" - that the subtle shifts in each piece emerge.

The Response Project is a commissioning initiative, created by Brianna Matzke, that asks composers and artists to create new work based on an existing piece or concept. Visit The Response Project to learn more.

Grey Noise: Sonic Meditation 5
2020, chalk pastel on paper, installation approximately 30x57.5"

Grey Noise: Sonic Meditation 5
chalk pastel on paper
11.25" x 4" each (small); 30 x 5.5" each (large)
2020
Grey Noise: Sonic Meditation 5 (detail)
chalk pastel on paper
30" x 5.5", each
2020
Grey Noise: Sonic Meditation 5 (detail)
chalk pastel on paper
11.25" x 4", each
2020