Art & Music Opening Night
Feb 1, 2019, 6-9 PM,
Music from 6-8 PM

OPENING NIGHT:

The Inspire Duo, a pair of classically-trained musicians, will be performing musical interpretations of Melissa Carmon’s painted portraits at Bolt Gallery. On February 1st, the Inspire Duo will be performing live interpretations of the twelve large-scale portraits. The show combines oil painting, poetry, and musical interpretation to create a multi-sensory artistic experience.

Light refreshments will be provided courtesy of The Regional Restaurant. Coffee and hot drinks from Everyday Joe’s will be available for purchase.

THE PAINTINGS
Twelve paintings of historical saints will be on display along with numerous color studies. The paintings combine the rigors of portraiture and extensive work in color theory. The work of the portraits gave rise to new breakthroughs in applied color theory, which are explored in the small color studies that will be displayed at the show.

Each portrait is attended by a poem and historical information. The portraits are twice-life-sized, and painted in oil on panel with acrylic underpainting.

Called the Inspire Duo, musicians Christen Stephens and Craig Woodward were inspired by this series to form a duo that creates in-the-moment musical pieces based on artwork.  The Inspire Duo’s influences come from their classical training coupled with their love for jazz and modern music. “Though Inspire Duo’s musical performances are most aptly referred to as free improvisation, our musical style is incredibly cohesive and tonally pleasant. Often, performances may sound planned or composed, but actually each song is spontaneously created in the moment,” Stephens said.

About the Inspire Duo: Christen Stephens, a soloist on flute who also performs with the Boulder symphony, and pianist, Craig Woodward, a composer of over 70 musical compositions, will perform interpretations of each portrait.  They each bring over 20 years of experience performing a variety of musical styles to create one-of-a-kind performances.  Each performance is uniquely crafted in response to the environment and to audience responses.