Fergus and the Druid
Fergus and the Druid is based on a performance of Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata K365 by Orion Weiss
Fergus and the Druid was created as part of a collaboration with jazz composer Tim Daisy at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. The program, called "Moments of Intersection" was part of a series exploring the connection between jazz improvisation and visual arts. Although the collaboration did involve me painting one of Daisy's jazz compositions, this painting was intended to engage with his style of composing instead. Fergus and the Druid is based on the Scarlatti Sonata K365.
The painting takes its title from W.B. Yeats' poem of the same name. In the poem, Fergus, king of the Red Branch kings, seeks out the counsel of a Druid. He has given up his throne to a younger relative and followed the Druid into the wilderness. As the Druid changes from a series of animal forms, and finally into a human form, Fergus begs the Druid to grant him wisdom and insight, and release him from the burden of his throne. The Druid answers by showing Fergus a bag of filled with the hopes and dreams of others, at the bottom of which is sorrow. The poem is formed as a call and response. The Scarlatti sonata has the same form and the writing on the painting tracks the call and response of the poem.
The painting integrates a baroque era sonata with an Irish poem from the 1880s. It takes on the colors of a USGS satellite image of what is called the Land of Terror - the Tanezrouft Basin in Algeria. The manner of this construction reflects what Daisy called his composing technique of "assembling" of a composition.
The painting takes its title from W.B. Yeats' poem of the same name. In the poem, Fergus, king of the Red Branch kings, seeks out the counsel of a Druid. He has given up his throne to a younger relative and followed the Druid into the wilderness. As the Druid changes from a series of animal forms, and finally into a human form, Fergus begs the Druid to grant him wisdom and insight, and release him from the burden of his throne. The Druid answers by showing Fergus a bag of filled with the hopes and dreams of others, at the bottom of which is sorrow. The poem is formed as a call and response. The Scarlatti sonata has the same form and the writing on the painting tracks the call and response of the poem.
The painting integrates a baroque era sonata with an Irish poem from the 1880s. It takes on the colors of a USGS satellite image of what is called the Land of Terror - the Tanezrouft Basin in Algeria. The manner of this construction reflects what Daisy called his composing technique of "assembling" of a composition.