#33 — MidNight
COMPOSED BY KIMANI BRIDGES, PREMIERED BY CLARINETIST MICHELLE HROMIN, INSPIRED BY SUSANA ALDANONDO’S PAINTING “SPECIAL”
“During the first months of the pandemic when we were asked to stay home, I had run out of canvases, so I started organizing my materials and looking for small canvases which I thought I might still have in a room where I store my paintings and some materials, and that’s how I came across a piece of canvas which had belonged to my father.
He used to buy his canvas at the Pearl Paint store, the one at Canal Street, which closed right around the time of his death.
That canvas I found was one of the only things my mother had given me which had belonged to him, she hadn’t allowed me to get any of his belongings, except for that one item, and two art books, all of which she only gave to me years after his death.
Most of my paintings are inspired by music, mostly tango which connects me to my origins, and to the memories in my childhood as well as the memories of my father, but on this occasion, while I looked through my materials, I had been listening to Cold Play, and the song “Miracles” (Someone Special) came on, and listening to the lyrics, and reconnecting to the memory of my father at that moment inspired me to make that painting. I started it and let it hang on the wall for some weeks, until I felt it was finished.
Because the canvas had belonged to him, because it was a special piece of canvas to me during a time when I had no other available canvases, and because of the lyrics of the song, which I could connect to as well, my father had been an immigrant, I am an immigrant myself, I felt the song could represent the painting as well. The canvas it’s painted on is special, for all those reasons.
Finding that canvas had had a new meaning of strength, connection and energy to keep moving forward, despite what happens around us, despite what the world might tell us. So I titled it Special.”
EXTENDED CONVERSATION
Join us for an extended conversation with KiMani Bridges and Michelle Hromin regarding their virtual collaboration for the "Stay-at-Home Symposium." Moderated by Musaics of the Bay Artistic Director Audrey Vardanega, KiMani and Michelle discuss their artistic backgrounds and their collaborative process.
