So here’s what happened…I asked a bookseller for a recommendation. I mentioned I enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins; they handed me American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I bought the book, read it within a week or so, and was thoroughly ensnared by it. I enjoyed it so much that I read the Afterward, which I tended to not do at the time, where Neil thanked the band The Magnetic Fields for their album 69 Love Songs. He had listened to it throughout the writing of the novel. This album seemed familiar and I realized I had the album in a stack of CDs I had received from a friend a little while back. Trusting this author’s taste, I gave the album a listen.

The tracks had a quirky nature to them which wove truth and fantasy with heartache and joy. As far as love songs go, these were the songs of love I had always hoped someone would make. They covered the gamut of emotions and circumstances of romantic relationships, or lack of such. Framed with audial motifs and instrumentation which accentuated the lyrics to create memorable moments, the 69 love songs are a seemingly endless string of snippets into our collective lives. At least that’s how I heard it.

A decade later, a friend suggests a number of us who really dig the album should commemorate the 20th anniversary of the album with a group show, we each taking on a few tracks. So that collective endeavor never took off, though my mind was already working. Each time I would hear a track, I would craft imagery and color schemes, sketching endlessly in my head. I couldn’t let the opportunity slip, so I jumped into it and tackled all 69 songs. And here they are: all 69 little paintings.

For the project, I began listing to the album, taking notes and making sketches. Some songs created an image in my mind immediately. “Come Back from San Francisco” was one of these: the coastlines of New York City and San Francisco in a deep marine blue and green. “All My Little Words” went through a series of evolving sketches until I landed on a composition which felt in line with my feeling of the song. “If You Don’t Cry” resulted from layers of seemingly incongruent ideas. Above all else, these are my impressions of the songs.

I used a variety of media to render these impressions. Acrylic paint, ink, graphite, watercolor pencil, collage, paint pens, sandpaper, and tape. Essentially, most of the mark-making media I have become accustomed to over the years.

If you have listened to the album, I’m interested to hear if any of these paintings struck a chord with your experience of the song. If you have never listened to the album, carve out some time to listen through. I recommend giving it the headphone treatment to really pick up on the subtleties.

There is a gallery of all the 69 Little Paintings here.

Enjoy!