Positively Pleasing Pluto

Pluto is now considered to be a dwarf planet, or a plutoid. Pluto was demoted in 2006 from being a
planet because part of the criteria of being a planet is a planet must have a clear pathway around the sun.  At times Pluto crosses paths with Neptune, thus the downgrade of Pluto.  Even so, it was positively pleasing to represent Pluto while be stimulated by music.

Colin Matthews created a musical piece for Pluto, in a desire to finish Gustav Holst's Planet Suite.  Pluto wasn't discovered until 1930, four years before Holst's death.  Holst was always a sickly man, and  didn't have the opportunity to create a composition for Pluto.  Pluto, the Renewer the musical composition is the inspiration for my recent art.

I challenged myself to create a visual piece of art that represents the atmosphere of the mysterious Pluto, the moods, feelings and thoughts I experienced while stimulated by this musical composition and to use colour, line, and texture to represent the sounds I heard.  In essence, this piece was created to help you see what I heard.

I apologize if this isn't the original version of the musical composition.  I have found four different versions, but this one is my favourite.  Click on the video below to hear the music.

As you are listening, see if you can identify the mood of the song, the feelings I experienced while listening to the song, the different instruments and tempo of the music and any characteristics of Pluto.

I used my fingers, for most of the piece, but did utilize paint brushes.  I also used a fork, cheese cloth, fabric spray and scribblers, a spray bottle, stencils, a plastic thing that comes in a pizza box to prevent the cheese from sticking to the box, bubble wrap and used only acrylic primary colours and white.

Every few minutes, I rotated the canvas. I decided to only use symbolism to represent the planet, the music and my thoughts and feelings, so that you can visualize your own images or story.

I really enjoyed letting go and just having fun.

It is enjoyable to see the colours of Pluto change throughout the day.  At night the colours are dark and mysterious, like the first half of the music.

During the day, the colours are cheery and bright and hopeful, like the second part of the musical composition.

Pluto was positively pleasing to represent!