KAYE MAHONEY | Sonic Bloom: H : In ether more real than the tangible / Nell’ etere piu reale dell’intangibile

“I am presenting a poem and a series of works (8 diptychs) that together represent the poem which is about “Sonic Bloom” – the idea that nature (particularly plant life) can blossom when exposed to music or sounds. This phenomenon isx echoed in my creative process; I start with the seed of an image and improvise as I paint – all the while listening to music which feeds the painting and the growth and evolution of the image. The abstracted panel adjacent to the floral panel in each work is a synaesthetic scoring of the music and sounds to which I, and the imagery of plant life, respond.

The poem itself is my artist statement. It is written in English and Italian – because both languages were not my mother tongue but languages to which I was sonically exposed in my youth growing up in .

The title of each diptych is taken from a couplet or a line in the poem.

Special thanks to the flowers that served as the originating imagery: the pin cushion cone flower, St John’s lily, Egyptian lotus, blue water lily, water hyacinth, thistles, hibiscus and a tiny bell shaped flower (whose name I do not know).”