Works Insprired by Music—

Portland, Oregon-based painter, Karen Silve, boldly exhibits sounds and rhythms with oil paint on canvas. Her passionate strokes land between broad assured lines exploding with emotion and fluid restful strokes exhibiting a narrative or lyrical quality.      

There are moments of calm, moments of intense passion, moments of anxiety, and moments of simple beauty in the music that inspired these works.      

Silve captures the dichotomy of harmony and dissonance in an alluring painting entitled White Composition. This was inspired by the chilling work of Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw. The sweeping large black shape in the center cuts the cello like image in half in a destructive manner, yet her fluid strokes give a sense of relief and purity.      

In contrast, Silve explores the blissful sounds from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Red Composition 6. A feeling of exploding joy from the music is described with dancing lines and vibrant colors.