Music and art both breed connection and fuel the imagination. Brianna Bass, abstract painter, combines these special forms of expression to create melodic paintings built through the harmony between music and color which are on view at Brick City Gallery. Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, Brianna has constructed an intricate process using more than just visual concepts to create her paintings.

While planning her paintings, Brianna constructs a relationship between color and sound. In an interview with Locate Arts, she describes her discovery of this relationship, “[this] first became apparent to me when I started making […] vertical prism paintings. I sensed something musical about them, and realized that they remind[ed] me of piano keys. Each color plays a specific role in a larger system, and even if some information is missing (a silent key), the predictive structure is so firmly in place that we still know what should be heard.”

As Brianna gains the knowledge of what should be heard, she knows then what she should paint. Additional works have stemmed from translating sheet music into paintings, with the joining of certain notes to certain hues. Music also influences the dimensions of the colors painted, for a single line painted represents an eighth note. Brianna describes this experience as “instrumentalizing” color, for music is being played through a medium that is seen rather than heard. 

Jodi McCoy, Director of Exhibitions for the MSU Art + Design Department, spoke to Brianna in the spring about her work. “We both noticed that communities around the world were connecting through song,” shares Jodi, “Brianna’s art practice of translating sound into color was the perfect exhibition to welcome our community back to the gallery this fall.”

“Chromaphone” opened August 24, at Brick City Gallery and will be closing September 19. Address: 215 W. Mill St. Springfield, MO 65806. Hours: 11am-6pm Monday through Friday, Saturday noon-4pm, and special late-night showings on Thursdays until 8pm. Call 417-837-2330 for additional details. 

Visitors, please wear a mask and practice social distancing when visiting the gallery.