Muto's Music #1

This is a set of musical motifs I came up with yesterday. I used the motifs as a basis for improvisation and recorded it on my webcam. I will try to figure out how to record better audio. The camera seems to be auto adjusting the volume level in an attempt even things out which is bad for music.



Many thanks to my friend Martin for letting me borrow his guitar :)

Muto's Stuff in the Student Union

Today, at 7:00pm in the Student Union Art Gallery, there will be a dual reception for "Visual Voices" and "Psychology in Art" presented by Advocates for Human Rights (AHR), the Undergraduate Art Association (UAA), and Psi Chi Honors Psychology Society. Two of my pieces are up on display and can be seen there for a few weeks!

The Death of a Human

When the purity of emotion is separated from the human restraint, the body is no longer necessary and an outpour of rage takes new physical form in unrelenting anger.

Surprise in C#


One moment is captured in time. The third eye of the mind reacts clearly, as the physical eyes react to a shocking discovery. Fight or flight? A fist or a scream? Like a single musical note, the moment of surprise, is just one tiny part of a series of events, but a lot can be contained in a single note.

Both pieces, especially The Death of a Human, take on a different quality in person. The camera cannot capture the texture or colors with complete accuracy. If you want to see these pieces with the full effect, head to the student union. Both are self portraits. The first depicts only a very narrow capability of my personality while the second is more inclusive. The motif of the fully extended jaw is carried over in Surprise in C# can you see it?

Muto's Sober Splatter Painting

This painting has been gaining my affection slowly but surely ever since I completed it late last year. I made it at one of the first meetings I attended of the UAA, UNC's art club. The goal of the meeting was for everyone to have fun making a splatter painting i.e. a Jackson Pollock inspired work.



I don't think I had ever done a whole painting with splatters before and my initial reaction was a fear of the background surface showing through. I used a paint mixer to scrape the paint, covering the entire surface area. Then I was able to proceed with my work, until I was upset once again by the idea of the work having no meaning, message, or purpose. I am usually okay with art for beauty's sake, or just visual interest, but I could sense it was not my goal with this painting. To give it meaning, I wrote the word "sober" right on top. I have a philosophy on sobriety which I hold dear. The inclusion of the word is a direct message to counter any thoughts of drug use having influenced the artwork. It has sat in my room every day since then. Seeing it from the corner of my eye for months on end has led me to appreciate the wacky colors, odd texture, and imperfect patterns.

Muto's Splendid Sweetheart

Editing Love

When we're in a picture
The grungy garden hose
Can simply be cropped from the view

When we're in a picture
We can add a frame of flowers
To block out the rest of the world

When we're in a picture
Our brilliant beaming smiles
Can be brightened with a button on the screen

But when we are in love
All of the above
Happen
Naturally

~Gregory Halloran

Happy Valentine's Day Marina

Muto's Moment #2

Reaching

I see a rose
The petals reaching out
Like the edges of the universe

I try to find
The unifying system
For the colors, the folds, the flaws

I reach out
To get a closer look
But my logic is like my hand

The rose's thorns
Make it impossible to grasp
I feel the barb puncture my illusion

~Gregory Halloran

Muto's Minis #7

This mini is even smaller than usual; I cut the canvas card in half, so it is about 5" x 7". I offered to make a painting for my anthropology teacher and he asked for a lion with dreadlocks. I looked at pictures of lions online and found out there are many variations of the colors of the mane. I decided it would be fun to weave different shades of hair together. It was an entertaining brain teaser to keep track of each strand while I was painting. The few times I have tried it, I have enjoyed using a very strict palette of colors and assigning a value to each one for shading. It was a nice change to use the colors of the Ethiopian flag instead of the primary colors. Overall, I think it is an effective composition and I would be interested to do something similar on a large scale.

Muto's Sleepy Sculpture

Maternal Night

Awake
In the night
No sound
No light

The blanket curls around the toes
Sheltering them like a mother
Protecting her ten children
From the cold

Awake
In night
No frenzy
No fright

The pillow gently cradles the head
As if the head were a baby
Dependent on others
For support

At last
In the night
My dreams
Take flight

The bed encapsulates the body
A large lump shows gestation
The weak creature within
Will emerge strong

Asleep
In the night
All
Is right

~Greg Halloran

Muto's Moment #1

Time In Blossom And Decay

Every day
Is just a bouquet
Each moment: a flower
In it's own way

Some last forever
But most, however
Will curl up
And wither away

A flower can be picked
And pressed
And preserved
But what good does that do?

A flower is better
Enjoyed together
Share it
With someone special to you

~Greg Halloran