PAINTING SONG IMAGERY 1

Almost every time I paint, I am listening to music. The songs either influence my painting, or I take inspiration for a painting from the music. I’ve been wanting to make a visualisation for this song, and had sketched something long ago in my notebook, now I am taking it to the next level.
The song: MGMT - Of Moons, Birds & Monsters

I am going to paint one particular scene and explain what the lyrics may symbolize.

The visualisation comes mainly from the first verse which is the most intense:

Why'd you cut holes in the face of the moon base?
Don't you know about the temperature change
In the cold black shadow?
Are you mad at your walls
Or hoping that an unknown force can repair things for you?
Pardon all the time that you've thrown into your pale grey garden?
If the ship will never come you've got to move along

From this verse I took and represented the Moon and a wall that encloses a garden, marked by the green ivy.

This is how I interpret the objects through watercolours.

THE MOON

The Moon has a particular symbolism, for me especially. My Moon sign is Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon. It is associated with the emotional side of human nature, and I often feel swamped with emotions. In the song, the narrator wonders on larger global matters, and questions what is that we have done to the Moon, and what is it that we’ve done to the Earth, too?
However, for me, the imagery also plays on a microcosm level, linking with the narrator’s persistent confronting. He confronts either someone else or himself, on the passiveness to take control of one’s own life (hoping that an unknown force can repair things for you?), and emotionality, too, since the symbol of the Moon is involved.

It is interesting that me and my boyfriend had a discussion just a few days ago, why are there these holes in the face of the Moon. I only realised it when I reminded myself of this song.

THE WALL

The wall is a symbol for restriction. Something that doesn’t allow us to go further. The narrator pushes on the idea that one is confined in their own mind (Are you mad at your walls [..]?). I think, the biggest limit we can ever have is OUR MINDSET.

The mind can have so many ‘filters’, such as fear, judgement, social stigma, conventions etc., and every one of them shows a certain societal influence on an individual.

A lot of people don’t realise that they can control their mind, and live in the small confinement in their limitations. People should seep through what’s going on around us. FEAR is one of the first and the most powerful limitation. Fear of the atomic bomb. Fear of being bold. AND fear of taking control of one’s own life.

When I was in a darker place in my life, I was absolutely stuck in my mind, stuck between all the thoughts of me and the thoughts of others, i.e., the thoughts your mind ‘catches’ from the news, from the parents, from judgemental friends and many other sources. All in all, it creates limitations. Limitations only stop you from progress.
Back then, I was listening to this song, and it was like a shakeup. A reality check. I thought: what are the walls that are keeping me from having a better life? And immediately I got the answer.. that those are the walls I had built myself.

There is nothing stopping you from achieving more than your own mind. There is always a solution, hidden in you, behind those walls you built for yourself.

That’s why the song goes: ‘are you mad at YOUR walls?’

THE PALE GREY GARDEN

The narrator asks again: ‘Pardon all the time that you've thrown into your pale grey garden?’
For me, back then when I listened to this song for the first (hundred) times, I felt that it really summarizes what I had done. I had wasted time, and all the flowers in my mind’s garden had wilted.

In this painting, I wanted to show not a pale grey garden, but a garden that is ASPIRING to thrive. Because that rather characterizes my progress now. I’ve broken free from so many of my mind walls, and my garden has been watered daily by all the creative stuff I do. The ivy is crawling upwards the wall, and touching the end of it, so to go over the walls, to transcend the boundaries.

All this makes already a composite imagery.
But look at all the other themes and symbols, included in the lyrics of this song, that intensify the idea, drawing a lot more symbolism in the image: a shadow, an unknown force, a pale grey garden, and a ship.

I also wish you, each and every one:
may your garden flourish,
may your beautiful thoughts bloom over the walls,
may your walls eventually break, and
may your Moon rise and illuminate your life with the emotions and passions that are truly real.

This was a quick one, visualising the idea I had loooong, long ago. I have another project in my mind, involving lyrics and art.
Let me know, if you like the approach, and if you'd like to see more of that!