Cold Light
Last year I was lucky enough, to be able to collaborate with the renowned and extremely accomplished composer, Ricky Ho.
Back in August 2021 we hosted a small event at Maduro, where we discussed the mutually beneficial relationship between music and art, and Ricky was kind enough to share some of his thoughts on the creative process. At the time he had composed 2 pieces of original music to compliment 2 of my paintings on display.
I’m excited to announce that his new album Cold Light has just been released. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of work. Amongst the beautiful, original compositions, you can also find the two pieces of music he created for my paintings, Journey Home and The World Outside.
I wanted to write this as a personal message to express how grateful I am to have been given the chance to collaborate with Ricky.
He is in reality a very busy individual, constantly on the move and involved in multiple projects across the region. Had it not been for the recent travel restrictions, our encounter may have been more fleeting and insubstantial.
I liked Ricky from the first time we met, he is very straightforward and kind and is incredibly grounded for someone who has achieved so much.
As an artist its always interesting to see someone else’s interpretation of your work. Sometimes I’m surprised how people take away such wildly different feelings from the same painting. But when Ricky translated my work into music, it felt as if he had understood absolutely in fine detail, all of the emotions, nuance and contrasts that I was trying to portray. It was like someone looking at you and telling you exactly what you were thinking.
Even more inspiring is that he found an emotional connection with my work, and extracted that emotion from himself in some way to inject into his music. People forget sometimes that artists do expose themselves through their work. Evoking emotion requires emotion to be invested. It is not generated out of thin air. To see another artist work in this way, and to connect with them in the creative process has been enlightening, and it is as much a credit to the warmth of character of the man as to his abilities.
Hopefully we will get the chance to work together again in the future.
You can listen to Ricky’s new album here on your favourite streaming service and revisit the two paintings he composed pieces for here on my homepage.
Tsuyumi Miwa
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