About the artwork
When Wu invited me to be involved in this project, I jumped at the chance! I love doing portraits, but I don’t usually work from photographs, so I liked that challenge. Before starting each composition, I listened to the music samples Wu provided for me. The samples corresponded to each of the individual people who are celebrated in this concert. Each piece of music was so distinctly different! It was a great way for me to start to get a feel for each individual. I started to write down words and images that came to me for each piece of music. Just listening to the music, I felt I had met each person and had a sense of who they are. From there I started to conceptualize how to organize each composition. I was able to visualize images and colors inspired by the music. The whole time I was painting, I was picturing each person seeing the work, and I was hoping they would feel I got it right!
