The Music Behind Rockstar Love
Rockstar Love 48x48 (2013) Acrylic on Canvas
Rockstar Love was a spontaneous work inspired by the duality of love within the rock and pop music genres. <- Yeah, I know that sentence was Art Speak, I promise I won’t do it again.
June 2013 Rockstar Love at Flemington DIY, a community arts initiative.
I was early in my career—so early that I wouldn’t have even called myself an artist. I didn’t feel I deserved the title until about three years into actually being a full-time artist, but I digress... Back then, I was a girl with no job, divorced, with no clue how I was going to pay my bills, but I felt this desire to paint large, on big canvases. The only place I knew to buy them was Michael’s in Flemington, NJ. I admired the art of stretching canvas, but I knew I could only take on one creative aspect at a time, so I chose to focus on the act of painting itself, and I would learn how to stretch canvas later—which I did (and I’m quite happy with my hospital corners). I’d buy canvases whenever they were on sale and ran up credit card debt buying Golden and Liquitex acrylic paints because oil paint was too sophisticated, expensive, messy, and, most importantly, it took TOO DAMN LONG TO DRY!
2013 - Me and as many canvases as I could fit into my 2002 Ford Escape. To this day I feel that car was the best art transport vehicle. I hope to find another someday!
On the night I painted Rockstar Love, I grabbed my laptop to start my live Ustream (there was only Facebook then, and no streaming on any social platforms), positioned the easel in the middle of my dining room, set a clean 48x48 canvas upon it, and started my music so I had companionship, energy, and entertainment while painting. Various upbeat songs played, including Try by Pink, which had just been released and was grabbing everyone’s attention. I remember dancing around vigorously with a brush in hand, feeling the music, and relating to the heartfelt lyrics.
About to paint Rockstar Love in my home studio, aka my dining room. 2013.
I resonated with Pink’s vulnerability, even if I didn’t know how to embody it myself. She was brave and honest, sharing her wisdom and experience, even in side-stepped, subtle ways. She was clever, unconventional, quirky, and edgy while still being beautiful, soft, and feminine. Her voice was powerful, and her message was clear—resilience in love is a must. I agreed 1000%, having just ended my marriage but feeling ready to start anew, with no lack of enthusiasm and total readiness to find love again.
I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that the songwriters for Try include Michael Busbee and Ben West. Thank you, boys, for your contribution—you gave Pink one badass song to work with that inspired this painting, and I’m sure so many other cool works.
Pink grew up in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which many of you know is close to where I live and work in Milford, New Jersey. Her career began in Philadelphia, just an hour away from me by way of Lambertville and New Hope. I remembered this as I listened to her song, feeling just a little more hopeful that being back in Hunterdon County could be good for me.
As I painted hearts one on top of the other, I recalled my own relationship and that feeling of “how long have we been together?”—more like a prisoner marking days on a cell wall than a delightful recollection. I realized that Ryan’s and my one-year anniversary felt much like that, like “we’ve made it this far; how much longer can we go before we break?”
Rockstar Love, in progress.
As the songs changed, I heard love expressed from many angles: the sweetness in Taylor Swift’s Love Story, the pangs of distance in the Plain White T’s Hey There Delilah, the loyal ideal in Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours, the twisted and angry vibe in Nickelback’s Figured You Out, or the playfully vengeful tone in Blu Cantrell’s Hit ’Em Up Style (Oops?). I realized that love is present in nearly every song in the pop/rock genre, with such duality. When it’s hate, it’s still love; when it’s love, it’s stained by adversity; when it’s hard, it’s remedied by faith; when it’s easy, it’s celebrated. Ultimately, regardless of the stylistic lean of the romantic storyline, every angle comes back to what Pink is singing about—the hard parts, the painful moments, and the resilience to try again at the “good” kind of love. I depicted this duality in almost a yin-yang approach. In the dark side, you can find a tiny pure white heart, and in the clarity of the other side lies the hash marks representing that prison-like vibe. The background stays nearly pure white, with bits of ash and brown to keep us from pretending the landscape of love is mess-free. But the main heart on the canvas stays big and visible, glossy and undeniable because love exists that way, at least in this context.
The painting overall allows for the bending, twists and turns, and general flexibility of love without showing us that in its shape and structure (am I getting too close to art speak? Eek, I hope not). I really wanted everyone to connect to this painting and experience it with the same magnitude I felt as I painted it.
The red lines at the base of the heart have been interpreted by some as guitar strings, while others have seen them as lines for vital readings, like in an ER setting. Neither interpretation feels wrong to me because both are examples of depth and connection. The connection between a string that can be plucked to turn a musician into a star or a life line connecting one’s beating heart to medical staff that can keep said patient alive—it all points to the same thing to me.
For a while, I was dead set on this painting ending up in the home of Alecia Beth Moore (Pink) herself, but my inability to sell myself or make the right connections made that effort fall flat. There’s still time, though, since this painting is currently poised above a credenza in my own home gallery, awaiting the perfect home. If you know Pink and want to make the connection, please do, and if you want to buy this painting for yourself, I’d love that too.
Rockstar Love hanging out in the old kitchen, circa 2013.
Summary: Rockstar Love is an original abstract acrylic painting, inspired by the duality of love in rock and pop music, and created early in my art career. It captures the resilience and complexity of relationships, much like the themes in Pink's music. If you're seeking a unique and bold statement piece for your collection, Rockstar Love offers a compelling blend of emotion and artistry. This large-scale artwork is available for purchase through my New Jersey in-home studio art gallery by appointment.