"Taste the Tempest"

Over the course of my life, I've found myself being inspired to create art by the both the expected and unexpected. Whether it be nature, other art, my interests, video games, shapes, scent, my ancestors work, color, music, or even people's aura, I've found inspiration in all of them. Most of the time when I weave I'm either watching movies or shows I've seen before or have music videos casually playing in the background. One day I was weaving and the song "Taste the Feeling" by the group Tempest came on. I stopped what I was doing to listen to the energetic vibe of the melody. I thought to myself: I want to capture this. I had to finish the weaving I was already working on, but the inspiration to weave this song didn't die by the time I was able to start (which often times it does when I'm inspired mid-project). I don't know if it was the energy, the vibes, or the sound that filled me with undying innovation, but it did. I know I connect with the energy of the song. Vibrant bubblegum pop is my favorite kind of music because it resonates with my hyperactive temperament.

The first step was considering how to capture it. The most important thing to me when designing a piece is color. The song felt like so many colors to me, so the way I went about picking them was a selective combination of colors from the first ten seconds of the music video. The arrangement and balance was of my own design, but that was the start of how I let the music video guide me.

Next, capturing the energy of the song. I didn't draw any of it out ahead of time, it was 100% improvised. Why? I've literally never stuck to any plan I've ever made. I always let myself be free to do whatever I want with a design when I see fit, as I'm constantly coming up with new ideas that I love more than ones I've already thought of. However, my design was inspired by the flow of energy of the song, and that never changed. It starts out much simpler and lighter, both sound-wise and also the movement of the music video, so the piece starts that way as well. It then speeds up once the chorus starts, and the music video gets much more busy as well (the group starts dancing). Right before the bridge, confetti starts to fall down during the most energetic part of the song, so I tried to speed up the energy of my piece even more. I always feel an electric energy when I listened to the song, so that's what I tried to depict. Then, suddenly, the bridge hits. It's very slow and simple compared to the rest of the song. There are many subtle details in the piece because to me, there's so much going on.

For the record, I only have a 20" width loom, so I'm stuck weaving two pieces together to get a larger piece. I have used this to my advantage in multiple of my show pieces, including this one where it's designed to have four quadrants. None of the quadrants are exactly the same, but the differences are subtle, aside from the fact that each quadrant has a different green. I like to think that finding the differences is a part of the fun! The reason I chose to include a Vallero star in the center is simple: I love them.

I wanted to call it "Taste the Feeling" to pay tribute to the song it was inspired by, but I was worried Coca-Cola might take it personally. So I combined the name of the song with the name of the group: "Taste the Tempest." It sounds cooler anyway!

Here it was hanging alongside my mother, father, and grandpa's work in the Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts, specifically right beside my mom's.

Here's the music video if you want to check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8cdJUNRP0w