closer to our heart*

Finally! FINALLY!

Today Rush was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Finally! FINALLY!

Rush runs deep in my system. And we go way back.

My older brother and his friends introduced me to the band. I was ridiculously young. First it was Closer To The Heart, then Tom Sawyer. Years later I would discover Time Stand Still all on my own.

It was during art history class in University that Tom Sawyer (the song) came immediately to mind when the work of Kazimir Malevich was introduced. Twenty something years later, it is easy to understand how that association was established given that the artist had a very particular philosophy. He "described his aesthetic theory, known as Suprematism, as 'the supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts.'"--Gallery label text for White on White, MOMA, 2006

Kazimir Malevich, White on White, 1918. Oil on canvas, 79.4 x 79.4 cm. MOMA

Music as an art form easily captures this pneuma, including Rush's unadulterated sounds and tenets. Looking back, the biggest revelation was not the fact that I had made that particular connection, Malevich=Rush. It was the full understanding of the possibilities of working this theorem inversely (certain that Malevich was not listening to Rush while creating his art work). Meaning, how music, if allowed, can become an inexhaustible resource to the visual artist.
Close your eyes and listen. What do you see?

Rush performing Tom Sawyer in Cleveland. Time Machine Tour, 2011.
From the album "Moving Pictures", 1981.