L.A. Boys Bring the Beat to Canvas

I went to an art show in September at The Andrew Weiss Gallery which showcased a limited collection of collaborative art pieces by LA based creative house SceneFour (www.scenefour.com) with legendary musicians such as The RZA, Chuck D, and Bootsy Collins (just to name a few!). The pieces were all totally unique and carried the energy, personality, and attitude of each artist involved. But what really struck me were the abstract drum pieces by Matt Sorum (of Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver). The SceneFour guys were able to actually capture, on canvas, the oneness of the drummer with his drum beat in the exact moment of its creation and execution. Through the canvas, it's like you're one with the drummer ... it's like you're one with the beat ... in fact, it's almost like you ARE the beat. This is artwork created by rhythm. How has no one thought of this before!?

SceneFour has created a drum art technology where the musician uses drumsticks like paintbrushes. Personally, just from viewing the canvases, I felt like Sorum was taking me on a journey. I really wanted to see more, to experience more of the musician's journey, so I was excited to find out that there's a new Drum Art collection coming out this week, this time by another L.A. boy, Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction. His 10 piece collection is called "Time," and in each canvas is captured, through Perkins' drumming, the profound sense of different times in life -- from Springtime to just being "out of time." To check out the collection, visit www.theartofstephenperkins.com, or watch this short cool YouTube video.

More drummers, such as Rick Allen of Def Leppard and Frank Waddy of Parliament Funkadelic, are slated to bring their rhythm to canvas in 2012. That's hot.