Double Image:
A Collaboration
Synonyms of collaboration include concert, harmony, and synergy. Synergy is especially powerful as a word for the collaborative experience; a process which produces a result greater than the sum of its parts. One plus one does not equal two, it creates Art.
Double Image
With Frankie Brackley Tolman
I have been an admirer of Frankie Brackley Tolman for many years. Her works as a visual artist are in response to the ever changing beauty of her surroundings in rural New Hampshire. We share these surroundings. Inspired by her paintings, I decided to undertake a collaborative project, integrating her paintings with music and film.
I began this project in the spring of 2017 by filming one of Frankie’s paintings, Gardening in the Rain. I was attracted to this work because of it’s large splashes of color which jumped from the canvas. This effect was created by the large amount of open canvas, free space, surrounding the flowers; splashes of vivid colors especially yellow. This imagery led me to film the field in front of our home, bursting with the perennial springtime daffodils naturalized throughout the landscape.
Experimenting with these two videos, merging the clips from Frankie’s canvas with those of the daffodils, inanimate images with the living flowers, exciting possibilities came into focus. As I continued to explore various video editing techniques, Frankie and I drafted ideas for our teamwork, and thought of “Double Image.” This reflected the effect observed in the film when her painting was merged with the daffodils. It also was a statement of shared connections, personally and through our art.
This collaboration has evolved into four works: Sonata in G for Piano, 4 Seasons for Solo Harp, Forest Fantasy, and Streaming.
In the fall of 2023 my newest video compositions, Forest Fantasy and Streaming, were featured alongside a selection of Frankie’s work in the show Double Image. You can learn more about the show here.
Right: L.A. Dierker and Frankie Brackley Tolman. (Photo by Steven Lipofsky)
Explore the Work
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Sonata in G for Piano
Sonata in G was composed as a score for the film I created featuring the paintings and gardens of Frankie Brackley Tolman.
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4 Seasons for Solo Harp
A work that celebrates the New England seasons—an ever changing kaleidoscope.
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Forest Fantasy
This film and its music are inspired by the forest and flora of the New Hampshire woodlands.
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Streaming
In this piece the sound of a stream acts as a basso continuo and ties together the very disparate images of Frankie Brackley’s paintings.
Double Image:
The Show
In the fall of 2023, the Jaffrey Civic Center, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, featured a five week event: Double Image, Paintings, Video, and Original Music by Visual Artist Frankie Brackley Tolman and Composer-Filmmaker, L.A. Dierker.
Forty-Five of Frankie Brackley Tolman’s paintings were displayed over the three rooms of the upstairs Cunningham Gallery. Projected onto one wall of the gallery, L.A. Dierker’s two films, Forest Fantasy and streaming, scored with her original compositions, played continuously. Additionally, (via a smart phone with head phones/ear buds), a visitor could listen to Dierker’s compilation of earlier work, Monadnock Soundscape (the sounds of the Nelson NH woodlands).