oil on acm panel - 18x24 inches

A few years ago I photographed Christian Bland - guitarist from a top 5 favorite band of mine, The Black Angels. After my 6 month apprenticeship with Odd Nerdrum in Norway I did some traveling through Spain, where I encountered a rare exhibition of Georges de la Tour’s surviving works (31 of around 40). The Blind Hurdy Gurdy Player (c.1620-30) was perhaps the most influential to me in that exhibition; his expression in full surrender through a fearless singing-out, unencumbered by vanity of the seeing world. I chose to highlight this aspect of musicianship in Death Song. See his painting in my final detail photo.

I recalled an interesting fact about The Black Angels, where a quote from Edvard Munch - another top 5 ranking favorite painter from Norway - was included in the liner notes of their first album, Passover: “Illness, insanity, and death were the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.” - To title the painting I referred to an album of the band where you can find some of my favorite songs (Currency, Life Song, Half Believing).