Some of you may not know this about me, but I’m a musician and an artist.

I always loved art as a kid—from finger painting in my blue smock at my Little Tikes easel to coloring and tracing to the pastel class I took one summer. For a while, my answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was “An artist or illustrator.”

Music was always there, too—singing and playing the piano, learning letter names as I learned the alphabet, and later, accompanying, teaching, performing, and arranging.

At some point, I set art aside to focus on music. I still did craft projects from time to time, but I didn’t consider myself an artist.

Then, during the pandemic, I found myself drawn to it again. In between online lessons, baking Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and reading through Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, I watched online painting tutorials. I practiced mixing colors in an art app on my iPad. I ordered supplies and started painting tiny acrylic landscapes.

Now, five years later, I have a dedicated art table in my home office. I have a somewhat regular artistic practice alongside my music work. I’ve found that painting is a different facet of my creativity, a new form of artistic expression. And I have to say, it makes me come alive—to embrace my creativity as a whole, to invest in multiple aspects of my creative self at once.

And I’m not the only one.

From Felix Mendelssohn to Arnold Schoenberg, Joni Mitchell to Miles Davis, many musicians have found painting to be another form of artistic expression that complements and informs their musical side.

In this episode, I’m exploring what art is teaching me about music. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, I hope this inspires you to think about all the different facets of your creative self—and how to embrace them in your work.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.

Songs Without Words (Mendelssohn)

On the Spiritual in Art (1910) (Kandinsky)

Pictures At an Exhibition (Mussorgsky)

Clair de Lune (Debussy)

“October,” Lyric Preludes (Gillock)

Piano Mastery (1915) (Brower)

“Waltz for Miles,” Portraits in Jazz (Capers)

“Rainbow Colors,” Piano Safari Repertoire 2 (Hague)

Prelude in C, Op. 11, No. 1 (Scriabin)

My artistic process

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (Mason Currey)

Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)

On Developing a Daily Ritual: Insights From Mason Currey’s Book

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

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