My passion for making art related to music began when I discovered Josef Albers’ work THE INTERACTION OF COLOR in 1973. While experimenting with the way one color changes another because of their juxtaposition it seemed to me that this interaction of color was similar to the way notes in a sequence create music. Since then I have had the desire to create an instrument that would play color in time. I reason that color in its pure form played in a sequence will vibrate in the human psyche in the same way that musical tones do. This idea certainly did not originate with me. For a very comprehensive list of investigators in this field please go to Fred Colopy's web site. It is clear from his long list of artists that the desire to create such an instrument is buried deep in the human psyche. It also seems clear that no one has been able to find a way to do this that is simple enough to be widely used.
To me the key to this instrument is to 'tune' the color through several spectra creating a smooth transition from light to dark. I think the color itself will create the 'music' over time- not the shapes of the color, or the way the color moves - although those elements are dynamics that will help to enhance the color interactions.
To experiment with color sequences that resembled music, I devised a system of translating music to color. This method with many illustrations is described in my book, IF C IS RED.
This investigation led me to paint short pieces of music and eventually to make large prints, designed on the computer to keep the colors "tuned".
In the section Visual Music in Space there are some examples of this work.