"Anthology of Unknown Music, vol.1" at he Minnesota Street Project

Sonny Smith artist/ musician (or is that musician/ artist ?) has organized a remarkable group show, “Anthology of Unknown Music, vol.1”, currently exhibiting at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.

                                            It’s a large space filled with multiple galleries

For this show Sonny created a number of fictitious musicians and wrote songs in the persona of each musician. 

Then he assigned each of these imaginary musicians (and their songs) to artists to design record covers.

There are several dozen artists involved (I’ve never learned all their names).

Sonny recorded many of the songs and they’re on a jukebox in the exhibit.

The opening reception was January 22 and was quite an event.

(Molly, with her back turned, is in the green coat. Sonny, in blue denim, talking to the guy in the red shirt).

Happily, Sonny had invited Molly and I to participate in the exhibit. 

Molly’s assignment was Sudan’s Master Musician, Blem Beja, the Headless Man and his song “I Want to Face Life Head On “.

Here’s her early sketch for the painted cover. 

And the painting in process

She even made a record label for the piece as well.

 For my piece I got Terius “Big Foot’ Lingerfelt. His song is “I Turned My Back on People”.  

(He's up there, in the black frame, above my head)

In this rough pencil sketch, I envisioned Terius as a serious malcontent, a misanthrope.

I actually did a lot of prep work for this drawing.

I did mine, very old school, with crow quill pen and India ink.

I initially planned to do a gray wash treatment on the piece but finally decided against it.

The show runs until February 14.

Check out Sonny’s link for more info (including a real record album of the songs!) --https://rockshead.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-unknown-music-volume-1