Translating Music into Paint: My Synesthetic Process

I don’t literally see sound, but music gives me spatial cues. Certain rhythms suggest density; a bass line might become a thick, grounded form while treble patterns flicker as quick marks at the periphery. I’ll paint to long pieces—jazz, contemporary classical, even ambient—so I can ride dynamics over time. Crescendos invite broader gestures; rests ask for restraint. I track timbre in color choices: brass heat, string warmth, percussion grit. It’s not illustration; it’s correspondence. When a track ends, I pause and look for mismatches—places where the painting’s tempo lags. Then I adjust, not to mimic the music, but to restore internal rhythm. Viewers sometimes describe my work as “musical,” and I take that as a sign the composition breathes.