Colin Ross Music

“Colin’s Room”

by Sharon Maczko

I first saw Sharon Maczko’s remarkable work in a book called “The Harvest of Lesser Burdens” a collection of poems, paintings and photographs from the 1998-2003 Artists In Residence Program at the Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nevada. I was given a copy of this wonderful book when I was hired as an Artist in Residence at Renown (formerly Washoe Medical Center).

More than a year later I met Sharon at a reception for her stunning show at the Sierra Arts Gallery. Her impeccable technique and Western Americana, (my words, not hers), subject matter seemed a perfect fit for my music. Somehow I persuaded her to use some of my instruments and personal artifacts in a painting. The result is “Colin’s Room”.

To me this painting is about my interior space as an artist, the passage of time, and life on the road as musician.

The guitars are a 1936 National Trojan, and a vintage G&L ASAT telecaster style electric, made and signed by Leo Fender. The amp is a Fender Tweed Blues Deluxe. On the wall is a photograph of my father in his studio playing the 1915 Steinway Grand that is now in my eerily similar studio. The record album is Duke Ellington’s wonderful piano trio recording “Piano Reflections” that I have listened to countless times. The tenor recorder is one that I have had for forty years. The bolo ties, which I wear for my shows, are a salute to my father and the American West.

Sharon placed these objects in a room from the abandoned California ghost town of Bodie, now an historical site. The composition references the interiors of the 17th century master Johannes Vermeer.