Part of the Show

Music, like art, is a universal language: It grounds, inspires, provokes, heals, agitates, saddens, and uplifts every living soul. To Pinney, it is one of life’s greatest indulgences and it connects us to others, our environment, and to ourselves deeply. 

Finding a new favorite song, for Pinney, is almost as good a feeling as hearing one that transports  ...(more)

Music, like art, is a universal language: It grounds, inspires, provokes, heals, agitates, saddens, and uplifts every living soul. To Pinney, it is one of life’s greatest indulgences and it connects us to others, our environment, and to ourselves deeply. 

Finding a new favorite song, for Pinney, is almost as good a feeling as hearing one that transports her back in time — as it does many of us. It’s a universal sensation similar to smelling food that reminds you of your childhood home, or meeting someone and feeling you’ve known them your whole life. It’s a powerful tool in navigating a decision, a log in your fire when you’re angry, or a desperate hug when you’re enveloped in loneliness. 

Through her new series of painted works, Pinney conveys the feeling that music makes life make sense. It makes moments more memorable and wakes up old memories. The nostalgia and presence music evokes is powerful and often unsuspecting — the catalyst that can drop you into a moment and slow your nervous system or demand your body to move. 

For Caroline Pinney, she can associate some of her most memorable experiences with a particular song or album, remembering  the stack of 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s CD’s her dad gave her as a kid and listening to them on the floor of her room via a daisy-painted walkman. All of her life, she says, she has looked to music to inform unformed thoughts, quiet chaos, foster deep connections, and to guide her visual voice. 

— Pinney has created a Spotify playlist built around the series, accessible here.