A collection of graphic scores and sound art created during the Covid pandemic.

A socially distant collaboration between myself and my social media community to create music, sound art and compositions through the series of visual art that I make in my apartment in San Francisco while quarantined.

This experiment is ongoing and open to all.

Please follow my social media on Instagram @thingsovertime for the latest call to artists.

TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK:

PLEASE CLICK HERE

The Story Behind Juégame

I didnt come back to the United States because of Covid.

I came back from Guatemala for what was suppose to be a short gig for a few weeks. Then I got to California and the virus hit, closing the borders and blocking any chance of returning to my life, my motorcycle and my plans for the foreseeable future.

Back I went into the job I had before I started Unus Mundus Project as a fabricator at Gizmo Art Production building large scale artworks. A good job yes but against what I promised myself, to never go back to a 9-5 job. And on top of that, back to not having a workshop, tools, materials or equipment or space to build my own artwork, quarantined alone in an apartment in the Mission District in San Francisco.

“Don’t let circumstance put your flame out Chelsea.” I told myself.

“Let limitations free you!”

I have never thought of myself as a 2D artist. Just never really took to painting or drawing, I always hated whatever I would create. So when quarantine and a friend from work gave me an entire set of paints, pens and ink, I was puzzled. I took it as a sign, why not try your hand at painting during this time when large sculptural works aren’t possible?

Even if it is unfamiliar and scary. So I started.

I began painting and I began to see sculptures, architecture, light and sound in the pieces. I painted things I hated but kept going, looking past the voice in my head and the things that came out opened my eyes to a creative process I had never seen in myself before. Then I painted a graphic score, and something opened.

Sound was my first artform. I love it so much, it is what I studied in college. It has been with me since my first memory of being alive.

It is so much a part of me but it is also the part of me that scares me the most. So when I saw that score and sound stirred in me, I listened.

I felt inspired to collaborate with my friends and followers, who are quarantined and going though their own personal process, to bring these scores to life and share in the process of the sonic exploration. And hopefully to help pry the sound out of myself.

‘Juégame!’ means ‘Play me!’ like a command… it isn’t really a word that is used in Spanish. I picked it because it is a play on words. Normally you use the verb ‘tocar’ which literally translates into ‘to touch’ but is also means ‘to play (instrument)’. But I don’t want to command my friends to write music, I always hated that. The Verb ‘jugar’ means ‘to play’ like in a game.

Yes, I want people to play their instruments or play with sounds or their voice or whatever inspires them. But more importantly I want to PLAY with them through sound! And the painting is commanding it from us.

“Juégame! Por Favor! Juégame! Juégame!” says the painting.

Vamos a jugar!