Said the Gramophone

I explored her paintings in silence. I imagined them on a wall in LA, little pieces of paper on a big wall, and these figures on them. Bright colours, but so soft. Figures crouching or kneeling, standing or lying down. Figures that might be sad or in love or terrified, terrified, riding sharks or posing proud on polar bears. Somehow I recognised the images, recognised the silence and the colour and the way the figures - the Inuit - stood together. I'll often forget about a dream and then remember it as true. But these small paintings, these scenes of jellyfish and weaponry and quiet purpose, I think they must be things that are true but that I'm remembering as dream.

Every weekday, we at Said the Gramophone try to paint in words what we hear in the songs we love. Sometimes we invite guests - musicians, critics - to do the same. And sometimes we invite artists. But we ask the artists to paint not in words but to paint in paint. Or in ink, or in pixels.

Rachell Sumpter has painted in paint. These are three paintings for three songs, three songs that seem still but underneath are moving. Like the sea can be. Or the ice. Or a human face.

Rachell's work humbles my own chickenscratchings. I'm honoured that she agreed to do something for us. See more work at her website, SixSpace, or at the Motel Gallery in Portland, where these three paintings also appear. If you can, go see them in pulp-and-dye: I wish I could.

Rachell - thank-you.