On November 1, 2012, Jose Pasillas is unveiling a highly limited collection of artwork of which only 100 pieces will be available worldwide. The collection is different than what many might expect, as the visuals are created, in part, by rhythm.

Many more details are coming over the month of October about the release. We encourage those interested in learning more to sign up on the interest list to receive exclusive information and the opportunity to see the collection before the November 1st debut.

Legendary drummer Rick Allen talks about the release of his first venture into fine art, Electric Hand: Rhythm + Change. Created entirely from rhythm, the visuals are abstract in nature and concept. To learn more about the artwork and get the opportunity to see the collection before the April 18, 2012 release, visit www.RickAllenArt.com.

Def Leppard‘s Rick Allen has made his first foray into the visual-art world, and the drummer plans to introduce his creations on April 18 exclusively at RickAllenArt.com. The exhibit, “Electric Hand: Rhythm + Change,” features pieces Allen produced collaboratively with the SceneFour conceptual art team, who helped transform his rhythms into abstract images.

“The collection reveals something that up until recently I didn’t even know existed, presenting sound into light,” the stick man explained about his artwork.

He added in a promotional video for the collection, “When I embarked upon this project, I was just playing. I didn’t know what was gonna be revealed, but now all these hidden worlds, these wondrous realms are being revealed to me. When I play, I’m going to be visualizing the imagery that you see.”

“Electric Hand: Rhythm + Change” will include 300 pieces. Fans interested in previewing the collection, as well as gaining access to videos and other related materials, can sign up for a mailing list at RickAllenArt.com.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

from The Art Newspaper:

Glam rock’s most famous one-armed drummer, Rick Allen of the hard-charging English band Def Leppard, is making his debut in the visual art world on 18 April with a collection of abstract images based on the pounding rhythms of his 1980s hair metal. Using graphic design and photography in a collaboration with the Los Angeles creative production company SceneFour, Allen has created 300 images of himself drumming live and entwined in an array of neon lights following the movements of his drumbeats. The waves of colourful light trailing his drumstick are reminiscent of the light shows from Def Leppard’s heyday, or the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. “I think that it’s going to give people hope,” Allen said about the collection “Electric Hand: Rhythm + Change”, in the lead-up to its release on his website rickallenart.com, “and it’s going to give people a way into new parts of themselves”. The site’s intro alone gives us hope that there are amazing things in store. —Eric Magnuson

The Art of Drums is the latest offering from Los Angeles art collective SceneFour, which is working with the likes of Guns ‘N Roses’ Matt Sorum, Def Leppard’s Rick Allen and Stephen Perkins from Jane’s Addiction to make images from the drummers’ legendary beat skills.

SceneFour has used long-exposure photography and magic glowing drumsticks to create the work. While the final artwork comes in canvas form — all the better for that celeb-style signing, of course — there isn’t a hint of paint in how the drumming movement is captured. Cory Danziger, the collective’s creative director, explains to Wired.co.uk: “We were inspired to go outside of the confines of oil or acrylic. We wanted to create a new, basically untapped medium that a visual artist could work with.”

SceneFour chose light to answer such a conundrum. Or rather, a lack of it, as the big-shot drummers are placed in pitch-dark rooms in non-reflective clothing (although one would assume black the only option for rock royalty) before doing what they do best with a range of lighted drumsticks in different colors and sizes. A camera captures the whole lot on a long-exposure shot, allowing a 30-second performance to be captured in one frame.

Following some artistic input from the drummer and post-production back in SceneFour’s studios, the drum movements are transformed from the digital negative into a solid work.

Cory told Wired.co.uk about the motivations behind the project: “The Art of Drums project began with the longing to bottle up rhythm and project it on canvas. Drum performance is inherently visual and is something that involves manipulating and working with time.”

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“I threw my drum kit down the steps outside. All the drums landed in a heap on the driveway and I said, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ I was almost 15 and that was it. I was giving up my career,” says Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, rolling his eyes at the bratty 15-year-old-version of himself.

“Almost simultaneously,” he adds, “there was an article in the newspaper that said, ‘Leppard Loses Skins’ and it talked about Def Leppard, a local group that had lost their drummer, so I called up, got an audition and I got the job.”

The 48-year-old, one-armed British drummer, who has lived in California for 21 years, is relaxed and seated at a table on the patio of a busy Santa Monica cafe. He’s wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt, jeans, earrings and a brown beaded necklace. Though it is lunchtime, Allen hasn’t ordered anything to eat or drink. Instead, he has brought a Thermos filled with distilled water and Himalayan sea salts. “Excuse me if I seem a little spacey,” he says, explaining that he’s on the second day of a three-week dietary cleanse.

Allen also has brought a clear plastic drum stick, one of two types used to create the images for his upcoming fine art debut, “Electric Hand: Rhythm + Change,” a limited collection of abstract images created from computerized tracking of Allen’s drum strokes, on display on his website www.rickallenart.com.

Having been approached by Los Angeles art collective SceneFour to be part of its project The Art of Drums (previous drummers have been Matt Sorum, Stephen Perkins and Frankie Waddy), Allen sat in a dark room playing drums with sticks that either contained LED lights or had LEDs attached to their tips, while a Fuji X100 camera took long exposures of the light trails created by Allen’s strokes. Depending upon the intensity of the hits, the color gradient ranges from black (lowest intensity) to color to white (highest intensity).

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On November 15, Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins will present his first foray into the world of visual art with Time, the second collection in the Art of Drums series. Drums is the brainchild of SceneFour, a Los Angeles–based creativity house that has worked with RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Chuck D of Public Enemy, and Bootsy Collins. Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum was responsible for the first collection, and Def Leppard’s Rick Allen and P-Funk’s Frankie “Kash” Waddy are among the other drummers slated. Learn more about Time at TheArtOfStephenPerkins.com.

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Stephen Perkins on His Fine Art Collection: Short Doc

Legendary drummer Stephen Perkins is set to release a groundbreaking collection of artwork made from rhythm on November 15, 2011. In this short documentary, Perkins discusses the project, his motivation, the overall theme of the collection, and how he views rhythm on canvas as a new art form. For more information about the collection visit, www.theartofstephenperkins.com

On February 1, 2012, music and art collide with the unveiling of a collection of visual artwork by legendary drummer Frankie Kash Waddy. His fine art debut is an unprecedented comprehensive study of rhythm, light and 100 rhythmic performances captured on canvases.

For more details about the release go to

http://www.frankiekash.com