The Albert Merola Gallery presents this exhibition of new work by James Balla titled Songs without Words.

The title comes from a series of short piano works by the 19th C. composer Felix Mendelssohn. He wrote these at various times throughout his life. His resistance to literal interpretation of the music is expressed by his statement: “What the music I love expresses to me, is not thought too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.” 

Balla says about the work: “The fact that a number of these works are titled Venetian Gondola Songs, only made the connection stronger for me. As I began making these paintings, I thought of titles, since I have always titled my work. But I wanted there to be a space between the painting and the title, and not something specific. My thought was paintings without words, which brought me to Mendelssohn. So, I went back to an old reliable source: comic books. Years ago I painted cloud and sky imagery from comic books, removing all of the “action” in the image. Those paintings were titled specifically from words used in the original frame. For this current work, I went in the opposite direction: taking only sounds as expressed with letters used in the comic books, I came upon my own “songs without words”. 

The process is a sculptural one, similar to previous “Flower” paintings that I have done. I cut out paper and arrange the shapes on the linen. Tracing those, I give myself a place to begin the process of painting. So in a sense, it involves the idea of drawing, sculpture and painting all together. The use of many of the same colors in all of the paintings reinforces the overall nature of the idea of the work.”