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How Manuel Solano Found Joy by Playing Music

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Samuel R. Delany

Jonathan Bailey

Piet Oudolf

Beanie Feldstein

Daniel Roseberry

Radha Blank

Katerina Tannenbaum

Ethan Hawke

Christopher John Rogers

Katie Stout

Raja Feather Kelly

Aleshea Harris and Whitney White

Jamie Nares

Saweetie

Patricia Urquiola

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Faith Ringgold

Louise Erdrich

Sheila Hicks

Virginie Viard

Tschabalala Self

Jordan Casteel

Toshiko Mori

Caroline Polachek

Daniel Romualdez

Ivo van Hove

Pim Techamuanvivit

Pierre Hardy

James Whiteside

Mona Mansour

Chika

Manuel Solano

Kid Cudi

Artist

Manuel Solano

Playing the Guitar

Solano, 34, photographed at their home studio in Berlin on Jan. 4, 2022.

Bastian Achard

How Manuel Solano Found Joy by Playing Music

Picking up a guitar set the artist on a new path, and they now consider jam sessions to be deeply therapeutic.

April 21, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

After graduating from the visual arts program at La Esmeralda, an arts school in Mexico City, in 2012, I had no idea what I was going to do next. I was still living with my mom. I had no money, not a lot of friends, no prospects. I was sending portfolios everywhere, but galleries didn’t seem interested. I’d been concentrating on a painting on and off for almost a year and just couldn’t finish it.

One night, I was up late painting and listening to music on YouTube. A cover of a Waylon Jennings song called “Dreaming My Dreams,” performed by Cary Ann Hearst, came on. Her voice completely mesmerized me. I watched the video again and again. It inspired me to dig out and tune my electric guitar, which I hadn’t touched in a decade. As I sat in front of my laptop attempting to play the song, I felt overcome by sadness, though I didn’t know why at the time. I couldn’t figure out the chords, and my voice sounded nothing like hers. I started crying and couldn’t stop.

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24 Hours in the Creative Life

Continue Reading

That turned out to be a fateful night. The next morning, I tested positive for H.I.V. A couple of years later, I went blind because of complications from the disease. I told this story as part of a 2017 performance piece called “The Sigourney Weaver Jam Sessions” at the Time-Based Art Festival in Portland, Ore., during which I tried to sing “Dreaming My Dreams.” I realized soon after that the reason I’d been crying that night was that when I’d heard my voice in my headphones, I’d heard a man singing. I suddenly knew two things: I needed to do something about my gender, and I needed to do something about music.

I’ve been working on both since and am so much happier. I’m learning to androgynize my voice and play the guitar. It feels completely different now that I’m blind, almost as if I were using another part of my brain. I still have my first electric guitar, but playing the acoustic is more intimate, so I want to come back to the electric after I become proficient. My instruments are usually in the living room — I was lucky to find a large apartment in the Mitte neighborhood of Berlin, so half is my home and half is my work space. I now only ever make work if it’s funny to me. Even if the subject matter is very sad or dark, something about it — the way it’s presented or the context in which it’ll be shown — has to tickle me. Sadly, all the fun of painting disappeared with the loss of my eyesight; the joy of it was watching the image change as I worked.

More and more, I’m learning how important it is to build playtime into my creative process. In order to keep having ideas for paintings or the motivation to create, I need to regularly spend time singing or strumming the guitar. It’s become like therapy, something I do to make myself feel real.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

The Artists

A glimpse into how creative people live and work, from dawn to dusk to the early morning hours.

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Samuel R. Delany

Writer
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Jonathan Bailey

Actor
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Piet Oudolf

Garden Designer
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Beanie Feldstein

Actor
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Daniel Roseberry

Fashion Designer
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Radha Blank

Writer and Filmmaker
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Katerina Tannenbaum

Actor
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Ethan Hawke

Actor
10 a.m.

Christopher John Rogers

Fashion Designer
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Katie Stout

Artist and Furniture Designer
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Raja Feather Kelly

Choreographer
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Aleshea Harris and Whitney White

Playwright and Director
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Jamie Nares

Multidisciplinary Artist
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Saweetie

Rapper
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Patricia Urquiola

Architect and Industrial Designer
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Rirkrit Tiravanija

Artist
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Faith Ringgold

Artist
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Louise Erdrich

Writer
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Sheila Hicks

Artist
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Virginie Viard

Fashion Designer
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Tschabalala Self

Artist
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Jordan Casteel

Artist
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Toshiko Mori

Architect
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Caroline Polachek

Singer-Songwriter
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Daniel Romualdez

Architect and Decorator
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Ivo van Hove

Director
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Pim Techamuanvivit

Chef
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Pierre Hardy

Accessories Designer
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James Whiteside

Ballet Dancer
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Mona Mansour

Playwright
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Chika

Rapper
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Manuel Solano

Artist
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Kid Cudi

Musician and Actor

Source: Music - nytimes.com


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