Mood Switcher

“It’s all about lifting the spirits up.”

Author

By Dave Good

Publish Date

July 14, 2005

Jacqueline Gold is in her 30s and lives with her husband, a Navy doctor, in Normal Heights. She operates a studio in the art community on Kettner, near downtown. "I paint portraits," she says. "The Ubiquitous Bee is a space where I hold open studio workshops and do all my artwork. I've been here for two and a half years...I started at Rhino Art, went to Naval Training Center, went to Arts College International."

Jacqueline describes herself as an artist and an instructor. "I teach life drawing, painting, and I also have my own agency where I book and train models for artists. Figure-drawing models. Models for art classes, art studios, animation studios, and sculptors. I have a background in modeling."

Jacqueline owns a 20-gig iPod. "I've had it about a year and a half. It's something that my husband had been interested in...and he actually got it for Christmas." She says they like some of the same music but have separate playlists. "There's some stuff he likes from the '80s," she says. "I just can't go there. He's got more eclectic stuff [on his playlist]. There's everything from Bach to the Who to Echo and the Bunnymen. There's thousands and thousands of songs on [the iPod]. We both listen to Pete Yorn, Lyle Lovett, Ray Charles. Recently we've been listening to the Who." I ask her who of the two of them is in charge of downloading the tunes. "He's going that way, but I throw in my CDs when I get the chance."

Do they also rip or download off the net? Her answer: "iTunes" (Apple's online music store). "I sometimes catch him [her husband] when he gets up in the middle of the night and goes in and downloads [music]. He'll usually go to bed around 9:30, but sometimes around 11 o'clock when he has to get up and eat his protein bar -- he sleep eats -- I can see the light streaming out [from under] the office door...I think, 'Oh no!'" she laughs. "'He's downloaded another CD.'

"I use the iPod when I paint. Sometimes I don't want to hear the airplanes that go overhead [her studio lies under the flight path]. If I'm in a group situation in my studio workshops, I play CDs. But [when I'm painting] at home, since I have all my CDs here I listen to my iPod. Depending on what my mood is, if I'm in one of those moody, gloomy days, I'm gonna choose music that's gonna lift me up." Examples? "Oh man, I'm all about the Gap Band and the Commodores. Chaka Kahn. It's all about lifting the spirits up." When she wants to come down? "Then it's gonna switch to Chet Baker. The ones where he's singing. I like his voice. He's the dude." I ask which one of the many portraits she's painted that are on display in her studio is her favorite. She points to one of a young woman. What was she listening to when she made the painting? "Probably the soundtrack to Frida."