This work came from the colour assignment where we had to choose a real event and turn its atmosphere into an artwork. I chose Playboi Carti’s Antagonist Tour because the concert did not feel like something I was calmly watching from a seat. It felt more like being stuck inside sound, smoke, heat, and movement. The arena kept going from almost complete darkness to harsh flashes of white light, and the crowd was constantly pushing, yelling, jumping, and closing in. I did not want the painting to look like a clear concert photo. The title for this piece is in direct reference to Playboi Cartis latest album, Music.

I used acrylic because it let me move quickly between soft haze and rougher marks. The painting started with the darker crowd shapes and smoky background, then I built the diagonal white light as the main interruption in the image. That white mark was important because it had to feel physical, not just like a spotlight. I used black and grey for the weight of the room, yellow ochre and cream tones for the dirty smoke, and small red accents for aggression and impact. I dragged, smudged, scraped, and layered the paint instead of trying to make clean figures. The people in the crowd are mostly dark shapes because that is how I remember them: half-seen, packed together, and almost swallowed by the atmosphere.

This painting made me realize that colour can describe an experience without showing every detail literally. At first, I thought I might need more obvious concert imagery, but the strongest parts came from the light, smoke, and pressure of the composition. I also learned that restraint with colour matters. Red could have easily taken over the whole painting, but using it in smaller moments made it feel more like flashes of adrenaline. The hardest part was balancing structure and mess. The diagonal light and crowd shapes gave the painting a plan, but the surface still needed to feel unstable, because the event itself felt controlled and chaotic at the same time.