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Alex Danielson said she usually paints human figures, but on Saturday her canvas was filled with abstract versions of faces.
Blame it on the music.
"The mood changes in the music, which changes the colors I want to use and the overall feelings I want to get," said Danielson, 16, from Logan.
She was one of seven painters sharing the stage at Salt Lake City's Gallivan Center with young musicians, as part of the second annual IMPULSE Festival, which showcases visual artists and musicians performing side by side.
The event is "where music and visual art interact with each other," said Hana Janatova, director and founder of The Mundi Project, a nonprofit music-education group that organizes the festival.
"In music, just like the visual art, you have different colors, different textures," Janatova said, adding that the event lets the visual artists become performers.
Young musicians from the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts, the Gifted Music School and other programs took the stage, playing a range from classical guitar to show tunes.
Carlissa Shaw, 21, a painter and student at Salt Lake Community College, usually has music on while painting. "I always listen to stuff based on what I'm trying to produce … I always pick an artist or a genre that will set me in a direction," Shaw said, adding that her preference is jazz.
For Danielson, who studies at the Visual Art Institute, "when I want to focus on my proportions and stuff, I like classical. It's calming."