because I would try to explain synesthesia so many times,

it never quite made as much sense to describe it verbally,

so I thought it would be best just to put it on canvas

just because I've always been an artist

and it made it much easier for people to be able to understand it.

My name is Melissa McCracken,

and I am a synesthetic artist.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition

where your brain is basically cross-wired,

so certain stimuli will come in

and it'll create the wrong response in my brain.

So for me that's listening to music

and it's translated into color in my head.

I'm going to paint Superstition by Stevie Wonder.

I love the song Superstition just because

it's dynamic and funky and just fun and expressive.

Whenever I start a piece, I have to listen

to the song first to even know what kind of colors I'd like to use.

There are some songs that I hate

that I like the way that they look a little bit.

Like a lot of pop music can be pink and purple

and, you know just all these fun bright colors

but the song's not that good.

So one or the other, I appreciate it somehow.

You know you kind of have to really be

in the right vibe to be able to paint.

If you're not in the right vibe,

you're not gonna make anything good.

I think the prettiest genre of music is jazz music.

I love blues and golds and whites,

and it just seems very pearly and iridescent a little bit.

When I listen to Etta James' At Last,

the thing that stuck out most to me was just

her voice at the very beginning

when she goes into the "At last..."

♫ At last

And it's just a very bright and but also warm sort

of feeling and very kind of classic jazzy,

which jazz music generally has a very gold and blue sort of look to it.

Music has always been a very big part of my life.

My older brother is very musical

and when I think back of him playing

the guitar for me, I think of the colors of what those memories are.

I was always a little disappointed

because I was never very musically inclined.

It was really cool to have a way to bring music into, you know, my life in a different sort of way.