Miripolsky will be painting while the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performs this weekend. His painting is based on the theme "Hear Art. See Music."

Pop artist Andre Miripolsky paints a canvas with a mop on the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Monument Circle in Indianapolis.

For weeks, visual artist Andre Miripolsky has been looking forward to what he calls his "invasion of Indianapolis." The 56-year-old Los Angeles-based designer, who has collaborated with pop-music icons including Elton John and Bette Midler, will create paintings during the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's "Halloween Treats" concerts tonight and Saturday night at Hilbert Circle Theatre.

Miripolsky, who also created a huge canvas earlier this week on Monument Circle, will join caricaturist Michael D. Arthur for two multimedia concerts that the ISO has been calling "Hear Art. See Music."

During the Hilbert Circle Theatre concerts conducted by Ludovic Morlot, Arthur will start off by creating pen-and-ink works to Camille Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre." He will continue with HK Gruber's "Frankenstein," while the composer narrates.

Miripolsky will pick up after intermission, with a painting inspired by Maurice Ravel's "Mother Goose." He said he will be working on the terrace above the stage, on a canvas expected to be 7-by-24 feet.

"The music I get to work with, the Mother Goose ballet, is just music itself, as opposed to 'Frankenstein,' which will have narration," he said. "Images that have been coming to mind, and that I've kind of got locked in, have to do with a ballet of dancing geese -- pirouettes and tutus. It's funny."

The son of a cultural adviser for the American Foreign Service, Miripolsky was born in Paris, graduated from high school in Korea and continued his education at the California Institute of the Arts.

Pop music and pop culture have figured heavily in Miripolsky's life and work. Throughout his 30-year career, he has collaborated with John on a "piano-key jacket," and designed album covers for Midler and backdrops for NBC's "Tonight Show."

About 15 years ago, Miripolsky released a short film titled "Fear No Art," which has become his motto. The film tells of a 1984 automobile accident that prompted him to work his way back to health, partly through his art.

Miripolsky calls both of his Indianapolis projects -- outside on Monument Circle and inside Circle Theatre -- to be "once-in-a-lifetime kind of performances. And I am approaching both pieces as performances.

"During the concerts, the piece is 40 minutes. That's a finite amount of time. By the time the music is coming to a crescendo, my thing needs to be concluding as well."