The title gives it away, you're hearing shapes now. Classical structure does that. The symmetry, the repeating forms building on each other. It's there in the composition, how the elements layer and resolve. Same logic as a fugue, just in paint and pastel instead of notes.

I spent years working in silence, thinking noise would mess up my focus. Then one morning shoot waiting for fog to lift in the Shenandoah, I had headphones in for the first time, just Bach. The whole way I saw light shifted that day. Classical does something to the patience part of the brain, I think. What you're describing, that visual thinking change, I get it completely.

I listen to music so I can get lost in songs rather than focus on the painting. It paints itself without my attention and I love that.