JaZzArt en València

This is certainly part of Art History, although it doesn’t really have much to do with the professional, philosophical and profound aspect of art. After all Art is an academic subject one studies at university, right? Well, a lot of these artists said they did not need that, all they needed was some paint, a canvas and a couple of brushes. Would Engineers, Medical Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers and other professions say that amateurs pretending to be engineers, doctors, dentists and lawyers be the same as the ones that have suffered through 4 to 6 years of uni training?

And don’t get me wrong, I love Grandma Moses and Henri Rousseau. I don’t think much of some of the others, especially Frida Kahlo. You see, she is taken as an icon of women’s liberation, or feminism, but if you read her published diary and any other articles or books…very few…written about her, you will realise that she was definitely no feminist. She was a submissive woman who suffered gratuitously at the hands of an abusive husband and she still held him at the highest standard. That is not what a feminist believes and it is not how a feminist acts. So, especially if you are a fan of this artist, let me know what you think…

Well, here is my version of Naive Art. I do enjoy a lot of it…

Let me know what you think…

Cheers…

Now this was always one of my favourite Led Zeppelin songs. I loved the orchestration, the steady, almost marching, Asian rhythm and the way that Robert Plant used his iconic voice to make the song almost a lament, a cry, a calling…

With this song I have to give you the lyrics. It’s a phenomenal group of verses, filled with the amount of mystery, mysticism and symbolism we are accustomed to finding in the music of this, one of the greatest rock groups that ever existed.

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face
And stars fill my dream
I’m a traveler of both time and space
To be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race
This world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait
All will be revealed
Talk in song from tongues of lilting grace
Sounds caress my ear
And not a word I heard could I relate
The story was quite clear
Oh, baby, I been blind
Oh, yeah, mama, there ain’t no denyin’
Oh, ooh yes, I been blind
Mama, mama, ain’t no denyin’, no denyin’
All I see turns to brown
As the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand
As I scan this wasted land
Try to find, try to find the way I feel
Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace
Like sorts inside a dream
Leave the path that led me to that place
Yellow desert stream
My shangri la beneath the summer moon
I will return again
As the dust that floats high in June
We’re moving through Kashmir
Oh, father of the four winds fill my sails
Cross the sea of years
With no provision but an open face
Along the straits of fear
Oh, when I want, when I’m on my way, yeah
And my feet wear my fickle way to stay
Ooh, yeah yeah, oh, yeah yeah,
But I’m down oh, yeah yeah, oh, yeah
Yeah, but I’m down, so down
Ooh, my baby, oh, my baby
Let me take you there
Come on, oh let me take you there
Let me take you there
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: James Patrick (Jimmy) Page / John Bonham / Robert Anthony Plant
Kashmir lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Although the song was recorded in 1974, a different…slightly…version appeared in 1975 in the Physical Graffiti album recorded in London. It is considered…and not just by yours truly…to be the band’s crowning achievement, ahead of «Stairway to Heaven».

Although I find this version, with the Egyptian Orchestra, to be one of the best I have ever heard, I like to give you options and here is the version done at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert. Of course the drummer here is Jason Bonham, son of John, lovingly called «Bonzo». The concert was in 2007. Twenty million tickets were requested…

Not caring that there’s snow beneath his feet,

and glancing at the ghosts that pass by restless,

beneath the lonely streetlight he can keep

a little bit of emptiness.

A smile carved on the bricks that plague the wall,

a simple, but implacable reminder,

of days that felt so warm, now days are cold,

yet in a way life’s kinder.

He wonders if he’ll see tomorrow come,

and looks up at the smile that someone carved there,

They’ve carved it like a map that leads back home,

whoever did it,

he’ll never know,

the night is frigid,

cold wind,

cold snow,

the streetlight’s shadow

amidst his glow…

C.2022, 12 JAN 2022, Francis Bravo Cabrera, València, España 🇪🇸

Sin duda alguna…

Floto como una barca sobre tus aguas sobre tu seno.

Pienso que soy gaviota volando libre por tanto cielo,

cielo que ahora dibujas de oro y de azul,

entre las nubes vas tu tejiendo la fuerte luz,

luz que baila con sombras por alegrias,

al ver que ya ha amanecido este nuevo día.

C.2022, Francis Bravo Cabrera, 14 de enero 2022, València, España 🇪🇸

De todas las estupideces que se les han ocurrido a los nuevos dictadores y tiranos de la lengua y de la cultura, la del lenguaje inclusivo tiene que ser la mas estupida, en mi opinión claramente. El idioma, la lengua que hablamos, es algo establecido, bien creado, bien conocido y algo que funciona, aunque no perfectamente, pero bastante bien y no hace falta venir con estos cambios innecesarios.

Decimos “todos” y lo unimos a: “todos nosotros, las personas”, decimos “la” humanidad et cetera et cetera. Hay de cal y hay de arena. El plural siempre ha sido masculino y así seguirá. Al menos yo jamás diré “todes”.

Basta ya de estas nuevas ideas puritanas y absurdas, o ¿estamos viviendo otra vez los tiempos de la inquisición?

No se puede poner un desnudo femenino…o masculino…en YouTube aunque sea de una obra clásica digamos de Botticelli o del Bosco. Ahora también los museos tienen que abrir cuentas en websites porno para poner anuncios de sus cuadros y de nuevas exposiciones porque quizá hayan desnudos…siempre los habrán…y ahora ofenden. ¡Increíble!

Censuran libros, cuadros, pelis, y a las personas porque quieren que todos nos rijamos por esta tiranía, cuyo mantra, cuyo lema, es que todo y todos, tenemos que ser “políticamente correcto”.

¡Ale! Basta ya!

GRACIAS

CHEERS

* But you can easily skip them or break them…

However…

There is a rule that must not be broken…Rule #1…and that is that every brushstroke should be applied to the canvas with thought and with a specific purpose in mind. There should be no randomness in the manner in which paint is applied. Yes, at first, random brushstrokes are admitted…and even encouraged…but when you are finally shaping the structure of the composition, each brushstroke should be carefully thought out and purposely applied. This rule should not be broken because if you do, you will not be putting the thoughts into the composition that it requires. After all, I am assuming that you did put thought, intention, message and emotion into your composition in the first place…

And…

This rule…as all other rules…applies to figurative as well as to abstract art. I have often said that abstract art is the most difficult art to do…to do right…because the reference is internal, therefore it is very important that Rule #1 be followed diligently. Now, if you consider the example I have placed above, you might think that there is a lot of random dripping of paint…unmixed paint right out of the tube…and that little thought was given to where it would end up on the canvas. But you would be wrong. Like I said, the reference…for me, as the one who painted it…is internal, so it can change according to how I «see» this reference within my head. Yet the reproduction of it on the canvas remains faithful to the reference. And please do not confuse this with what the observer may, or may not, see when looking at the painting.

I chose not to give this painting a word title and instead I chose the number 1,2,3, as they, in their union, as a number, 123, stand in place of a philosophical concept, which I will not go into here, but it is meaningful to me. Nothing is random, nothing is intuitive, as intuition does not lead to a finished work of art.

CHEERS

Cheers…