JaZzArt en València

Aquí en València todavía a oscuras…

GRACIAS – CHEERS

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Lo Rat Penat… (la rata penada) grandeza, protección y vigilancia…es nuestro escudo, símbolo de la ciudad de València. El murciélago que salvo al Rey Jaume I de un ataque sorpresa de los moros durante la reconquista de nuestra ciudad.

Un dia a Valencià

Feliç dia de Sant Vicent Ferrer a tots els valencians!

MOLTES GRÀCIES – MUCHAS GRACIAS – CHEERS

A little about Sir Richard Sheridan Patrick Michael Aloysius Franklin Bowling OBE RA

UK Artist Frank Bowling was born in Bartica, Guyana in 1934. His work is principally abstract, and he is considered an abstract impressionist who also works colour fields (reminiscent of Rothko). He has studios both in New York and in London. The Tate Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of New York all have works by Bowling in their permanent collections.

Bowling, who studied at the Chelsea School of Art and also at the City and Guilds of London Art School, won a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in 1959. There he studied with artists like David Hockney, R. B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier and Patrick Caulfield.

I think he is a very important artist in art history and one of the most influential and brilliant of the abstract expressionists. I hope you will look further into his work, especially if you are an artist or a student of art. And even if you are just a lover of art, I am sure you will find his paintings agreeable and pleasant to the eye. Here are three samples.

CHEERS

Esto es muy cierto y hay que tener cuidado…

¿No?

Ara a por la champions!

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CHEERS

A little about Sir Richard Sheridan Patrick Michael Aloysius Franklin Bowling OBE RA

UK Artist Frank Bowling was born in Bartica, Guyana in 1934. His work is principally abstract, and he is considered an abstract impressionist who also works colour fields (reminiscent of Rothko). He has studios both in New York and in London. The Tate Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of New York all have works by Bowling in their permanent collections.

Bowling, who studied at the Chelsea School of Art and also at the City and Guilds of London Art School, won a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in 1959. There he studied with artists like David Hockney, R. B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier and Patrick Caulfield.

I think he is a very important artist in art history and one of the most influential and brilliant of the abstract expressionists. I hope you will look further into his work, especially if you are an artist or a student of art. And even if you are just a lover of art, I am sure you will find his paintings agreeable and pleasant to the eye. Here are three samples.

CHEERS

Vivienne might not be a painter/artist but she certainly was an artist. So I find it quite fitting that she be included in the Women’s Artists Series. She was born in Derbyshire, England in 1941. She passed away in 2022 in London. She was the designer of the Punk and New Wave movement. She had a shop in London, Sex, from 1974 to 1976 where she created what all the punks wore, or wanted to wear. The boutique, that merged fashion with music, was the centre of the Punk fashion. Actually her partner, Malcolm McLaren was not only a fashion designer but the manager of the Sex Pistols.Westwood was ranked by Sky Arts as the 4th most influential artist in Britain in the last 50 years. Vivienne was also an activist for a better world. She opened shops not only throughout Britain, but around the world with fashion lines to promote political causes that she supported such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, climate change and civil rights groups…She was the genesis of the punk fashion movement and once said, «I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way» («Vivienne Westwood: Disgracefully yours, the Queen Mother of Fashion». The Independent. London, England. 2 June 2002. Retrieved 31 March 2010).

Being that I too greatly admired Punk aesthetics, I thought it quite fitting to feature Vivienne. I hope you enjoy it and if you are interested in art, design, music, or whatever, you might benefit greatly by looking up more on this very creative and brilliant woman.

CHEERS

Well, even though I have never done a movie review…and I don’t intend to do one now…I really wanted to comment on Whiplash. Two reasons: One that it has to do with Jazz music; two that it deals with how…supposedly…musicians are trained at upper level schools and conservatories.

The movie, released in 2014 stars J. K. Simmons, one of the best character actors around and Miles Teller, a young and promising actor who also loves music. Well it is good that he did as he played a drummer in the movie. He gets into one of the best schools of music in the country (US) and manages to enter the jazz band, directed by a cruel professor. Well, cruel, but, I tell you I wish I would have had a teacher like him. If you didn’t give up and quit, you would become a phenomenon like Charlie Parker, who was mentioned a lot in the movie.

The song «Whiplash» was written by Hank Levy (1927-2001), a Baltimore jazz artist and educator who was also a saxophonist and loved to compose in unusual time signatures. The song, which provides the name of the film, is featured several times as the «evil» professor tries to get the young drummer to play it at his time and he can never get the tempo just right. The professor slaps him around, berates him and totally humiliates him. But he pushes on. In a situation like this…reminds me of Army Basic Training…you either become good or you get discouraged, frustrated and tired and quit.

I recommend it. The movie is not one of those ritzy Hollywood style extravaganzas full of AI produced effects or wizardry, rather it is more of a telling of a story about how jazz really gets under the skin of those who want to make a difference in that world. It is also a good lesson in case you want to be a jazzman (or woman) and get chosen to join a university band. They will put a lot of pressure on you, but rest assured that the more pressure you take the better you will get. Only hard work develops talent. Don’t take compliments, or think that it’s good enough. Strive for perfection or take a hike.

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CHEERS