JaZzArt en València

This was…and is…a southern rock kick-arse band, for sure! Love them! They were formed in Florida…

The band was formed in 1964 by singer Ronnie Van Zant, the guiterists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, drummer Bob Burns and bassist Larry Junstrom in Jacksonville, Florida. And the unique name came from the gymnastic professor of some of the boys in the band, good old boys that is…

Tragedy hit the group in October of 1977. A horrible airplane crash took the lives of Van Zant, Gaines and other members. This caused a sudden end to the band. But they regrouped in 1979 and later in 1987 with Ronnie’s little brother Johnny as lead vocals.

The above photo shows the band as it was before the crash in 1977. I tell you that I really enjoyed listening to this group and I still do. What do you think?

CHEERS

4) Romero Britto. Well Britto should take up a lot, if not most, of the slots in my ranking of my worst ten artists (my opinion). Really I should not even include him as an artist, because he is not. He is a mystery. I cannot understand why or who would purchase one of his atrocities. He stands next to the great bad ones like Miró and Kahlo. Yet those were simply bad artists, Britto is not an artist. And if you search, you find nothing about hi, He says he never studied art, and that is quite evident when you see his «works» which resemble a kindergartner’s colouring book. I will let you be the judge.

There really is no reason to put any more as they are all the same.

5) Jean-Michel Basquiat. The «enfant terrible» of the 1980’s. The boy-man who wanted to become famous and rich, and who managed it. I must say that I do respect him a bit more than most of the others, but I still consider him a terrible artist. His mother trained him in the arts and he profited from it, to a certain extent. He was a «graffiti artist» for a while, an abstract musician, a painter, a bohemian, a bum on the streets, and a spoiled brat who did not know how to live and ended up the way he did. Suicide by overdose of drugs. His works are uninspiring and quite cliché, boring to the max and do not, nor have they ever proffered anything to art history. The fact that he was always around the «greats» of his time contributed to his posthumous success. As to the value of his works, well, that is a mystery just like with Britto.

6) Damien Hirst. If anyone can be called a non-artist (besides the ones I have already mentioned) is Mr. Hirst. He thought he had invented the circles of colour, he put a shark in formaldehyde (which he did not mix well and the shark began to rot and had to be replaced) and he made a skull with diamonds who no one bought and who was secretly purchased by a group which included himself… He does not know anything about painting, drawing, well, nothing about art at all. Well, if I could put all the «artists» I have mentioned as number one on my list, I would.

CHEERS

So the sun rises on the first day of January and it is a new year. This one we are calling 2025. It is like magic, like if everything on our plane of reality knew that a year had ended the night before and a new one was dawning. Well, we have to put up with, and even celebrate, these constraints on reality that us, society, humanity, whatever, have put upon ourselves. But is it real? Pardon me, but I do not believe it. Why I have even heard rumours (or conspiracy theories?) that way back in the middle ages a pope added 300 years to the calendar so that his reign could coincide with the new millennium!

But who knows, I mean none of us were around back in those days, not even the ones who deny anything and everything in the name of rationalism. In any event, we have shaped our reality with rules, with calendars, and now with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and notice how we must actually (in the English language) capitalise those two insignificant little words. Algorithms rule the world by controlling us and everything that we do. We (the collective «we») does not have to think any more. AI thinks for us. Our public opinion is shaped by bots that control the internet. Oh, you did not know that 90% of the internet is not real, it is run by bots? Well live and learn.

Yet, it is New Year’s Day and I want to join in the festivities and in congratulating each and every one of you who has followed VALENCIARTIST, who has collaborated with us and who has participated in our discussions throughout 2024. You are my friends. I have also gained so much from your blogs, your opinions and your knowledge and I thank you.

I would like to dedicate the song on the video below to a good friend and fellow musician from the 1990’s, a remarkable Latin percussionist, Ray «Conga» Díaz. Rey made this recording possible back in 1999 when we were waiting for the new year, the new century and the new millennium. Thank you Rey, I will miss you my friend.

GRACIAS – CHEERS

1) Frida Kahlo. Mediocre, did not know how to draw or paint. At best a naïve artist, but hardly even there. It is hard for me to even call her a bad artist, because I tremble to use the word «artist» when referring to her. However, since her death they have converted her into the «queen of merchandising».

Need I say more about this supposed artist that never added anything to art history? (Sorry if you are a fan. I am hot here to discourage you. This is simply my opinion).

2) Joan Miró. Boring to the extreme. He never experimented, he never searched. He did not even mix colours. What for? Buy the tubes, they already come mixed and then «create» a series of paintings using simply the colours (primary ones) as they come out of the tube. Finish series in ten minutes. If his family had not opened the Joan Miró foundation where would all those canvases be? I suspect collecting dust in some attic or basement. However, I do believe he was a smashing good sort of chap.

3 A + B) (A)Yoko Ono. If she had not married John Lennon (who she did her best to seduce back in the late 1960’s), nobody would have ever heard of her. And that would have been hunky dory. The only thing she does worse than art is singing, composing and performing. Cannot say anything else about this woman, except that she may actually also be Yayoi Kusama, there is a likeness, no? That allows me to segway to #3 (B), Yayoi Kusama. Great curtain designs for the home of a blind man…

Let me be clear on this very important point. I am judging only the art that these artists have brought to the world. I do not know these people personally therefore I make no judgements on their personality, lifestyle or anything like that. It is nothing personal. If you are a fan of any of these or of any of the ones in the forthcoming part 2, I am so sorry, but this is my opinion based upon a lifetime of study in art and art history. And I also base these opinions on common sense and good taste.

CHEERS

Bueno, despido el 2024 despidiendo también a cuatro buenos amigos… Así es la vida, unos vienen otros van, pero todos estamos andando por el mismo camino hacia la eternidad y Dios se encarga de animarnos, guiarnos y bendecirnos, y a veces llamarnos, pero la muerte no es el fin… Mi amigo, un gran musico, y compañero de varias aventuras musicales en Miami, allá por la década de los años 1990 y principios de los 2000. Rey «Conga» Díaz se ha ido a formar parte de esa gran banda celestial donde tocan algunos otros amigos de otros tiempos. Que tu viaje sea feliz en la gracia del Senor, adios Rey y sigue sonando…

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Well, as I bid farewell to 2024, I also say goodbye to four good friends… Such is life, some come and others go, but we are all walking the same path towards eternity, and God takes care of encouraging us, guiding us, and blessing us, and sometimes calling us, but death is not the end… My friend, a great musician, and companion of various musical adventures in Miami back in the 1990s and early 2000s, Rey «Conga» Díaz has gone to join that great celestial band where some other friends from other times also play. May your journey be joyful in the grace of the Lord, farewell Rey and keep playing…

May God bless…

GRACIAS – CHEERS

Y así cerrar el 2024 que ha sido un año de mucha arte, mucha búsqueda y de haber encontrado diferentes caminos para seguir creando y desarrollando. «Las fabulosas mostrencas del jazz» (60x80cm/acrílico sobre tela) capta los momentos cuando la música, la descarga jazzista, y las luces de los escenarios se funden y se convierten en energía…

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And thus we close 2024, which has been a year of a lot art, exploration, and of finding new and different paths to continue creating and developing. «The Fabulous Monstresses of Jazz» (45″x60″/acrylic on canvas) captures the moments when the music, the jazz burst, and the lights of the stage merge and become energy…

GRACIAS – CHEERS

Y mira que hay corrientes sucias… estar feliz, estar tranquilos y mantener la fe…

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO

Fue pintora impresionista, escultora, y diseñadora. Esta artista francesa nació en Étampes en 1853. Un hito en su vida, y en su carrera, fue cuando a los 23 años de edad pintó un retrato de la actriz Sarah Bernhardt. Es posible que haya tenido una relación sentimental con la famosa actriz ya que se conocía que era lesbiana. Desde el 1874 comenzó a exponer en el Salón de París. Pintó los murales decorativos de varios ayuntamientos parisienses y también hizo muchas pinturas para otros edificios de París. Abbéma fue una de las artistas cuyas obras fueron expuestas en el Edificio de la Mujer en 1893 para la Exposición Mundial Colombina de Chicago, con el fin de mostrar los aportes de la mujer a la historia. Una de las obras expuestas fue el busto de Sarah Bernhardt. En 1906 la nombraron Caballero de la Orden de la Legión de Honor. Murió en 1927 en París.

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She was an Impressionist painter, a sculptor, a designer and as well as a prolific writer. This French artist born in Étampes in 1853. A notable incident in her life occurred when, at the age of 23, she painted a portrait of the famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt with whom she might have had a romantic affair. She was known to be a lesbian. In 1874 she began exhibiting at the Salon de Paris. She also painted the decorative murals for several city halls throughout Paris as well as providing paintings for other municipal buildings in the French capital. Abbéma was one of the artists chosen exhibit at the 1893 Women’s Building of the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a hall dedicated to exemplifying women’s contribution to history. One of the items she exhibited was a bust of Sarah Bernhardt. In 1906 she was named Chevalier of the Order of the Légion d’honneur. Louise Abbéma died in Paris in 1927.

Gracias…

Cheers…

From the early 70’s The Carpenters enchanted me, really it was the way Karen Carpenter sang, the drummer and lead vocalist. Her voice really resonated with me and she quickly became my favourite female vocalist. The band was formed with studio musicians who toured with Karen and Richard Carpenter (brother and sister). The official name of the group was simply «Carpenters». They stayed together 14 years (1969-1983) and recorded 10 albums, various singles and appeared in several television specials. The brothers were born in Connecticut but later moved to California. It is very sad that their career ended so abruptly in 1983 with the death of Karen who succumbed to cardiac insufficiency as a complication of anorexia nerviosa. Their music is still fresh and vibrant and ever so beautiful.

Enjoy…

CHEERS