Ronda, a most beautiful city in the province of Málaga is definitely a place to consider while visiting Andalucía… Check it out and you tell me if this is not gorgeous…
CHEERS
#travel, Have You Been to Ronda?
#art, What’s Cooking at Omnia Caelum Studios (OCS) Valencia?
We, at Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia never stop thinking, never stop doing, never stop living art… So, here are some things…unfinished…that will soon brighten our days. Although the days in Valencia are usually bright…
CHEERS
#art, #photography, Girando con los girasoles – In the Sun With Flowers…
Parece ser que los girasoles están floridos, esta es su temporada…
It appears like sunflowers are blooming everywhere. This is their season…
GRACIAS – CHEERS
#art, #poem, «And Then There Were Flowers»
At first your shadow burst like lightning on your fine manicured lawn,
At second glance I realised it was a torch backlighting statues on your fine manicured lawn,
And then there were flowers blooming in the night and dancers of marble and bronce danced like moonbeams all around me…
C.2025 – Francisco Bravo Cabrera – Valencia, España
#art, Nicolas de Staël, artist
Well, I must confess that I knew little about this painter born in St. Petersburg in 1914. Another one they skipped at art school… He was an artist that worked on canvases, illustrations and also textiles… He is known for his impasto and also, they say, abstract landscape painting. I would not really consider them landscapes if they are abstract and if they are landscapes they I would not call them abstract. But such are the «experts» (good grief experts!)… In 1919 his family fled to Poland because of the Bolsheviks. Both his parents died there and he was sent to live with an older sister in Brussels that set him up with a Russian family… de Staël, of course, studied the fine arts. He studied decoration and design at the Brussels Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts… He then travelled throughout Europe and even to Morocco… He joined the Frech Foreign Legion in 1939… In 1941, after being demobilised from the service, he moved to Nice and there he met Jean Arp, Sonia Delaunay and Robert Delaunay. It was there and with their artistic influence that he started creating his first abstract paintings, or «Compositions»… I think his work is rather interesting and I am sure it was much more interesting in their time. However, I think he is an important artist to know as he is definitely a part of art history.
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CHEERS
#music, An Oldie But Goodie! Viva New York!
«Scenes From An Italian Restaurant», from the 1977 The Stranger album… an incredible tune by one of my faves from the 1980’s. His music was so New York it made me feel like I never left Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens after I had relocated to Miami… Rolling Stone magazine ranked «Scenes From an Italian Restaurant» number 34 in the top 100 songs of all time… It is a long song, over seven minutes and according to Billy Joel, it was influenced by the second side of Abbey Road by the Beatles. Phenomenal reference… It could be, according to Joel, that the song was inspired by: Fontana di Trevi on West 57th Street, opposite Carnegie Hall in New York city, and Benito Two on Mulberry Street (Mulberry Street, my oh my, the memories!) in Little Italy, Manhattan…
I hope you enjoy this seven minute epic by one of the greatest singer-songwriters, pianist, musician, well, Billy Joel…
CHEERS
Today on LatinosUSA! Let’s Chat With Dawn Pisturino by Francisco Bravo Cabrera
I think you will enjoy this lively interview with my good friend and fellow blogger and poet, Dawn Pisturino. And I would urge you to check out her …
Let’s Chat With Dawn Pisturino by Francisco Bravo Cabrera
Please follow the link to the article/interview
CHEERS
Bon dia
Epidemia diría yo, o mejor, pandemia… ¿No?
#art, #photography, Grete Stern
Lo primero que os diré es que esta fenomenal diseñadora y fotógrafa jamás me la mencionaron en la facultad y es brillante… Grete Stern nació en Alemania en 1904 y estudió en la Bauhaus… Como era judía e izquierdista, a la llegada de Hitler, tuvo que abandonar Alemania. En 1934 se trasladó a Londres y abrió un estudio… Pero se comprometió con un cineasta argentino, que conoció en la misma Bauhaus, y en 1935, ella, y su afianzado, Horacio Coppola, (fotógrafo y cineasta argentino), partieron para Buenos Aires. Grete, que adoraba ese país y a esa ciudad, solicito la nacionalidad argentina y se la otorgaron en 1958… Y ahora, venga, lo más fenomenal, definitivamente, pues la casa de Grete y Horacio en Buenos Aires era sede de grandes tertulias y de encuentros con grandes intelectuales como Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges y Renate Schottelius, la bailarina que trajo la Danza Moderna a la Argentina, Clement Moreau, además de los internacionales quienes retrató como Bertolt Brecht… Stern recibió el Premio Konex (1982) – Diploma al Mérito, colocándola como una de las 5 mejores fotógrafas de la historia en la Argentina. Pero debido a un mal ocular en 1985 abandonó la fotografía… Grete Stern murió en 1999 en Buenos Aires.
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The first thing I will tell you is that this phenomenal designer and photographer was never mentioned to me at Uni. And she is brilliant… Grete Stern was born in Germany in 1904 and studied at the Bauhaus… As she was Jewish and leftist, upon Hitler’s arrival, she had to leave Germany. In 1934, she moved to London and opened a studio… But she became engaged to an Argentine filmmaker she met at the Bauhaus, and in 1935, she and her partner, Horacio Coppola (an Argentine photographer and filmmaker), left for Buenos Aires. Grete, who adored that country and city, applied for Argentine nationality, which was granted to her in 1958… And now, here comes the most phenomenal part, as the house of Grete and Horacio in Buenos Aires was the venue for great gatherings and meetings with prominent intellectuals such as Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, and Renate Schottelius, the dancer who brought Modern Dance to Argentina, Clement Moreau, as well as the international figures she photographed, like Bertolt Brecht… Stern received the Konex Award (1982) – Diploma of Merit, ranking her among the top 5 photographers in history in Argentina. However, due to an eye ailment in 1985, she abandoned photography… Grete Stern passed away in 1999 in Buenos Aires.
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GRACIAS – CHEERS
#poem, #art, «Clouds Without Rain»
I waited for the train on broken tracks,
sitting in an old abandoned station…
I walk back to my street on dusty sidewalks, broken, cracked.
But when I reach my doorstep
I smell the jasmine and magnolia
smoke from grandpa’s pipe,
from grandpa’s soul.
And another day passes…
My street is dark and windy in the winter,
the snow has turned asphalt to marmalade.
Above the rooftops black wings flap,
and sharpened talons rip apart white pigeons,
while iron beaks break through the rotten wood.
Medieval homes once made of dreams and aspirations…
And another life passes…
My eyes see light, holes in the clouds,
clouds that defy winds, refuse to move.
Clouds without rain have darkened the blue of heaven,
like bombers in the sky,
they strip away the colours of the sunset.
And another thought passes me by…
I am the fingers of the most atrocious warrior,
the knees of a pious, mystic monk,
within me burns the blood of thinkers
and of the artisans that built these walls,
and paved these ancient streets so narrow that shoulders
passing by scrape the dust of the centuries.
And reality comes and quietly caresses me…
Grandpa has put away his pipe
and savours his warm glass of anisette.
He stretches out his arms as if to pray
then calmly rises,
shuffles away in search of dreams,
and I sit on the doorstep counting
grains of sand from ancient beaches…
C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera – 28/04/2024 – Valencia, Spain
