JaZzArt en València

A little bit of you…

a piece of me.

Sweat breaks off our skin and we sprinkle the floor with the gin we drank in better days when we thought we were truly free.

No, it wasn’t honey, we toasted with bile and not champagne, no honey moon with us remained.

And it wasn’t freedom.

Shackled hands and shackled feet to the altar we were led by a glorious man of many wars, a sailor tried and true, with voices pouring from his head that made us dream of youth…

A hefty chunk of you,

and a bit more of me,

leads us to days when we suffer dearly and crave to live one more second of laughter or a minute of tears.

Because if from you and from me there exists only shadows,

from me and from you there is nothing.

C.2021, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 28 de noviembre 2021, València, España

JaZzArT

I think I’ve said these things before, but for those who have not read previous posts, I would like to explain about my art. My work is shaped by the three core principles of Jazz: improvisation, the artist as composer, and swing (meaning rhythm). Though I begin with planning and sketches, I ultimately allow the piece to “speak” as it evolves. Guided by intuition and response, each composition completes itself in its own rhythm—moving, shifting, and swinging with the same freedom and vitality that define Jazz.

JaZzArT…(which is what I call my art, especially my drawings)…is born from the spirit of Jazz, i.e. its improvisation, its insistence that every player is also a composer, and its unmistakable swing (rhythm) that turns sound into motion. I carry these principles into my visual art. While each piece begins, like I said, with a plan and a vision with many sketches, and a sense of direction, I never ask a work to remain confined to the first idea. Instead, I invite it to converse with me. And it does. It speaks and I listen…

As colours meet, lines shift, and gestures find their own momentum, the artwork begins to reveal its own logic, its own pulse. This creates a dialogue to the which I respond immediately, allowing the composition to reshape itself, to expand, and to surprise me. Even mistakes, like the ones Bob Ross called “happy accidents”, serve to enhance the composition. What emerges is not simply an image but a moment of co-creation: part structure, part choreography, and not of truly of chance, but to controlled spontaneity. If this sounds like a contradiction in terms, just think of it as “relaxed concentration.”

In the end, every piece must swing with energy. Every painting/drawing must be alive and must represent the spirit of the day, the times, the epoch. The work must be true to the moment of its making, if not it is dead in the water (as we said in the Coast Guard). My art becomes a visual guitar riff, a dance between intention and improvisation, where the final form is discovered rather than dictated. This is the essence of JaZzArT: creation that listens as much as it speaks, and finds its reality by following the music within.

ARTIST STATEMENT

JaZzArT emerges from the elemental language of Jazz—its devotion to improvisation, its recognition of the maker as both player and composer, and its subtle, irresistible rhythm (the old jazz players called it “swing”). These principles guide my hand as rules as well as currents. Each work begins with structure: sketches, notes, the clear architecture of an idea. Yet the moment the piece takes shape, the dialogue shifts.

In the studio, I listen. Colours scream out, lines hesitate or push forward, forms lean toward one another in ways I would have never imagined. The work guides itself towards its chosen direction, gently…and at times quite violently…undoing my certainties. I follow these impulses as one might follow a tune, trusting my instincts, (and yes, humans have instincts), allowing the never imagined to surface.

What results is not predetermined; it is discovered. The composition forms itself through its dialogue with me. Sometimes it dances with folkloric charm or syncopated rhythms, but it always seeks that intangible condition I think of swing. This vitality cannot be forced, but it can be invited.

JaZzArT is my way of honouring the moment of discovery. It is art shaped by intention and intuition and by attentive listening. I believe a work comes fully alive only when it’s allowed to guide its own becoming. Through each piece, I seek to create a visual experience that invites viewers into that same sense of movement, spontaneity, and quiet revelation.

CHEERS

«A veces los pensamientos que nos llevan a la creación mayor nacen en lo más oscuro y profundo de la noche cuando uno está en el quinto sueño y uno tiene que levantarse y ponerse a trabajar porque el duende no regresa si lo desprecias.» (Francisco Bravo Cabrera)

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«Sometimes the thoughts that lead us to greater creation are born in the darkest and deepest part of the night when one is quite snug in the arms of Morpheus, and one has to get up and get to work because the muse does not return if you disrespect it.» (Francisco Bravo Cabrera)

FRAGMENTOS Y PENSAMIENTOS QUE DIERON PIE A CUADROS MIOS

FRAGMENTS AND THOUGHTS THAT GAVE WAY TO SOME OF MY ARTWORK

GRACIAS – CHEERS

JaZzArT

I think I’ve said these things before, but for those who have not read previous posts, I would like to explain about my art. My work is shaped by the three core principles of Jazz: improvisation, the artist as composer, and swing (meaning rhythm). Though I begin with planning and sketches, I ultimately allow the piece to “speak” as it evolves. Guided by intuition and response, each composition completes itself in its own rhythm—moving, shifting, and swinging with the same freedom and vitality that define Jazz.

JaZzArT…(which is what I call my art, especially my drawings)…is born from the spirit of Jazz, i.e. its improvisation, its insistence that every player is also a composer, and its unmistakable swing (rhythm) that turns sound into motion. I carry these principles into my visual art. While each piece begins, like I said, with a plan and a vision with many sketches, and a sense of direction, I never ask a work to remain confined to the first idea. Instead, I invite it to converse with me. And it does. It speaks and I listen…

As colours meet, lines shift, and gestures find their own momentum, the artwork begins to reveal its own logic, its own pulse. This creates a dialogue to the which I respond immediately, allowing the composition to reshape itself, to expand, and to surprise me. Even mistakes, like the ones Bob Ross called “happy accidents”, serve to enhance the composition. What emerges is not simply an image but a moment of co-creation: part structure, part choreography, and not of truly of chance, but to controlled spontaneity. If this sounds like a contradiction in terms, just think of it as “relaxed concentration.”

In the end, every piece must swing with energy. Every painting/drawing must be alive and must represent the spirit of the day, the times, the epoch. The work must be true to the moment of its making, if not it is dead in the water (as we said in the Coast Guard). My art becomes a visual guitar riff, a dance between intention and improvisation, where the final form is discovered rather than dictated. This is the essence of JaZzArT: creation that listens as much as it speaks, and finds its reality by following the music within.

ARTIST STATEMENT

JaZzArT emerges from the elemental language of Jazz—its devotion to improvisation, its recognition of the maker as both player and composer, and its subtle, irresistible rhythm (the old jazz players called it “swing”). These principles guide my hand as rules as well as currents. Each work begins with structure: sketches, notes, the clear architecture of an idea. Yet the moment the piece takes shape, the dialogue shifts.

In the studio, I listen. Colours scream out, lines hesitate or push forward, forms lean toward one another in ways I would have never imagined. The work guides itself towards its chosen direction, gently…and at times quite violently…undoing my certainties. I follow these impulses as one might follow a tune, trusting my instincts, (and yes, humans have instincts), allowing the never imagined to surface.

What results is not predetermined; it is discovered. The composition forms itself through its dialogue with me. Sometimes it dances with folkloric charm or syncopated rhythms, but it always seeks that intangible condition I think of swing. This vitality cannot be forced, but it can be invited.

JaZzArT is my way of honouring the moment of discovery. It is art shaped by intention and intuition and by attentive listening. I believe a work comes fully alive only when it’s allowed to guide its own becoming. Through each piece, I seek to create a visual experience that invites viewers into that same sense of movement, spontaneity, and quiet revelation.

CHEERS

Els carrers de la Ciutat Vella ens traslladen a altres temps, potser al Segle XVIII o molt abans, i avui dia estan aquests murs coberts d’art, alguna de bona, una altra no…

Las calles de la Ciudad Vieja nos trasladan a otros tiempos, quiza al Siglo XVIII o mucho antes, y hoy dia estan estos muros cubiertos de arte, alguna buena, otra no…

The streets of the Old Town transport us to other times, perhaps to the 18th century or much earlier, and today these walls are covered in art, some good, some not…

Y esto lo estamos viendo… algunos han caído y pagarán sus delitos y otros caerán… ¿No?

Spillwords.com presents: Haunted Holidays – Shapes and Forms, poetry by Francisco Bravo Cabrera, a poet that uses words, music and …

Origen: Shapes and Forms