JaZzArt en València

Pintaba gatos y gatitos. Al principio los felinos andaban en cuatro patas pero luego comenzaron a estar antropomorfizado y los gatos fumaban, hablaban, leían libros y periódicos y hacían, mas o menos, todo lo que hacen los humanos. Luego Wain, que nació en Londres, sufrió trastornos psiquiátricos y terminó en un sanatorio, entonces los gatos los pintaba de forma extraordinaria con unos fondos abstractos que los medicos pensaron que indicaba la presencia de esquizofrenia. Wein murió en Londres en 1939 y se puede decir que fue el precursor del movimiento psicodélico de la década de los 60, por los últimos gatos que pintó.

He painted cats and kittens. At first his cats were rather realistic and walked on four legs, but later they were anthropomorphised and the cats began to smoke, to read books and newspapers and to do things humans do. Later, Wein, born in London, suffered mental illness and ended up in a mental hospital where he began to paint some extraordinary cats. The abstract background signalled to doctors the onset of his schizophrenia. Wein died in London in 1939. He is believed to be the precursor of the psychedelic movement in art of the 1960’s because of his psychedelic cats that he painted while in hospital.

Diría que si os interesa este artista o esta pintura de gatos que busquéis mas acerca de Louis Wain. Aclaro que cuando Wain pintaba estos gatos, el hacerlo no era cosa muy popular, no como ahora que se pintan gatos, perros et cetera, el, de cierta forma, rompió los esquemas.

I would say that if you are interested in this artist or in his paintings of cats that you research further the life and work of Louis Wain. I just want to clarify that during the time that Wain was painting cats, this was not a common subject for painting, it wasn’t like now when people paint cats, dogs et cetera, so in a way he was a trend-setter and an iconoclast.

Gracias…

Cheers…

Sometimes I have to just let the mind take a holiday…

After all, it’s been well engaged with much labour for the past hundred years…

I’ve been an architect in Florence

a priest in Rome,

a soldier in the Punic Wars,

a soul so far from home,

I drove a taxi in Manhattan,

one of those huge old Checker cabs,

I drove the shuttle to the moon

but I didn’t get too far

because the moon just isn’t big enough

for a huge old Checker cab.

I was a diver in the shallows

off the coast of Paraguay,

and I swam the sea of Paris

sipping cocktails at my bar,

I have crossed the wide savannas that

conduced me to the sky

while on Tuesdays I would climb

Mont Blanc and on Wednesdays

wash my car,

cause I drive a Lamborghini,

faded green, metallic red,

and I’ve done so many other things

while swimming through my head…

TIME AND HISTORY

Let’s stop the clocks, burn the bars, close the taverns.

Let’s give them their vodkas and tonics and gin on the house,

and let’s play on your jukebox those speeches by Stalin, by Mao

by comrades, by workers, by students, by me,

yes by me, I’ve a little to say, I’ve a little to be…

Let’s stop the trains, stop the buses, and the ships? Burn their sails.

Let’s let the people now walk and enjoy fresh, clean air,

and let’s play at the square a new song for the masses,

with voices they’ve never quite heard, like mine own,

yes, my voice needs an audience and is now free to roam…

Let’s let lovers embrace on the seashore at night.

Let’s open wide those cruel doors that were closed firm and tight,

and let’s give everyone their fare share of romancing,

with thoughts as unique as the ones I’m now thinking,

yes, my thoughts are as good as the wine I am drinking…

Oh, yes, time and history do make a great story,

a tale told to idiots,

a fantastic unfolding,

of lies and pretensions,

of greed and corruption,

and when will it end?

When they pull on the plug

and the room turns to darkness,

everything stops

we all become ashes…

C.2022, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 05 JUL 2022, Ilica

This is part one of a limited series on the Surrealists. I chose some interesting ones to start off with. Two very famous ones and one not so, but as a woman artist who challenged the system in her day, I do have admiration for her and her work.

Hope you like the video:

Cheers…

War reporters get killed and have gotten killed in every war or conflict that has ever taken place in the world and no one calls for an investigation! So, reference the Al-Jazeera reporter, Israel should not give them one. This reporter was in harms way and that’s one of the things that can happen to you when you stand in front of people shooting, you may get killed.

I don’t trust that the Palestinians gave the Americans the real bullet. Why should they be trusted when they harbour criminals and terrorists?

Although I feel sorry for this reporter from Al-Jazeera, I don’t think anything else should be done. It seems she may have been more than just a reporter but perhaps an activist too?

But not only the pro-Palestinian agencies like Al-Jazeera, who still say “occupied East Jerusalem”, and the BBC are continually coming down trying to place blame on an Israeli soldier but many others are still hammering on this nail. It’s time to forget it.

Israel has a right to protect itself, and they will. If you stand in the way of the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) you might just have placed yourself in harms way…

I look through the window with eyes in the sky,

then I look to the east,

crows flying by,

my mind on the music,

hands on the drum,

and I wonder how how far and how long

will I roam…

Till I change,

till I rise,

till the rhythm resumes for a while,

and I rest weary hands,

and I count a few bars,

and I pick up my rhythm again

and I start…

Heartfelt solo of beats that will wither

and dry in the frozen dark sky,

on the cottony grass,

on the fertile grey ocean,

on the mountain with rain,

time is always the same,

and I’ll beat on this drum

till my hands bleed in pain.

C.2022, Francis Bravo Cabrera, 04 JUL 2022, Ilica

Como hice el verano pasado y otros anteriores, haré durante este la Fase IV de JaZzArT. He seguido, más o menos, la idea que hizo que la Fase II y la III tuviesen éxito, poniendo un fondo de colores abstractos (acuarela) y le sobrepongo las figuras con tinta. Esta fase será más ecléctica, ya lo verás…

Well, like last summer, and others before, I am developing Phase IV of the JaZzArT series. I have continued, more or less, with the form that made Phase II and III successful, that being the abstract colourful background in watercolours and the figures in ink. This phase will be more eclectic, you’ll see…

Aquí, para que os acordéis de la fase II, la primera a colores…

Gracias…

Cheers…

I am a drop of water,

therefore I am the sea.

I am a breath of air,

so life thrives within me.

I am a motor car,

I am the rain.

I am the grass that burns,

but I’ll return.

I am the mountain,

the cold, the heat, it’s all the same.,

I am the touch that pleases

but can cause pain.

I am the thorn that lives together with the rose.

and I’ll remain,

Imperfect, flawed and damaged,

but blessed like the rain.

C.2022, Francis Bravo Cabrera, 03 JUL 2022, Ilica, Turkey

The sun rose, majestically and powerfully over the Aegean Sea, and now has set, but…

Well, these guys can say it better:

Cheers…