Basically it is my homage to the traditional Japanese Haiku. I’ve always loved its simple structure, its short verses and the way that Haiku poets used the power of synthesis to express a thought intimately linked with nature, or with daily life and turn it into a meditation.
Of course the «Euro-Ku» does no such thing. On the contrary, it seeks simple words, easily understood verses and the language of the common man/woman. It still has only three verses, but there is no need to count syllables, the verses can be as long as they need to be to allow the content message to be developed. Rhyming is optional. One thing that the Euro-Ku must have is an accompanying original photograph that also, in its own unique way, illuminates the message that the verses transmits.
The reason why I’ve called it «Euro-Ku» is because it is written from the philosophical perspective of a European and not with the mind of an Oriental. There are vasts differences. That is why, even though I loved the Haiku, I knew that I could not do it justice writing from the perspective of how I think as a European. The sister form is the Ameri-Ku, of course, the same rules apply but the perspective might differ quite a bit in new and exciting ways.
Of course when one thinks of abstract expressionism one thinks of action painting and when one thinks of that one thinks of Jackson Pollock. However, he was not the only one in this unique group of vanguard artists, most from the United States, working a style that was developed thoroughly and completely in the States. Others like the ones I have featured here, especially the forgotten female painter (as so many are in Art History), Janet Sobel and Pollock’s own wife, Lee Krasner…
In any event, this is not a very exciting type of art for me, but it may be for you and it is important to know about it. So enjoy the video. If you don’t know much about action painting, i.e. abstract expressionism, then this will be a good introduction. But my main intention is getting you to look further, look beyond and get to know more, especially if you are an artist, or a collector or a lover of art…
These are from places that I love, places that I spend time in and have spent many years of my life enjoying, getting to know and appreciating. Hope you like them. The first one and the third one are from the Aegean Coast of Turkey (2019) and the middle one is from a beautiful beach in the southern-central region of Cuba, Rancho Luna.
Cheers…
(Bodo in Valencia, circa 2020, Art Digital version. All Rights Reserved)
Jazz comes in black and white and in colour. This collection is from a series I did in watercolour and now have turned them into Art Digital here at Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia. Now I make them available as fine art prints through my cooperation with Fine Art America so you can take a look here: Francisco Bravo Cabrera and you can see some more of my Art Digital turned into prints…and other cool things…and available now.
(Bodo, a.k.a. Francisco during the days of the band AJA in Miami Beach, FL, USA circa 2000)
Cheers…
(Images property of FBC, Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, All Rights Reserved)
These Art Digital works are now available as prints through my participation with Fine Art America and there is more, take a look here: Francisco Bravo Cabrera .
(Bodo Vespaciano, a.k.a. Francisco Bravo Cabrera, Valencia, España 2020)
Cheers…
(Images property of FBC, Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, All Rights Reserved)
These are from my collection of scenic photographs converted to Art Digital here at Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia. Now I make them available, through Fine Art America as high quality prints. You can see these and more by visiting here: Francisco Bravo Cabrera .
Cheers…
(Images are the property of FBC, Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, All Rights Reserved)
These are prints made at Fine Art America of some of my abstract…ok you got me, Bluester looks figurative…works of Art Digital here at Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia. You can also access much more here at Francisco Bravo Cabrera .
Hope all of you are having a smashing good week. We are out for the week, we will be back on Friday.
(Francisco Bravo Cabrera, a.k.a. Bodo Vespaciano at Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, 2022)
Cheers…
(Images property of FBC, Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, All Rights Reserved)
A man of La Mancha, like my maternal grandmother. He was the enfant terrible director in the 1980’s and now, mature and well defined in his art, Almodóvar still reigns supreme in Spanish and European cinema.
(Milena Smit, Pedro Almodóvar y Penélope Cruz, en Venecia)
His latest movie, Madres paralelas (Parallel Mothers) from 2021, which he wrote and directed, stars Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde and a special participation by Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Rossy de Palma. All very well known names, not only in the Almodóvar universe, but in Spanish cinema and television. This movie is powerful and meaningful in many ways for it discusses something that in Spain is very relevant which is historical memory, concerning the Spanish Civil War and the victims of the Franco regime. Almodóvar himself has stated: «Hasta que no se pague esa deuda con las familias de los desaparecidos no podremos cerrar nuestra historia reciente». («Until that debt is not paid to the families of those who have disappeared we cannot close that chapter of our recent history.»)
(Antonio Banderas, Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz)
One of our most famous actors, Antonio Banderas…made it big in Hollywood…I would say owes his career to Almodóvar who put him in most of his early movies and catapulted his art to stardom later. He made him «el chico Almodóvar». This has been the case with many of the Almodóvar actresses, like Victoria Abril, Carmen Maura, Cecilia Roth, Rossy de Palma and Penélope Cruz, «las chicas Almodóvar».
(Law of Desire, with Antonio Banderas, 1987)
His movies were always a smash. Funny, cynical, sarcastic, lunatic, frenetic, psychotic, neurotic, brilliant, genius, fabulous. His cast, which was faithful to him and he to them, created a special type of experience to the viewer. One expected something but got something else always, but within all the differences that his movies brought to our attention, we all knew we were watching the madness of Almodóvar, which was genius.
(In the 1980’s, Almodóvar, Rossy de Palma, Verónica Forqué)
Almodóvar opened (1986) his film production company, El Deseo, together with his brother Agustín Almodóvar. The company began by producing Law of Desire, 1987, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, (1988), nominated Best Foreign Language Film, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, (1989), High Heels, (1991), Live Flesh, (1997), All About My Mother, (1999), Talk to Her, (2002). These two won Academy Award each for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay, respectively. Then came Volver, (2006), Broken Embraces, (2009), The Skin I Live In, (2011), Julieta, (2016), Pain and Glory, (2019), and the last one, nominated for two Academy Awards as well as the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Parallel Mothers, (2021).
(Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 1988)
His national and international fame has won him a cult following, as well as many prizes and awards to include two Academy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards, two Emmy Awards, six European Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, nine Goya Awards, one Venice Film Festival award, and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2009 he received an honorary doctoral degree from Harvard University, as well as one from the University of Oxford in 2016. All these among many other European and international awards.
(High Heels, with with Victoria Abril, Miguel Bosé, Marisa Paredes, Cristina Marcos, 1991)
The man from La Mancha, was born in Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, in the province of Castilla-La Mancha, one 25th of September 1949. He moved to Madrid in the 1970’s where he met Carmen Maura and started doing experimental cinema. Then he joined La Movida Madrileña (Madrid Movement), a renaissance of artists following the death of the Franco regime and even sang (parody) in a Glam Rock group.
(Pain and Glory, with Antonio Banderas and d Penélope Cruz, 2019)
His first movie was Pepi, Lucy, Bom which he wrote and filmed with a 16 mm camera in 1980. It starred Carmen Maura, Alaska and Eva Silva. The movie showed all the things that had been prohibited and censured by the Franco regime and even included a golden shower during a knitting scene. Explicit sexuality, that is what he did at the time. Liberation from the restraints of a dictatorial regime. Yes, the dawn of freedom and Almodóvar, together with other artists were stretching their wings and trying out new and exciting things. Pepi, Lucy, Bom premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival of 1980 and won Almodóvar a cult following that has been faithful to him from then on. Many have compared this film to the 1970’s films of John Waters.
(1980)
Well, this is the second edition of this series…or limited series…of great artists of all genres. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you wish to suggest a candidate, please leave a message, I will greatly appreciate it, as I do your time, visits and kind words.
This fine art print, of course, Bodo-Art is now available through Pixels. I’ve several more select pieces that I have chosen to be made into art prints of high quality.
JaZzArt en València 