Rescuing the World: DIY by Pam Lazos + Francisco Bravo Cabrera on Art

Art, beauty, and kindness can save the world. You won’t often see reblogs here, but this one by fellow writer Pam Lazos (who guested here before) is so brilliant that I can’t resist.

When world challenges appear too awful, it helps me to see how every single one of us can help in unique ways…

March Madness with Susquehanna Plastic Pick’n 1000!

And when I can’t see anything other than thunder-clouds, art opens my eyes…

Today’s guest blog post is by Francisco Bravo Cabrera. Currently living in Spain, his paintings show internationally, his poems earn awards, and he edits and contributes to online magazines Masticadores and LatinosUSA.

Here blogger/poet/long-time professional artist/vlogger Francisco Bravo Cabrera, a.k.a. Bodo Vespaciano, shares his thoughts about art and AI…

Art in the Now by Francisco Bravo Cabrera, a.k.a. Bodo Vespaciano

Art, and I do really believe that most people love art, comes in many ways and greets our eyes and our minds in many fashions. However, basically there are only two types of art: Figurative and Abstract.  And I will start with abstract because it is the hardest one to define. Basically, if a painting has nothing which can be identified as being or belonging to the natural world, it is abstract. If a painting has anything resembling a figure or an object, it is figurative. And figurative art can have figures or objects that do not look real or simply look strange. There can be an overwhelming amount of colour, of other shapes and of distortion but the painting remains figurative. And of course there are combinations of figurative with abstract portions or backgrounds, but this is not a category, it is simply a style.

My specific art style is what I call “Surreal-Expressionism” because I believe I have been able to merge both of these styles. Surrealism and Expressionism are “isms” that are part of the art vanguards of the Twentieth Century. For me the main exponent of surrealism is René Magritte and for expressionism, Oskar Kokoschka. Of course there are many other ones, some phenomenal, others bad.

Surrealism is simply that which goes beyond the real. Expressionism is the way the artist sees or imagines the subject of his composition. Neither of these two forms relate to what the observer sees, instead they have everything to do with the internal reference of the author. The painter paints the object how he sees it in his mind, representing it on the canvas in an artistic manner. His idea for the painting, with the feelings, emotions and message to convey, have been put through multiple studies and sketches, filtered, cleaned up, polished and then painted. This process, similar to how an actor prepares a role, must take place because raw emotion is not art. 

In my art, which I also call “Jazz Art”, I combine the fluidity and sublime fantasy of surrealism with the rough edges of expressionism. Like in Jazz music I allow for improvisation and I paint what I imagine things to be and how I imagine sounds would look like should they be splattered upon figures as one would water. Many of my paintings are of musicians and dancers. Two art forms that I am quite well acquainted with and love. My figures exist in an abstract world. Although I am not an abstract painter I am also fascinated with the idea of the abstraction and I include much of abstract art in my work.

Art is definitely loved by all. I see the enormous queues to enter the great museums of the world. And equally people flock to art fairs and exhibitions of all types. Not so much to galleries as people are very intimidated by the setting of the gallery. But what everyone is looking for, I believe, is a reflection of their deep thoughts, beliefs and, of course, their concept of beauty and decoration. Right now art is not really following a trend or a vanguard like it did in the beginning of the last century. But I am glad to see that artists are still struggling with figurative and abstract works and staying away from tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), at least for finished works ready to exhibit and sell. AI is a tool, not a medium and not an artist. Art can only be created by a human brain enjoying a healthy dose of Human Intelligence.

Do you believe art and average people can make a the world a better place?