Gary J. Kirkpatrick Art and Travel Blog
Expressionistic and representative art
Gary Kirkpatrick 
Frank Zappa (1940 – 1993) was a a composer, musician, songwriter and bandleader. Most of his music was rock, with a strong note of heavy metal. His lyrics satirized American cluture. He composed classical pieces and had them performed. He also wrote jazz and pop pieces such as Valley Girl.
He produced most of his 60-plus albums and is the one of the most innovative of musicians.
2022’s fireworks in Valencia, midnight on March 15 In addition to the wonderful colors, these presentations feature crescendos of chest pounding sound. Each day at 2:00 there is a mascleta, with little color and 8 minutes of blasts with a superb crescendo.
Fallas is Valencia’s annual street festival featuring thousands of fabulous sculptures up to 5 stories in height, such as these from the El Pilar Fallas. Each sculpture, these days made using light weight foam over a wood frame, is created by a local organization, also called a Fallas. They raise money from a variety of sources. These large sculptures require funds in the six figures. They are up for 4-5 days then burned, and work is begun on the following years’ sculptures.
The festival also features fabulous fireworks. See photos in the next post.
Kiev is a beautiful city populated by an energetic and friendly people. What Putin is doing is a crime against the people and their heritage.
Donate to World Central Kitchens, a great organization, helping feed Ukrainian refugees. https://donate.wck.org/give/394390#!/donation/checkout
My tribute to the women of my life and some of those who have inspired me. https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
My contribution to the L’Art de Career (Valenciano for Art on the Street) in Picanya, a small town on the south side of Valencia. It was sponsored by the Women of Picanya http://www.picanya.org/persones/dones/activitats. There are about 50 pieces hanging from the balconies celebrating women through March 20 2022.
Here are my comments:
Vivir tus sueños (Live Your Dreams)
This expressionist piece is about living our dreams, our desire to become who we want to be, to accomplish what we want to accomplish. We all seek the path we find most attractive.
Expressionism rejects the restrictions of realism while remaining largely figurative- you can recognize the object even if it’s not realistic. It also can include abstract elements. Here there are four women, two playing musical instruments, one singing. The fourth dreams of her possibilities. Not all the figures are attractive- beauty is not a requirement for success. There are two muses in the upper left and a third on the bottom left. They inspire the dreams.
The dreams of our youth influence the rest of our life. Those of our mature years, our 30’s and 40’s, are increasingly influenced by experience. As we continue to age, we tend to become more realistic but still can have our dreams, guiding our later years.
Vivir tus sueños (Live Your Dreams)
Esta obra expresionista trata el tema de los sueños que las personas tenemos, nuestras ganas de ser quien queremos ser, de lograr lo que queremos lograr. Cada uno de nosotros busca la libertad de seguir el camino que más nos atrae.
El Expresionismo rechaza las restricciones del realismo, y por eso nos permite explorar formas y figuras con menos límites. En esta obra, se ve a cuatro mujeres, dos que tocan instrumentos musicales, otra que baila. La cuarta mujer sueña con las posibilidades. También se ve a dos musas a la izquierda y otra al fondo quienes le inspiran a ella. Las musas vuelan en su mundo, invitándonos a explorar mundos nuevos.
Los sueños de nuestra juventud influyen al resto de nuestra vida. Los sueños de nuestros días más maduros, en torno a la edad de 30 y 40 años, se ven más influenciados por las experiencias que hemos tenido, haciéndonos más realistas, y reconociendo nuestros
límites. Según vamos envejeciendo, volvemos a explorar nuestros sueños de una forma menos condicionada, ya que, en este periodo tenemos más tiempo libre y posiblemente más recursos disponibles, los sueños nos guían otra vez.
Malaga has a large number of very good museums. We visited two on the Tuesday we arrived from Valencia, just a 45 minute flight from Valencia for the astounding price of 9 euros.
The Museo Automovilístico de Málaga has a large collection of expertly restored cars, and in an unusual twist, many are accompanied by fashions from the era. The owner of this private museum joined us for part of our visit, taking us beyond the ropes so we were able to get a close view of the interiors of several cars.
He told us he is looking for a new home, and is considering a move to Brooklyn, NY. He complains about the lack of government support in Malaga, and not enough visitors. He’s got a superb collection, the restorations done in his home country of Portugal.
In addition to the cars he’s exhibiting a find collection of high fashion, many of which match up with the cars they are displayed next to.
The Russian State Museum http://en.rusmuseum.ru/about/malaga/ has its main branch in St. Petersburg. We had the immense pleasure of visiting it during our month there. The branch is across the plaza from the car museum, housed in an old tobacco plant. The collection on the day of our visit lacked many of the better pieces to be found in St. Petersburg but still worth a visit. Here are two of the pieces I found more interesting.
The next day we hit a few more museums. First it was the Contemporary Art Museum, which sits along the river, entrance free amazingly enough.
Then we walked through the lovely old town, a pedestrian zone almost exclusively, to the Picasso Museum. Picasso was born here, but moved on to Paris in his early 20’s. There were something in excess of 100 of his paintings and drawings, whose unmistakable style which most people have seen before if they have seen any of his works at all. I found this one to be of greater interest than the others because the photo of the model, his wife at the time, Francoise Gilot, is posted with the painting. He did not do any drawing or painting as she posed for him. He stared for a good while and then told her she would not have to pose again. Take a look.
After a donor kabab and a bit of a rest we walked to the Museo del Vidrio y Cristal de Málaga https://www.museovidrioycristalmalaga.com/. We started the obligatory guided tour in Spanish with an expressive Spanish woman who took us up the stairs to start viewing some of the 3000+ pieces plus the furnishings of this private house. She explained that there are studio pieces and art pieces. The former is both designed and executed by the artist. Art pieces are those where the artist designs the piece but it is executed by a glass studio.
Please visit their website for additional images.
