Jazzamoart: the art of painting while the music sounds
"With the maturity that time brings, one can approach the truth, express better," Jazzamoart says while remembering the shitty times when the reflectors shined in the opposite direction, the oils were not enough, and the "art" was in the other shore of the sea. Now, with more than 500 exhibitions in Mexico, USA, Canada, Latin America, West Europe, and Japan, the rhythmical message of Jazzamoart continues to evolve and plunge into improvisation.
Success is doing whatever you want and facing what comes your way
Francisco Javier Vázquez Estupiñán was born in Irapuato, Guanajuato, (Mexico), in an era where the oils for painting were used to make the announcements of the bull-fights. His childhood is marked by the bohemian soul of his father, who found that streets were meant to discover the essence of life.
"The art of painting is a trade. During my childhood and adolescence, my father and I painted many things: displays, decorations, murals: work that sometimes we didn't want to do but that allowed us to live."
In the middle of the uncertainty and hunger, bohemian nights were always present: poets, musicians, bullfighters, painters, all these characters in front of a curious adolescent who is discovering that to be an artist, you have to be willing to starve. Get to the ultimate consequences. "Something difficult to face, especially when you want to be an authentic congruent artist who expresses the truth. You must be willing to die in the path to have the option of going far, or you can stay parked in mediocrity and never aspire to the great follies and the great feats of art, which is what can excite you to achieve something."
Motivated by the figure of his father and the work of the masters of painting, Javier enrolled in the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City, where he had a bittersweet experience. "I discovered classmates and teachers that were more sophisticated. The challenging environment was a big punch that woke me up: my idea of art was wrong."
When depression hits, I always try to let the happy moments flood me and give me the fuel to reach the other shore.
Despite the existential crisis, he never quit the drug of art and imagination. In those nights of uncertainty, excess, and joy, the artistic name of Jazzamoart was born.
In the constant search for art, Jazzamoart starts visiting some smoky clubs, where he found the Mexican jazz scene. "Amid the confusion of not looking like others, this was one of my great discoveries. Jazz was the perfect pretext, both thematic and ideological. All was music. A way of focusing my art and having ample material to express my pictorial discourse: painting with that rhythm, that musicality."
Improvisation, rhythm, tone, intensity... live expressions of both musical and graphic language. Painted music: a style that has led him to capture the sounds and beats that come from the deep of the soul.
Music is essential to his art. Whether painting in the studio or on a live performance with a band, Jazzamoart is faithful to his vices and passions. In this exploration to develop the masterpiece, his paintings have shared the stage with musicians such as BB King, Ray Charles, Wayne Shorte, and Branford Marsalis.
Jazz, love, and art: three words that define the dream in which Jazzamoart lives. "For everything I want to do, at least I would need 150 years. In my ambition, I want everything: live long, live well, have fulfillment, and create as much as possible. Unfortunately, I can't be a musician, bullfighter, or soccer player, but I am satisfied with being the painter I am."
Jazzamoart's musical recommendation is the album Kind of Blue, a masterpiece by Miles Davis.
