Today's TLA is EWF.

Earth, Wind, and Fire

I just bought the CD "The Essential Earth, Wind, and Fire." This is a great CD. It has 34 songs of "Earth, Wind, and Fire." My musical tastes are turning very KOST 103.5 (BTW, It's a local radio station in Los Angeles). KOST plays the easy listening soft rock hits of the 70's and 80's. Growing up in Los Angeles, the radio station one listens to is very important.

KROQ (106.7) listeners were really into "alternative", generation X kids. KISS (102.7) listeners were the pop music fans who liked Rick Dees in the morning. KPWR (105.9) is the hard core hip-hop station in LA. Check out my homie DJ Vice, he still spins for this radio station. "The Beat" (used to be 92.3) listeners were hard core R&B fans. Think KC and Jojo, Boys II Men, and Luther Vandros in the mix. "Pirate Radio" (100.7) this was more alternative/punk/metal/rock underground radio station in LA.

Since driving in Los Angeles is constant, the radio station sticker you put on your car is almost a certain give away to your personality. As a teenager, a majority of my driving time was spent listening to Power 106 and KROQ. I loved listening to hard-core gangsta rap (Snoop, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G) and then switch to some alternative indie rock bands like (Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots(STP), oh yes and even unfortunately Oasis). I don't really know what that means as far as my personality is concerned, maybe it just means I am very eclectic.

At any rate, I always enjoyed different kinds of music. When I was a kid in the Philippines, before I went to sleep my aunt would always turn the radio dial to the show called "Magic Moments." The show would play classical music all through the night. Perhaps, there is something to that theory of playing classical music for young kids. My cousin plays classical music to my little niece now as well.

As I am getting older and I am listening to better music. I am listening to a lot of R&B, Stevie Wonder, Brasilian bossanova, jazz, salsa, Latin pop music, and even Christian music. Don't get me wrong, I am still down to listen to old school hip-hop, but I guess I am just expanding my musical tastes. I apologize for the 2 readers who are reading my boring sentiments...

Enjoy,
Jonathan

Today's TLA is CGP

Che Guevara Portrait

I finished the portrait of Che in my art class yesterday. My art teacher was really worried I was not going to pull it off. I initially painted him with a blue suit. And she straight told me, "Che, would never wear anything like that! You made him look like a businessman!" She was totally correct! What was I thinking?

I initially painted his signature beret in green and his hair in green as well. She told me to perhaps use a different color for the hair and beret. When I started the portrait I was not capturing the essence of Che. So I had to modify the painting such that I can capture the attitude, the intensity, the look and feel of who Che Guevara was.

My art teacher was very supportive of me. She hardly said a word to me. She broke it down for me with the following comment, "the artist has to love the painting he/she is working on if he/she doesn't love it, then what's the point?". She told me, if I don't love the way the portrait is turning out, I have the power to change it at any time. I really dig that lesson.

After I completed the portrait last night, she told me that she thought that the portrait was in trouble. She didn't want to say anything, she just wanted me to work through the problem. She did not want to crush my enthusiasm for the portrait, but rather she wanted me to solve the problems I created. She said that every artist is different. Some need more encouraging than others.

She said that our class has different styles of painting. At first, I was intimidated by the fact I was one of the older artists in her class. The young artists in the class are amazing. The average age is 14-15 years old. And my teacher has been teaching them for 6-7 years. They are very talented kids. And I am very lucky to be in class with such really talented artists. I feed of their youthful energy. At times, being normal kids with a short attention span, they don't want to paint. However, when they do the work they create is amazing.

In the end, she and I were very pleased at end product of the Che portrait. And I have to admit, I love the portrait, but most importantly I loved the process of painting it. I like the mistakes I made about color choice, line definitions, and trying to capture who and what Che was all about. I like the fact I had to change the initial good idea to ultimately create a better portrait. I will probably take pictures of this portrait and add it to my photo blog thingie. The next portrait I am working on is MLK (Martin Luther King Jr.). I hope I can capture his essence as well.


Enjoy,
Jonathan