BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Art imitates life. Or is it vice versa?

Believe it or not, as a kid, I was into art and illustration. I would go to art school during the summer and immensely enjoyed it more than swimming class and music lessons. Yes, I loved music but my teacher was an effing jerk who seemed to enjoy smoking pot more than teaching us how to play the guitar.

I was only later in Grade Six that I chipped in an article to the Eaglet, the grade school newspaper. Yes, i still have a copy of that. Hahahaha.

Eventually music became my passion and I stopped painting. And when I began to write more and get into more sports, I found less time for art. However, art and illustration was never far from my heart and I would not only go to museums but would doodle once in a while. My skills somewhat atrophied (boy, talk about an understatement).

But I still collect art and advertising books. One sentimental fave is Norman Rockwell.

I'm not sure if this book is in print but I got it at Barnes & Noble for $10.

Norman Rockwell is a book written by Elizabeth Miles Montgomery and published by JG Press in 1989. It is a hard cover book with jacket. There is a biography with many splendid pictures from the collection including a lot of his Saturday Evening Post cover paintings from 1916 to 1963. The first 32 pages are about his life, techniques and rare photos. The last 160 pages are fine works from his famous plates.

Someone remarked about the photographs I took for the San Miguel-sponsored exhibit -- I'd love to post them here but I am deathly afraid someone will copy them since one jerk photog already copied a shot I took -- and he said it was so evident that my shots are very similar to my writing style. In depth and a different side of things.

I guess like Norman Rockwell, it's about that slice of life. Of paintings pictures also with words. But you have to wait what we're cooking up at Fabilioh! It's going to be a doozy. Abangan in two weeks!

Maybe that's why I love reading Gary Smith, Rick Reilly, Nick Hornby, and Rick Telander. That's why I love watching Christiane Amanpour's reports on CNN. It's not just the facts, mam!

No comments:

Post a Comment