We went to a new South London jazz night, run by a friend last week. It’s not a regular event yet, but will be. If it’s on this week, we’ll perform a couple of songs. Our music isn’t jazz as most would think it, but the owner defines jazz as singing from the soul. What she calls jazz, I call expressionism. When we were in Beijing a lot of artists teliing us about their work read like an art book definition of expressionism, but to look at it, would probably be called pop art, installation or something else. We tried to remember and note the names of all the artists whose work we liked, making sure of Tang Jianyin, as his paintings were so good, and we spent a long time togethe drinking endless cups of tea in his studio. The idea the scene there is a production-line isn’t true at all. If it is, it’s the same everywhere else. A lot of my favourite contemporary artists a Chinese and live in the same village, if we get the chance to go back will try and bring back more names.
Below are 4 paintings from last night, split between ebay and my other online store. Tonight was spent carving 6 small block prints, only stabbing myself in the hand once. One stab per 6 prints is improving ratio. Will try and get them printed up tomorrow.