JC BRAVO'S SKETCHES

INVENTOR (2011)

2011-12-06T08:11:00.002-05:00

"I paint things, not as i perceive them, but as i conceive them."- Picasso

CHUBBY BOXER (2011)

2011-11-19T16:09:00.003-05:00

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."- Bruce lee.

SELF PORTRAIT (2011)

2011-10-10T16:59:00.002-04:00

OTTO (2011)

2011-05-22T17:53:00.004-04:00

"That some people achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."- Abraham Lincoln

Self Portrait (2011)

2011-04-11T14:38:00.001-04:00

IN THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (2011)

2011-03-27T08:51:00.003-04:00

"Art is beautiful, but exquisitely more beautiful are the dollars, that green sweet-scented essence in every man's dreams." - Salvador Dali

RED CHRIST (2010)

2010-11-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

EXISTENTIAL STRUGGLE (2010)

2010-08-22T15:58:00.001-04:00

UNTITLED (2009)

2010-03-09T23:25:00.004-05:00

"The body is our common denominator and the stage for our pleasure and pain. Through it I aim to express who we are, and how we live and die." Kiki Smith

MOTHER NATURE (2009)

2010-02-06T18:08:00.001-05:00

Si nada nos salva de la muerte, al menos que el amor nos salve de la vida"- Neruda

Self portrait (2009)

2009-10-25T17:58:00.002-04:00

"What modern art means is that you have to keep finding new ways to express yourself, to express the problems, that there are no settled ways, no fixed approach...it is the modern human condition."-Louise Bourgeois

Portrait of Irene Jardalla (2009)

2009-08-06T07:57:00.002-04:00

I could use poetic words

To describe someone's eyes

JC gives his subjects soul which eminates from their eyes

How does he do it, I wonder?

As a poet I could take you on a journey

JC takes you there with images of new born babies

Beautiful women, Britney, poets, mother nature

Surreal little men like boxed in man

Unique little characters who represent the human condition

I can paint a landscape with my words

Take you to the cliff's edge

Make you feel the love I feel...

JC does it all with brushstrokes

Watercolours, delicate drawings, beautiful and daring images

Such is his gift

His genius

He doesn't need words

I often think creative people are blessed

JC has the looks and talent

Beautiful Luna, beautiful wife

But he has the greatest gift of all

A beauty that lies in his heart and soul

We the viewers touch on something special

When we view his work

For JC is twice blessed.

Irene Jardalla 2009

Self portrait (2009)

2009-05-29T16:05:00.003-04:00

"What i am seeking is not the real and not the unreal but rather the unconscious, the mystery of the instinctive in the human race."- Amedeo Modigliani

BRIANNA (2009)

2009-04-09T10:06:00.003-04:00

"I drew and painted out of protest and tried with my works to show the world in all its uglyness, sickness and hypocrisy."- George Grosz

PARACAS (2009)

2009-03-09T14:06:00.004-04:00

"No one will tell me what to do or whether it is any good or bad."-Louise Borgeous(speaking about her work)

THE BARBARIAN (2009)

2009-02-13T11:08:00.002-05:00

"In his tears he felt that he was now supposed to encounter the sweetest thing that a person could experience, and when he tried to ponder this, he knew quite well what love truly was, but he could not imagine it exactly and ended with the feeling that love is like death. It is fulfillment and an evening after which nothing more may follow."- Hermann hesse(from the short story THE BEAUTIFUL DREAM)

Untitled (2008)

2009-02-02T07:12:00.002-05:00

"Nothing suceeds like excess."- Oscar Wilde

CONCRETE CHRIST (2009)

2009-01-11T16:10:00.003-05:00

"Find your place. Be happy with what you have. Treat everyone well. Live a good life. It isnt about material things; its about love. And you can never anticipate love."- Vicki Myron (she wrote the wonderful book called DEWY. The story of a Cat that inspired many people.)

MARTYR (2006)

2008-11-19T10:04:00.004-05:00

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."-Aristotle

LITTLE ROCKER (2008)

2008-09-29T14:30:00.004-04:00

"Do anything you like, but do it with conviction!"- Bezalel Schatz

RECLINING NUDE (2002)

2008-09-27T22:39:00.003-04:00

" A nude without a face is somehow dishonest."-Helmet Newton

SELF PORTRAIT (2000)

2008-08-25T21:23:00.005-04:00

" The human face is the original seat of beauty...it is the register of value in development, a record of experience, whose legitimate office is to perfect the life, a legible language, to those who will study it, of the majestic mistress, the soul."- Elisa Farnham

AMERICAN VENUS (2008)

2008-08-09T11:48:00.003-04:00

" That which we vociferously condem as deviant is also what we often secretly crave."- S. FREUD

"if you want to know how to do a thing, you must first have a complete desire to do that thing. then go to kindred spirits; others who have wanted to do that thing...and study their ways and means. learn from their successes and failures and add your quota. thus, you may acquire from the experience of the race. and with this technical knowledge you may go forward, expressing through the play of forms the music that is in you and which is very personal to you."- R. HENRI

GOLOSINA ( 2008)

2008-07-30T21:45:00.001-04:00

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. "-Cyrill Connolly

THE OFFERING (2006)

2008-07-28T19:19:00.000-04:00

" I looked and looked at her, and knew as clearly as i know i am to die, that i loved her more than anything i had ever seen or imagined on earth, or hoped for anywhere else." - Navakov

MOVING ALONG (2008)

2008-07-27T23:52:00.005-04:00

"What there was in it of the purely sensuous instinct of boyhood had been transformed by the workings of the imagination, changed into something that seemed to the lad himself to be remote from sense, and was for that very reason all the more dangerous. It was the passions about whose origin we deceived ourselves that tyrannized most strongly over us. Our weakest motives were those of whose nature we were conscious. It often happened that when we thought we were experimenting on others we were really experimenting on ourselves."

- Oscar Wilde

FLORA (2007)

2008-07-13T18:25:00.005-04:00

“No one wants to be a painter anymore. Everyone’s probably going to film school: when they should have been painters, they become shitty filmmakers instead.

Maybe it’s an oxymoron to be an American painter, maybe there’s really no such thing, there are American illustrators like Edward Hopper, but really no American painters.

Maybe painting was always based on the European conceit of individuality and solitariness, the lone individual heroically facing up to his canvas, whereas in America you’re only solitary in your car. It’s much more about movement, so I guess movies are the natural thing for Americans.

The time when painting had a monopoly on visual culture is over, it will never have that kind of monopoly again.

True, the world is being atomized, six families don’t rule the world anymore, but a lot of the ways we think about painting refer to that time when it was so dominant.

We have to think of other metaphors for it now.”

(John Currin)

RENDITION OF EMPOWERMENT (2007)

2008-06-30T12:26:00.005-04:00

Scattered all over the grassy, moist ground are small, glass balls, the remnants of childhood memories. Shiny and beautiful the gleaming marbles blind the eyes and set the soul ablaze with melancholy. It is a consuming force, a powerful feeling that overwhelms the senses; stimulating our imagination.

In the depth of our mind one can see the spoiled children play. They are subdued by radiance and glimpses of eternity. This is a vision of a peaceful place where laughter reigns. A sensual world of shimmering light full of Vanities and voluptuous beauty that is pure and kind. Together beauty and innocence remain inseparable. Hand in hand, the air caresses their soft, round shapes. Here there is no life without affection, no pleasure without innocence and when all the games are forgotten, only precious gems remain.

ORIGINAL SIN

2008-04-29T22:13:00.003-04:00

In these days of total madness, surrounded by the voice of commotion and holocaust, let us listen to the soundless voice of the painter. The war will end and pass but the work of art remain. Art will flourish again and it will shape a new character from the exhausted wheels of the fury of war. Men will yearn again for the soul’s romanticism, for quietude and calm, for the renewal of human creativity and the flourishing of art in this country.”

-Moshe Castel

MIAMI VICE

2008-04-12T07:07:00.005-04:00

I believe that there is a vast sea of pre-rational emotions, urges, instincts and fantasies that fill our minds before structured thought emerges. It is in this swamp of irrationality that many of the most powerful artistic impulses are generated.

This drawing was a collaboration between me and my friend Paul Benavides. Originally commisioned for the band HIDEOUS IDIOTS.

DAISY

2008-04-10T00:03:00.004-04:00

"Sure i am that this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strenghts; that its pangs and toils are not beyond my endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."

- Winston Churchill

THE USURPER OF DEMOCRACY

2008-04-06T10:27:00.004-04:00

"Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service... preventing us from getting a glimpse of the truth"

- Socrates

RECLINING NUDE

2008-03-12T13:46:00.005-04:00

" Even an erotic work of art can be sacred."

-Egon Schiele

SUPER CABEZON (2007)

2008-01-31T17:50:00.001-05:00

"Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing; do something for those who have need of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but privilege of doing it. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers live here, too."
-Albert Schweitzer

BLOSSOM AND FLOWERS

2008-01-20T09:44:00.001-05:00

I think my drive comes from a need for redemption. A desire to create beauty out of ashes. also to express a sensual longing that at times overwhelms me. I dont think things would change if i was rich, no one can change their past.

" Only one hope still seemed worthwhile to me- to cleanse and reedem myself to some extent through my work, through my service to the memory of that great time."- Herman Hesse excerpt from JOURNEY TO THE EAST

All that was futile

2007-12-24T13:46:00.001-05:00

"I did not exist to write poems, or to preach or paint, neither i nor anyone else. All that was incidental. Each man had only one genuine vocation -to find the way to himself. He might end up as poet or madman, as prophet or criminal-that was not his affair, ultimately it was of no concern. His task was to discover his own destiny-not an arbitrary one-and live it out wholly and resolutely within himself."- Herman Hesse. from the book DEMIAN

NAKED TRUTH

2007-11-27T18:40:00.001-05:00

"Be prepared to be broke for a while and work your ass off. Never think your as good as your going to get - you can always be better. Be true to your vision and be prepared for rejection. It's happens to us all at one point or another - only the most dedicated will survive. Talent is only part of the equation - perseverance and a reliable work ethic is essential." -SAS Christian

FERTILITY FIGURE (2008)

2007-11-04T12:49:00.001-05:00

" Paintings are about truth and belief; its not about ability. Ability comes with practice. But belief, truth and guts dont come with anything. You just take whatever ability youve got and you try and communicate something..." - Damien Hirst

Few Words

2007-10-29T18:15:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I went to my brother’s studio to check at his progress and most recent works. I was stunned by the amount of good work in display and the stories behind them. Sometimes I wish I could record his conversations because they are as much of entertaining and insightful as his paintings. “May be I should get a little spy camera and sneak it in on my shirt and put it on the web (just an idea)”. Anyways, for the past couple of weeks an image from one of his paintings have been haunting me, sometimes when I am sitting and working I get fleeting flashes of it, the colors, the atmosphere, the mood. Some other times in moments of stress the image comes back and I feel the painting… It becomes as real as the warmth of my baby girl’s hugs an intangible feeling that just has no words to describe it, it’s a connection (short circuit I will say) that borders the sublime.

Yesterday, I wanted to see the painting again and sat down on a crate to take my time and really look at it. To my surprise the women in the painting was sitting in the same crate I was sitting on (my brother used the crate as a model) which, ignited in me the fleeting feelings I’ve been having the past couple of weeks. When my brother came in and asked me what I see all I could say was SWEET!

I might have sounded stupid but then again few words go a long way…

Does it matter?

2007-10-29T08:14:00.001-04:00

"It does not matter what you paint, it is how you paint it."- Chardin

sensory experience

2007-10-22T14:22:00.001-04:00

Of all sensory experiences, few are more effussive in creating a soaring heart than sensuos experiences derived from perceiving art, music and the pleasures of the flesh. It is who we are, body and spirit, and discovering the forces that cause such emotions will not diminish the exhilaration of the sensation. to do so would be to forsake the essential qualities that makes us human.

"I'll show you how to understand a painting..dont look at it. feel it with your eyes. Feel the shapes..feel all the soft and sharp edges, the light and the shades, the cools and the warms. now feel the chair, the bathhtub, the woman. Not any old tub or woman. But the tub of tubs and the woman of women." -from the movie "the horse's mouth"

How much you can take and keep going?

2007-10-19T13:31:00.000-04:00

Sometimes in life we come across events that wound us and times which may leave a profound dent on our self. I always found fascinating the capacity for people to heal themselves, turn the page and keep going. This gift of self healing is taught by experience and is one of the weapons into a better life.

What impresses me about this character is that he knows his threshold of pain and he maintains a safe distance from it. It is my belief that suffering and happiness are a blessing and here I find a testament to that.

OVERCOMING FEAR

2007-10-17T22:32:00.001-04:00

Perhaps the greatest single barrier to becoming more creative is the fear of risk. As human beings,we like maps; we like to feel safe and secure. Creativity, on the other hand, demands that we step into the unknown. but thats not to say there aren't guideposts along the way, and the most guideposts come from inside us. the truth is, who we are as a person automatically provides a structure for creative growth. therefore, the more self awareness one has, the more one will be able to understand and focus on creating art.

Youtube Video

2007-08-07T23:35:00.000-04:00

This is my first video showing some of my work to the music of Korn. Both the art and the music are very expressive and they complement each other. I think is great that my my friend Raymond Gonzales happened to use this song to go with the slides. I invite you to watch it and leave a comment :-))

Hard Work

2007-07-22T11:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had my scan go bad while still making some final inclusions to our website. JC and I worked 10 hours straight smoothing out the rough edges and we are getting very close to our final cut. We had to stop because of the scanner but it started working again... That was a close call, I really thought the scanner was dead but I guess it wants to keep up fighting and giving it all.