iPadJAZZart at Healdsburg Jazz Festival, ShotGun Wedding, hip hop jazz! June 2012

Hip Hop Meets Jazz,  Shotgun Wedding Quartet - a Jazz Mafia creation.
WOW! did I have fun hopping while painting.
This was a dynamic informal performance a the elegant (check out the bathrooms) Spoonbar just off the plaza in Healdsburg. We happened to be walking by on our first evening at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and although there was absolutely no space, I managed to sardine myself into a heaving mass of happy dancers, where I could see the action some of the time.

At a break I met Adam Theis - the Jazz Mafia don, and learn more about his innovative music ambitions which include a 60 piece hip hop symphony (Brass, Bows & Beats) for which Theis is the principal composer. We got this album. The Shotgun Wedding album having totally sold out.

Have not had this much fun in a long time, and I am surprised that I was able to catch Adam Theis, bass, MC Dublin, vocals, and Pat Korte, drums on my iPad. This iPad painting is autographed by Dublin and Theis. Thank you guys! Missing from the image is Joe Cohen on saxes and keyboard. Frankly, I couldn't see Joe. Sorry!
ArtStudio app, 3rd generation iPad

We only caught the last weekend of the Healdsburg Festival, and enjoyed the formal performances at the Raven Theatre, as well as the finale in the blisteringly hot sunshine at the Rodney Strong Vineyards, but I thought the informal jam at Hotel Healdsburg the last night which almost all the luminaries of the weekend came, and this hip hop jazz was the most fun.

Images:PadJAZZart, of Shotgun Wedding Quartet painted during live performance June 7, 2012 at Spoonbar in Healdsburg. The painting in progress, photo of me with iPad in lap, by G. Inkeles.

Being in Healdsburg is always a pleasure. The lovely shady plaza, the great food and wine, and as we discovered this time, Sonoma Lake. Just a twenty minute drive through the vineyards and into the foothills - a  cool breeze and a place for picnicking and a swim. We will be back!


Photo of Jessica Felix, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, by G. Inkeles.

iPadJAZZart Rez Abbasi's Incantation, an email exchange!

Background story. Rez Abbasi, jazz guitarist came to Arcata ( April 25, 2012, Fulkerson Recital Hall, Humboldt Stare University, sponsor Redwood Jazz Alliance) with his new Incantation consisting of Matt Mitchell, piano, David Binney, alto Sax, Johannes Weidermueller, bass and Dan Weiss, drums.

I rushed off to music room 130 at Humboldt State University for the 3 p.m. workshop ...where I got to listen to a tired, charming Rez give personal and generous advice to the young music students. I made a painting of him on my iPad, including some of his words. Note, everyone who makes it up to Humboldt County is tired and a hero! The drive is much longer than it should be. Later, at 8 the evening performance started.
I loved it. Read about the music in the LA Times article by Chris Barton. I painted another iPad painting.  ( I can't really include all the musicians...have to edit or the piece and I would be overwhelmed - sorry! And I am not using a photo image as some seem to think, it would constrain my  creativity) When I met Rez at the after party he happily autographed the paintings, and wanted me to send him a print. The ensuing email exchange got to be amusing so I thought I'd post it here, along with the paintings.

Hi Rez, this is a good day for Jazz, not just because Unesco is celebrating it, and Jason Moran was interviewed on NPR, but because I can spend this moody, foggy, monday morning listening to your Suno Suno recording.  When I saw you last it was midnight in Arcata, and you had to catch a flight to LA from Oakland the next morning ...I hope you made it to the Blue Whale.

Next time you make it up here, stay a day and go for a walk in the Redwood Forest. I'll be your guide!

Many thanks to you and your Invocation group for coming up here. We are very far from everything, but we do appreciate jazz and have a thriving local jazz scene thanks to the Redwood Jazz Alliance and also Center Arts at Humboldt State University. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to do my live jazz painting here.

Thank you also for liking the iPadJAZZart I made of you. It was sweet to have you by yourself at the workshop, sharing so freely with the music students of Humboldt State University. It gave me a sense of what is important to you and prepared me for painting at the evening concert. As I might have mentioned to you, this improvised synchronous painting I do, puts me in hyper sensitive zone that actually enhanced my musical experience. 

I would be very happy to send you a print (the attached images are low resolution and will not make good prints) of each one in trade for two of your CDs (my husband got the Suno Suno, signed by you!). If you would like more of them, I sell them for $45 each. I make limited series fine art prints of my iPadJAZZart.

I am very  happy to have you in my collection, and I would appreciate if you posted them on your Facebook page.  

Bright Moments,  Iris

Hi Iris,

Yea, these are sooo cool, don't know how you do this!! I'll send you two CDs that I really think you'll enjoy...

Just in case I ever can use the solo pic of me, is there a way to remove some of the printing, to make it less

busy...I think you showed me one that was leads busy but it's your work and up to you.

I'll send those soon. 

Great to meet such a fine sprit as yourself!

Rez, thank you for thinking the iPadJAZZart is cool! As to the one I did during the workshop, on which I scribbled down some of your words, I can unclutter it easily since I have the text on a separate layer. I'll send it to you in my next email - Rez Abbasi - no text, and with just one arm, but with two heads. If you think you might want to use this one a CD cover or in some PR piece let me know and we can work something out. I can also work from photos...Would be a lot of fun!

all the best, Iris

PS: The next phase of my iPadJAZZart is to paint on the iPad and project it on a big screen simultaneously with a musical performance. If you find yourself in a location that has a screen, and would be open to such an ekphrastic show, let me know! 

Jazz and jazz iPad art at the Morris Graves, Fri. March 30

Rivulets of rain on the window and jazz everywhere....

Sunday Branford Marsalis lit up the night at HSU! This coming Friday the Redwood Jazz Alliance features Kitty Margolis, with dynamic drummer Allison Miller at the Morris Graves Rotunda. On Sunday Allison Miller as part of Honey Ear Trio, and our own Jenny Scheinman on violin, at the Arcata Playhouse.

I’ll be showing iPad Jazz paintings at the Humboldt Artist Gallery downstairs at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, starting Friday March 30, before Kitty Margolis' performance.

The Morris Graves Rotunda provides a lovely, intimate space for jazz and painting. I have created three jazz paintings here. The show will feature framed, signed, limited - series fine art prints, as well as unframed prints, and a few greeting cards. It will be up for a month during normal Morris Graves Museum hours.

All of the jazz paintings were created during live performances on my iPad. The framed pieces include Esperanza Spalding, the first jazz musician I painted live on my iPad, captured at HSU’s Kate Buchanan room in 2010. Since then, at the Monterey Jazz Festival, with iPad in lap, I've painted jazz greats Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Geri Allen and others. Locally I enjoyed catching the charming likeness of Ambrose Akinmusire on the iPad. It is very exiting that he will be the artist in residence at the 2012 Monterey Jazz Festival in September.

Looking forward to showing you my iPad art in print form for the first time.

I also invite you to follow me in this blog for regular posts of new art.

There is still space left in the "Finger Painting on Your iPad" OLLI class starting

Thursday April 19, 6-8 p.m. at the Aquatics Center in Eureka. www.humboldt.edu/olli

Finger-Painting on Your iPad, new OLLI class starting April 19. Open House on Sat. Jan. 21st.

WHY PAINT ON THE iPAD?

portability - that’s why it's called mobile digital art

no mess or fumes - that’s the digital part

innovative - join a growing community of iPad artists

insanely fun - that’s the best reason!

Since I got my first iPad two years ago, I have painted on it in my studio, during trips, and at live music performances. I am an active member of iAMDA, the International Association of Mobile Digital Artists, and was invited to give a presentation on live iPad painting at their recent conference in New York City. I have exhibited iPad art as archival digital prints at Stanford’s Schwab Center. You’ll be studying with a pioneer in a brand new digital art form.

I have developed an introductory curriculum of four classes. Such a start will launch an iPad student! I am in the process of developing an intermediate class which I hope to offer in the fall.

Having explored several of the painting apps for the iPad, I’ve come to the conclusion that ArtStudio has a friendly user interface and is at the same time a very rich tool. At $6 or less (it goes on sale now and then) it is an affordable app. It runs on any version of the iPad.

Each class will consist of a demonstration of a specific set of ArtStudio features, followed by individual work on the iPad with guidance from me. This format allows me to the meet the needs of each student in the class. Between classes students are invited to email me their iPad creations and questions.

All that is required to get started is an iPad, the ArtStudio app, and a willingness to try something new. No art or digital art background is required. Professional artists will enjoy adding a mobile digital platform to their toolset.

Four classes, four Thursdays, 6-8 p.m. starting April 19, at the lovely Humboldt Aquatics Center on the Bay next to the Adorni Center in Eureka.

Enroll today! OLLI at HSU , www.humboldt.edu/olli , 826-5880

Painting on the iPad during flights and in airports is fun and makes the time go faster, and amuses your fellow passengers.

Just returned from another airplane trip with three more iPad paintings. Since I got my first iPad last year I have been making "flight scenes" and just realized to my delight that I have a substantial collection. Enough for a show! So here are some of them:

Many include a title. The strange, almost abstract one, is a live de-icing that took place during a very snowy, very late night on Dec. 1 last year in Munich. I remember the plaintive voice of the captain as he came on and said, "there might be an opening in twenty minutes, if we can get the plane de-iced." The twin dragon-like machines sprayed foam and red hot beams at both wings. Great visuals. I felt like Edward Munch at a fire! - They did, we flew and landed in Helsinki at 2 in the morning where snow does not stop anything.

Some of the iPad paintings include passengers sitting near me. I met interesting people who enjoyed seeing the painting develop. The "Cash Refund SAS" is at Arlanda airport near Stockholm. "The Hall of Fame", is the my most recent one from United's Terminal, Gate 76 in SFO.