ALTO SAX CHRISTMAS SHEET MUSIC

At first glance, I liked the art piece. I thought the artist, Jusepe de Ribera, created a life like drawing; real to the fact that his subjects were proportionally correct and everything is structured. It made me feel that the artist knew what he was doing.

Because this is an etching, extensive lines are used, many of it make shadows and even develop an idea of depth. Long and short line are also used, as well as dark and light lines, thick and light lines. The artist used darker, thicker lines around the knee area, which is pointing out and demonstrates that its closer to the viewer. He also does a good job blending the background as it is further, yet still making sense of it. The artist provides lines that shape Saint Jerome’s figure and posture. The line on his back and shoulder are lighter than the lines on his knees, which tells us that his back is certainly farther from the viewer. Even further away, seen in the background which appears to be rocky landscape has thinner lines, and appears even to have gaps. The artist also provide lines that tell us the rock his scroll sits on is flat, likely to be almost smooth. The artist demonstrates great work of line usage on the drape, shows that the drape isn’t just a flat stiff cloth. Although the use of lines didn’t direct me to look at things it did help develop an idea some thing is there and where some things are flat or round

The area that caught my attention was the bottom left corner--the human skull and then darkest area: his knee and lap covered and draped with cloth and then my eyes wandered to a hidden, dark image of what appears to be a lion or tiger. Then I glanced at his face thinking that his face would reveal an emotion of some type. And then his eyes lead me to the top right corner, and immediately, I thought of heaven and angels. Ultimately, I became more interested at what Saint Jerome was looking at--the trumpet. Although I didn’t catch the trumpet at first glance it did become my main interest. I believe the trumpet is the secondary focal point. And the direction of Saint Johns, I believe is the primary focal point. I believe that the high value of contrast are strategically in place; Saint Jerome is somewhat centered, and the angel is appearing from what seems to be could or fog. I believe the dominant value of composition is the limited use of line and the amount light on Saint Jerome, plenty of line use is used else where leaving Saint Jerome open--with light.

The drawing is wonderful as it is. Subjects on the art piece look real; real in size, distant, shadow, depth, and curvature. I don’t dislike the drawing. The one thing that I don’t understand is the presence of the skull. The only thing I can make of it is that since he depicted an angel (atop) playing a trumpet, the skull must represent death (below). Though, you’d think that he’d be just as startle or worst reacting to the human skull as he is placing his attention to the trumpet.

So a while ago, I had to accompany a documentary film maker into the Selous, south-western Tanzania, famous for being Africa’s largest game reserve. He had never been to Africa before I was told, I was asked to help him to ‘acclimatize’ to all things wild and assist him with getting the shots he wanted. There is one thing I love more than anything, and that is to see Africa again afresh through the eyes of someone for whom it is all new. The excitement and adrenalin they feel is always catching.


We’d been watching this pride of lion for a while; they lay in the cool of the shade, one male and his seven lionesses. They didn’t look comfortable and their breathing was heavy but then so was ours. It was hot and humid, typical of the Selous. They’d killed something recently, there was a fetid, sickly-sweet scent of death hanging over the scene.

But they were oh so beautiful. Intense eyes, ‘tiger tiger burning bright’. They were relaxed but they missed nothing; and they felt very very close.

It all changed very suddenly, very quickly. On our right, closing in fast, came a large herd of elephants, mothers and babies. They were cautious, watching everything, protective of their young. At first we blocked their vision – man always gets in the way of nature – but then the elephants spotted this languorous herd of felines. They were not taking any chances as in their midst was a week-old baby, small and pink and very vulnerable. One of the young bulls charged right into the midst of the lion pride, trumpeting loudly, kicking up dust, noise, commotion; the lions scattered, in every direction possible, no match for this angry herd. We were in an open game drive vehicle, felt very small, felt very ‘out there’. Turned to each other afterwards…my god have you seen that before…(slightly hysterical laughter), me no…I’ve never been that close when something like that happens, not in all my years here, I thought they were going to jump right into the car with us. Driving back to the lodge seemed somewhat sedentary after that. The film maker certainly got his footage.

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