Dave Lalama...Day 6: My ACTUAL Last Workshop

Now I can say I've had my final workshop with Dave (sadly). We've covered a lot of ground in the past 5 sessions and we covered a lot of ground today. Boy, do I have a lot to practice this summer! Which is good, since I'll be spending six weeks working at an intense music camp. I always know I have to practice, but it's hard when I don't know exactly what to practice. When someone flat-out gives you exercises and scales to practice, at least you have a jumping off point. So yes, I have a lot to practice, but it's reassuring to know where to start. I'm still getting the hang of diatonic sevenths in all twelve keys, and then I'll move on to diatonic sevenths in all minor keys. Then I have to master the whole-half diminished scale, and then the half-whole diminished scale. I look forward to the day where I am fluent in every key, and Dave's teachings and advice will help me get there.

My First Shot at a Manifesto

Here's a first draft of my College Manifesto. What I wrote applies to my life as a music major, as well as my life in general, as a person. Here it is!

1. Exercise discipline by practicing/studying music for at least two hours a day, or more if possible.
2. Finish everything I start.
3. Approach all tasks with bold optimism; be less skeptical/sarcastic and more positive and friendly.
4. Take advantage of every opportunity that I am presented with.
5. Do not judge anyone or anything too quickly.
6. Make sacrifices when necessary; do not let anything get in the way of achieving my goals (e.g. make a social sacrifice to practice/study instead of go out with friends).
7. Be auto-didactic; do more and learn more than only what is required.
8. If another artist is better than I am, take it as a challenge rather than discouragement; use it as motivation to improve.
9. Find value in every educational experience.
10. Be open-minded, outgoing, and honest.
11. Spend money only when necessary; do not spend frivolously.
12. Make no excuses; get the job done.
13. Allow myself a little time to relax each day.
14. Remember that I chose this career to follow my bliss; remember that I love what I am doing and should enjoy it.

Dave Lalama...Day 5

Much to my dismay, today was my last workshop with Dave; I won't be here next Thursday because of the A.P. Lit exam. But this series of workshops has been fruitful; we covered a lot of material and I know what I need to practice. I can now say that I understand the form of a rhythm changes far better than I did before. As far as what I need to practice before college (and for the rest of my life, I suppose): continue studying piano, master diatonic exercises ascending and descending in all keys, really "know" all key signatures by playing the scales all different ways until they're engraved in my mind.

Dave Lalama...Day 4

Another eventful workshop. The workload is getting more challenging, which is a good thing, of course. We're intensely examining the rhythm changes form; I understand all of the roman numerals and why each chord functions the way it does. The only thing that's still confusing me is these secondary chords, like V of IV and VII of V...I understand what they mean, but when Dave asks me to explain the function of the chords "Ebmaj7, E7b5, D-7) it takes me a minute to figure it out, so I need to be able to grasp that concept quicker. Dave gave me two important books to buy (Jazz Improvisation by Scott. D Reeves and The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine) so I plan to buy those ASAP and just shed all the material and exercises in them until they're burnt into my brain. And even though I'm a sax player, I need to study Bach and classical theory, because that does have its influence on jazz, and as Dave said, "If Bach were alive in the 50s, he would've been Bud Powell."

Dave Lalama...Day 3

Today's workshop was fantastic! I was skeptical at first, but it's getting more challenging and I'm definitely learning new things. We covered a lot of material; we did ii V I's in a few keys and improvised over them using only the bebop scale of the V chord, then we cycled them, switching keys rapidly; it was a good challenge that required me to think quickly, while at the same time listening to see if Jack was comping with the major 9th or the minor 9th extension, so I would know which one to play. Then we applied this to the B section of Scrapple from the Apple, which is basically a series of dominant 7th chords, since it's a rhythm changes.

What I need to do:
-work on connecting phrases over the bar line when soloing with bebop scales in the B section
-write out a one-chorus solo for Scrapple
-pick some new tunes to work on

Dave Lalama...Day 2

I'm still struggling with descending diatonic triads and sevenths, but I've been practicing it in the two keys we're doing it in. Aside from the workshop though, just for my own musicianship, I have to learn these exercises in all 12 keys. We read two Bird tunes...Scrapple from the Apple and My Little Suede Shoes. We're working on soloing by "writing sentences" as we solo and "making melodies." I don't want to say I'm not challenged, because I still can't do the descending triads and sevenths perfectly; I'm by no means perfect. But I wouldn't mind more of a challenge, or just more material to work on in general. I feel like in the last series of workshops I did with Dave, we had more of an incentive because we were learning a bunch of Jobim tunes. Not only is Bossa Nova a totally different style of jazz, but those changes can be really difficult. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by the group we had last time...of course, I have nothing against anyone in this group, but the musical chemistry just isn't there. But part of the STAC code is no complaining, so I'll hope for the best and keep doing whatever Dave tells me to do!

My Project: Oil Painting

My project, suggested by Luke, is a very exciting new endeavor! I am oil painting for the first time. I'm accustomed to drawing; I've barely worked with acrylics or any kind of paint besides watercolors, so using oil paints is a whole new world. So, the more I work with this new medium, the better I will learn how to manipulate it. This week, I'd like to finish one oil painting...it will probably be a self-portrait.

Dr. Dave Lalama...Day 1

Dave was surprisingly nice today...maybe not "nice," but certainly less scary than usual, although he did throw around the word "Caucasian" several times. But I digress; I've gotten used to his cut-throat teaching style by now and I love it! Today was mostly an introduction for the new workshoppers and a review for me of some exercises we did with Dave two years ago. Regardless, it was great to review them because they are eternally useful. I can even feel how I've improved...I can do exercises in the workshop now that I couldn't do perfectly two years ago, and I intend to practice the ones I still struggle with. I need to be able to do ascending and descending diatonic triads and diatonic sevenths in all major keys. We also worked on a bit of ear training by learning a melody by ear.
Here's what I need to practice for our next session:
Scrapple from the Apple-learn the head and work on the changes
Dave's diatonic exercises in all keys

My Book Report-Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

I feel good about my presentation. Public speaking and presenting is a skill everyone will need in college and in life in general, so I'm glad I am able to speak and convey what I want to say coherently and charismatically without saying "like" or "um." I consider my presentation successful because I addressed the questions that we were required to address and I was able to explain, to the best of my ability, some very difficult and sophisticated concepts, such as Pirsig's "Metaphysics of Quality." I don't think five minutes is enough time to talk about such an important book that contains so much information, but of course, it would not have been fair if I were allotted more time than other presenters. So I packed all the information I could into those five minutes, and I believe I was successful in explaining the main ideas of the book. The PowerPoint was very effective; it helped me to stay on topic and change topic appropriately, to cite examples from the text, and to illustrate the most significant points.

Working Artist's Statement: Draft 2

I slept on it, reread it the next day, and made some revisions. Here's the second draft:

I have been playing music for ten years. Beginning first with the clarinet, I now also sing, play saxophone, guitar, and piano. I compose and play many genres of music, but my focus is jazz; I play jazz because it is a style unlike any other that contains structure and rules, but allows freedom and creativity at the same time. Organization is one of my core values, but as an artist, I also desire freedom and room to explore; I see jazz as the only music that grants me that possibility and through that mindset, my passion for it has developed. In addition, I play jazz because of its versatility; jazz contains sub-genres within itself, so it is nearly impossible to become bored with it. I aspire to follow my bliss and make a living as a professional jazz musician, playing gigs and composing original music. I play because I am compelled to be a performer; I must perform. In my work, I make decisions based off of what I feel needs to be improved to perfect the piece. I know that if there are imperfections in the piece, I will not be satisfied with the end result, so I find the most efficient ways to eliminate them.

I am concerned with and interested in ethnicity and the intimacy that it results it. My studies of American jazz, gypsy music, and bossa nova reflect my desire to be part of a group whose members identify with each other through a common heritage. Although I am most often playing other people’s music and not my own, I seek to convey the relationships of melodies, instruments, and musicians with each other, and how these relationships make the song special. Since I am not only a musician, but an actress, a visual artist, and a writer, ethnicity is a recurring theme in all of my work, ranging from writing a musical revolving around the mafia to using foreign accents in theatre improvisation.

I usually work on several pieces concurrently. My current work has been preparing for college auditions by recording a demo in a studio and practicing jazz standards and transcriptions for live auditions. Currently, I have also been working on scoring my second children’s musical with the help of other musicians and writers. Rather than repeating something that everyone has already heard, I aim to make a bold statement with all of my work, giving me a sense of accomplishment and recognition.

WORKING Artist's Statement

Mind you...this is a work in progress. Anyone's feedback and constructive criticism would be very much appreciated, so please, I encourage you to comment! Here goes:

I have been playing music for ten years; most of my life. Beginning first with the clarinet, I now also sing, play saxophone, guitar, and piano. I compose and play many genres of music, but my focus is jazz; I play jazz because it is a style unlike any other that contains structure and rules, but allows freedom and creativity at the same time. Organization is one of my core values, but as an artist, I also desire freedom and room to explore; I see jazz as the only music that grants me that possibility and through that mindset, my passion for it has developed. In addition, I play jazz because of its versatility; jazz contains sub-genres within itself, so it is nearly impossible to become bored with it. I aspire to follow my bliss and make a living as a professional jazz musician, playing gigs, composing original music, and perhaps teaching at a university.

In my work, I make decisions based off of what I feel needs to be improved to perfect the piece. I know that if there are imperfections in the piece, I will not be satisfied with the end result, so I find the most efficient ways to eliminate them. For example, if there is a difficult phrase in a piece of music that I am having trouble playing, I take it note by note, piece by piece and play it over and over again, starting slowly and then increasing the speed until I can play it perfectly. I select techniques such as this based on efficiency and their success in the past. When selecting a song to learn or even writing an original piece, I simply choose sounds that appeal to me and mesh well together.

I usually work on several pieces concurrently. My current work has been preparing for college auditions. In a sense, every practice session, private lesson, concert, and competition I ever played was preparation for recording my demo and applying to college for jazz performance. My demo is complete, but I am now preparing for live auditions. This is a challenge because I am stepping out of my comfort zone; I am no longer just playing for an evaluation or an audience, but to gain entry to colleges that will foster my pursuit of jazz as a career. Currently, I have also been working on scoring a children’s musical with the help of other musicians and writers. Writing songs for a musical is a challenge in and of itself because so many things are required of the songs; they must further the plot in some way by developing characters or relationships, giving exposition, or introducing key points in the plot. In addition, they must make sense as individual songs as well as within the context of the show. With all of my work, I aim to make a bold statement that will interest people, rather than repeating something they have already heard before, giving me a sense of pride, accomplishment, and recognition.

The Enneagram Test...again!

This is the second time I've taken the Enneagram Test...the first was two year's ago in STAC. Two years ago, my result was a 7. This time, one test told me I was a 1 and the other told me I was a 7. I feel as if I have some 1 traits, but I'm truly a 7 at heart. In regards to the 1, I'm certainly a perfectionist, I can be controlling, I have good work ethic and I can find pleasure in working hard on something I love. However, the description of a 1 as a whole doesn't shout "LEAHHHHH!!!!" to me. The description of a 7, however, does just that. I'm an enthusiast...imaginative, I often get caught up in situations I imagine. I get bored very easily...so much that I'll start a million projects at once and I may or may not finish them. I love to do everything...I'm very interdisciplinary, I suppose you could say. That's why I'm almost hesitant about what career to choose because I love doing so many things! I have a busy schedule and I like it; I plan, plan, plan, even if I'm not done with something, I'll plan for the next thing. I could go on and on...the description of the 7 in the packet pretty much says it all. So I suppose I'm now a 7 with a hint of 1...if that makes sense.

Working Artist's Statement

Three Core Values:
1) Organization
2) Recognition-people liking my art/performance, telling me I'm good
3) Feeling of productivity-getting things done, sense of accomplishment

Issues:
Heritage/ethnicity-I've always wanted to belong to culture or ethnic group other than "American." I'm jealous of people who speak another language at home and eat ethnic food and visit family in their home countries. This pops up a lot in my work and in my life. It is probably why I study/speak French and Spanish and desire to learn other languages, like German, Portuguese, and Russian; it's also why I want to study abroad and eventually live in Europe, so I can feel like I'm a part of those groups. I always use accents in improv; they're a good way to find a character. I'm also drawn to ethnically based arts. For example, I just saw the musical 'Ragtime' which hit me really hard; it even made me cry...coincidentally, it is about the stories of different ethnic groups in the early 1900s, such as Latvian-Jewish immigrants, WASPs, and African-Americans. Fiddler on the Roof is another favorite musical of mine...it's about Russian Jews, and I happen to be half Russian/Jewish. I listen to ethnic music; one of my favorite bands is Gogol Bordello-a multi-ethnic gypsy punk band, composed of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Jazz, the thing I'm pursuing, is totally ethnic; it's the music that African-Americans made for themselves. I also have a fascination with organized crime and the mafia, another group based on ethnicity and tied together by it; two of the works I've helped write this year involve it...in the movie "I Know a Guy," a girl asks the don of the mafia for a favor. In the children's musical Cassie and I have been working on, Vivian, the pigeon-girl, gets involved with the mafia when she has no other choice. So what does this say about me? I suppose that I want those feelings of closeness, support, love, and acceptance associated with being "ethnic"...nobody likes Americans anyway.

STAC Live

My last STAC Live has me feeling a bit nostalgic. For the four years I've been in STAC, all four STAC Lives I've participated in have been completely different from each other...some more successful than others, some more fun, some more disastrous. This year's is giving me mixed feelings...in a sense, it was very successful. This group works so great together, so we got a lot done and had a lot to present. However, the only negativity I can think of is the audience; as Luke said to me, they were flat-out hostile; it was really a challenge to get them to laugh or even have any kind of response at all...I've been in front of audiences a countless amount of times, but this is the first time I've gotten such a negative energy from them. Luke made an observation that never occurred to me before: STAC Live is kind of like a dog-and-pony show...we're just there to prove to a bunch of people who don't care that we're not a waste of time and that we're actually very productive and intelligent, when in reality, we shouldn't have to prove anything to anyone. Regardless, STAC Live has always been fun to me, and I personally like the performance version of it better than the participatory version we did last year. In summation, this year's STAC Live: eye-opening, surprising, and a little harsh, but enjoyable nevertheless.

Steve's Workshop: Day 2

We went over a bunch more scripts. I guess it comes from experience and education, but it's amazing how Steve can take any script and say "fix this, this, and this" and it's automatically better. Even a few scripts where I thought to myself, "this is a little bit of a cliched student film," Steve was able to give the exact right advice to make it better. In Jack's script, he actually called for a bus blowing up, and obviously that's unfilmable, so Steve suggested that he illustrate the character's hostility in a different way, so he would be able to film it. And I suppose that's what a professional artist of any discipline should be able to do: point out what doesn't work and suggest ways to fix it in order to make the art better. I can't wait till I'm able to do that with songwriting, or improvising.

I only have one session left, since I won't be here on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll have time to go over the script for Children's Theatre. Then we can get a jump on it as soon as possible, since the play is over.

Steve's Workshop

Workshop day 2. We did cold reads of four people's scripts, which were, for the most part, successful. Steve wanted the scripts to have that sense of not directly saying or illustrating what you are trying to say...just letting the audience figure it out. Nearly all of the scripts we hashed through succeeded in this.

In my humble experience, it seems to be a recurrent theme of student films to try too hard to be overly clever or make a joke just for the sake of doing so. It was so refreshing to hear dialogue that was necessary and legitimately whimsical. Once again, to make a connection to other disciplines of art, I find this to be true in songwriting. I heard a song today called "Butterly" by Jason Mraz...ugh...that was just uninteresting and cliched because, rather than writing lyrics that were suggestive but still left room for the listener to figure things out, he wrote foolish, trying-too-hard-to-be-clever lines like "I'm taking a moment, just imagining that I'm dancing with you. You're the pole and all you're wearing is your shoes"...why don't you just sing, "I want to have sex with you. I really want to have sex with you"..it would fulfill the same level of interest. The same goes for a film; we never see much violence in Kontroll, but we know it has happened. We never see Laci slit a man's throat, but we know he did, and that's what's important. Even take Psycho-supposedly one of the scariest movie scenes in history, but we never even see the girl in the shower get stabbed. Brilliant.

I am fortunate to be in STAC, in a group of more advanced artists who won't make generic student films. I am also fortunate that we have the limitations of time, location, budget, cast, resources, etc. because limitations are what makes art good. If you can have everything you want, then you can make episodes 1, 2 and 3, of Star Wars instead of episodes 4, 5, and 6...which ones are better?

On a sidenote: I hoped to be working on the children's theatre script with Steve. Will that be possible at all in this workshop or should Cassie and I just talk to him outside of it?

Kontroll...again

Luke, you were right; the more I learn about Kontroll, the harder it is for me to talk about it. After seeing it a second time, I'm finding it harder to wrap my mind around it. The setting of Kontroll is a world that combines and crosses boundaries between reality and fantasy, and it is hard for any human being to just go ahead and accept the fact that this movie is a blur; not everything is real, but not everything is an imaginary impossibility. And rightfully so; we live in a world where we, for the most part, know what is possible and what is not, so giving that up and living in an ambiguous fucked up "reality" for 105 minutes isn't easy at first.

Maybe Kontroll is so hard to talk about because Nimrod Antal has exposed a side of us that we don't really like to think about: the darker side, the troubled side, the side that maybe pushes innocent people in front of trains. I like that Bulcsú can both be the killer and not be the killer. If he is, then that shows just what a negative environment or a negative situation can do to a humans; it can break them. If he isn't, then there's the hope we're looking for, that there's some good in all of us, even though there's some evil too. We all have this moral conflict. We just don't want to admit it because it makes us look "bad" or "vulnerable." Should I do the right thing or the thing that makes me happy and gives me catharsis? Should I look out for others or take my needs as the most important?

Bulcsú isn't your typical underdog hero. He is more like the ancient Greek definition of a tragic hero. He is flawed, seemingly doomed to an unavoidable fate, forced to suffer, and is faced with a serious decision. He is not entirely a tragic hero because he doesn't die in the end, but perhaps the bitter, evil part of him does when he finally ascends out of the metro and into the next phase of his life.

Kontroll

I have not been able to stop thinking about Kontroll since I saw it. It's been built up in my mind for the four years I've been in STAC, and it was certainly worth the wait. Why is Kontroll such an incredible film? Sure, it won 17 awards, the cast is fantastic, the cinematography is stunning, the subject matter is unique, and the whole thing in general is funny, sad, and dark all at the same time. But it must be the combination of every amazing element that makes Kontroll one of those movies that just won't leave you alone. I've done a bit of research and read plenty of interviews with Nimrod Antal since I saw the film, and it's interesting how the more I find out, the more questions I have.

I can't even settle on whether or not I think Bulcsú is the killer. On one hand, I think it would make complete sense that the killer is a dark part of Bulcsú deep in his subconscious that hates his job so much that he ends up killing innocent passengers who never give him the respect he deserves. On the other hand, I think that conclusion might be too obvious, too predictable, too generic, and I don't think Nimrod Antal is the kind of director who would go for the obvious choice. In fact, he most probably wants us to tear our minds apart over whether or not Bulcsú is the pusher, only to never give us a definite answer. In one interview, Antal said he doesn't necessarily consider himself an artist, but for all intents and purposes, I'll consider him one. Like most artists, perhaps he wants us to wonder if there is a little bit of evil in ourselves. Roland Barthes once said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Perhaps film is too.

This movie also has a killer soundtrack. Music can make or break a movie. For example, Watchmen was a mediocre movie, made even worse by a terrible soundtrack, full of songs that were neither good individually nor as a whole. The movie could have been made better if the soundtrack included music appropriate to the time it was set in, and especially music appropriate to the moods of individual scenes (No one should ever use "Hallelujah" for a sex scene). But I digress. The distinct sound of the band "Neo" perfectly suited chase scenes, murder scenes, comical scenes, and love scenes with their ominous, ambiguous, and one-of-a-kind style.

Now that I've seen Kontroll, all I want to do is watch Kontroll and talk about Kontroll. Basically, I want to live, breath, sleep, and eat Kontroll. I can't wait to watch it again and unravel more of the mystery. I dread the day any American tries to do a remake of it!

Making Movies the 'Be Kind Rewind' Way

I know I'm being shallow and redundant when I say it was really fun, but it definitely was. Now that that's out of the way, on to the deeper stuff!

Working in Groups:
I have always been a fan of group work and it has always been my instinct to take the lead and direct the group; that's just the kind of person I am. However, this time, Jessica was the camera-woman, so she was the automatic leader. At first it was a challenge for me to sit back, just go with the flow, and not try to lead, but eventually I got used to it. It's good to take a different role in a group every now and then.
I'm so grateful for the group I worked with. We all seem to have a great artistic chemistry in that we build off of each others ideas in order to develop a finished product. It was a curse and a blessing that we are also all fun-loving, chatty, silly people, because at times, we did let joking around get the better of us. Still, when it came time to shoot the film, we utilized the time to the best of our abilities. I don't think our film would have been as successful as it was had our group been different.

The Time Constraint:
On filming day, the time limit became very stressful, especially because 15 minutes were wasted on a fire drill. We even had to cut a scene because we wouldn't have had time to go from the basement to my car and back to the basement again. The whole time, I kept glancing at my watch, thinking about how little time we had left. But in the end, we got the job done without any petty fights or arguments between the group members, which always wastes time.

The Film Itself:
I think we approached shooting pretty well. We always rehearsed the scene we were about to film a few times before actually shooting it, which was nerve-wracking. There was a lot of pressure not to mess up. Like Ed Wood, we always accepted the first take and moved on. We almost made it through the entire film without any glitches or mess-ups until Nick came in as the blind prophet and made Doug and Cassie crack up.

I would love to make another movie like this, perhaps with different limitations and requirements. It's certainly a valuable experience for artistic, technical, and every-day life situational purposes.

Henri Matisse

"If my story were ever to be written truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone."
-Henri Matisse-

Henri Matisse, born Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse, was a French artist who lived from December 31, 1869 to November 3, 1954. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France. At age 18, he went to Paris to study law and worked as court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis. He first began painting in 1889, following an attack of appendicitis, when his mother brough him art supplies. He fell in love with painting and decided to become a painter, deeply disappointing his father. In 1891, Matisse returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. He left in disgust of the overly perfectionist style of teaching there. He then trained with Gustave Moreau, a more progressive artist. In both studios, he drew figure studies from life. At first, he failed his drawing exam for admission to the École des Beaux-Arts, but persisted and was finally accepted. Matisse began painting still-lives and landscapes in the traditional Flemish style. Chardin was one of his most admired painters. In 1869, he exhibited 5 paintings in the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and the state bought two of his paintings. From 1897 to 1898, he visited the painter John Peter Russell, who introduced him to impressionism and the work of van Gogh. Matisse's style changed completely, and he later said that Russell was the teacher from whom he learned color theory. The Dinner Table (1897) was Matisse's first masterpiece:
Caroline Joblaud was Matisse's lover for four years during his initial struggles to affirm his artistic direction and professional career. They had a daughter named Marguerite in 1894. In 1898 he married Amélie Noellie Parayre. They raised Marguerite together and had two sons, Jean, born in 1899, and Pierre, born in 1900. Marguerite often served as a model for Matisse. His first solo exposition at Vollard's in 1904 was not very successful. His fondness for bright and excessive color became more pronounced when he moved south and spent time on the French Riviera.
In 1905, Matisse and a group of artists known as the "Fauves" exhibited together at the Salon d'Automne.Gertrude and Leo Stein bought Matisse's Woman With a Hat. Matisse was recognized as a leader of the group, along with Andre Derain. Still, his work encountered vehement criticism. His controversial 1907 painting, Nu bleu, was burned in effigy at the Armory Show in Chicago in 1913. The decline of the Fauvist movement after 1906 did not affect the rise of Matisse. In 1904, he met painter Pablo Picasso. The two became life-long friends and rivals. The key difference between their work is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, whereas Picasso worked from imagination. Both artists frequently painted women and still life. Gertrude, Leo, Michael, and Sarah Stein were important collectors and supporters of Matisse's paintings. Matisse's friends organized and financed the Académie Matisse in Paris, a private and non-commercial school in which Matisse instructed young artists. It operated from 1907 until 1911.
In 1917, Matisse moved to Cimiez on the French Riviera. His work here shows a relaxation and softening of his approach. After 1930, a new vigor and bolder simplification appear in his work. In 1932, he completed The Dance II, a large mural for the Barnes Foundation.
In 1939, he seperated from his wife of 41 years. In 1941, he underwent surgery and started using a wheelchair. With the help of assistants, he created large paper collages, called gouaches découpés. In 1947, he published Jazz, a limited-edition book containing of these colorful paper cut collages, accompanied by his written thoughts. He also worked as a graphic artist in the 1940s, producing black-and-white illustrations for several books and lithographs at the famous Mourlot Stuidos in Paris. In 1951, he completed a four-year project of designing the interior, glass windows, and decorations of the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence. He established a museum dedicated to his work in 1952, in the city where he was born. Henri Matisse died of a heart attack at age 84 in 1954. He is known for his vivid use of color and his fluid draughtsmanship.

More Paintings:The Dessert Harmony in Red (1908)


Open Window (1905)