What It's Like To Play Jazz Painting

"What It's Like To Play Jazz," 2012. (Title piece for music series of same name.) Acrylic on canvas. (Photographed on wood stretcher with faux-floater framing for a more finished presentation.) 42.125" H x 60.0" W (107.0 x 152.4 cm) / Organic Realism "What It's Like To Play Jazz" is another breathtaking triumph (in an ever increasing number of works) by Jay Worth Allen. It is one of his signature pieces from his most recent music series of the same name. This masterful work is an executed perfection. Depicting an extreme close-up of the artist's hands in mid-play on a piano keyboard, this work exhibits such a high level of intensity that the viewer is drawn directly into the moment, one moves with the player, the music audibly visible, capturing the very essence of creation through music, transcending space and time. Jay Worth Allen used his signature technique to create "What It's Like To Play Jazz" -- black and white acrylic paint, resembling the imagery produced in black and white film photography, to "produce color" -- by mixed the two, the eye sees three-dimensional space and the mind experiences the magical sensation of sound and movement that defines the universal language of music. Music and art have always been inextricably linked in Jay Worth Allen. He began both drawing and playing music at age five, and hasn't stopped. This particular painting is the culmination of over three decades of works on the same theme--"What It's Like To Play Jazz." While attending NTS's Jazz program in Dallas, J. ("Jay") Worth Allen met and befriended photographer David Pond-Smith. Having never embarked on any serious photographic pursuits prior to this meeting, Jay had borrowed a friend's 35mm and started experimenting with black and white film. He was taught basic photography at The Academy, but wanted to "really" know, as he puts it, "how to print [develop the images] the way I want them to come out." Pond-Smith fulfilled that desire. As the artist recounts, "I had never really tried photography . . . so I borrowed a 35mm and started experimenting." He photographed several exquisite compositions, but, as he says, "I could never print the way I wanted." This is where David Pond-Smith became instrumental in Jay Worth Allen's life. David not only showed him how to print the way he wanted, he introduced Jay to two other photographers, Duane Michaels and Ansel Adams, both of whom had a lasting impact on the young artist. In fact, Pond-Smith entered one of Jay's photographs in a Dallas photography contest, stating that it would be the winning entry. The photograph was of Jay Worth Allen's hand on a piano keyboard. It did win (second place, because, as Pond-Smith explained, "Yours should have won, but the winning photo was a nude!"). Regardless, the image has been a recurring theme throughout Jay Worth Allen's career -- and the impetus from which his music series(pl.) have been produced. A note on Ansel Adams: Not long after the Dallas contest, Pond-Smith introduced Jay Worth Allen to Ansel Adams. Adams taught his zone method one-on-one to Jay Worth Allen in the last class he taught prior to his death. It is this very principle regarding "lights and darks" that changed the young artist's vision forever, further honing his unusually unique perspective with the tools he needed to produce the magnificent works we see today. Regarding Charity: "What It's Like To Play Jazz" 2005. Acrylic on canvas painting (36.5" H x 54.5" W). "2006 Blue Suede Dinner & Auction" benefitting The Exchange Club-Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. At a starting bid of $10,000, this work raised five times the amount for a single donation the charity has ever had. Very Abbr. List of Collections & Locations For Works In These Series: Sambuca Restaurants (Dallas, Houston, Nashville); Founder and CEO of Planet Recycling, Inc. (Brentwood); Other Public and Private Collections throughout the US and abroad The original drawing for this particular work (a masterwork it its own right) is owned by a New Orleans blues piano player (New Orleans) As with the other pieces in this collection, the significance of this piece is profound. An exquisite technical accomplishment, in particular, this work culminates the artist's move into a deeper plane into the fons et origo which the he paints -- refreshing, unabashed freedom, unencumbered by human conditioning -- where, if one listens, the very breath of God can be heard. There is a companion piece from this music series that is also being offered at this time, "Lannie's Sax." Please visit Jay Worth Allen's profile for more information, and to view other works currently being offered through Saatchi Art. We appreciate and encourage any comments. Thank you. Regarding shipping: This work will be shipped in accordance to Saatchi Art's shipping guidelines (removed from its stretcher, rolled and shipped in a professional mailing tube). Otherwise, please contact the artist to discuss other shipping methods (which may possibly incur additional shipping costs).