Armando’s Rhumba

Painted completely within Inkscape - revised June, 2024

Printed on 100% cotton, acid free, paper from Hahnemühle with archival standards

Chick Corea died in February, 2021. Chick played both the piano and synthesizer.

I loved his music and performances, starting with Miles Davis and later on with his own groups.

I wanted to remember Chick Corea with a painting.

His music always made me feel good - it had a joy of life spirit.

Armando’s Rhumba was composed in honor of Chick’s father.

There are many recordings of him playing it in different groupings - so this seemed the best reference.

{There is a nice 25 minute acoustic instrument version on YouTube recorded in 2019- click here to watch and listen}

The music has a unique rhythm as the main theme.

On his recording My Spanish Heart, El Bozo part II, Chick configured his synthesizer to sound more like a calliope.

This led me to creating pipe like figures, which were transformed into tall cacti.

I sketched the beat as 12 vertical shapes, the cacti.

The height of the cacti gives the rhythm.

While painting the cacti spoke to me as if they were live characters.

Each developed its own personality.

Sometimes I felt they were guiding me what to create and I was no longer in full control.

My intention was not to make a sad/memorial painting - but one to make you smile and brighten your day - just like Chick’s performances.

I created Armando’s Rhythm using a computer and vector art.

Vector art enables lines to be scaled continuously and not show pixels.

The output from vector art was created at super high resolution, no compression was used.

A large group of test prints were created on 8”x10” than 16”x20”.

After each test, adjustments were made in vector graphics, until the final piece was created.

A smaller version, also a monoprint, without the piano’s strings, was created half size: 18” wide x 12” height

I hope that the finished piece makes you smile.

And if you happen to listen to Chick Corea's Armando Rhythm in My Spanish Heart, you may hear what I tried to create.

Digital prints and larger sizes are available - contact me for more information.

______

March - June, 2023 Armando’s Rhumba showed at the Masur Museum in Monroe, LA