SANTANA

9th JULY 2013  MONACO

ART EXCHANGE with CARLOS SANTANA!

I cheekily wrote to ask CARLOS SANTANA if he would like to exchange my original artwork for his 1992  album for some tickets to his concert at the Salle des Etoiles, Sporting Club, Monte Carlo.

Here is a photo of the art work, a collaged mixture of my Mexican paintings and photographs, produced long before the days of digital art and photography, for The Best of Santana, Sony UK, 1992.
                                    

Carlos generously offered me and Phoebe tickets without any request for the art work, but I insisted on giving it to him anyway ( poor man) when we went backstage after the concert ! Plus a couple of original jazzy acrylics I thought he might like. A welcome return to the days of barter.

It was a wonderful evening, great performance by Carlos and a magical sequence by his guest, maestro guitarist John McLaughlin, who sat next to us at the artists' table. 

Backstage, we spoke in Spanish. Carlos appreciated the genuine Mexican flavour and detail of the collage, Oaxacan and Mayan children, flora and fauna, local colour... He'd never seen it before as he's rarely involved with marketing and production abroad, but said:

                

      'Se ve que es hecho con mucho amor! '    ( 'I see it's been created with lots of love!)'

I kept the original inner sleeves, pre printing of titles and credits, as not much use to anyone!
They were flood damaged too...

                                                                  Inner sleeve left 

   

                                                                Inner sleeve right 

               All photos were taken over the 11 years I spent in Mexico from 1980 to 1991.

J'ai fait un échange 'culturel' avec Carlos Santana. Je lui ai offert mon collage original pour son disque 'The Best of Santana', Sony UK 1992 à la place de deux billets pour son concert au Sporting de Monte Carlo! Il m'a généreusement offert deux billets, sans rien me demander, mais je lui ai apporté l'oeuvre tout de même. Le concert était superbe, belles performances de Santana et de son ami, le maestro John Mc Laughlin.

L'oeuvre carrée est celle que j'ai donné à Carlos, les deux collages oranges étaient des supports pour textes, titres et crédits, (dommagés par une inondation) et restent dans un tiroir au studio. Toutes mes photos datent des années passées au Mexique entre 1980 et 1991.