School of Renaissance Art

I am painting a painting I am going to sell for 1,000,000 dollars in order to start the NYC school of Renaissance art. I decided If I don't change art no one else will so I need to start a school to bring back what used to be.

happy tuesday

Today I have to go to Brooklyn to attend to details on some glass deadlines. While I am away my "Great Bread" will be rising to perfection as the secret mixture of oil medium slowly dries and brings flavor and life to my creation. Picasso said that most artists are like bakers, they paint the same thing over and over and over...I was never one who could stomach churning out the same art day after day. I jump around from style to style and my medium changes daily (like my socks.) The downside of getting a name is often people want that individual thing out of you and you get stuck painting for your audience which is akin to painting checks. I decided if I write something for now on I will add a random image of my work to accompany it to liven things up a bit....

study of Velásquez...

iris on gold.

I found this today. It was something I made two years ago. It was a test for a mural project I was planning---thought someone bought this and not sure why I have it. If you purchased it let me know. Otherwise--- it is for sale...

letter to my agent...

I once was asked by a children's book agent to draw him a bunny as a kind of art test. I don't really draw happy furry bunnies so I sent this drawing along with the poem you will find below..

You asked that I draw you a bunny

And a bunny, my friend, you did get

When I started it was pleasant and sunny

But soon it was cloudy and wet

I waited in vain for the sunshine

But the gold eye of heaven showed not!

What kind of agent would be mine?

When my bunny is wet as a sot?

I tried and I dried all the wet fur

So my bunny was fluffy and new

But nothing quite seemed to work, sir

So what was an artist to do?

I went straight down to Laundromat Lane

Where I knew there a drier or three

And I fluffed up my bunny, hurray

And drew him once more for thee…

Dreadlines

I have, over the years, developed great techniques for avoiding working on deadlines until the gun is in my face and I have no choice. Here are some of my favorite things I do to avoid "dreadlines."

1) Clean. I hate cleaning but I will clean my apt. from top to bottom to avoid sitting at my art table to face a dreaded deadline. I will scrub my entire kitchen and fridge to hide from the art table.

2) "Work" on something else. There is no better time to work on a pet project or to fiddle about on an idea of yours than when you are avoiding "real work."

3) Pace. I like to pace a lot and think as I pace and then pace some more.

4) Drink. I used to drink like a real artist and was fond of many a pub but now I do not leave my apt. except to work on glass art or jog.

5) Surf the internet. I often spend hours reading about DNA, Geometry and Art history. I am also I learned conspiracy theorist (of no small repute.)

6) Talk to friends. I have no friends as they are all married in the suburbs and are victims of government/ wife sponsored suburban mind control projects---very dark stuff. Their wives are programmed to shoo away all outdoor alley cats such as my freedom loving self.

7) TV. I no longer own a TV, I gave it away to my parents. Now I stare mindlessly at a cardboard box as it gives me the same neural stimulation I once received from my TV.

8) blarg. I hate word blog and I avoid like leprosy. I like to work on my website as I feel guilty if I do not keep it interesting for my humble readers with updates of splendid pet photos and other such non-such stuff such and things, etc ad nauseum and so on and...


... I have to get back to painting two bronx book covers...

the great bread

This is the under- painting of "The Great Bread." The problem with painting timeless imagery is that it gets compared with the best through the ages. That is why it is easier for artists to wrap bricks in tinfoil and call it modern as there is no reference point to compare it to.

words of theday--walt whitman

an old friend sent me this via email...

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,

Strong and content, I travel the open road.

I inhale great draught of space,

The east and west are mine, and the north and south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,

I did not know I held so much goodness.

Walt Whitman


that walt whitman was not only a great poet but he built a great shopping mall...

the great bread

Here is a bad photo of a loaf of bread I am painting. It has been years since I painted some of the basics. Bread is as timeless as painting as a motif. I plan to make this into a damn good piece of art and not be lazy. The structure is not bad, if you do not have structure you have a bad home that you shouldnt waste your wallpaper on. it is nice to have the oils flowing again and work on canvas as well.

"no more miracles, loaves and fishes, been so busy with the washing of the dishes...p.g

Courbet!

I walked in the rain this morning to The Met to see The Courbet exhibit (again.) There were fuzzy tourists already on line so I was not the first in but I was the first into the exhibit. The guards like to tell me you are the first one today---I guess they get bored standing around. Today was more powerful for me than my first visit. Courbet was a force of nature. His ocean paintings really got a hold on me. It struck me that one of the ocean paintings was Cezannes favorite and that I was staring at paintings that many a great artist stood in front of. I never thought of paintings like that before, think of all the great artists and minds that stood before the Mona Lisa. I want to paint waves and oceans now that I live in the city.

all those years ago...

art has many forms

This car is for sale on ebay. It is around $500,000.00 last time I checked. If I ever get rich as Picasso or Dali I will buy this.

New York Post

I did my daily ritual of a five AM Pepsi and a NY Post. My regular readers know that I have a fascination with the Post on many levels. Today I bought it and something did not feel right. I realized that they have shrunk the Post down in size by an inch or so! Most people wont notice but Alex noticed and was deeply affected. My pepsi can was still the same size.

quote of the day------a. einstein

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” Albert Einstein

quote of the day--machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli - "Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times."


-----I never learned this lesson

Drawing of the day---by gardega

I drew this today--- I cannot reveal the whole thing as it is not time to sell the wine....Glass is beginning to be a medium of much strain for me as there are so many issues and problems with equipment and breakage. I must hide beneath the umbrella of possible futures.

gabriel in Central Park---by gardega

I will be painting a large canvas in central park tomorrow and it will be b filmed by the CEO of New York Artist Series. I will do one of my "Gabriel Pieces" a work inspired by the music of peter gabriel. I may use a song from the Passion album. It will be edited friday night or saturday and up for internet viewing over the weekend. I like to paint in the park especially when I am ignoring the park and painting an "internal piece." (No ducks or pets or people)....The downside is you usually get a crowd so you dont want to paint badly and it puts pressure on but such is life in love and art. People usually expect some swans or the like and generally not the chaotic madness that drips from my psyche.

36 views of mount fuji---by hokusai

This is one the great images ever made. It is the "Great Wave" and part of a series of 36 views of Mt. Fuji.


here is a link to the other 35.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36_Views_of_Mount_Fuji_(Hokusai)

one year anniversary of this thingy

I am coming up on one year (may 17th) of running this here website. I am throwing a small "bash" and will be meeting for drinks at the St. Regis at the King Cole Bar on 55th and 5th on May 16th (Friday). I will be giving away some free sketches and watercolors etc. All are invited and welcome, I am going to try to reserve a table space etc. Not sure if you can do that there. I'm thinking around 7:00 or so...Please RSVP if you would like to come, it will be fun and informal. There is a small chance of a change of venue if there are logistic issues but I think it will be fine.

all the best,

your humble narrator and scribbler

email me at alexgardega@gmail.com

all are invited.

quote of the day--joseph conrad

Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.


Joseph Conrad

the family and the fishing net

here is a video of old of me painting a watercolor to a song. trying to do more of these soon but tech. issues causing me stress!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wg4UXt8sHM

link of the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Z9mTlllPo

alex the curator

I am curating an art show for the artist Marshall Arisman in club Europa (Brooklyn) in mid May. All are welcome and I will update soon.

artist of the day---gahan wilson

Here is a photo of one of my favorite artists. For once I am not going to elaborate on an artist. I am going to let you google to find out about this great and demented genius.

man trapped in elevator for 42 hours

here is a great video of a man trapped in elevator. I am not sure why I find this video so interesting.


http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators/?yrail

glass medusa

Here is my glass Medusa (for my new viewers.)

quote of the day---james russel lowell

Freedom is the only law which genius knows.
James Russell Lowell

postage stamps etched in glass

My brain has been looking back on the glass stamp project I completed months ago. I have decided I want to make some more stamps in glass but I want to make them Gardega style, kind of surreal- Americana. Coming soon--- I have already designed two of them.

the pope---by gardega

I was walking up town today and I ran into another barricade and the cops were holding back people so the pope could pass. I saw the pope in his limo with another person who (I think) was the cardinal. I am not religious but it was a nice NYC moment.

vienna watercolor

I had a dream about Vienna last night. I have never been there. I woke up this morning and painted this--- a spiritual watercolor of a city I have never visited.

a different sky---by gardega

Art is a respite from the day to day world. It is an escape into another reality, another world-- a different sky.


watercolor 11 x 15

quote of the day----H.L. Mencken

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl."

central park--by gardega

I ran a few miles in Central Park this morning. It was filled with cops and paramilitary as the pope was due to pass through. I sat down next to an old timer and we started talking about the police and the military and the erosion of civil liberties etc. He told me he spent two years in a communist prison near romania for speaking out against the government. He said they would torture him every day by putting his hand in a door and slamming it--- he showed me his bent fingers. He said America is crazy for giving up her liberties and rights. I agreed with him. If we wind up in a fascist theocracy or world communist government it is going to be like living everyday inside a dept. of motor vehicles.

orion nebula

I found this picture on the Nasa website today. This image is proof to me that there is no longer a need for abstract painting. Man has never even come close to achieving something of this power in abstract art. Lay down thy brushes.

magnetotail

This image is explained in posting below. this reminds me of an angel, a magnetic angel.

magneto tail

the earth is surrounded by a bubble of magnetism, this is in part to the molten metal "dynamo" core of the earth. this "bubble" stretches out into space into a "tail" that is basically a long mass of charged particles. If you ever look up and see it is a full moon you can know that the moon is in the middle of our magnetotail. When the moon is in our magnetotail she is being bombarded by charged particles. On the dark side of the moon this can cause the surface to raise into thousands of volts of electrostatic energy. There is speculation that this can actually create a wind, an electrical wind that raise particles into the air etc. This is one of Nasa's pictures to illustrate the tail...

bladder drugs cause memory loss

I read this morning that bladder drugs cause memory loss. I think that is how they are supposed to work. If you forget that you wet yourself then it doesnt really matter that your shorts are wet. what matters is perception. brilliant!

Update---by gardega

I have been back at my zen inspired watercolors. The more I mature in art the more I realize that there is a large philosophical difference between making art that is concerned with the "process" or "the journey" and making art that is concerned primarily with having a nice finished product to hang above and match your sofa ---Maybe the two meet somewhere on a dusty highway. It is very unlike me to leave out a lot of detail in my work but for some reason I have been working in a minimal fashion on these watercolors. I don't think it is laziness because I like to paint detail. It is more about restraint. Notice my 5 foot "priest" painting tucked behind my desk watching me paint....These are for sale if anyone wishes to buy one or all. Just state which one you would like to see from left to right and I will email you a better photo/ version of it.

article of the day

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=559967&in_page_id=1770

quote of the day

Anatole France - "It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion."

how to be a great artist---by gardega

If you are determined (or have a deep rooted wish to be an "artiste") I would like to offer up the rules of engagement that I have gathered up like crumbs in a german forest over the years.

the rules:

1) First you must have a great and unforgettable name before you even take a step onto the rocky path towards fame. Names as Picasso, Dali, Goya, Magritte, Kubin. These are names that carry with them the faint yet unmistakable odor of grandeur and destiny.


2) second it is best to have rich parents as you will not have to pick old pizza out of trash bins for ten years as you strive against impossible odds that would weigh down the most heroic of figures. Gardega had not such luxuries but you can compensate with stubbornness and tenacity and know that one day after the ten thousandth try you will find the right filament to light the bulb of truth and success.


3)thirdly, you must think for yourself and avoid the groupthink of modern life and it is best to be an individual to the 9th degree if you are understood or not you will be better off as it is much better to fail as Gardega than to be another at any cost.

4) Press my friend!!! If you are an unkown artist it is because you are not putting your turkey neck on the chopping block of fear and rejection. It is best to be known and to have people read about you and to buy your art. If you would prefer to hide in the shadows and drive a milk truck down the road of failed destinies you are so entitled! It is good to be on TV and radio and in the gossips and on the pavement casting the long shadows of envy among your comrades.

5) throw out your television. If you spend your time in front of the idiot box your mind with bog down like a chicken in a glue factory. Read those little things called books and research and study and do geometry and be not lazy. If you need to visit bacchus when your mind is weighed down with problems of analytical geometry and you cannot sleep then wine is fine and as baudelaire famously said "stay drunk young man" stay drunk on art, and life and wisdom and words.

ghost of renoir---by gardega

SOLD


watercolor on Arches paper 22" x 30".

This watercolor is done on a wonderfully crafted (and expensive) sheet of arches watercolor paper. I recommend when framing it that it is framed behind glass in a "Shadow Box" type frame so the rough edges of the paper are visible to the viewer as opposed to being hidden by a matte.

AHPPY RITHDBYA

GARDEGA SAYS "THINK OUTSIDE THE MAILBOX!"

another chance apparel

a good friend and collector of my work sent me an email about her clothing line and I thought I would share it on here. Her name is mary and she is a popular DJ in Westchester NY on 103.9 WFAS..

I have a side project to tell you about - Another Chance Apparel - with my co-worker, JJ Kennedy. It's a line of shirts that have been recycled from cotton waste and plastic bottles spun into fabric and made into shirts. The concept is: Everyone and everything deserves Another Chance - people deserve another chance and so do 'things.' Manufacturing tee shirts made from recycled fabric requires 2/3 less energy, it keeps plastic soda bottles out of landfills, and is just as soft and cozy as regular cotton or organic cotton shirts. Plus, since the cotton is recycled, no pesticides or chemicals were used to grow and maintain cotton fields for these shirts.

Please check out the Another Chance Apparel website at www.marydesilva.com (it's very bare, I built it myself, the real site will be up as soon as my webmaster is done with finals!!) and on MySpace at:
www.myspace.com/anotherchanceapparel


feel free to view/ buy her shirts!

color of the day----green

I chose green as the color of the day because there is a large amount of focus on the environment and the green movement. As an artist I like to keep the planet in good shape myself and worry about the oceans etc. The downside of the whole thing is that if we are not careful with how we legislate we create greater problems. Because of the mandates on Biodiesel many very poor countries are losing their main source of food---CORN. There are food riots and the price of the foodstuffs many of these countries survive on is through the roof. I would rather stick to oil if it keeps these third world people from staving and eating tree bark to survive. Also, a global carbon tax and all the talk about carbon footprint etc is a great way to simply throw another tax on the plate of "the little guy." If you do not think that the "global elite" are getting an extended chuckle out of a "global carbon tax" you are mistaken---If you really peel back the layers and use your grey matter you will see that a carbon tax is essentially a tax on our breath---We exhale carbon. I hope you see the humor in that one... I hope we solve our planets enviro problems but I do not want idiots writing impactful legislation that causes more problems than it solves. I feel like drawing a political cartoon of a poor family at a dinner table and the mother telling the young child to drink his biodiesel....

kilauea--by gardega

Here is a great photo of a lava flow in Kilauea Hawaii. This reminds me of the mouth of hell as it is depicted in many old Flemish paintings and by the Bosch "school of art".

amused to death---flicker rate

I have totally given up watching television. I got rid of mine and I often miss it. I feel that I have to replace the "zombie time" with other things to keep me occupied. FYI, it is a little known fact that the flicker rate of a television was optimized to create an hypnotic effect in humans----Increase flicker rate and you can bring on epileptic seizures.

update---by gardega

Long day in the salt mines trying to wrap up loose ends on projects. I get a big kick when I look at my blog map and I can see where people log in from. Someone from Brisbane, Australia has caught on to the site. I have no idea how people find it but it motivates me to stay on my toes and stay out of the bars and work away. I have taken another photo of my Ghost of Renoir and will post tonight.

ghost of renoir

I finally attacked my 20 dollar sheet of watercolor paper (22 x 30 inches). It is nice to work with good quality paper and supplies. I finished this last night at 3am and this is a really bad photo and I must re-shoot tonight. This piece is concerned with and influenced by the novel "the other side" by Alfred Kubin. It is influenced by that novel in spirit, not in a direct visual fashion to the story line. I chose the name for this piece the ghost of Renoir because it brings to mind the paintings of Renoir's women with umbrellas. I wish I had a better photo but I am off to Brooklyn and I have no time to re-shoot.


On a sullen and blighted shore
where the hands of time can reach no more
there walks the ones who came before
as if the sky had never changed
as if the blood still flows in veins---gardega

quote of the day--carl jung

Today humanity, as never before, is split into two apparently irreconcilable halves.

The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.

That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves.

– C.G. Jung, 1959

buddha statue

no one thought the buddha statue resembled Bush sr. which I thought was an obvious likeness---Not that I consider any politician to have Buddha nature...

wine cellar mural--by gardega (longview)

here is a long view of mural...

wine cellar mural---by gardega

This is a shot of the finished wine cellar. I think the room itself is a work of art. It was a six month labor of love by the homeowner to create this room.

mural photos---by gardega

I went back to the wine cellar I painted today to take some shots (now that the wine cellar construction is 100% completed.) It was strange being in a room again where I spent three weeks working on a ceiling, the room felt like an old friend.. This is the Da Vinci inspired center of the 16 foot mural---Specifically it is the Battle of Anghiari. For any issues I have with the painting itself I forgive myself because I painted standing and straining my neck for three weeks.

great stuff!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3380991791665837177&q=courbet&total=312&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

I think it is great to take a new view on viewing art!

Buddha Sculpture

does anyone see a resemblance to a famous figure in this sculpture? email me answer--- I am very curious if others see what alex sees.

courbet at the met--by gardega

The Courbet show blew my mind wide open. I am letting it settle before I comment on it.

picasso---man with lollipop

Here is a very strange Picasso painting in The Met. It is called man with lollipop. it is so strange I am not sure what I think of it as I generally dont like this part of Picasso's art.

feet of the met---by gardega

Can anyone name these feet?

feet of the met---by gardega

feet of the met---by gardega

feet from the met--by gardega

met photos---by gardega

There is a great statue of Perseus in the met with Medusa's severed head. What a work of art!!!

the met--first to arrive

I was the first person to arrive at The Met this morning as I got there an hour early to make sure I was the first person in to see the Courbet show today. I even had ample time to take photos in Central park. The man behind me and second in line (an artist) and I got into a discussion and I made a a quip about the contrast of having both jasper Johns and Courbet shows at the same time. Turns out that he was a big fan of jasper Johns and thought Dali a third rate hack. I mentioned to him that Jasper Johns was a terrible draftsman and Dali was the greater draftsman than even Picasso and that Jasper Johns could not draw.. He said he "lettered well." I replied that sign shops also letter rather well. He knew that it was game over at that point and I pointed out that what makes the world great is each person is entitled to their own opinion. Gardega was glad he was first on line and not second as I scurried away from idiocy and into the great halls of genius.

springtime---- by gardega

Alex is weak on horticulture/botany and cannot tell you what flower I photographed here. Can anyone name this tree/ flower? There are some areas I am poorly versed in and that would be botany and patience.

alice in wonderland bronze--NYC

Here is a sculpture that I once had to paint for a book illustration. it is the famous Bronze in Central Park in the east 70's. I like this sculpture a lot because it is not artsy fartsy bologna concerned with the form of the form of the reality of the space..... but rather a simple and nice piece of work.

Pet Photography---by Gardega

I found this "living mop" in Central Park. The owner told me the name but Mop will suffice in my mind. This is the most surrealistic of all dogs, methinks. I have a strange suspicion this dog prefers winter over spring and summer.

Central Park---by gardega

I took some photos in Central Park before I ventured into the Met today. This is Cleopatra's Needle, a bit of Egypt in NYC.

The Met

I am going to The Met today. I will be the first person inside as they open at 9:30 and I am getting ready now at 7:00. I will take photos and maybe some drawings as well.

also at the MET--jasper Johns--TA DA!!!

I am sorry if any of you are Jasper John's fans as I am picking on him because he also has a show at The Met. This piece is called hart crane (persicope) --I have learned that if you are painting "Modern art" and your painting has no real merit to it (visual or otherwise) you can throw a random title on it to make it seem like it is more than it seems---like you are "in the know." Courbet's painting of a Desperate Man takes labor and skill and love and thought and sweat. these paintings take a can of cheap acrylic paint. I have also noticed the greater the con game in the art world--the greater amount of words you need to describe a piece of art or an artist. This is the opposite of ZEN, alex thinks---just sitting, painting.

yesterday

It was warm and sunny yesterday in NYC. I hid from my work and walked around the city. I am afraid to check my messages. It was my first day off in two months and I felt like I was getting warped like an old piece of wood. I had trouble adjusting to ignoring my phone but if they cant take a joke they should lose my number.

viva gardega

Courbet at The Met

Here is a painting by Courbet that is being used to advertise his show at The Met. I am going to see his show on Sunday. I am not working--I am going to Met. This painting is called "The Desperate Man." I would change title to "the artist known as Alex" or "deadlines." or "I have to make six glass pieces by when????" I own a journal of Courbets (not an original) but a published journal.

here is something I stole from the Mets website....

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), the self-proclaimed "proudest and most arrogant man in France," created a sensation at the Salon of 1850–51 when he exhibited a group of paintings set in his native Ornans, a village in eastern France. These works challenged convention by rendering scenes from daily life in an emphatically realistic style and on the large scale previously reserved for history painting.

Courbet's career was punctuated by a succession of scandals, which were usually cultivated by the artist and always welcomed. After a public fight with the all-powerful superintendent of fine arts, Comte Nieuwerkerke, several of his works were refused display in the great Salon and Universal Exposition of 1855. Courbet countered with his own Pavilion of Realism, audaciously built within sight of the official Salon, where he exhibited, among other works, a monumental canvas, The Painter's Studio (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). The accompanying exhibition catalogue included his "Realist Manifesto," in which he declared his aim "to be in a position to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my epoch, according to my own estimation." The press had a field day, and Courbet immediately became the most controversial artist in France.

A new generation of painters, among them Manet, Monet, Fantin-Latour, Degas, and Whistler, were drawn to Courbet's outsize personality and his realism. As a painter of landscapes, he developed a radical vision, expressed in tightly focused views of his native Franche-Comté as well as his "landscapes of the sea," which profoundly influenced the next generation of artists, especially Cézanne.

In 1870, he rejected the coveted award of the Legion of Honor, proclaiming his freedom and independence from any form of government. His involvement with the short-lived, socialist government, the Paris Commune of 1871, led to imprisonment and, ultimately, self-imposed exile in Switzerland, where he died in 1877. Through his powerful and idiosyncratic realism and his courtship of the press and controversy, Courbet became a pioneering figure in the history of modern art. His paintings, which moved Picasso,

quote of the day

"money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a yacht and you can pull right up along side it"
david lee roth

Almost out of my deadline mess and will take sunday off to go to The Met. I think there is a Courbet show there, does anyone know? I am looking forward to a day of nothing except art and wine without some deadline on my shoulders. I was going to say art, women and wine but the only thing that is for sure is that if you have some money in your pocket you can have some art and some wine. I guess if you are a governor you can pay for women as well...I guess money can get you what you need sometimes but it can also steal your soul out from under you if you get obsessed with the stuff.

nyc and the sofa of time

In order to survive as an artist in NYC, one must be psychotically driven. It occurred to me that I have the psychotic part down but the whole driven thing sounds like a lot of work. However, since I have gotten got rid of my television I find lots of time I never knew I had. It is not unlike finding change in an old sofa.

words of the day----N.peart

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride
Just like pride

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover

[Chorus:]
Look in...to the eye of the storm
Look out...for the force without form
Look around...at the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around...

We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights

We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves
Thick as thieves...

thought of the day---gnomic thoughts

I have been waking up lately with thoughts that are half-dreams, half conceptual problems. It is very hard to explain but this morning I awoke with this idea in mind--- If nature uses a gnomic spirals to create things (sunflowers, nautilus shells, DNA, pine cones, leaf growth etc) Then perhaps thought or creative thought has similar properties. Maybe we create and think in rhythmic spirals. Maybe there is mathematical structure behind the outhouse of our emotional and creative thoughts. Perhaps we dont think in a linear fashion but in a spiral fashion.

Here is a bad photograph of my glass side panels for the stairs. The design of these pieces is art nouveau inspired.

long day

I worked from 2:30 AM until 10 PM but have very little to show for my labor...

another set

Here are the final two glass women I made for my commission. Again they are not lit yet and need to be switched.

photo by gardega

I stopped into a bar for a drink after a long day. It seems there was a horse race on and I could not resist sneaking a photo of the crowd---I am not sure if anyone caught on.

glass women--by gardega

Here are two of six glass women I created for Europa nightclub in brooklyn. It is a terrible photograph as the pieces are normally self illuminated by LED lighting and the color of the LED changes to the music and along with the lighting of the entire club. The frames are going to be repainted as they are just place holders at the moment. These pieces are three foot by four foot. I am hesitant to show them unlit as they are but I will have them shot professionally soon. The ominous faces reflect my ominous mood as my deadline was pretty overwhelming. I spent more time framing and lighting than I did on the pieces. These pieces are also for sale as I have an arrangement with europa to hang until they are sold.

the last supper---by monty python

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2849101111632452737&q=michelangelo&total=3850&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0


"I'll get a bloody photographer" (that about sums up art for me in a nutshell.)

word of the day---by gardega

camarilla \kam-uh-RIL-uh; -REE-yuh\, noun:

A group of secret and often scheming advisers, as of a king; a cabal or clique.

I have not heard this word and I am now one word smarter...

3:26 AM---leonardo and magic--by gardega

Alex once read that paintings were often looked upon in the Renaissance as magical talismans and that they had certain powers. For instance, Leonardo's Virgin on the rocks masterpiece was thought to be a talisman against the plague ( I believe alex read this in his past) I like the idea of paintings having powers (especially spiritual powers) as that is what I try to achieve in my watercolor work. Picasso (for all his faults and bullshit) was a great philosopher and felt that paintings had a certain magic. In the end his magic turned tragic as the snake eventually ate its own tail (as often is the case with genius.) If anyone finds any strange phallic symbols in this painting let me know as I just dont see any.

the bronx covers---by gardega

I woke up at midnight tonight and went out for a drink in my hood. The upper east side is a strange place as I watched people sucking margaritas out of communal gold fish bowls with fluorescent straws, a girl said to me that I do not seem like the fluorescent straw type which was something I took as a compliment and then I went back home and got to work on my "Bronx covers." I am still getting used to (after five years) of painting on a yellow background. Since it is the yellow pages, I really cannot argue for a different background color so I try to make magic come out of yellow and grow where I am planted.