"Eyes of Texas" update

Here is a photo of my work in progress---"The Eyes Of Texas..." I would say that she is about 65% done...I may barter or sell her, not sure yet. If you want to buy her please contact me via email.

medieval monks and mercury

Damaged Skull

June 27, 2008 -- Medieval bones from six different Danish cemeteries reveal that monks who wrote Biblical texts and other religious materials may have been exposed to toxic mercury, which was used to formulate just one of their ink colors: red.

The study, which will be published in the August issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, also describes a previously undocumented disease, called FOS, which was like leprosy and caused skull lesions. Additionally, the researchers found that mercury-containing medicine had been administered to 79 percent of the interred individuals with leprosy and 35 percent with syphilis.

Since the monks, who were buried in the cloister walk of the Cistercian Abbey at Øm, did not have these diseases but contained mercury in their bones, scientists believe the monks were either contaminated while preparing and administering medicines, or while writing the artistic letters of incunabula, or pre-1500 A.D. books.

Kaare Lund Rasmussen, a University of Southern Denmark scientist at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, suspects that ink used in the abbey's scriptorium was the culprit.

He told Discovery News "it is very human to lick the brush, if one wants to make a fine line."

Even today "one should really not touch, or much less rub, the parchment pages of an incunabulum," Lund Rasmussen said, adding that mercury "was used in the first place because cinnabar (a type of mercury) has this bright red, beautiful color."

It is also known that metallic liquid mercury was given in vapor form to diseased patients. So if the monks "were just a little careless, they would be exposed this way, however, they might also be exposed during the preparation of the medicine."

For the study, Lund Rasmussen and his team drilled bone samples from the buried individuals, some of which were also friars buried in the cloister walk of the Franciscan Friary in Svendborg. Unlike the Øm monks, the friars showed no signs of mercury poisoning.

FYI--the flourescent bulbs everyone is cheering about in america are full of the same mercury

viva millet!!

Yesterday I went to the met and viewed some Millet paintings I had not seen before! This painting stopped me in my tracks---He was a true master and another artist I hear very few people speak about anymore. This painting is a true masterpiece (bad photo) In fact, this is one of the great works of all time!


Mystery 10

color 10

Mood 10


skill 9.5


drawing 9

I was standing next to a person mumbling about the artists Gerome and his "genius" and I knew they were blind to the genius of what was in front of them.

Gardega on Painting

Most artists are not writers nor are they philosophers but rather they are “noodlers” pencil and brush “pushers” whose work is severely limited by their lack of learning in the areas of literature, philosophy and humanity. Leonardo lived a life of shame because his name was not “high born” as was his rival's Michelangelo. Michelangelo need only to look back in his rear view mirror a few miles to see a line of princes and dignitaries who shared the Buonarroti name. Leonardo was a bastard child whose “low born” name simply meant “from the town of Vinci.” Leonardo spent a lifetime trying to learn and better himself to fill up the hole left by this “embarrassment.” The point that alex will make here is that to be a great artist you do not need to be “high born” nor “low born” but rather hungry-born to learn all you can about the humanities and science and the world around you. Modern society and her artist spawn have been dumbed down by modern life and media to the point that they have lost site of what an artist could (or should) be-- that is a man of learning and letters with more than a passing understanding of science and literature and architecture. One need only walk around the “modern galleries” of our cities and see the art of emptiness and nihilistic nothingness that is scarcely better than the well painted white walls on which they hang. They are well meaning but they are empty and can therefore only produce works of “emptiness” I often speak to other artists and inquire as to who were the great painters of the past and they will inevitably dribble off name after name of some second rate hacks who followed one or another system and they will use words like “buttery paint” and “wonderfully reckless” and so on, ad nauseam…I will then ask them further questions regarding their understanding of geometry and literature and science and I will find I am standing before a befuddled fool with no such understand save a methodology they learned years ago by another buffoon. I often try to throw a lifeline to such lost souls as throwing pearls before them results in only the snorting and chortling of a mud covered barn swine. I say to the, dear reader, that without an understanding of literature and the classics and science our art will remain in a sewer and the unlearned will continue to slop their slop onto the trays of our “assembly line minds” and that a revolution of learning is needed, a renaissance of art and thought so we can return to the lofty plains of great art and taste we once knew…If you are not a learned person, a thirsty scholar of the humanities you are like a race car driver in a 1974 Pinto--- Your intentions are good but you are in the wrong lane.

barter project

I will update my barter project!

update

I am 90% finished with my "Eyes of Texas"painting--- will upload photograph tomorrow. My 90' glass wall has been delayed a week (not my fault.) It looks like I have some NYC press coming up soon which is always welcome. there is still time to bid on my Mcsorleys painting in my Ebay store.

farm rescue

http://www.farmrescue.org/

a good cause.

george carlin---rip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyxuVFzKypU&feature=related

Dali at MOMA

http://www.nysun.com/arts/salvador-dalis-super-reality/80734/

what I am reading

I bought this book yesterday and finished it. It is hilarious and a must -read for those who still actually open these musty things called books. Most artists cannot write, in fact, most artists do little aside from sit in cafe's and talk and smoke. as dumb as most artists are they are generally smart enough to hide what they are not good at so they work on a single skill until the become passable and if they are lucky perhaps they can coax a golden egg from the goose of their labor. I have met very few artists who know how to swim in the sea of words. Dali was a masterful writer and he had a great wit about him. I find his humor at its best as he pokes fun at other artists...e.g calling Matisse a painter of seaweed etc etc. Dali was a polymath in the first degree and his mind is worth dissecting because he had some very valid insights into the con-game that is modern art.

radiolaria

Projects rundown

Here is what I am working on currently and will update as I have images:


1) a 90 foot glass wall of carved birch trees (for a hotel.)

2) a mirror of carved orchids for veniero's pastries.

3) a carved art deco skylight for a private party space in NYC.

4) an illustration of an angel for realms of Fantasy magazine.

5)my ongoing "barter project"

6) a painting --eyes of texas (in progress)

more on Radiolaria and the Platonic Solids

The tetrahedron, cube, and octahedron all occur naturally in crystal structures. These by no means exhaust the numbers of possible forms of crystals. However, neither the regular icosahedron nor the regular dodecahedron are amongst them. One of the forms, called the pyritohedron (named for the group of minerals of which it is typical) has twelve pentagonal faces, arranged in the same pattern as the faces of the regular dodecahedron. The faces of the pyritohedron are, however, not regular, so the pyritohedron is also not regular.

Circogonia icosahedra, a species of Radiolaria, shaped like a regular icosahedron.

In the early 20th century, Ernst Haeckel described (Haeckel, 1904) a number of species of Radiolaria, some of whose skeletons are shaped like various regular polyhedra. Examples include Circoporus octahedrus, Circogonia icosahedra, Lithocubus geometricus and Circorrhegma dodecahedra. The shapes of these creatures should be obvious from their names.

Many viruses, such as the herpes virus, have the shape of a regular icosahedron. Viral structures are built of repeated identical protein subunits and the icosahedron is the easiest shape to assemble using these subunits. A regular polyhedron is used because it can be built from a single basic unit protein used over and over again; this saves space in the viral genome.

In meteorology and climatology, global numerical models of atmospheric flow are of increasing interest which employ grids that are based on an icosahedron (refined by triangulation) instead of the more commonly used longitude/latitude grid. This has the advantage of evenly distributed spatial resolution without singularities (i.e. the poles) at the expense of somewhat greater numerical difficulty.

Viva gardega (and plato)

This morning I got up at my usual 4AM and went onto the internet and started my usual research into art and science. It is rare that I get as excited as I did today when I came upon a great revelation of glass shattering importance. I have always (as you may Know) been fascinated by the platonic solids and by the works of Plato and especially his inquiry into platonic solids of which I do not need to explain here except to say that they are pictured above and the top right solid is the icosahedron. Scientists are just now coming to the conclusion of something I suspected for a long time is that the atoms of glass are actually "stacked" in icosahedron shapes--- that means never really fit together very well. I learned about this by my inquiry into Radilolaria (of which I have carved many a Radiolaria in glass) in order to better understand their structure-see above glass carving from 1999...and so it goes..I hope I explained this sufficiently--read on

glass--liquid or solid?

Being an artist who has spent twenty years exploring the possibilities of glass as an art form and one who knows the importance of such great artists as Tifanny and Lalique I have always been fascinated by the properties of this wonderfully fragile substance. I have always known that glass is actually a "slow liquid" and that in time windows actually "seep down" and get thicker at the bottom as in old homes and churches. Glass is like not unlike the artist Jackson Pollock in that no matter how hard he tried he could never draw or paint very well and by this I mean glass no matter how hard it tries it can never become a true solid. If you are an artist you must "know thyself" (in a socratic sense) and if you are neither fish nor fowl you will never rise to the challenge of making good art that will last longer than a frog on the jersey turnpike. Here is some more fascinating news regarding a groundbreaking discovery in the study of glass and what it can mean for the future of art and non-art.

Icosahedron jams

Some materials crystallize as they cool, arranging their atoms into a highly regular pattern called a lattice, Royall said, but although glass "wants" to be a crystal, as it cools the atoms become jammed in a nearly random arrangement, preventing it from forming a regular lattice.

In the 1950s, Sir Charles Frank in the Physics Department at Bristol suggested that the arrangement of the "jam" should form what is known as an icosahedron, but at the time he was unable to prove it.

An icosahedron is like a 3-D pentagon, and just as you cannot tile a floor with pentagons, you cannot fill 3-D space with icosahedrons, Royall explained. That is, you can't make a lattice out of pentagons.

When it comes to glass, Frank thought, there is a competition between crystal formation and pentagons that prevents the construction of a crystal.

If you cool a liquid down and it makes a lot of pentagons and the pentagons survive, the crystal cannot form.

It turns out that Frank was right, Royall said, and his team proved this experimentally.

You can't watch what happens to atoms as they cool because they are too small, so Royall and his colleagues used special particles called colloids that mimic atoms, but are large enough to be visible using state-of-the-art microscopy.

The team cooled some down and watched what happened.

What they found was that the gel these particles formed also "wants" to be a crystal, but it fails to become one due to the formation of icosahedra-like structures — exactly as Frank had predicted.

"It is the formation of these structures that underlie jammed materials and explains why a glass is a glass and not a liquid — or a solid," Royall said.

The findings are detailed in the June 22 issue of the journal Nature Materials. The research was supported in part by a grant from Britain's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as well as the Royal Society.

mcsorleys painting

Ebay bidding is underway for my Mcsorleys painting. I am starting my glass wall project today and tomorrow and will update as I go. Feel free to support my oil paint addiction and bid on this work. you can go to link in my ebay store on the right.

all the besto

Alexandero

photo of the day

My friend Rebbecca took this photo from her apt. in NPT long island. There was a big storm and/ or tornado that tore through and did some damage. As a child in Texas I saw a lot of tornadoes and these clouds have that same ominous color and feel that would swell up before a twister touched down. I think I will paint an oil from this photo soon. This reminds me of work of the painter Courbet.

Mcsorleys painting on Ebay

My Mcsorleys piece is all done (minus some minor tweaks and a varnish) I thought of giving it to Mcsorleys so I could join the ranks of artists on the walls there but I have decided to sell it instead. I had to scan it on a flat bed instead of a photograph so it is not captured at its best but it is a nice piece and I am happy with her. I will do some small detailing on the foreground figure before it ships. At Mcsorleys there is no liquor, only two beers---light and dark and they give you two glasses of each when you order. This confuses the Japanese tourists to no end...

buy it here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290240825025&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

mcsorleys update

My oil of Mcsorleys is almost finished. I consider this piece more of a oil sketch or study of a place in time. I would like to work out a larger version soon. The trick is to try to keep some lifge in your piece and not to lose the spark that interested you in the first place.

moon illusion

Many people think that the moon is actually larger or closer just as it just "breaks the horizon." Or that it is larger when it is closest to the horizon ---- Being a science buff and man without a TV I am able to spend time figuring things out that do not really matter. The moon is not larger as it breaks the horizon this is an illusion. For further inquiry click on the link below...

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/16jun_moonillusion.htm?list65200

the ghost of renoir

A collector of mine sent me her latest framed gardega. I really like her framer's eye. Framing is half the battle.

mcsorleys update

My Mcsorleys painting is almost done. Will photograph tomorrow and put up for sale (or trade.) I like the tradition associated with the art of bar and restaurant paintings...there were artist like lautrec and van gogh who painted many a restaurant/ bar scene...the thing about trading art is that you have all kinds of exciting offers and cash is always the same thing.

mcsorleys update

My goal is to finish mcsorleys painting on sunday and put her up for sale. I have had inquiries on her so I may put her up for bid or let people email me offers. Not the easiest painting I ever painted--I generally paint landscapes and dreamscapes and the like...

mcsorleys update

Here is my work in progress--taking shape but still needs a lot of work...

update

starting to shape up but still has issues to resolve...

mcsorleys study

Here is my "roughing in" phase of my mcsorleys study...very early in the progress

Lexi has shipped

I painted this in 2000 and recently sold it. It is a portrait of my ex from many moons ago. It is strange to let go of a piece of art you have grown to like and have grown used to having around. Onward and upward and the past is just a minor star...I have learned in art and life it is best to turn your collar to the cold- damp past and keep your eyes focused on the now.

glass wall

The starting day for my 60 foot glass-forest wall etching has been delayed until monday so I have a little time to muck around and finish some side projects. I lost my camera so I got delayed in photographing my Mcsorleys piece, will photograph that this weekend.

pi

I had a friend who tried to tell me crop circles are just a hoax and a bunch of people with sticks sneaking into fields at night. I decided not to argue pearls before swine but this image was not made by people with sticks.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368422,00.html

europa

Here is another glass portrait of Europa. This is 3 foot by four foot. carved glass

glass demon

carved glass demon.

Europa

Here is a glass carving I made that was purchased by a nightclub. This piece is about four foot high and about 3 foot wide. It is illuminated (not shown) with a color changing LED edge light...Framing it and lighting it correctly was a nightmare and took weeks.

glass stamps

Here is a glass etching I made a while back for a stamp society..very hard etching because they were very small. I am happy with the final product.

interesting 911 video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIC0Kl4TKoU&feature=related

I have had some serious press inquiries into my latest project..I have some meetings downtown and then I will load up my new Mcsorley's painting tonight..promiso

update

Today I will start my initial layouts etc. for my "glass wall" installation but I will also be working on my Barter Project. It is not a requisite to have ADD as an artist but it helps.

I received this email today...

Hey Alex:

I was down in Amish country a number of years ago. On the Friday night we arrived, shortly down the road from where we were staying, we watched a huge barn burn to the ground. On my daily runs, starting on Sunday morning a proceeding through the following Friday, I watched as what seemed to be the entire male community descend like ants in and around the ashes. Before the week was up, through a massive communal effort, a bigger and more beautiful barn was erected before my eyes . There must have been 100 - 150 men young and old working day and night. This must have been 30 years ago and the sight sticks with me still. I thought it was truly an amazing display of humans working together.

quote of the day----kant

Immanuel Kant - "To be is to do."

The Palm

I am trading The Palm Steakhouse a drawing on the wall for a dinner. Barter project is growing its own legs. Photograph soon.

female warrior---for sale on ebay

this is now for sale on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290238799697

Monday begins the start of the "great birch wall" I am etching a sixty foot birch wall for a hotel and I am excited to make a piece I will be proud of. I always get antsy before I start big jobs. This weekend I will continue my barter-art experiment and lay low with my pencils and brushes.

camera

I decided to leave my camera in a cab today. I was thinking that a good ole NYC cab driver my just need a good digicam when he is not driving around..buy a new one this week.

quote of the day---EB white

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than a whole one.
E. B. White

dessert

Veniero's famous pastry shop offered me 1,000 dollars worth of pastries to etch and replace an old mirror for them. I have many a birthday cake covered for the next year or so. I used to live by them when I was too poor an artist to afford to eat. I am very happy about this trade.

lunch

Today I traded a Gardega original watercolor original for a lunch at a restaurant called Finnegan's Wake on the upper East side. Lunch was Great and an owner of another place called Murphy's Law was there and he offered me a dinner for art. I let him pick his watercolor because he was a class act.

question

How does barter and trade affect the value of art or the perceived value of art or the integrity of the artist. etc questions...Is art for ivory tower elite art galleries to be perused by the rich and bored or is art for the street and the masses?

cape cod

I was just offered a free stay in a cape cod house for an oil painting. Never been there...

The Palm

I am trading The Palm Steakhouse a drawing on the wall for a dinner. Barter project is growing its own legs. Photograph soon.

barter

Lately I have been thinking about the value of art. Art is worth what people pay for it. Is a Picasso worth 60 million? Perception is what matters. Really is manifested through perception and it is through agreement that we come to think that a Picasso, or any art is worth a lot of money. Today I treaded a watercolor for a $44 flashlight. I didn't need the flashlight but I was curious about what value a piece of paper with a picture I made has for people. I intend to shine a light on the idea of the value of art and the relationship to perception vs. reality.

amish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

The Amish

I have been thinking about how great it is that the Amish use barter as much and often more than cash and that they are not a people consumed with greed and material things like myself. My rusty old cogs started turning yesterday and I was wondering what it would be like to exist by trading art work instead of selling artwork for a living. I am planning a trip to Amish country soon because I have never been. I think the crazier the world gets the more appealing a simpler life gets.

the dimming of the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK2N3S0lr4c

as good as music gets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPFZSuVydrk&feature=related

this song will cheer up any sad old soul (unless you have no soul...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5dEDIKOoQY

words of the day

Proud swagger out of the schoolyard
Waiting for the worlds applause
Rebel without a conscience
Martyr without a cause

Static on your frequency
Electrical storm in your veins
Raging at unreachable glory
Straining at invisible chains

And now youre trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Cant face life on a razors edge
Nothings what you thought it would be

All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razors edge
Dont turn your back
And slam the door on me

Its not as if this barricade
Blocks the only road
Its not as if youre all alone
In wanting to explode

Someone set a bad example
Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight

And now youre trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razors edge
Nothings what you thought it would be

No hero in your tragedy
No daring in your escape
No salutes for your surrender
Nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?

artist of the day----p.g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etOLUz7OUF8

sun spots

I got an email from a friend in seattle..she said it has been so cold there that her tomato plants wont grow. I have done some research and it seems to me that sunspots have a large connection to global cooling or warming. I think nature is not so easily tweaked by mankind and that we are not quite as important or impactful (word?) as we think.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004470662_webweather11m.html

Over the past few years, a chorus of propaganda intended to demonize the Internet and further lead it down a path of strict control has spewed forth from numerous establishment organs:

• Time magazine reported last year that researchers funded by the federal government want to shut down the internet and start over, citing the fact that at the moment there are loopholes in the system whereby users cannot be tracked and traced all the time.
The projects echo moves we have previously reported on to clamp down on internet neutrality and even to designate a new form of the internet known as Internet 2.


• In a display of bi-partisanship, there have recently been calls for all out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans alike.
  
  
• The White House's own recently de-classified strategy for "winning the war on terror" targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to "diminish" their influence.
  
  
• The Pentagon recently announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and propagandize for the war on terror.
  
  
• In a speech last October, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a "terror training camp," through which "disaffected people living in the United States" are developing "radical ideologies and potentially violent skills." His solution is "intelligence fusion centers," staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will go into operation next year.
  
  
• The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance.
  
  
• A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web - and their argument is supported by the U.S. government.
  
  
• A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.
  
  
• The European Union, led by former Stalinist and potential future British Prime Minister John Reid, has also vowed to shut down "terrorists" who use the Internet to spread propaganda.
  
  
• The EU data retention bill, passed last year after much controversy and with implementation tabled for late 2007, obliges telephone operators and internet service providers to store information on who called who and who emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the US, can access EU citizens' data on phone calls, SMS messages, emails and instant messaging services.
  
  
• The EU also recently proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a license.
  
  
• The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine. "At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites."

plans to kill the interent

corporate interest's are gathering together to kill and change the internet as soon as 2010. I suggest this is a historical moment and it must be prevented, if we lose the internet as we know it we lose the battle for free information. Turn off your Tv's and research this issue before the net is a corporate controlled nightmare and you will have to pay to visit sites suchs as blogs etc.

ISP's have resolved to restrict the Internet to a TV-like subscription model where users will be forced to pay to visit selected corporate websites by 2012, while others will be blocked, according to a leaked report. Despite some people dismissing the story as a hoax, the wider plan to kill the traditional Internet and replace it with a regulated and controlled Internet 2 is manifestly provable.

"Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP's all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These 'other' sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet," warns a report that has spread like wildfire across the web over the last few days.

The article, which is accompanied by a You Tube clip, states that Time Magazine writer "Dylan Pattyn" has confirmed the information and is about to release a story - and that the move to effectively shut down the web could come as soon as 2010.

artist of the day---Heinrich Kley

(born April 15, 1863 in Karlsruhe, died 1945)^[1] in Munich was a German caricaturist, editorial cartoonist and painter.

"Jugend" 1932 Nr. 5, drawing by Heinrich Kley

Kley studied "practical arts" at the Karlsruhe Akademie and finished his studies in Munich. His early works were conventional portraits, landscapes, still lifes, city scenes and historical paintings. From about 1892 he won a reputation as an "industry artist", painting manufacturing scenes in oils and watercolors. They proved his deep understanding of the modern machine world. Kley attained greater notoriety with his sometimes darkly humorous pen drawings, published in Jugend and the notorious Simplicissimus.

The date of Kley's death is uncertain. Rumors initially suggested his demise in the early 1940's. It is also suggested that Kley died on August 2, 1945. Some sources mention the time of death on February 8, 1952.

Cartoonist Joe Grant was well aware of Kley's work and introduced his drawings to Walt Disney, who built an extensive private collection. A number of early Disney productions, notably Fantasia, reveal Kley's inspiration.

Due to Disney's interest and reprints by Dover Publications, Kley is still known in the USA, while he is nowadays little regarded in Germany.

today I have a meeting with production designer on my glass forest wall. The wall is 60 foot long or rather 3 sections of twenty feet etched to look like a birch forest. I am going to start the job as soon as today or tomorrow and I will document the entire process on here right up to final installation on July 15th. The wall separates a hotel from a restaurant. The main question is how many trees a panel and how dense is this forest. the forest through the trees etc and so on..after I finish this project I am going to hit the easel again and paint landscapes for the rest of summer.

the passion of van gogh

Today I was thinking about about Van Gogh...Is there anyone not moved by his work?! I think humans have empathy for those of us who are boiling with passion so much you can barley keep the lid on and half the people you meet think you are cracked. You are guaranteed to anger a lot of people and to alienate others but in the end it is worth it. Artist are no different than anyone else but rather they are just more mono-focused on things most people dont pay attention to. It is better to live five years alive and on fire and misunderstood than to live sixty years in a cocoon --- then again the lumps hurt worse when you grow older.



It's cold comfort
To the ones without it
To know how they struggled --
How they suffered about it

If their lives were
Exotic and strange
They would likely have
Gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane

We each pay a fabulous price
For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision
Is a dream with a mission...

N.peart

hmm

I have been caught up in back and forth pricing and negotiating on a job. More tiring than actually doing the work. Back on the horse of art soon, Sometimes I think the horse of art is really a circus horse-- trained to run in small circles.

joke of the day

A man was walking past an elementary school and all the children were shouting, "13! 13! 13!" The fence was too high to see over, but the man saw a gap in the planks and looked through to see what was going on. A child poked the man in the eye with a stick and the children all started shouting and cheering, "14! 14! 14!"


counseling has one L....

kayak photo

I went kayaking in Northport Long Island today. I took some photos: here is a photo of an old boat engine on a floating dock. I like this as a possible painting subject but It would have to be a photo realist piece and be f0ur foot square otherwise there is no point in painting it--unless you made it smaller and then it would have less impact...I have a million ideas and never enough time. I think this photo gives a sense that it is almost 100 degrees outside. it has occurred to me that this things has a wheel on it which was probably used for moving it or it is in fact not a marine vessel at all. Any mechanics out there know what she is?

think

http://www.denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm

think once, think twice, think three times---then act

pigeons,sculpture, god and man

I walked through central park today and made some observations about art and life. One thing I noticed is the affinity that pigeons have for sculpture. Alex watched as they hovered around bronze figures like Bowery drunks around a bottle. One may question why do they not prefer painting which is a higher art than sculpture? Maybe God looked down and saw man's sculpture and said that he can make them better by adding his little grey, flying, final touches. If a true genius artist wished to "one up" god, he could start by adding bronze or marble pigeons to his sculpture, thus beating god to the punch, so to speak, and so on...

glass forest

It looks like my sample was approved to etch a sixty foot wall to resemble a birch forest. This is one of my larger installations. I look forward to the challenge. I used to get a bit if fear before such a large job but after 20 years in the game of glass I can pretty much visualize the whole thing in my head without all the technical worries I used to get when I was young. My client is a famous nyc nightlife/ club owner/ designer. I will document the whole process--I promise... it should take one and a half months to complete

framed

One of my biggest collectors lives in Colorado----she is a famous attorney. Never believe what they say about attorneys---she is an angel. I hope she is a better attorney than photographer. I am not sure how many pieces she owns but she owns some major glass pieces and many paintings...She has a great framer and that makes me happy.

update

long day--- 4AM to 5pm....finished my sample but I was too pressed for time to photograph it. hopefully it cuts the mustard and I get the commission. Load some art after a nap.

glass trees

I will be making glass tree samples all day...photograph when done...

wild turkey in central park

I often walk though central park to the art store on 57th street. Today I brought my camera and got lucky. Can you see the creature at the top of the waterfall?

study for glass wall

Here is a study I am working on of a etched glass wall that is going to be 60 foot long by 8 foot high (three walls of twenty) It is going to be a stylized birch forest and it should be an interesting challenge.

organ

I can imagine there are some interesting sounds that come out of these pipes.

glass art---by gardega

I made this piece a few years ago for a hedge fund in NYC. It is an etching of a mountain in South Africa called The Sentinel. It is very hard to etch landscapes in glass because you do not have color as an option, only white and and black (etched or non-etched) It was very difficult to get installed and is still not lit correctly.....such is life..some jobs leave me feeling less than 100%. this job needs to be lit correctly to breath life into the glass.

photo of the day---by gardega

new york city--land of characters

stained glass

Here is another window from St. Michaels many of the windows are Tiffany and this one is most likely I cant remember which ones were which but this is an amazing piece of art--There is nothing in the MOMA that even comes close to this piece of art.

Tiffany Mural

Here is a mural in St. Michaels church done by Louis comfort Tiffany. It is a glass mosaic and the picture doesn't do it justice. This mural has got to be insured for an incredible amount of money as it is one of the largest Tiffany murals still in existence. I am doing a few glass panels with mostly text and one image for the church but I will be in good company.

update

I was in the most amazing church yesterday. It was designed largely by Tiffany and the stained glass and murals were out of this world. I took photos and will upload tonight.

photo of the day

found this on the vast sea of the net...

church commision

I have a meeting today with a church in NYC. we are discussing working together (like the pope and Michelangelo...)

mural card

I make a lot of mailer cards and promo material. Here one I am thinking about making soon...

quote of the day

language holds all the memories of the human race----anonymous

sacred crab---by gardega

here is a study I made today for a glass carving. I like the image and may even sell prints of it.

update

I have just bid on two jobs, both are glass commissions. On is to create a faux forest in glass for a restaurant hotel. The other is a church commission for a NYC church. I like church commissions as they remind me of the renaissance. It would be nice to land both jobs as I would be busy for many months.