the echoes of old applause

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

Ten Dollar Art

I am going through my piles of art--looking for worthy sketches. I am re-launching www.tendollarart.com so I can pay for my 12 women show. I will need a lot of money for models, costume designers and photographers. If you like my sketches please feel free to purchase. The journey of a thousand drawings....I am making this show happen if I have to sell a kidney and goddammit I will sell a kidney if it is needed to make my show. There is no try, only do. This is going to be a long hard year and a good year. The above drawing is for sale it is $10. and it is the best example of stress I have ever seen (reminds me of my life)..look at the toes interlocked in agony! This is from a sculpture at the met I am obsessed with. I drew it on location.

cygnus:the god of balance

I am Cygnus: the god of art balance.


gardega

damn good words!

I. Prelude

When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients first began.
The gods of Love and Reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of Man.

They battled through the ages,
But still neither force would yield.
The people were divided,
Every soul a battlefield.

II. Apollo/Dionysus

Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom
"I bring truth and understanding,
I bring wit and wisdom fair,
Precious gifts beyond compare.
We can build a world of wonder,
I can make you all aware.
I will find you food and shelter,
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storm.
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform."

The people were delighted
Coming forth to claim their prize
They ran to build their cities
And converse among the wise.
But one day the streets fell silent,
Yet they knew not what was wrong.
The urge to build these fine things
Seemed not to be so strong.
The wise men were consulted,
And the Bridge of Death was crossed
In quest of Dionysus
To find out what they had lost.

Dionysus: Bringer of Love
"I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night,
In the Heart's eternal light.
You need only trust your feelings;
Only love can steer you right.
I bring laughter, I bring music,
I bring joy and I bring tears.
I will soothe your primal fears.
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears."

The cities were abandoned,
And the forests echoed song.
They danced and lived as brothers;
They knew love could not be wrong.
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars.
The people were contented
And the gods watched from afar.
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared,
Bringing wolves and cold starvation,
And the hearts of men despaired.

III. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind

The universe divided
As the Heart and Mind collided,
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years.
In a cloud of doubts and fears,
Their world was torn asunder into hollow
Hemispheres.

Some fought themselves, some fought each other,
Most just followed one another
Lost and aimless like their brothers
For their hearts were so unclear
And the truth could not appear
Their spirits were divided into blinded
Hemispheres.

Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light.
"My Rocinante sailed by night
On her final flight."
To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force
We set our course
Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place.

IV. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance

I have memory and awareness,
But I have no shape or form.
As a disembodied spirit,
I am dead and yet unborn.
I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old,
To the city of Immortals,
Marble white and purest gold...

I see the gods in battle rage on high...
Thunderbolts across the sky...
I cannot move, I cannot hide...
I feel a silent scream begin inside...

Then all at once the chaos ceased
A stillness fell, a sudden peace
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified.

Apollo was atonished;
Dionysus thought me mad.
But they heard my story further
And they wondered, and were sad.

Looking down from Olympus
On a world of doubt and fear,
Its surface splintered
Into sorry Hemispheres.

They sat a while in silence,
Then they turned at last to me:
"We will call you Cygnus,
The god of Balance you shall be."

V.The Sphere: A Kind of Dream

We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim.
Let the Truth of Love be lighted,
Let the Love of Truth shine clear. Sensibility,
Armed with sense and liberty,
With the Heart and Mind united in a single
Perfect
Sphere.

the great mystery

the only thing in my life I would like to do is unlock the magic key of the old masters...alas, I am doomed to failure...one can never know but I can come closer than any living rodent.

words of the day

"turn around and walk the razors edge, dont turn your back and slam the door on me"---N.Peart

Bravado

I listen to this every sunday. It sets me in the right frame of mind before I hit the easel.

If we burn our wings
Flying too close to the sun
If the moment of glory
Is over before it`s begun
If the dream is won -
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost

When the dust has cleared
And victory denied
A summit too lofty
River a little too wide
If we keep our pride -
Though paradise is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost

And if the music stops
There`s only the sound of the rain
All the hope and glory
All the sacrifice in vain
If love remains
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost

time and a word

Time is a gypsy caravan
Steals away in the night
To leave you stranded in Dreamland
Distance is a long-range filter
Memory a flickering light
Left behind in the heartland

We travel in the dark of the new moon
A starry highway traced on the map of the sky
Like lovers and heroes, lonely as the eagle`s cry
We`re only at home when we`re on the fly
On the fly

-N. Peart


Sometimes I ask people if they had unlimited funds and money was not an issue what would they do with their lives. It amazes me that many people have no answer they mumble and say "well, I would maybe do a little of this and a little of that.. ummm urrr....and something...."I guess some people have no inner resources and nothing really burning inside of them to pursue. Sometimes having a burning ambition and desire can be a horrible curse..it is sometimes like having a flu you cant shake for years on end. I read about these hollywood kids who are well off and they throw their lives down the Los Angeles gutter like a drunk pouring booze down his throat. I guess some people are rudderless and have nothing to believe in or fight for and that is also a horrid thought. I knew a wealthy man who retired and fell apart in front of my eyes because he didnt know what to do with his time. I knew a guy growing up who would start obsessing on a new hobby every six months only to discard the last one like it never happened but he would always buy the best "stuff" for each hobby only to "ebay it" down the road for a loss. "Know thyself" read Socrates inscription over the entrance to the Acropolis! This is easier said than done for we are divided as humans. We are dualists with ourselves. The fact that you can think about yourself is proof that the human nature is divided. The Observer of all that you do in your day to day life that judges you and attacks you and sometimes destroys people is the Freudian Superego. The "voice in your head" can be your own worst enemy and can drive a man into a pine box. The buddhists and wise men have learned that meditation can silence the chattering voice and settle the mud in the puddle of your soul. The super ego can be slain like st. Georges dragon but for many too much time can turn on a man, it is like a wild animal, a chimp that will chew your face off and gouge out your eyes. That is why they put people in prison--you are facing the twin enemies of man--Time and Thyself. If I won lottery I would do exactly the same crap I do everday except I wouldnt do any commercial art I would paint the paintings I have been holding inside of me for most of my life but I am too busy surving to bleed them out of me. I would probably eat a little better and maybe take a vacation every four years. For some people winning the lottery is the express bus to hell and I have seen many a man chew off his own face because the voices and fears of life were too great and even wealth could not silence the demons. Keep a true path and follow the polestar of your childhood dreams and you will stay out of the gutter of doom. If your are aimless and lost then you are one step away from stepping off the curb. A great way to find whats inside you is a good walk in the woods and if you cant do that you can grab a brush and travel the dark woods of your soul. These woods are infinite, they are sad, they are golden.

alex on finance

I did my daily 6AM NY POST and Redbull this morning and a particular story caught my eye. A lady bought her apt in 1997 for $250. (not $250K but $250 dollars.) In 2003 she and her husband took out an equity loan for 150k to start a restaurant. Things fell apart and she had a bad adjustable rate loan and now she is losing the apt. How do you go from owning an apt you bought for 250 dollars to losing it? Why do you need a loan if your rent/mortgage is 0?????! If I had no rent (the scourge of my creative life and fly in my cerebral ointment) I would have so much damn money and I would be rich because I would paint paintings that are worth a fortune instead of painting smaller ones that I can sell short term to survive. I would be able to swing for the fences instead of hitting ground balls to "pay my nut." If you own an apt you bought for 250 dollars and you go underwater and lose it then I have two words for you--- Dar-Win. If you own your damn place then you shouldnt need a loan to start a restaurant--you shouldnt even start a restaurant, it is a horrible idea and 90% fail in first year. You should have bought gold every month and now you would be rich. You cant fix stupid.

I blame flouride.

hmmm

I am Mr. Andrew Mensah, the Director of Payment in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Ghana,and my office monitors and controls foreign contract
payments. I am the final signatory to any transfer or remittance of huge
funds moving within banks both on the local and international levels in
line to foreign contracts settlement.
I have before me list of funds, which could not be transferred to some
nominated accounts as these accounts have been identified either as ghost
accounts, unclaimed deposits and over-invoiced sum . I wish to include
your name among the people expecting these funds to be transferred into
their accounts. On this note, I wish to have a deal with you as regards to
this unpaid funds. I have all the files before me and hope to fix your
data correctly once i hear from you, as one of the beneficiaries.
My conditions are as follows: First and foremost That I will send a
reasonable sum out of the list of funds before me to you. After you have
confirmed the transfer of the total sum into your account by telegraphic
Transfer, I will fly to your country to meet with you for the sharing
which we shall discuss when I hear from you. Secondly, This deal must be
kept secret, and all correspondences will be strictly by email and
telephone, for security purposes. You must assure me of your full
commitment and attention to enable us conclude this transaction in a
couple of days. Lastly That There should be no third parties as most
problems associated with most businesses are caused by agents or
representatives. If you AGREE with my conditions, l will advise you on
what to do immediately and the transfer will commence without delay as I
will proceed to fix your name on the Payment schedule instantly to meet a
three days mandate. Please reply to my email below.
Email: andrewmensah120@yahoo.com.hk
Best Wishes
Andrew Mensah.

leonardo quote

" bathing objects in light is merging them with the infinite."

website

I am adding a blog to my website this week so people can follow my blog there as well. I will post on both blogs so this one will not go away. Have another blog will be like chicken soup for my ADD.

my blog will be here by friday.
www.gardega.com

12 women

I officially start my 12 women paintings next sunday. I have models and costume designers etc lined up. I am really into this project and I am shooting to make the best works of my career. I will sell my sketches and prints to fund the pieces but the pieces are for a show and I will not sell piecemeal. This is a big step into fear for me and that is fine. Live big or go home and hide.My women will be masterpieces at best, pet photography at worst.

busted

This is what happens when you steal a girls Iphone in front of me on the subway. Dont mess with Texas. The girl got her phone back, I hurt my thumb, they went to jail.

RIP J.D. Salinger

(this was artfully stolen from the internet)

J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author whose novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,’’ was one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, died at his Cornish, N.H. home. He was 91.

• 
  
• 
  

Mr. Salinger died of natural causes Wednesday, his son, Matt, said in a statement from Harold Ober Associates, Mr. Salinger’s literary agency.

“Despite having broken his hip in May,’’ agency officials stated, Mr. Salinger’s “health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year. He was not in any pain before or at the time of his death.’’

He left New York City more than a half-century ago, trading the urban literary life for rural Cornish. Neighbors and most who knew him in surrounding towns respected his privacy and usually refused to talk with reporters and photographers who came seeking the region’s most famous resident. Mr. Salinger, meanwhile, went about his quiet life undisturbed, chatting occasionally with those whose paths he crossed regularly.

In area bookstores, some of which made it a point to keep his works on display, those who knew him by sight would see him pass by in the aisles.

“Catcher in the Rye’’ is estimated to have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide since being published in 1951. It continues to sell about 200,000 copies annually.

A staple of student reading lists, the novel boasts one of the most celebrated characters in post-World War II American fiction, its narrator, Holden Caulfield.

Holden is a latter-day Huckleberry Finn: slightly older, far more knowing, and considerably less resilient. At once cynical and sensitive, the 16-year-old has just been expelled from prep school and decides to spend a few days on his own in New York. Manhattan is the Mississippi on which he floats (Checker cabs are for Holden what a raft is for Huck) as he obsessively seeks to pierce the “phoniness’’ of adult society while trying to maintain his increasingly unsteady equilibrium.

A comparable spiritual yearning characterizes Mr. Salinger’s other best-known literary creation, the Glass family. Their brilliance and neuroses emblazon his other works, “Nine Stories’’ (1953), “Franny and Zooey’’ (1961), and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction’’ (1963).

The Glass family members who figure most prominently in the books are Holden’s rough contemporaries. In other Salinger works, such as the stories “For Esme With Love and Squalor’’ and “Teddy,’’ characters are even younger. Childhood and adolescence held a special fascination for Mr. Salinger, something noted by both admirers and detractors.

The (London) Observer newspaper wrote that Mr. Salinger “seems to understand children as no English-speaking writer has done since Lewis Carroll.’’ Yet Norman Mailer, fastening on the same attribute, derided Mr. Salinger as “the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school.’’


Alex Note: I read Catcher in the rye as a kid and it became my favorite book. His passing has inspired me to read his other works. He was a great mind and a crazy mind. Genius and crazy are often next door neighbors. They are Laurel and hardy, abbot and costello...

Natural History Museum Panels

I made these panels at The Natural History Museum. I haven't seen them since I made them in 2000. They were really heavy and I had no assistant so I carried them up and downstairs to my basement studio myself and prayed to god I didnt fall or die. They will long outlast me and that is fine. When I look at jobs I have done I most remember the stress and problems I faced. I am proud I made these , though. I love the NHM.

photo by Jacqueline!

etched glass NYC

I am still refining my glass website (and fixing the typos) here is the link as it stands.


www.bluelineglass.com

women tears a picasso

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/25/the-actor-picasso-paintin_n_435210.html

if you are going to ruin a picasso you should fall into one of his later crappy hacked out paintings not one of his early works. dingbat lady.

I will post new art soon. buried as usual. I have to paint the statue of liberty again. Then I start one of my 12 women for 2010.

The mystic, P. D. Ouspensky, wrote that:

"[in] real art nothing is accidental. It is mathematics. Everything in it can be calculated, everything can be known beforehand.

The artist knows and understands what he wants to convey and his work cannot produce one impression on one man and another impression on another, presuming, of course, [they are] people on one level.... At the same time the same work of art will produce different impressions on people of different levels. And people from lower levels will never receive from it what people of higher levels receive.

masking tape

I bought a roll of masking tape for 7 dollars from staples and it doesnt work. 7 dollars and it doesnt even stick. It is from 3M and made in canada. You think if you make tape you could do one thing right--MAKE IT F%$#@ING STICKY! Maybe someone was sick on GLUE DAY and they just gave me a roll of something that is better used for propping up a table leg or for using as confetti. Maybe canada is mad because they are canada and they are getting even. I am not happy and I want answers. Blame canada.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

-- Thomas Jefferson

thats what living is to me

That's What Living is to Me
By: Jimmy Buffett
1988
I would like to thank J.D. Souther for the book, Harry Belafonte for the early inspiration and Mark Twain for taking the trip long ago.
-- Spoken:
"Back toward the turn of the century, you know, Mark Twain took a trip around the world on a steamship and he wrote a book called 'Following the Equator'. And the opening page has a dedication that says, 'Be good, and you will be lonesome,' which for me, still seems to work in the fabulous eighties."

Jason Mason hears the sound
The whistle blows in Congo town
And the mail boat's in, mail boat's in
Brings him things from oh so far
Old magazines and Snicker bars
A simple man, a simple plan
The world's too big to understand

Chorus:
Be good and you will be lonesome
Be lonesome and you will be free
Live a lie and you will live to regret it
That's what livin' is to me
That's what livin' is to me

On a timeless beach in Hispaniola
Young girl sips a diet cola
She's worlds apart, worlds apart
Spirit of the black king still
Reverberates through Haitian hills
He rules the sea and all the fish
What if he had a TV dish?

Chorus:
Be good and you will be lonesome
Be lonesome and you will be free
Live a lie and you will live to regret it
That's what livin' is to me
That's what livin' is to me

Now in the far off regions the foreign legion
Keep the thieves and the predators at bay
While closer to home some bad boys still roam
The streets aren't safe so give it one more day
One more day
One more day

Stories from my favorite books
Still take on many different looks
And I'm gone again, home again
The time has come the walrus said
And little oysters hide their head
My Twain of thought is loosely bound
I guess it's time to Mark this down

My nephew is starting to paint..my sister asked me for advice.

Here is my advice..Hide his brushes and paints and give a medical textbook. Art is hell and war. The thing with art is if you give up and do something you hate then you are more miserable than scrooge in a Christmas carol. There is no way out of the art maze. I dont know how to quit so that was never a choice. I cannot quit art anymore than a stupid person can stop being stupid.

what is this?

slideshow

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/01/21/eyepoppers-best-science-photos-week?slide=23

the springer collection

I have a collector and great friend in Colorado---she sends me nice photos of the final framed works...I love seeing the framed hanged pieces. I am still amazed and honored when people buy my work and when it makes them happy. It is like getting paid for going to therapy. (I thought you had to pay to go to therapy.) Art has kept me out of trouble my whole life (I majored in trouble in my 20's but it was youthful folly) Art has introduced me to a million great people and famous people and art has taken me places I would have never gone. Art is the hot sauce on the egg that is my life. I long ago accepted the bad side of art--the chaos, the odd hours, the lost loves (thanks to no monetary stability.) Once you accept these things the universe gives you a pass and works with you towards your dream---You need only crawl through five to ten years of psychic barbed wire to reach a clearing.

art of the day

Alex likes this..a cuban artist made it...If I was rich I would be one eccentric bugger (worse than I already am) I would like taking my neatly folded socks from this every morning.

robert hughs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUh_NSpiTsY&NR=1

Julian on 60 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sajnloTFvU&feature=related

10 years ago

Here is a photo of me that was taken along the way. (I cant believe this was ten years ago.) Ten years goes by in the blink of a lizards eye. It is hard to look at this photo---those were toughdays I was really poor and I lived in the unfinished basement of an art gallery with no windows, no shower and a lot of rats. I never had money for food but all the bartenders were my friends so I drank for free. This was the end of my bohemian period. Glad its over and I am glad I did it. Living like that is only for the young and the crazy. At least I saw the dark bottom of life and art and decided it was not a place to spend too much time.

Julian Schnabel autograph

Over lunch yesterday at the spotted pig I ran into the artist Julian Schnabel. It was funny because I had picked up some of my press clippings the same from where I had an art show so I had this page six clipping in my bag. I dont ask for autographs but I had met him a few times so it was no big deal. There person who bought my Julian Schnabel portrait would probably like this. Julian is a nice guy, a like his films better than his paintings. I had not been back to the pig in over a year so it was pretty random.


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

I was right

I have been right about a few things in my life because I studied them very carefully (but I did catch a lot of ridicule.)

I told my buddy in 1993 that 95% of illustration art will be done on the computer--he laughed at me--now he is a sci-fi computer illustrator.

I told another friend 7 years ago the dollar will be collapsed and the economy will fall and gold will be the best hedge--he laughed at me.


I told another friend that eventually there will be a one world currency and one world government and national sovereignty will be overridden by multi-national corporations who really run the govt. people are still laughing at me about this one but I am 100% right about this and I wish I wasnt.


I told everyone I knew since I was a child that I was an art genius and will be famous and this will prove true as well.

I told people 4 people I know growing up that they are marrying the wrong person and now they are divorced or so juiced up on antidepressants they are the walking dead.


I told myself that if you compromise your dream or true love in life then you will have schism, a crack up so severe that you will never truly recover from it ad you will live an aftershock lie that will last many many many long years.

I told my ex that the dems will lose Massachusetts to the Republicans ( I am neither) she told me no---americans want health care.

Never doubt yourself.

Maslows Pyramid

I read a book about this in high school. Everyone should be aware of Maslowes Pyramid.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.^[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.

Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."^[3] Maslow also studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population.^{[citation needed]}

goolge it and learn something new.

^{you must first take care of the basics---food, breathing, sleep etc...!}

the 7 habits

I read the book the 7 habits of effective people many times.

The main thrust/ point of the books is to prioritize the things you have to do. FIRST THINGS FIRST.

I think the mistake our prez/ gov made and is making is to not utilize this knowledge/ approach. Unless you are on the gov't dole as a lifelong employee there is a good chance you do not have a job now and that you are struggling to survive and feed your family. THIS should be the main focus of the Govt. and Nothing else. Nothing matters to a man as much as to be able to take care of his family. THIS is PRIORITY ONE.

After you address priority one you can then move on to other things. If you rescue a man from rubble you do not first give him food--- you give him water.


People spend most of their time in the wrong quadrant of of priorities. Painting is a similar thing. You must handle first things first or you will make a mess of your canvas.


This is simply my observation on reality, not a political point of view.

QUADRANT I crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects	QUADRANT II prevention, PC activities, relationship building, recognizing new opportunities, planning, recreation
	QUADRANT III interruptions, some calls, some mail, some reports, some meetings, popular activies	QUADRANT IV trivia, busy work, some mail, som phone calls time wasters, pleasant activites

Krap is taking over cadbury

This is very upsetting. Kraft is taking over my beloved cadbury. Kraft makes cheese whiz and plastic chocolate. Cadbury makes great chocolate. I will protest this in my own way in time--trust me on this...when I get angry....Kraft taking over cadbury is like The Monkees taking over The beatles..there is something wrong in the universe, the gods must be angry. I will let the brain of Gardega sleep onthis tonight and when I wake I will have an idea to protest this that will appear in the international media. The shoemakers of my subconscious do all the work while I, the lonely (artist/ cobbler) sleeps the Jungian sleep of genius creation.

note to self

It is easy to let politics drive you crazy. Politics dont bother me as much as the feeling that we have a nation of sheep going along to get along. Stressing out about others stupidity probably just drags you down to a lower level. If you cant change something then stressing about does no one any good. Idiocy has always been here and the earth has always been round. Be glad you are not a sheep and you can think. The problem with being a sheep is it is to easy to follow other sheep (or a leader) off a very steep cliff. Sometimes I feel a rant coming on and I take a deep breath. I am an artist not a political analyst, anyways. To each fool their own.

iching online

I have used this many times...only ask it serious questions,


dont waste your karma.

throw the coins virtually.


http://www.ichingonline.net/

the dali museum

http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/dream/03.html

dali musuem

watch them build it!

http://dalimuseum.hopto.org/home/homeJ.html

buckminster fuller

I am going to discuss buckminister fuller soon.

I have an agent

I have an agent now. Her name is mary and since I can barely hail a cab on my own she is helping me find my way through the "art maze" god bless mary..she is also a famous DJ. I am so unorganized I cant find my socks (once I put all my socks in the fridge) I was drunk and I never figured out why. But I am in good hands with mary.

great blog

http://chiefio.wordpress.com/gistemp/

happiness

Happiness is a carrot you will never reach. It is attached to a stick attached to your forehead. You are never going to be happy. The trick to life is to be alive and not hide in the shadows and to be bold and stick your neck out like life matters. We are only here for a limited time and you better get your running shoes on and wake the hell up. I have no idea what I am doing but I do it 110% and I do it at 98 miles per hour. When I die I will be all used up like a dead battery. I dont want to die with belly full of my best stuff still inside me. I want to die with fear bruised and cowered in the corner like a failed boxer. If you let fear control you you have lost the fight before you started you may fall on your face in front of god's population but it is far better to fail in front of a million people with your pants down than to face life with a dream you never went after that claws at you a crazed monkey on your back for all your live long days.

alex said that

leonardo learning

I am launching my website leonardo learning this year. It will be a resource for teaching everything I know about art. Much of it will be based on Leonardo and Dali and other such giants/ heroes. I am going to charge only 60 dollars a year to access it. The basic level will be free. It will contain much video content that I am going to have professionally shot. I started to get the bug for teaching two years ago and I am all about making this a year of stepping up to my goals.

ramble on

Mine's a tale that can't be told,
My freedom I hold dear;
How years ago in days of old
When magic filled the air,
T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her.

relationship advice--by gardega

Here is a view on relationship management on both a business and personal level.

bring more value to the table you get out of the relationship. I am guilty of being self focused and I am well aware of it. It is my survival mode. But self absorbed gets old (like dirty socks) and external focus is a good thing.

daily sunspot

someone should do a study of sunspots related to crime etc. The moon phases affect crime so why not sunspots. I think the sun is male (yang) and the moon is female (yin) In taoist philosophy the yin (female) force is dark and destructive and negative. The male is bright and positive--sorry ladies just reporting history and facts. I love women (even though they are all crazy)

creatively hungover

Some of my best ideas and creations have stemmed from violent hangovers. I am not sure why but they seem to give life some texture. Hangovers are like warm living rooms vs. the sterile cold reality of day to day life. Day to day life is like a dentists office. Artists put the paintings on the wall of the sterile reality called the dentists office. That is our role in life.

interesting fact

the current govt./ prez has spent more money than all the previous presidents combined (from george bush to george washington)

a global tax--really?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583127,00.html


I heard this on the news today. Not only is it unconstitutional it is downright insane. Paying our taxes to anything other than the federal govt. This is the first step towards world govt. The sheeple are slowly being acclimated towards a one world global govt. this is not crazy talk, it is crazy to ignore the signs.

this is a true hero

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ce3a018e-0126-11df-8c54-00144feabdc0.html

one month to live

I heard a news anchor ask this today.."what would you do if you had one month to live?"

Here is what I would do.

1) I would start my first night by going to the best sushi restaurant in NYC just to think about the next 30 days.

2) I would fly to spain and visit the prado and the dali museum then I would go to Florence.

3) I would then go to Paris and get drunk.

4) back in the states I would get a tattoo of johnny cash on my back.


5) I would try to run the length of a marathon-- 26 miles.

6) I would spend a full day in the met, a full day in the frick and a full day in the natural history museum.

7) I would then fly to "Nawlens" and eat at the best restaurant and drink hurricanes.

8) I am not even sure If I would paint or draw. I would probably write and take notes.

9) I would spend my final days with family and If I have a girlfriend I would get married.

10) then I would take the big "dirt nap" and die happy.

the last supper

I used to think my last supper painting was kind of hokey. The more I look at it the more I realize it is a good painting and a great idea. So the old me can go screw himself for not seeing it for what it is. There is a profound message in there that must be unveiled, a mental rubicks cube of sorts. She is now in a prestigious law firm in Colorado and I have yet to get a picture of it hanging!

good crazy vs. bad crazy

I long ago accepted that I am crazy. I realized I was crazy when I was young and any job I ever had they would nickname me the same name "crazy alex" Even if I tried to hide it and remain calm eventually I would be labeled crazy alex. The thing is I am good crazy--I am fun crazy, I like a good joke a good drink and I laugh at life no matter how bad it gets. Some people are bad crazy, they stab strangers with sharpened spoons etc. I dont like bad crazy people. I talk to myself and I scream VIVA GARDEGA when I am alone in my art studio (my neighbors look at me weird) I scrub my sink and kitchen every morning at 6 with ammonia,this is good crazy. Bad crazy is pushing people on the subway tracks. All hope depends on the good crazies.

"dont leave the duck there"

there is a lady whose husband talks in his sleep and she records it and made a blog about it. Here is a sample of what he says...it is pure genius

"dont leave the duck there, it is totally irresponsible, put it on the swing..."


http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/

hollyweird

I read stories all the time about Hollywood kids who are depressed and attempt (or succeed) at suicide. More often than not they are rich. This boggles the alex mind. The ONLY thing that ever makes me depressed is when I am broke and I cant afford more canvas. Nothing else make me sad ever. I guess I would like to be in love but for the most part I am never unhappy ever unless I cant afford art supplies. If I have enough money for food and artsupplies and bills I am so happy you cannot slap the smile off my face. I am not sure why people get so lost. They need a rudder, art is my rudder. be happy you dont live in haiti. This haiti thing makes me very sad so I am going to donate a piece of art and give the money to the red cross. god bless them.

google gardega

I am hungover as hell but I still woke up at 5:45 AM. My brain hurts, My liver hurts and my memory is a forgotten taco left behind a couch in some midwest frat house. There is art to make and miles to go so there is no sleeping in for alex. Need a red bull, will clean up my hellhole and then will hit the easel and studio. work is the key to good fortune, methinks. If you google my name five pictures of my Rachael Ray painting pop up. I guess that is my legacy. Not sure how google decides what to choose but she is an odd one.

gardega art show

I may have a one day art show in a hip lower east side gallery. The show is in protest of full body scans (aka big brother snooping) The show will include my MRI's I had made two years ago out of curiosity. the odds of this show happening stand at 75% it depends if I get press for it ahead then I will be forced to have it.

viva gardega

art saved my soul

I had the longest, hardest, coldest most difficult week I have had in three years and I cam home and I got this email from a collector. They framed this piece and it made me so happy I am going out to get drunk. VIVA art--viva frame, Viva the sacred buffalo! VIVA GARDEGA!

osama aged by FBI

The FBI aged Osama using advanced photoshop technique. If I worked for the FBI I would have made him look like the Easter bunny. I think there are a lot of correlations between the two.

quote of the day

"the government does not attract people who love liberty it attracts people who love power"---- my esteemed friend Judge Nap.

(He is the guy above to oreilly's right)

Monsanto's GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals

They have now discovered that the GMO corn made by Monsanto (AKA satan inc.) is causing organ failure in lab rats. The corn is also the reason why the bees are all dying because the pesticide they genetically built into the corn is so strong (this is my theory on the bee population decline.) If you mess with God's handiwork there is always a great price to be paid. (think Icarus.) Franken foods are more dangerous than any global warming hype as they will kill us much quicker but the big food companies and corps give way to many ad dollars to the big media for there to be much reporting on this. There is a reason everyone is sick or has cancer, our foods have lost their healing qualities. We have processed the life force out of our foods.


http://www.infowars.com/monsantos-gmo-corn-linked-to-organ-failure-study-reveals/

gold

I am not sure why so many people listened to the financial powers that be and the wall street preachers like jim cramer over the years.I hear so many stories about people losing their life savings to the stock market and people like madoff. I told everyone I know for last ten years to buy gold and silver. Most people just wrote me off and didnt listen to me. I had never really had the money to invest in much, I invested in art supplies. If I had money I wouldn't have lost it like a lot of people I know because I am not greedy nor am I stupid. I dont have much sympathy when people lose money to a guy like madoff because they got greedy and got what they deserved. I wouldn't have given that sketchy bastard a nickel and I actually made about 8k off him with my hot sauce. I would have bought a supply of gold and silver and I would be in better shape than I was 10 years ago. It seems to me that precious metals not only look really cool but they are real tangible assets you can hold, or hide or bury in your cellar--- not some piece of worthless paper printed by by a place that is neither Federal nor a reserve. Why are even the financially educated so easily suckered? I will never know. Thinking is like air--- it is free, it costs nothing.

12 Women

I have started a project for the new year called twelve women. I am painting 12 portraits for 2010. They are going to be my most carefully constructed works to date. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I may sell my sketches and studies to fund the program. There is always the big step into Fear when you start a huge new project but fear is an engine. I have a great costume designer I am working with and I am going to pay attention to every little detail of this entire process. I am going to do my best not to sell any pieces until all 12 are done so I can have a show of the entire group. The journey of 1,000 miles...I am going to need a lot of funding to handle this project so I will do whatever I have to do financially to pull it off. It would be nice to Have a year where all I had to do was paint but such is not the case. The true sign of an artist is one who is willing to do or suffer anything to get your vision done and there is nothing I wont do (short of crime) to complete my goals. I have already made a list of the 12 different themes of the paintings. I will not be doing a lot of smaller pieces or lost souls this year as I have to focus my time on 12 pieces.

up is down

Our peace prize winning prez wants a record war chest. Down is up, black is white, war is peace, ignorance is strength. We live in the age of unreason, a mad season.

sixth sense

Here is a great video of a dog sensing an earthquake before it happens. As crazy as it sounds I have had many premonitions of earthquakes before they happened in my life. I used to tell my friends and they would laugh at me but they stopped laughing after I was correct numerous times. I hva eno idea why I sense things sometimes but I often paint things/ events before they happen. Life is not stranger than you think, it is stranger than you can think. I once drew a bunch of pictures of a plane underwater the day before a TWA plane skidded off the runway and into the water..I have no explanation. Outside the visible spectrum there is a world that we do not see but it is there just as real as the day is long. as hard as life is you are not trapped in a country destroyed by an earthquake without clean water (well we dont have clean water) but I feel bad for Haiti.

"More than this, there is something out there." pg

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/watch-dog-senses-earthquake-before-it-happens

new work up soon

will post mural when done and I am painting the statue of liberty (again)

Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

the restless wind
has seen all things
in every kind of light
rising with the full moon
to go howling through the night

the sleepless wind
has heard all things
between the sea and sky
in the canyons of the city
you can hear the buildings cry

oh the wind can carry
all the voices of the sea
oh the wind can carry
all the echoes home to me

Run with wind and weather
To the music of the sea
All four winds together
Can't bring the world to me
Chase the wind around the world
I want to look at life --- In the available light

play of light
a photograph
the way I used to be
some half-forgotten stranger
doesn't mean that much to me

trick of light
moving picture
moments caught in flight
make the shadows darker
or the colors shine too bright

oh the light can carry
all the visions of the sea
oh the light can carry
all the images to me

Run to light from shadow
Sun gives me no rest
Promise offered in the east
Broken in the west
Chase the sun around the world
I want to look at life --- In the available light

All four winds together
Can't bring the world to me
Shadows hide the play of light
So much I want to see
Chase the light around the world
I want to look at life --- In the available light

I'll go with the wind
I'll stand in the light

typos

I am the king of typos..I dont care. I provide interesting art info. at a fair cost. (that would be free) I use typos to annoy people who care about typos. Especially the queen bee.

progress?

This is what are once was...
and this is what art became...


progress?


Really?

Ya think?

rubens of the day

BRILLIANT

the nanny mayor

Bloomberg now wants to control the sodium intake of New Yorkers. He is the true nanny- mayor. The avg. sheeple who has lost all cognitive thought and TV and sports has rotted their brain. They will have a collective pavlovian response to this matter that will go as follows: "I think it cant be a bad thing--too much salt is bad for you, anyways" (for some reason I can hear one of my exes voice here) ---The avg. sheeple cannot understand one simple thing--the gov. doesn't care about you, the gov. only cares about one thing and that is control of the sheep. Through a gradual psychological process the gov. is acclimating us into accepting that it is okay for us to be told what we can eat. By controlling our food they are making inroads into many other aspects of our lives and into our homes and bedrooms. If the gov. really cared about us they would take the mercury out of corn syrup and rocket fuel out of our baby formula (AP wire---you can google both items) Our water is polluted with Prozac and big pharma meds and flouride is a neuro toxin. You will never hear bloomberg speak out against any of this because it doesnt fit into the "control of the sheeple" paradigm. We are being acclimated to total control of our lives by the Orwellian state and the sheep are too dumbed down to figure it out. The founding fathers would have heart attacks if they found the govt. is now telling us what we should eat. When the health care bill is passed we will experience a level of govt. intervention into our lives and bedrooms that will make the soviet union look like disneyland. I think about such things so you dont have to. "THE STATE" is not your friend and history has more example s of this than New York has people.

etched glass New york City

a few samples of my etched glass.

917 400 1317

Blueline Glass

Here is my new website for my glass art. It is in progress (not done!)


http://www.bluelineglass.com/

cadmium, yummy cadmium

China is now sending us kids toys and jewelry with cadmium in them. Cadmium is very bad for you and it is also one of the ingredients in my favorite color oil paints. Cadmium red, cadmium green, cadmium etc. Cadmium is well known among painters I have many tubes of it in my studio. I remember reading the letters of van gogh and he spoke about his need to "key himself up with coffee and alcohol in order to get the right yellow. That was one of my favorite things he ever said. If you think of van gogh you think of a certain yellow blue combination. He had a great eye for color (and a good ear) I am willing to use dangerous paints if I get the right color life is too short to use fake paints. Cadmium "hue" paints are much cheaper and dont really contain cadmium (to the best of my knowledge) but they are like drinking near beer "whomever named near beer was a poor judge of distance" as they say...Lead paint used to be very popular and they say that could have messed up the art- minds of Goya and van gogh etc if it soaked into their skin. You know what will mess up an artist's mind more than anything? POVERTY. I dont care if my paints are radioactive, I am using the colors I like best.

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

press

http://cityfile.com/search?terms=alex+gardega

words of the day--david gilmour

"On The Turning Away"

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
"Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away"
It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting it's shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerised as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

RUBENS! above all!

I am thinking about Rubens a lot these days--I have grown into Rubens like a kid grows into his hand- me- down shoes ---maturity has lead me to appreciate his garish beauty. He is a color genius and a draftsman par excellent!

wine happens

I went out for red wine last night and I sold a painting. It is funny how art and life happens. Sometimes drinking pays. I once got a 20K mural job by drinking in the right place at the right time.

I am convinced in my heart of hearts that the ingredient in hot peppers

capsaicin

is a cancer fighter and has many other medicinal properties that will be discovered one day. I have no science but I know it in my gut. I eat a lot of hot peppers. I am a pepper-head. doctors will poo poo my theory but I am right and will be proven so one day. I am eating a jalapeno right now and it is 7:17 AM...BAM.

I had some feedback that my blog was coming up slow and causes stress to some readers. I have worked out the kinks (methinks)...

Thanks Alex. I can get in and out of the site now without locking my PC up. Couldn’t tolerate not being able to check the site out.

A day without Gardega is like a day without sunshine,

John

fascinating!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242096/Tomb-discovery-helps-solve-ancient-slavery-riddle-pyramids.html

science

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html

gardega gives thanks

Thank you slow- walking- NYC- people. Thank you for helping me to slow down and smell the proverbial urban roses, thanking you for walking slowly down the stairs when my subway car is about to pull away---Instead of kicking you down the stairs I smile and think about the idea of Gandhi and patience. And Thank you for standing to the left of the escalator so I cant walk up the escalator. It is much better to stand on the escalator anyways, walking up an escalator is like swimming in the bathtub, anyways--rather pointless. Thank you for walking three wide on the sidewalk so I cant pass maybe I can help you fold your map. Thank you slow-walking-NYC- people.

gardega gives thanks

Thank you, China, thank you for giving us baby formula with rocket fuel in it. I think it is very nice that you want our babies to have that special "boost" in the beginning of life. Maybe you can put in in a rocket shaped container! (Now that is true "branding.") I am happy you are watching out for us over here.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7242880&page=1

this is a true story

I woke up at 5:38 yesterday morning (I am an early riser, even on the weekends) I was looking forward to getting a jump on the day so I headed out my door to go do my laundry and I looked down at my feet and saw this--- I paused for a moment and almost continued on my way to do laundry then I decided you cannot do the "two different shoe" thing. If you do the "two different shoe thing" the next comes the shopping cart and a newspaper hat. I am not sure how I put on two different shoes but my brain sometimes thinks about other things then what I am supposed to be doing. I went back inside and corrected the issue at hand (or foot.) Somtimes I surprise even myself.

sacred image

Focus on the "flower of life" and it will bring you mental and spiritual well being. Symbols have powers--dont kid yourself.

advice to young artists

1) have rich parents. If you do not have rich parents you will suffer like a stuck pig or a turkey in November. If you survive ten years of impoverished hell then you will feel like a champion and a Vietnam vet and most people wont be able to relate to you and will not understand why you mumble so much. But suffering builds great character and your art will be grand and it will not suck and be cheesy and weak and you will lose the dreaded patina of looking like a lightweight.

2) if you are not obsessed with art to the very marrow of your bones to the point of where it matters more than food or love then you should go drive a milk truck. Art is is not for dabbling

3) Have good heros. Your heroes should be the old masters and if they are not then you are wasting paint. Musicians should look to the blues and the roots and you should look to the old masters, if you look to the dreaded modernistos then you are a fool and a fool and his art are soon parted.

4) Drink a lot of alcohol. Artist should be seasoned and marinated like a pickle. If you are an artists who likes to sit and drink lattees then you are a poser. Go drink whiskey in ugly dive bars and learn about the underbelly of life.

5) Have a bunch of failed and broken relations and get over them and realize that pain comes and goes and art is a constant, it is your polestar through the choppy seas of life.

6) Dont cheese yourself out. Do not paint peoples pets. If you cheese out your soul you can never get it out of your system and your art will suffer till the end of time. Beware your Faustian deal, my friend.

7) Be prepared to be alone. You will spend 95 % of your time alone and it will suck but you will learn about yourself and most people dont have a fig of a clue as to who they are in this world.

8) be in Page Six. If you get in page six it is almost like you made it somewhere. I have had famous people ask me how I get in page six all the time but I do not have an answer why. I dont mind being a press whore and you shouldnt either. If no one knows your name then you are doing something wrong. You must be in the papers and in the press and media is a fascinating phenom of our time and all great artists are "of their time"