dirty laundry

I hate showing work before it is done as it is never comforting to show the decisions you made before you decide they are bad decisions and throw them away. I am a very unorthodox artist and could never confirm to any thing orthodox as far as method, technique, etc. I know a hundred artist who are very methodical and careful and follow another artist like the good lord never gave them a personality or mind of their own. I paint from my gut and it goes to my hand and god made my guts so they must be good.

someone is selling my work.....

Someone is selling a bunch of my work on craigslist. I am okay with this and was actually contacted by the seller yesterday. Once your child is up for adoption you can only hope they grow up well. If I had extra money right now I would buy back the pieces. Here is one of the pieces for sale. I make no money off this and I only ask if you decided to resell my work you make it clear in the ads that I am not the seller. Otherwise the pieces are yours to do with what you please!


http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/art/433441953.html

loss of tribe and ritual

I think modern man has a built in emptiness and disconnect because he has lost his tribe. Deep in our collective cellular memory we have a need to be part of something. It is not in our true nature to be lone wolves. Modern man tries desperately to fill this psychic hole. Art (real and honest art) is sometimes a helpful way to fill this vacuum. Media has become a sugar fix for our needs. TV and the internet merely serve to distract us. Bars across america are full different tribes who gather regularly to partake in the communal ritual of drink. The media has become the way most people find ritual and commonality in their lives. But, unlike art, it offers little for the soul. Ritual is in our DNA and now we have lost ritual and even church rituals have become out of touch with the true reasons they were first used. People go to museums to experience ritual and they don't even know it. Modern Media and art does not fill this human need. Making empty art to express that we live in " empty times" is like bailing out a boat with a fork. (it doesn't help!) Gardega has decided that ritual AKA art can help us through our lives when it is made fro mthe hands of genius and genius only requires honesty.

the sacred crab

I have always believed that horseshoe crabs are a sacred animal. The american indians held the belief of power animals, animals that held magic/ sacred properties such as buffalo and eagles etc.. The medicine men believed in finding your own sacred animal that would guide you through the world. I am pretty confident my "animal" is the sacred horseshoe crab. The horseshoe crab is already used in saving human lives through its blue blood. A close artist friend brought me over a gift of five crabs she found on the beach. I decided to lay them out as they are on my other website...

update

My goal is to have the left side of painting fairly locked down by Sunday. I will have most of the faces pretty well finished and the gestures worked out as well. As usual a freelance life steal away your weekends.

craigslist

someone is selling works of mine on craigslist. I have no idea whom it is but It does not bother me if anyone wants to check it out. As long as they aren't stolen pieces we live in a free nation. (I promise it is not me selling the works..) I only sell on ebay or from my site but I am sure they are legit as I am not really aware of forgeries!


http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/art/427181695.html

the new apostles

I have finally found a name for my new painting. "The New Apostles" I think that has a ring and will serve my purposes very well. I will be painting all day today and try to upload progress as well.

gardega

I have two weeks to finish my last supper and will update progress starting tomorrow. I am enjoying the process and I am also trying to clarify across the boards that there is nothing blasphemous abut the piece, I think it is a positive message to get back to art ands spirituality that was lost when art became too much about commerce and humans actually had attention spans. I will post updates and drawings tomorrow.

religious art

In the words of the genius that is Peter Gabriel. "It is so strange the way things turn." I started making religious inspired art a few years ago without any reason as to why except my hand guided me there. Within a few months I had a request to do a mausoleum glass carving of St. Francis. I thought that was odd and then recently after I started my last supper painting I ran into a stranger who is working for a man who is looking for a leonardo mural on the ceiling of his house. So I may be painting a leonardo ceiling in the near future.

interview

I was interviewed today by Fox and I think I did okay without mumbling too much or sweating. When the painting is finished in two weeks they will have me on Hannity and Colmes for a live interview. They will use today's shoot as the intro to the live appearance on hannity and colmes.They were very nice and professional and it was a nice day for freedom. Now back to the easel!

american alex

I have a confirmation of the time my TV interview today. nature of TV and schedules change last minute etc. But It will most likely happen. I have decided to just go with the flow as I am not good a pre-scripted speech or ideas and I will just be my surrealist self. I love the idea of being on live camera where one can fumble all over one self and fall on your face. I am sure alex will remember most of why he painted this painting if they ask. The answer in truth is I have no idea why.

bread

the bread of the national collective psyche lies in wait to be broken and feasted upon by the establishment media. Washed down with a fine, sugary- wine and digested during the post- meal slumber.

american alex

Today is my last day to paint before the last supper is exposed "in progress" on Television. "In Progress" is never a happy thing for artists because it shows all the dirty laundry and ugly corners that still need to be painted. It is never comfortable to show one's baby while still in the womb but such is life.

american alex

after thirteen hours of painting I start to get messy and drop things, trip on things and generally get swallowed by chaos. I was never an artist who kept a neat palette or an immaculate work space as it does not allow for chaos (which is for me) is a primary ingredient in the soup of genius. Francis Bacon's studio always looked like a bomb hit it which is too messy for me. If you are working highly realistically it is often to your advantage to work in a highly ordered environment but then again art is not math and an art studio is not a finance office. The pizza man who delivered that pizza you can see was afraid of me and the painting and he seemed to want to run out the room as quickly as possible.

american alex

optical illusion----if you stare at my palette on the lower right it appears be floating above the surface of the painting. That is an illusion. Or is it just me who has been painting too many hours...

american alex

"don't be afraid of perfection, you will never achieve it"---S. Dali

american alex

In order to paint large, one must step away. I like to go up to my bedroom and look down through the window to view my latest piece to make artistic decisions.

american alex

american alex

sacred and profane

Art is sacred just as people's psyche's are sacred. What is fed into our collective mind via media is something to consider and be aware of! Our reality is spoon fed on a daily basis on a mass-level--- what goes in eventually comes out.

american alex

Is there salvation in media or has it rendered us impotent and blind to the great genius of human potential and thought? Is there a place for a youtube- Da Vinci? Can art compete with pop-up advertising? Who are our modern God's and are sound bites the new commandments? Attention spans grow shorter and and religious feeling hides beneath the stark light of a plasma screen. Have we amused ourselves to death?

monday

I have been confirmed for filming on monday for a major news network and I am painting away the hours until then. The star of alex streaks ever brighter across the grey-sullen sky of modern and contemporary art and will save us from the scourge of modernism that has rendered art impotent and passionless and soaked in the formaldehyde of ism's. A preserved shark is not art nor is gluing plates to a canvas with epoxy. One must step forward to save humanity from the emperor' and his false clothes and bring art back to place it came from, the heart of man.

who is this glassed man?

sketch 2

new figure---quick sketch

Here is another figure to be added to the last supper table. I am not concerned about likeness at this stage but gesture and pose. Monday is the new day for my TV coverage, excited to have the weekend to work on picture .

Great video

If anyone want to own something that you will always treasure (aside from my art) you should take a look at this DVD website called The Great Courses. A good friend of mine sent me the Michelangelo DVD and I have been watching it for two weeks. I never knew there was so much information to be had about michelangelo, it is such a great DVD I can't recommend it enough! I am not paid for this, but it is a must own and I plan on buying the leonardo DVD if there is one. I wont buy the DALI DVD because there is nothing they can tell me about Dali that I don't know.


click here for link:

loose ends

I cannot repeat this enough times---If anyone sent money and was not sent artwork or is not satisfied 100% please contact me. I sent out thousands of piece of art work so you can imagine that I have dealt with many people and it easy to let some things slip past my peripheral vision. I am confident that we did a great job in filling orders and I wish to confirm that as well. Even if someone just wishes to comment or speak about art you can email me.


alexgardega@gmail.com


alex

taupe

I recently came across the word taupe in a request for my art and I never really knew what he exact color of taupe was...here is one definition....you learn something everyday you are above ground.


link:

rough sketches

as I mentioned there are a lot of challenges in presenting a profile when you only have visual references for a frontal view. One way to work through such issues is to draw incessantly and think with the pencil. It is the journey of a a thousand doodles that begins with a single sketch.

watercolors

Often I will take a break from a piece and work on another smaller piece just to take a mental breather and refresh the batteries. I made this watercolor today after drawing media heads for many hours. Sometimes it is nice to limit the palette to muted tones.

painting

It is important when one starts a work of art to maintain enthusiasm throughout the process of painting the piece. The beginning stages or formative stages of a painting are usually fairly interesting and exciting as you are often tackling something new in regards to approach or composition or layout. Delacroix (one of my favorite painters) said that anyone can start a painting but it take nerves of steel to finish one. (I often agree with Delacroix.) Da Vinci was notorious for leaving efforts unfinished and moving on to his next interest like a child from toy to toy. I often battle with losing steam in the process of painting a work but I also enjoy the idea of "wrapping up" and finishing a work, knowing you stuck it out until the end.

last supper cam

I am setting up a web cam to show time-lapse images of my Last Supper progress. I am not very technical so it is a work in progress. When I have time I will make some videos of me painting and link them to here.

last supper study

Here is another "diner" at the Last Media Supper. I am selling all my sketches and studies for this media event so if anyone wants to own a piece of media history you can contact me through email. Imagine owning Da Vinci's last supper sketches! I would personally like to own Dali's studies of his last supper painting but alas I can only make my own last supper. Just as I start to explore the surreal nature of media O.J. jumps into the foreground like a fly at a summer picnic. In my last Supper painting there will be a fly on the bread that will be symbolic of OJ simpson as he affects the national psyche which will be represented by a humble pre-sliced loaf of bread.

Dali's DNA

Dali was fascinated by DNA or the idea of DNA. AS I have mentioned previously he predicted that (if discovered) DNA would be in the form of a spiral! (He understood the building blocks of the man upstairs.) A man close to Dali has discovered that Dali has his DNA remains on on a feeding tube that was used to feed him after a horrible (suspicious) fire engulfed him in his bedroom when he was in the end of his years. This DNA could be used to clone his genius (Jurassic park style) but I assume it will be used for art authentication purposes instead! There is a new film coming out with Dali played by Pacino (I tried real hard to be the guy to make the art for the film) but to no avail. They will use some Hollywood SFX hack, instead. I can't see Pacino playing Dali, it will not work and the film will be as flat as a phony modernist painting. I could have stepped up to the plate to help because I am a Dalinian scholar but I am only Gardega, not Dali.

latest supper update

Here is the latest update as of three o'clock today.

eleventh hour

It seems that Friday is locked in for some TV network coverage about the piece. If you don't have deadlines you never get anything done! The network is interested in an "in progress" shoot--- so It is not a panic situation but alex does have a hell of a hard week ahead of him!

new figure

I have roughed out another "media figure" for my last supper. I may have to make adjustments on first figure (or even repaint figure entirely) at some point as I have figured out something I did not foresee! It is a huge challenge to take a well known figure and paint him in profile when you only have frontal information of the persons face. An artist friend laughed at my thought of even attempting this. I will prevail! This new figure is known for his "freedom concerts"...that was my hint....

fox supper

this photo is little fuzzy but I am too tired to change it...I am painting everything I can before I have to face adding more people. In painting I always eat my dessert before my vegetables which makes me a lazy artist. My teachers used to laugh at me because I would have the messiest pallet. many artists work very neat and anally but I am comfortable with chaos and eventually make order out of it. I could have saved myself lots of stress in my life if I was one of them people who fold their socks when they put them away.

artist of the day---george orwell

george orwell (eric blair) wrote one of my favorite novels (1984.) I really do not know much of his other novels except animal farm, which I liked. But 1984 is more important than ever (in my opinion) because we are heading towards a society where privacy is no longer something we can expect to enjoy. Big Brother is here and nobody seems to really care. I think we have been conditioned to some degree that it is okay to have the government involved in our personal lives. I really must say that the tv screens in 1984 really foreshadowed the internet. (You never knew when big brother was watching you) One day it will be far too late to turn back and it will seem like the "good ole days when you could walk down the streets without being followed by cameras on every block or scanned by some dreadful chip they would like to place in our bodies. I only wished it was just a conspiracy theory that one day we have no constitutional rights left to protect us. Our rights are being widdled away like a knife to soap. Just like your health you will only miss them when they are gone. be aware.

much thanks

Thanks to everyone who has bought art from me on this site. It has been a great journey and even a bit overwhelming at times. If anyone is owed art or I promised something too, email me and I will handle it ASAP. I hate loose ends and want to make sure I took care of everyone who bought my work! I am going to be very busy soon and would like square away everything. If anyone just wants to comment or speak....alexgardega@gmail.com

eggs

One day I decided to paint various portraits of media people on eggs. I was watching TV and eating eggs and then I picked up an egg and started painting on it without any mental deletion as to the process. A construct of surrealism is that it you do not edit your creative impulse with the rational mind and let your impulse low free. Often you bump into walls or end up with egg on your face. You can probably identify the pope in there (I gave the pope egg to a stranger.) There is a Laura Bush egg which broke. my friend chris appoldt took these photos, he is a great photographer who wants to strangle me more often than not. The egg has always interested me on many levels and has artistic symbolic value that goes all the way back to the renaissance.

latest update

I like to paint outside when possible as the walls close in quickly in my studio (especially when I am painting large scale works.)

right brain/ left brain

It seems that the art brain and the math brain are about as close as Israel and Palestine. Most artists are very right brain. Right brain is the more intuitive, holistic, imaginative side. the left brain is the math side, the CPA side, the inner accountant side. I can barely add seven and nine, especially If I have mittens on. (My math is always better in the warmer weather.) the right side of the brain does some math-- it contains the math side that concerns SHAPES and MOTIONS. I can figure out Da Vinci's geometry and write backwards faster than forwards but I cant make change of a twenty. Dali couldn't even take a cab himself but he foresaw that DNA (when discovered) would be in a spiral! The ancients broke down the brain (the spheres) into the form of the god's Apollo and Dionysus. The gods of reason and love (respectively.) I always loved the idea of finding a perfect balance of left and right except my left brain is probably the size of a de-flated balloon. I think my right brain wouldn't want anything to do with it's sketchy withered neighbor who lives in a shabby unpainted home and doesn't mow his lawn. Da Vinci was a rare artist who balanced the Appolonian and Dionysian natures and rose to the top of the humanity pyramid. Alex walks with his head leaning to one side due to the imbalance and hopes the shopkeepers don't cheat him when they make change.



I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.
Calvin Trillin

ny post

I get up early everyday and get my 7 am pepsi from 7-11 to start my day. I also buy the post every morning. If something throws off my ritual I go I am not happy. The New York Post to me is a kind of art. It is more than media, it is a kind of pop-culture art. I am not a pop culture fan but I love the post, I like the post even more when I am in it.


click below:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08262007/gossip/pagesix/art_lark.htm

update

I had a gallery meeting yesterday in NYC (I am excited to start showing in galleries again. ) I must soon begin work on a st. Sebastian painting for a group show. I will use my Da Vinci geometric discoveries to approach my St. Sebastian painting. Now today I will work on my last supper again and upload progress as I go.

drawing of a girl

I drew this when I was 19. I am not sure what or who I copied it from, maybe fragonard or an artist like that. It is for sale for 200.00. I have gotten rid of 98% of my early works and I would like to hold a few--- Now back to painting the last supper.

media

the shear increase in the quantity of information movement favoured the visual organization of knowledge and the rise of perspective even before typography.

---m. mcluhan

FOX SUPPER

I am working away on my last supper and making much progress. Painting large is very liberating and also a bit daunting. My painting has created some buzz and media discussion before it is done which motivates me to try to paint it as best I can so as to not let anyone down. That is not really abe lincoln mentioned earlier but a living figure.

detail

Here is a detail of my work in progress. Given the genius of my brush one can easily tell who this is----abe lincoln.

update

update 4

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

n. peart

upate last supper 3

last supper update

Why the last supper?

I am painting my own version of the last supper for a hundred reasons but I will now touch upon the primary ones---I am painting this painting because it has become apparent to me that painting holds less and less power in todays world as we become more and more media saturated. In fact, there seems to be an inverse square law regarding the importance of painting to the average person and the modern proliferation of media. By painting I am speaking of painting I consider important (classical and surrealism)--(I am not discussing abstract art here.) The painting that is out there seems all too often to be -- geometry free , empty and soulless. The average person often feels alienated from art/ painting and the modern art world. In my humble opinion there was a certain magic in what used to called be art. The old masters still have the same secret energy they emanated 500 years ago, while paintings from the sixties are falling apart at the seams because they were poorly constructed without understanding of science and materials. I decided to explore this idea in my own version of the last supper that will be painted classical (and using secret geometry) but featuring news anchors as the apostles because there is a better chance people can name the news anchors I use than three renaissance painters or even the apostles who attended the last supper. This concept is not blasphemy, ironic nor is it a simple media stunt. Are culture has slipped to historic lows and there must be explanations or answers or at least questions as too why. IS MEDIA THE NEW RELIGION? Can painting survive without photoshop, without the beeping and blaring and spinning of digital lies? I think it is time for a New Renaissance in art and painting and it requires spirit and an almost religious sensibility. The emperor never had any clothes...



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

---n. peart

painting

when painting is going well it is the best thing in the world, better than any virtue or vice. When painting is going poorly it is the ninth level of hell. I would rather be locked into the last supper (as I am now) than on any vacation on an island with a frozen drink in my hand. If you copy another artists work it can only be your own in the end (no matter how hard one tries to mimic.) Copying another artist is almost akin to sitting in a room talking to the artist. Painting the last supper on a large scale is like sitting down for a crab sandwich with the great leonardo.

progress 2

update

Here is the latest painting I am working on. it is eight foot across and four foot high. It is the largest painting I have attempted and even though it is a lot of work it is fun to paint large.

DNA facts

They have discovered that humans are not 99.9% related by DNA but that we vary much more than they initially thought---We are only 99% connected and chimps are only 95% of our DNA makeup. I have a sneaking theory that artists are only truly about 60% of human DNA the rest is hot air and ego topped off with a bit of delusion.

update

I have made my tentative filming date for my news appearance--the network shall remain unnamed as well! I will not confirm until it is 100%. Although, in TV you can always bumped for various reasons or if a twister steals another mobile home. I have cleared up my schedule as best I can to focus on my last supper painting which is daunting in size and complexity but it is a nice challenge and if you do not challenge yourself as a human or an artist you will stagnate in the shadows!

mystery

I have drawn and painted women my whole life. I think I am fascinated because I am not good at understanding women, In relationships I often see things in hind site and figure them out later or after it is too late. I often figure out why I painted what I have painted "expo- facto" I often paint and draw things I very little understanding of until years later. I guess if it was easy for me to figure out the fairer sex they would not interest me as an artist and I would only paint landscapes. I have more luck figuring out Da Vincis geometry. I wonder if women have trouble figuring out us males, I think we are fairly simple things that grunt and scribble and eat food.

update

I am back hard at work on my last supper..I wished I had my geometry studies up for viewing still but they are being considered for other uses and patents etc. I will post new last supper drawings over the weekend.


alex

michelangelo and Da Vinci

As you may know Da Vinci and Michelangelo were rivals. Da Vinci was kind of jealous of Michelangelo and often berated sculpture as as an art form. He felt that painting was superior because you cant control how light falls on a sculpture as ones chooses a light source in painting. Da Vinci was a bastard child and did not have a noble name as did Michelangelo Buonorrati. Michelangelo was proud of having a name of noble lineage and tried often to keep his wayward brothers and cousins in line as not to damage the family name. Da Vinci felt a bit of a stigma because his name Da Vinci only met where his was from ( the town of Vinci) I believe a large part of his life was a compensating factor to make his name into something noble. The average life span was just over forty in the renaissance and both Michelangelo and Leonardo lived well past the expected life span for their time. I think Michelangelo actually made it into his late 80's or even 90.

my assistant

I would like to thank my assistant for all her help this summer! She is now back in college and I am lost and fumbling about blindly, again. Anyone who bought art this summer can thank her for being the brains behind the outfit and putting it all together so it was organized and made sense. My goal is to get rich and famous so I can hire her full time to run the organization upon graduation.

All the best, Jacqueline!

alex

Dali's Last Supper

I viewed this picture in person twice. Once in Washington DC (where it resides) and once in Philly when I went to write a magazine article about the Dali Retrospective in 2005. This painting is one of Dali's masterworks. There is a lot going on here I will get into later in detail. Dali, like Da Vinci, was very interested in geometry especially The Platonic Solids, one of which is featured as a window that looks out into the landscape of Dali's birth (Port Ligat in Spain.

back to Da Vinici!

I just completed a memorial painting for a close friend and can now focus solely on my last supper painting! In an ideal world an artist can laser focus on one project but there are always many distractions and we are stretched ever thinner like a drum head across our day to day to realities. Modern life spins like a top and our need for spiritual and religious fulfillment grows exponentially outward. In the ancient world the medicine man provided this outlet for the tribe. I read a book written by the Indian chief Black Elk and he espoused the theory that artists were the medicine men of modern life. That is a lot to take in but I do believe there is a very basic human need for a psychic life, a life outside the rat race and money chase and that is why people seek out the arts, music, etc. Painting this painting for a good friend was a very pleasant distraction!

geometry

please note that I removed my secret geometry posts for reasons I will explain later! Certain parties have expressed interest in my methods and there are some business interests being discussed as well I can't elaborate on. I can only say it is very positive! I really enjoy sharing my methods and will give more info. soon.

Da Vinci's Dream

I was lucky enough to go 1,000 feet up today in an ultra- light aircraft. This air-craft has no cockpit (you are exposed to the elements with goggles and helmets.) We flew over the south shore of eastern long island and flew low over camp sites on the beach and waved to the people below. It is truly a life-changing experience to fly that high exposed wide open to the sky. I could never describe it in words or art--I guess those hundreds of painting I made of the people taking flight in my "Strange World" series were a precursor to my bird- like flight. I thought of Da Vinci and how much it would have meant to him to have one minute to soar in the sky as I did today. It made up for an entire summer of nothing but work!