I go swimming

The water was around 40F. It changes your perspective.

ocean man

I am doing my regular jump in the drink today. It is just cold enough to check the temp of the water with my brain. I may be lazy and jump in the sound and not the ocean.

first sketches---by gardega

This is my very first sketchbook page in which I am figuring out a series of glass women for a brooklyn club. I like the initial energy so i will try to keep it in my final designs. It is very easy to kill the life out of your initial thumbnail sketches when you enlarge them and "refine" them. If you refine a native you risk taking the magic of what made that person. The American Indians were a very powerful people who gained nothing from being refined (like sugar.) I prefer the raw and the savage in art combined with skill and discipline--- so maybe there is a happy middle. This page is for sale if anyone is interested.

solar dragonfly

Here is a small electronic dragonfly. The dragonfly was a popular motif in art nouveau. I am not sure where the robot version fits into the art world.

bad art--rauchenberg

This is the worst piece of art Alex has ever seen and it is so very famous. do not worry, you need only to scroll down to see Rembrandt and he will save your eyes from this treachery. Many artists tell me I should be nicer and let other artists make their art--to each his own...I say-- BAH!! I must raise the consciousness to highest branch in the Tree Of Art where the birds of genius nest and play

rembrandt

This painting haunted me as a child. What an advanced subject matter for an artist to choose way back in the 17th century! As a child in Texas I saw a pig get hung up and slaughtered in the same fashion, I remember the blood freezing on the ground. I cannot say I liked seeing a pig get killed but I sure do like bacon.

forgery

I am 99% convinced that this is not a real Rembrandt but a Forgerino. Forgerino was a very famous artist who has been around a long time---It is awkward and forced and does not have the distinctive odor of genius that normally emanates from the work of Rembrandt. Maybe he had a bad day or was hungover. There are a lot of paintings that I find very suspect as to being by the hand of certain artists. I find it interesting that artist's find their own voice or style and "this" is hard to copy or forge. Only Hendrix can play Hendrix--- Although I do play a mean Dali when I am in the mood...I never really think I have a style although many people say that they can see my style in my different works from my glass to my watercolors----My nose is too close to my face and I cannot see it.

the best laid plans...

every time I make big art plans I get sidetracked by the lure of money on a big project I cannot turn down.

blown by the wind...

news article of the day

hapless, hapless, hapless...


http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/28/biker.meeting/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Here is a photo i took yesterday on the subway in NYC. It has a NYC winter- vibe to it, methinks.

club photos

I have an insane amount of work to do for this night club in Brooklyn. They have essentially let me take a lot of control and make it as my own art gallery. I am so buried in work I cannot see. This is a photo one of many meetings I have had at the club. Everyone is super nice and there is zero club "sketchiness" going on--- which is very refreshing.

photo of man sewing

I took this picture through a storefront window in NYC yesterday. I am going to paint this soon as it reminds me of Vermeer's lace maker.

proof of genius

I stopped in a gas station yesterday morn. to take a picture of a Uhaul that has a horseshoe crab image on the side. (it is a Delaware Uhaul, ground zero for H.crabs ) I had to take out the Swamp Angel glass piece out of the cab of my truck to get to my digital camera. I took out the swamp angel and realized my camera was not in my truck. I drove away annoyed and then a few miles away I realized I had left something behind at the gas station. I turned around and drove back and picked up the lonely swamp angel that was waiting for me against a tree. (Somebody had already purchased it so I am very happy to have retrieved it as I was on my way to frame it.) I think this is sufficient proof that I am a genius and on a side note I forgot to get gas.

earthquake

I get regular premonitions of earthquakes and sometimes even the region comes to my mind. I had a bad dream of a California earthquake last night. Earthquakes are something I have never experienced except in dreams but I have seen many tornadoes in Texas.

I will draw your dreams---gardega

I woke up today thinking I would like to draw or illustrate peoples dreams. If anyone has visually interesting dream, email it to me and I will draw it. I will need as much information as you can remember. Recurring dreams are interesting, methinks.

the big bang explained--by gardega

A scientist said tonight , on TV, that the single biggest question in science is what set the "Big Bang" in motion. Firstly---Alex thinks, is that the whole question is backward. Why did anything have to set off the big bang, why is it limited to a cause/effect relation? If time is simply a mental construct as I believe (what is time without consciousness of time?) I think that by looking out we are actually looking in and ignoring the effect of the viewer on the experiment is foolish. Also, we must understand that our brain has never even been exposed to light, it has only created its own idea of what light is.

the map is not the territory---descartes

now back to our regularly scheduled program...

fluorescent future

There is a mission by "the powers that be" to rid us all of incandescent light and to force us to use fluorescent bulbs. In fact, it (a bill) has already been passed to do away with the regular bulbs that light our lives. I hate fluorescent light as much as I hate bad art, it is the worst thing I have ever heard of. I will break any and all laws as I cannot stand fluorescent light---it flutters and it is green and hellish and gives me bad nerves. I guess it makes sense that the future (1984) will be illuminated by the foul light of fluorescents! Fight back or we are doomed to a future lit with a sick and sad light. Fluorescents have been proven to cause severe psychic issues in homo sapiens and in animals.

by the way, they are all full of mercury.

lexi--by gardega

fun

I am going to have fun and upload stuff for the next two hours..old stuff, new stuff, random stuff.

strange day

I woke up at four this morning and then at five I went to get my big gulp at seven eleven. For some reason I decided to buy a scratch off ticket (I rarely gamble.) I won 50 dollars and bought a second and then I won seventy dollars. Then I went to get gas and I saw a Uhaul with a huge graphic of a horseshoe crab on the side (it was a Delaware Uhaul) Exhaustion has been breeding strange dreams in my head, the sleep of reason produces monsters...I need to start running again and drawing as well. I shipped mary's art today as promised.

bar design--- by gardega

Here is my first stab at a design for a bar inside the club I am doing glass art and design for. The design theme of the club is classical design meets rock & roll. My bar has a bit of a nod to art deco accented with some reverse carved smoked mirror that will be lit from behind with LED lighting. The carved mirror will have art nouveau influences and also a nod to tattoo type line quality to keep the rock and roll feel. I am working out the "shark fins" atop the bar. The bar will accented with an old chandelier above. The two end pillars will be semi- circle shelving. I am also designing the entry way as you climb up the stairs and will post that soon. I will be at post office today mailing late art so dont yell at me, it will be there soon!

howdy

long , long day. I was in brooklyn by six AM and I returned at 9:00 PM. I am caught up doing artwork for a night club interior that I will post soon. I told them I would help design the bar and draw it tonight but I am cross eyed and bleary and will probably wake up at four and scramble to get it done as I usually let the demons of panic motivate my pencil.

dream awards

I woke up at four this morning from a strange dream and started updating my site. I think that there should be an awards show for dreams. If your teeth fall out into the sink you can get an award for the most disturbing dream. If you run as hard as you can and get nowhere you get an award for frustration. Then there is the dream of falling, there should be falling dream awards--- Maybe I just took a quick dip in lake stupid.

artist of the day---dulac

One of my favorite artists of all time is a book illustrator you may not have heard of--Edmund Dulac. I would like you to compare this picture to the one I commented on below by the well-known artist jasper johns and compare the two. This picture took amazing skill and patience and planning and seeing, the other piece---not so much...Dulac thrived during the "golden age" of illustration. It is hard to find much about his life and I have tried to find biographies on him. He had a great eye for color and style in his work and often made use of contrasting patterns as well. I will soon buy new books by him as writing this got me interested in his work again. I hope your eyes feel better after I assaulted them with the last work.

the family and the fishing net

a collector asked me yesterday to buy my family and fishing net painting. I was unable to sell it because I had decided a few days ago to "put it to flame." I did video the process so I have that to upload soon.

bad artist of the day--jasper johns

This is an example of a painting that is very famous and also quite bad. I am not being mean I am just being honest.. I do not believe any human can actually love this work, if you love it I am all ears and await to have my opinion shattered like a cheap vase.

good morning

Woke up to the snow. I will stay at home today and not drive into brooklyn like I have been 7 days a week. I will put some energy back into this thing today as I have been neglecting her a bit. There is snow falling out my window and if we must suffer with winter there should at least some be snow for us to enjoy. I know I am a true genius because I forgot to buy a four wheel drive pick up. I just stumbled onto the lot and pointed at a silver truck and said mine. They charged me extra and I was happy and drove away.

update

I am a bit caught up in designing glass for the club space. I should load up some new art tomorrow. and I will also ship out art that people are waiting for (mary) thanks...

what is this?

can anyone tell me what creature this is and is it obvious? look into he eye...

long day

post new art soon--long day in nyc and brooklyn. I was on subway and I met alan colmes from fox news-- By chance I had bought a signed baseball from him and painted him in my last supper painting--- small world and he was a very nice person. He had on strange blue john lennon like glasses. great guy. mucho tiredo

glass art

I was hired yesterday to do a bunch of glass artwork for a new club called Europa that is going to open in brooklyn. It looks like Bestsey Johnson is designing the clothes for the staff and the band Velvet Revolver will be the first band to play in the club when it opens.

ashes to ashes

Occasionally a painting never find it's legs. Sometimes I will paint something I hate and someone else loves it and buys it. Sometimes I like a painting and no one else sees it. Sometimes I am not happy with a work and no one else seems to love it. Occasionally I paint over or destroy such works, fire is a nice way to purify a painting. My version of the family and fishing net failed to become a loaves and fishes miracle and It was my duty to destroy it...I took the time to burn it into ashes. I figured since I videotaped the birth of the painting I would also video the death of the piece. I will load video up soon.

government land

I found this picture on ebay. It is a picture used to demonstrate government land for sale. I am sure whomever took this photo had no idea it was anything more than a snapshot to show retirement property. I find this picture to be very much a work of unintentional art and quite satisfying. It kind of reminds me of a pink floyd album cover. I wonder if there is a place in the art world for "unintentional" art.

two suns in the sunset...

I was on ebay tonight looking for artwork and old prints to buy when I came across a picture that made my hair stand up a bit. I found a picture by an artist I have never heard of before--he is from California. I will let you look at the reason I was taken aback by his painting. I had to put our pictures side by side to demonstrate. I am not sure if he was a well know artist etc. I wished I could afford to buy his painting so I could hang it up. Next to my copy of my own picture. I am not sure who owns my original of "the other side." this wholes thing reminds me of a roger waters song..

finches

John Jonston (or Johnstone), a descendant of a Scottish family, was born in Sambter, Poland. He was interested in both medicine and natural sciences, and studied at St. Andrews, Cambridge, and Leiden. He published major natural history studies, including Thaumatographia Naturalis (Amsterdam 1632), a compendium of contemporary knowledge of natural science including astronomy, paleontology, plants, animals and man. This was followed by Theatrum Universale Omnium Animalium (Frankfurt, 1650), with plates after his drawings engraved by Mattias Merian depicting the entire range of animal species. After having spent most of his life travelling through all parts of Europe, he settled in Silesia.

Alex says----these were published 350 years ago and hand colored, I found them on ebay. I like looking on ebay for old art.

butterflies

This over 225 year old original antique handcolored copperplate engraving is taken from a fragment of
Carl Gustav Jablonsky’s famous work „Natursystem aller bekannten in- und ausländischen Insecten. Der
Schmetterlinge erster Theil” (Natural History Survey of Insects, Including Related Foreign Ones: Butterflies),
engraved by Ludwig Schmidt, and published by Ben Joachim Pauli in Berlin/Germany, 1783.

Carl Gustav Jablonsky (1756-1787) was a naturalist, entomologist and illusstrator who also was private secretary to the
Queen of Prussia. He edited the first two volumes of his major work on butterflies; the remaining nine volumes were edited by
Johann F.W. Herbst (1743-1807) a German naturalist and entomologist, after Jablonsky's untimely death at the age of 31.
Jablonsky also began the first complete survey of coleoptera, an order of insects including beetles, borers, weevils and fireflies,
a project also taken over by Herbst and published between 1785 and 1806. A great number of the plates were drawn by Jablonsky himself. The work should be considered a first attempt to a total survey of the coleoptera.

sea monster

I found this drawing in my bottomless files today.

on the road

I have been thinking a lot lately about hitting the road with my sketchbook and pickup. I probably wont as I have a lot of reasons not to hit the road but I would like to travel across america with my book. I would need a sponsor like ford motor company...

second version new york city

Here is a second version using some scroll designs from my sacred crab drawing.

nyc final

Here is the final version of the NYC Ambassador Yellow Pages. I made a second "riskier" version as well I will upload soon.

homage

strange flowers

winter witch

Here is a piece "in progress." I am trying to put a face on winter. he will either rise like the spring or sink and fall like winter into the piles of discarded things.

oil on gold leaf

sunday

I am working on a portrait on gold leaf that I will finish today. I will post when done.

strange world-- the family and the fishing net

This is a painting I painted on you tube. It was painted to the peter gabriel song "the family and the fishing net and that is the chosen title for the work as well. I am still figuring why I paint halo clouds. If you know what you are doing in art you are not making art--- you are baking bread and it will grow stale and crumble with time. this for sale on ebay

ebay link


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

artist of the day---seurat

I was never a huge fan of seurat. I must admit that this painting is one of those that "sticks with you." He was interested in the idea of putting a bunch of colored dots together to reach a "purer" color effect. The sad thing is that the intended effect was a failure (I think he even admitted in the end.) I like the idea that he was using science a bit in his approach as most artist brains have as much use for science as a slug has for a salt shaker. I guess this artist most be at least nodded to for his place in art history and for this painting as well. I much prefer the carefully laid dots to the swine and swill of abstract impressionism. Anyone who does something totally different is sometimes to be admired as well. He is labeled a neo-impressionist in the world of art-speak.

During the 19th century, scientist-writers such as Michel Eugène Chevreul, Nicholas Ogden Rood and David Sutter wrote treatises on color, optical effects and perception. They were able to translate the scientific research of Helmholtz and Newton into a written form that was understandable by non-scientists. Chevreul was perhaps the most important influence on artists at the time; his great contribution was producing the color wheel of primary and intermediary hues.

here is some wikipedia info as well.--

Chevreul was a French chemist who restored old tapestries. During his restorations of tapestries he noticed that the only way to restore a section properly was to take into account the influence of the colors around the missing wool; he could not produce the right hue unless he recognized the surrounding dyes. Chevreul discovered that two colors juxtaposed, slightly overlapping or very close together, would have the effect of another color when seen from a distance. The discovery of this phenomenon became the basis for the Pointillist technique of the Neoimpressionist painters.

last supper

I have re-listed my last supper on ebay. I have lowered the price as it seems no one understands the surreality of having a 32 square foot painting of news talking heads staring off their walls. I should have painted the picture with soft and warm puppies instead of analyzing media heads. If I do not sell it before I move I have master plan for it that will involve you tube and will be something to see. As my brain conjures this path it gets more exciting. my ebay store link is below my mug shot.

swamp angel by gardega

Someone bought my swamp angel yesterday. I think I am sadder to see her go than I was the relationship with the person I made the piece about.


"Plus ça change...

quote of the day-- n.peart

(It's)Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you -- the blind who once could see ---
The bell tolls for thee...

morning from american alex

I was in a foul mood yesterday then I saw a young marine kid getting into his wheelchair at 7-11, (probably an Iraq casualty.) I realized I take for granted that I can walk into places on my own feet.

everything is relative and perspective is everything.------------gardega

peter gabriel--- passion

This is my favorite album of all time. It is a peter gabriel sound track to the movie "the last temptation." I have gone through about 6 copies of this album. The only you tube I could find of it was of some figure skaters---This is a great song from the album..

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