Done

Finished 17 of 17panels...many many,many hours, now its back to ceiling mural.

Home theater

Painted side panels by gardega

Murals nyc

Custom home theater

Seventeen painted side panels and a replica of grand central ceiling mural. Painting will be done this week.

Painted panel by gardega studios

This is panel 15 of 17 painted for a home theater.

Home theater mural by gardega

JAMES GURNEY SIGNING A BOOK

Not only is James Gurney a great artist, he is an amazing guy--really nice.Im going to take a class under him in June.

BOOKS OF WONDER BOOK SIGNING

Yesterday I went to Books of Wonder NYC to see some children's book illustrators. Among them was Charles Santore, The Dillons and JAMES GURNEY! I talked to Charles and James gurney for a while---both great guys. James Gurney is famous for Dinotopia. Some of the greatest art of all time was made for Childrens books/ illustration---NC Wyeth, Pyle, Rackham...

Etched Shower door

By gardega studios

Cell photos by gardega

Chinese Citizens Pay Ai Weiwei's Taxes

Chinese artist/ activist is getting a helping hand from big hearted fellow Chinese citizens to pay of a large tax debt. This reminds me of Odd Nerdrums situation a bit...Artists should be praised by governments, not abused, methinks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/chinese-citizens-pay-ai-w_n_1076928.html?ref=culture&ir=Culture

Laurie Sandell

My friend Laurie Sandell has written the the only authorized version of The Madoff clan. It will now be an HBO movie starring Robert Deniro. I interview on this blog at one time, Ill find it. God bless her, she is very nice and a great writer..It is a small world...a small world.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45076428/ns/today-books/t/truth-consequence-look-life-inside-madoff-clan/#.TrfFZnFqNYc

Work in progress

Auction News: Sothebys shines, Christies sinks

Last night was auction night at Sothebys and Christies. A good friend of mine is a bigwig at Sothebys and he told me that they were getting ready for an auction yesterday (they even closed Sothebys during the day because they were worried about the hippie protestors showing up to protest the capitalist auction) last time I checked wall street people (for all their faults) buy art, not hippies. So Your artist/ author much prefers the men in suits to the soapless hippies with bongo drums. Both Auctions were impressionist. At Christies, one third of the works failed to sell, including Degas and picassos! Christies made 144 million and sothebys made 199.8 million--they sold a full 81% of there works. Gustave klimts "litzlberg am atterersee" (above)   sold for 40.4 million, 15 million more than expected...not the best klimt ever painted if you ask gardega.
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Queens Unisphere

Illustration by alex gardega


Designed by landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke, the Unisphere was donated by the United States Steel Corporation and constructed by the American Bridge Company. It is the world's largest global structure, rising 140 feet and weighing 700,000 pounds. Some sources say the Unisphere weighs 900,000 pounds, a figure which includes the additional weight of its 100-ton inverted tripod base. The diameter of the sphere itself is 120 feet, or 36.57 meters. It is constructed of Type 304L stainless steel.
Built on the structural foundation that supported the Perisphere of the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair, the Unisphere is centered in a large, circular reflecting pool and is surrounded by a series of water-jet fountains designed to obscure its tripod pedestal. The effect is meant to make Unisphere appear as if it is floating in space.
During the fair, dramatic lighting at night gave the effect of sunrise moving over the surface of the globe. Additionally, the capitals of nations were marked by uniquely designed lights that held four bulbs each. One of these lights is placed at the location of the Kahnawake Indian Reservation, which the Mohawk ironworkers requested to be placed there to honor their labor.^[1] When one would burn out, another would rotate in place so that the bulbs would not have to be changed during the two-year run of the Fair. None of these lighting effects are still in operation.
Three large orbit rings of stainless steel encircle the Unisphere at various angles. These orbit rings are believed to represent the tracks of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, and Telstar, the first active communications satellite. In fact, the early design was to have a ring for each of a dozen satellites in place at the time of the Fair. This proved impractical not only in the number of satellites, but also in the height of their orbits and the fact that geostationary satellites had no orbit path. As a result a symbolic number of three was chosen for aesthetic reasons.

The Madoffs: the authorized bio..

My friend Laurie Sandell is the Author of the only official authorized Biography of the Madoffs.  Just found this out. I am fascinated by the tragic story of The Madoffs. I was so fascinated I invented The Bernie in Hell Hot Sauce which I sold world wide. It is a small world (but I wouldnt want to paint it)cant wait to read this book!

yours truly...