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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.
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
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.
I like to paint outside when possible as the walls close in quickly in my studio (especially when I am painting large scale works.)
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Here is a detail of my work in progress. Given the genius of my brush one can easily tell who this is----abe lincoln.
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
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 togetherIf our goals are all the sameWe can run alone and freeIf we pursue a different aimLet the truth of love be lightedLet the love of truth shine clearSensibilityArmed with sense and libertyWith the heart and mind unitedIn a single perfect sphere
---n. peart
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.
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.
