the holy grail

In my favorite museum (the Met in NYC) there is a chalice that many consider the actual Holy Grail....neat fact, isn't it? I have no opinion except to share that fact. It holds two quarts (which is the correct amount for passover.) I will of course place this in my last supper! My blog is like school but different.

Titan

Saturn's largest moon is titan. it is a nice place to visit as the avg. temp is 300 degrees below zero and has steady rain. The reason I posted this is I think this is the nicest image I have seen in three years. I cant stop staring at it. It is even better than an original gardega.

last supper

In the end I want the last supper to have a slight surrealism to it, a tinge of hyper reality. That is what I want to achieve. I think it is starting to have the faint smell of where I wish to go with it.

last supper

I am finally seeing some light. By tonight all the left side figures will be finished. Next week is a tough week because I have four days to make 8 postage stamps in glass and the difficulty is off the charts so I will be buried and bruised until next sat when I will emerge and finish my last supper. I am learning a lot as I paint this piece so that is one nice aspect of it. One thing I learned is be careful what battles you choose. I hate leaving things undone so I am in this until the camera rolls. I have no regrets about it either as I believe in the validity of the statement and philosophy behind the piece.

flat file

I always try to support my local art store instead of some big corporate entity. I was recently rewarded by them with this gift. It is a file they used to sell arches paper (a very high end paper for drawing and watercolor) they offered it to me to store my drawings and art in and I jumped at the offer. I have ruined more drawings in my life because I am always cramming them somwhere or stepping on them. Thanks Riebes art supplies...

outdoor media

Since I was discussing art vs. media vs. nature I decided to look again at my media study in the great outdoors.

the cynical police

I have a good fan/friend/ collector who always calls me when I slip into the dark town of cynicism.


thanks for calling barry.

the constitution (unfinished)

Dalis melting clocks were inspired by the consistency of Camembert cheese. My "Melting Constitution " was inspired by the consistency of the mind of Dali. At The Final Supper of the establishment media the American Constitution is merely a place- mat. A crumb collector, a surreal object that is slowly melting (being rendered obsolete) as Americans are spoon fed media sugar and turned into intellectual diabetics.

apostle 6

the mind of alex does not like compromise. In order to finish things on deadline often must accept less than perfection. I would prefer to have months on my last supper but that is not possible. It is enough for me to dance on the stage with the fine concept of "media as religion" to know that she is good dancer and a solid partner created by a mind that is a able to cut through the fog of modern life and distill her essence into a wine that is palatable to the taste of the masses. I am informing the masses here so it necessary to work big, grand and to don the soiled and worn out shoes of pop art to sell my point. I could spend months on faces alone but I forge ahead towards a greater good and look at the importance of "the whole." It is the forest I care about here, the trees are but ameans to my end.

apostle one and two (unfinished)

apostle 3

Shall we feast on the bread of the national psyche,
and drink the blood of malleable minds?
Shall we wake from a national slumber
numbed and dumbed and media dined.
neither left nor nor right nor middle damned
I hold the truth in painted hands
a religion born of pixels, a ritual decline
The bread is surely broken
the message is the wine.




--a.gardega

apostle number 5

My camera is taking blurry photos. But I care not as my painting is sharp and sound and cares not about the photo that unveils it to you.

update on last supper friday

If you ever want to paint like me it is important to keep the symbolic bread of wisdom next to you. I hang my bread on the wall as opposed to a horseshoe which is best when it is a crab and not a symbol of luck but rather a symbol of salvation and genius.

peace prize

It is much more important to save art than to save the environment. I do love nature and the environment and spend much time in nature. However, Dali should be awarded the peace prize for his efforts to save art from the climate change towards modernism. Without true art mankind will fumble about in the dark like a beggar looking for a dark alley to sleep in. I fear global stupidity much more than global warming and the melting icecaps of media will flood us with the waters of pop-culture and fear. One must learn to row against the swollen current and strengthen the muscle of individual thought and psychological freedom. Dali was a lighthouse on the sea of false art and empty paintings. I recommend al gore hand off his prize to Dali!

horseshoe crab

I went outside this morning and realized there were only four horseshoe crabs on my porch (not the usual five.) Having an even number of h.crabs does a man no good! I thought a friend may have taken one as a joke but no one ever comes over here unannounced. Then I found a squirrel running back to take another! I chased him off and wandered how and why a squirrel would steal a 10 inch crab from my porch, maybe for nesting?

link

link

right brain left brain

a friend sent me a great link today.

ny times

this was written in the nineties---my god....it explains the medusa piece.


click here for article

all those years ago

when I was just starting out in art I was supported by a great gallery in NYC. We have decided to start working together again. Here is a piece I made so many years ago!!! I love the owner of this gallery as he was always 100% with me. I have heard many stories of galleries doing awful things to artists. I made this piece initially for a show about womans hair that I will include in my next post. This piece was reviewed in the NY Times.

cfm gallery

michelangelo

update on earlier post---I forgot to mention, Michelangelo did not start work on st. peters until he was seventy years old. (The avg. life span back the was forty.) He worked like a genius mule until his death 17 years later.

silicon heart

There is no salvation in digital anything. Digital has done as much damage to art as katrina did to new orleans. Katrina tore away a chunk of our national soul from us and digital art has done the same. It has neutered and homogenized art into a milk that is without taste, without soul. There will never be a louis armstrong on an electric trumpet , nor a cartier bresson with a digi cam. There is an essential warmth, a humanity that bits and bytes will never process or emulate. The very thing that separates us from machines is what will one day save us from them.

update on last supper

It would be easy for me to take the time to take better photos but I already dislike showing work in progress so I will hide behind bad photos a bit while I work on my "moby dick." For me it is always the last 7/ 8ths of a painting when I make it sing. Some artists keep it cooking the whole time, I fight paintings tooth and nail until the end. I never give up so my paintings have to learn to surrender to me. I have 100 plus hours now into my piece.

michelangelo

This is Michelangelo's dome at st. peters in rome. I would like to share some info regarding the dome. Michelangelo designed this dome to be a true semi- circle. It was completed after his death and was altered to be "stretched up" a bit, (so it stood taller.) It is no longer a true semi- circle and therefore not really his dome. I find this very interesting and a bit insulting to "the man." If you are ever in st. peters think of Michelangelo's dome with an asterisk. Maybe now the person who keeps calling me dude can grow some culture in his-petri dish mind and upgrade his vocabulary to sir alex.

comment

some sent me the following comment today----

Dude, your blog is one of the most politically slanted available! Fox News, and its hosts, for example are deplored as a right-wing mouthpiece, and really it is.

Annex Canada and Mexico by force, that's what I say.

I really have to laugh about it first and respond second. My point with the last supper painting is the idea of media being the new religion. It has replaced the church and ritual and art. I chose fox because I find it visually appealing as a surrealist. It is not a right or left statement, it is about the establishment media and where is stands in our lives. Anyone caught up in right/ left issues regarding it is missing the point. I am comforted by the fact the people who leave such comments always hide behind the courageous time-honored cloak of anonymous and begin their comments with dude. I guess my paintings are slanted because I never bring up politics on my site.

politics

I never let politics enter into my blog. I have one issue that concerns me and should be something americans are informed about as a whole. There is an effort underway to combine canada, the us, and mexico into a north american union. This is information which I think is valuable to the left or right and anyone in between. If we lose american sovereignty we lose the constitution and the bill of rights. We will then eventually fall under the jurisdiction of a global government which will make 1984 look like Seurat's famous painting a sunday afternoon in the park. One only need to go to you tube to find out reams of info about the plans for the NAU. Only one candidate has thus far spoken out against this union. There is already a currency planned as well called the amero. Lou dobbs is the only establishment media figure railing against this concept. I always feel like I stepped into a dirty puddle when I bring up anything political on any level. I feel this issue is far beyond left or right politics. Information is power.

last supper

I am getting closer to finishing all the faces of my last supper. I am feeling less overwhelmed and see some daylight creeping across the creaky wooden floor of life . Most of the faces have taken shape and many are finished. The devil lies in the details and when the faces are done the detail will be mostly handled. My camera batteries are dead as usual so I will shoot it tomorrow for an update. Generally, I would like three straight months to make this size piece (not a month of oft interrupted work.) The good thing is that I have some offers to show this piece in Art Basel Miami which is nice. Life is like a drum, the tighter and thinner you are stretched, the truer the tone produced.

miami art fair

I will be flying to miami in first week of dec. A gallery there will be opening with some of my glass work. There is a big art event that goes on in miami every year and it will be good to be down there to explore the event. I may stop by and say hi to one of my old art school class mates who does tattoos on the miami ink TV show. (We both dropped out of art school together.) My last supper may also be in a different gallery in miami for the art fair.

here is the info about the very famous miami art fair.

http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/ca/cc/ss/

last supper update

here is latest update of painting. I have some time to paint before my glass is ready to work on for my stamp commission. This photo is a tad blurry but I have no time to re-shoot.

last supper

I found a website called inside cable news which has some discussion about my painting. It brings to mind a dali quote " It is not necessary for people to know where I am coming from just as it is not necessary for dali to know where he is coming from"

http://insidecable.blogsome.com/2007/08/26/oooooook-2/

purple dawn

I decided to finally start selling some work again when I get the chance I will upload more images. This is explained on ebay.

link to buy:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290168497377&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

gardens

There were amazing gardens on the property, I have no idea what kind of flowers these are.

mushrooms

In some parts of the woods the temperature would drop by 10-15 degrees. It was like walking into a wall of god's air conditioning at times. These were some mushrooms growing on the side of a rock I found. Cliche photo--- but so are most photos.

I found these empty chairs upon arrival and thought that they were interesting when you think of all the souls who have come and gone and spent a brief moment in peace on a porch away from the madness of modern life.

light through a leaf.

It is easy to miss out on the details of nature's beauty when your eyes are are focused on the larger canvas.

cliffs

These are cliffs overlooking lake Mohonk. I will make a watercolor of this soon.

a day in the country

I took a much needed day off and went up to the country with my parents, brother and sister. It is a rare occurrence when my family can step out of their own orbits and get their schedules together so I decided that It was worth sneaking out of the studio for a day. We traveled up to the New Palz, NY area to the Mohonk mountain house. I had never been before and it was a truly great experience. I wont over-explain the environment, I will let the pictures do that. I was lazy and did not draw but I did take photos. I feel like a cheat when I am snapping digi photos and not drawing. I do feel ike a day in the country can really re-charge your psychic batteries.