oil sketch--bethesda fountain (on ebay)

Here is an oil sketch of bethesda fountain in central park. I am adding a few more elements and working out some issues.


8 x 10 masonite




click link to purchase: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290232837928

article of the day

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356850,00.html

gardega manifesto

1) Modernism is a lifeless and empty dinner


2) all great art lives in the past


3) Art deco, art nouveau (they matter)


4) abstraction is symbolic of a society who seeks beauty without effort.


5) The greatest rebel today is a classicist


6) There is more beauty in a single NC Wyeth painting than in the entire collection of the MOMA

7) art is empty and meaningless and it is empty and meaningless that it is empty and meaningless.

8) craft is a five letter word (not a four letter word)

9) Irony has had her day.

10) art should transcend class and education, it should be accessible to a plumber. Elitism is the enemy of true art.


11) looking backwards is looking forward.

12) art is like a river, when art is sick the people are sick.

13) without philosophy and the geometry of spirit ,there can be no art.

14) Don't be afraid to be hated.

15) Greatness in art and life requires unnatural courage and the loss of the affections of the mediocre.

16) It is far better to be known than unknown.

17) Courage is knowing what not to fear.

18) Artist, sell thyself!!!

william faulkner

Writing

In an interview with The Paris Review in 1956, Faulkner remarked, "Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him". Another esteemed Southern writer, Flannery O'Connor, stated that, "The presence alone of Faulkner in our midst makes a great difference in what the writer can and cannot permit himself to do. Nobody wants his mule and wagon stalled on the same track the Dixie Limited is roaring down."

the eyes of texas--update

Here is my painting that I am about 1/3 the way through on. It has promise, the trick is not to lose the reins and fall into the mud. I photographed on a bit of an angle by accident...the background will be bricks when finished. I bought this cow skull off of ebay many years ago. I always hang her over my art table because her horns are good to hang my clip-on lights to.

24 x 24

update

I have been working since three AM on various projects. There is never enough time to get my work done. I will load updates today on "eyes of texas" painting and my mcsorleys watercolor battle (if I can salvage it.) I also did a small oil painting of the bethesda fountain in central park photograph it if I am satisfied.

a quicky

I am fairly apolitical but I dont like the government wasting people's money and spending our money like a wretched drunken sailor. It is real easy to spend and waste money you took from people and never actually earned. This is why I do free illustrations for Citizens Against Government Waste. They are a non-partisan group that acts as a watch dog on the over bloated and corrupt US government. I have done free illustrations for them for about three years now. I usually put off until last minute because I am lazy and I dont get paid. I usually dread sitting down and doing them but they turn out to be fun. Why does are brain make every task out to be so much harder than it really when you just sit down and "do it."

color of the day--explained

Day	Color of the day	Planet	God of the day
Sunday	red	Sun	Surya
Monday	yellow	Moon	Chandra
Tuesday	pink	Mars	Mangala
Wednesday	green	Mercury	Budha
Thursday	orange	Jupiter	Brihaspati
Friday	blue	Venus	Shukra
Saturday	purple	Saturn	Shani

In Thai tradition, there is an astrological rule (which has influence from Hindu mythology) that assigns color for each day of the week. The color is assigned based on the color of the God who protecting the day or Navagraha. For example, the God of Sunday is Surya which has red color. These colors of the day are the traditional Thai birthday colors. For example, King Bhumipol was born on Monday, so on his birthday throughout Thailand will be decorated with yellow color.

painting vs. glass

It is easy to paint a face or an eye. one need only practice everyday for ten years. Carving a face in glass is harder--- it took me twenty years to get an expression of a face in glass.

Ophelia

I just picked up one of my last remaining Ophelia glass pieces and I think I will put her up for sale today on Ebay---I am photographing her now. I do believe my Ophelia glass piece to be one of my best pieces in the glass medium. I think I have made about five versions of her, each with a different necklace or expression. This one is pre-framed and lit internally.

Email to purchase this piece. alexgardega@gmail.com

quote of the day

Peter Drucker - "The best way to predict the future is to create it."