fluoride lowers IQ

As alex always suspected Fluoride is bad stuff. A Chinese study has determined that the are many negative side effects to consuming fluoride including endocrine damage and a lowering of IQ. I think it should be up to Americans, not the nanny government if we want to consume fluoride. It should not be added to our water. What does this have to do with art? NO IQ= BAD ART!

more thoughts on a glass elephant..

Scientists fully understand the process of water turning to ice. As the temperature cools, the movement of the water molecules slows. At 32 F, the molecules form crystal lattices, solidifying into ice. In contrast, the molecules of glasses do not crystallize. The movement of the glass molecules slows as temperature cools, but they never lock into crystal patterns. Instead, they jumble up and gradually become glassier, or more viscous. No one understands exactly why.

glass elephant

someone called me today to make them a glass elephant. It is not cheap to make a glass elephant. They must be fed a steady diet of genius. They never forget, either. The brain must wrap itself around a project like tortilla around a burrito before one can proceed forth into the actualization of a word or a germ or a dream into something as solid as glass. In truth glass is not a solid but rather a slow liquid. (In old houses the windows are thicker at the base than at the top.) Dali's elephants had long and spindly legs but a glass elephant will have normal legs as they are made of a slow liquid.

looking back

Before I laid down my head onto the soft pillow of an evening's rest I turned my mind's eye to the past year and rummaged briefly through her closet. Over my shoulder the fog lifted and the ghost of a landscape revealed herself to me. I could see the shadows of thoughts that were and the yet unborn thoughts that sleep deep as frogs in a winter's pond. To me, it seems, a thing in motion tends not to stay in motion but to speed up to a frenzied pace that is both maddening and modern in its nature. Progress is a relative term if the soul is not fed! We spin in orbits at speeds that electrons would envy and forget that all orbits are essentially eliptical and you never really get anywhere. All our running leads us back to the place we started and leaves us just enough time start running again. As Roger Waters once said "history is short and the sun is just a minor star..."

artist of the day---maxfield parrish

Maxfield Parrish was born in Philadelphia, Pa. He was mainly known as an illustrator during what was known as "the golden age" of illustration. The genius of Parrish was that you cannot put him in n artistic category, he was his own man to the end. Even though he was labeled an illustrator he is one of the great artists of all time. He used a method of painting in oils called glazing in which you painstakingly build up layers of paint to create colors and luminosity you cannot achieve by any other process. The abstract expressionists should have followed him instead of trying to chew on the leftover bread crumbs of Picasso. He has a large painting/ mural in the bar at the St. Regis (where Dali would often gather.) He was known for building models to paint from as he was very careful to get his lighting perfect and believable.

Viva Max!

irises by gardega

There is a reason van gogh painted irises---They are the best of all possible flowers. Sometimes I feel a bit commercial when I make pieces like this but then I look to the history of art and the Japanese and Lalique and I know I am in good company. I painted two new versions of my irises on gold leaf so you can inquire via email. They are approx. 1 foot by two foot and priced at 200. dollars each. Gold leaf is an interesting surface to paint on and a challenge to perfect when laying down the leaf itself. I probably wont put on ebay so you can email me if you are interested in buying these.

artist of the day--by gardega

I get as many ideas from reading as I do from using my eyeballs to look at paintings. Normally when I get a hold of an author I read every book they ever wrote. (Then I read all the biographies I can find as well) The writer Thornton Wilder is not one of those writers. I only read one book by him but it was a masterpiece I think everyone should read. The book/ play is called "Our Town" and is a work of great and wondrous brilliance. If you want to get a feel for life in America in a simpler time then pay a visit to Grover's Corner New Hampshire. I read it 15 years ago and never forgot it. It is an easy read and an important one. buy this today and read it in February.

new NYC painting by Gardega

Here is my first rough of the Ambassador New York City yellow page cover. I am going to do some more work on the design but I will keep the majority of what I have developed here. (this will soon be on a doorstep near you.) these borough covers are interesting because they force you too actually look at things you think you have seen a million times.

early work

teenage sketch book

old sketchbook page by gardega

teenage sketches

for my new viewers

scanner

my scanner is working so I will load new drawings! me promise...

breaking news!

I drove deep into Brooklyn today to pick up a large table top that I was commissioned to carve a design onto. I was unable to get an assistant so I had to carry a two hundred pound table top into my pickup truck on my own. I managed to get it safely into my truck and proceeded to drive back to long island. I managed to hit a railroad crossing too fast and watched the piece shatter in my rear view. I am still trying not to get upset as I have made glass art for twenty years and have had a good record of breakage. You have to break some eggs to make an omelette (as they say...) my scanner is back in order as well. Welcome to late January! This is the second glass piece I broke at the same stupid RR bump. I am looking forward to leaving the suburbs as this was a sign. If you cant laugh at the things that go wrong in life and art you yourself break like so much glass. It is best to bend like a tree in the wind and have a drink or two and start fresh again tomorrow...

update

Sorry for being lax on updates. I am having scanner issues so I cannot scan new drawings. I have almost solved the problem...I think...It is 15 degrees in brooklyn today. I hope my miami and LA clients are happy in the sunshine. I have been too busy to complain about the cold, maybe today I will take a break and complain. I will do an "artist of the day" today and a "color of the day" as I cannot scan images as I normally do. I received an email from a girl I have not seen since high school who had read the page six blurb.