sunday update

I painted a lot yesterday so I did not have to think about this coming week and the horrid deadline I am facing regarding my glass stamp project. Dali once said an artist must be able to paint a pear in the midst of rape and pillage. (tune out the world around you.)I look at painting in much the same way a child builds a furniture tent indoors when It is storming outside. I hope I am not the only person who did that as a child, but for me art is a place to hide from the world outside. My goal is to be done by 100% by Halloween. After that I will prepare for art Basel in Miami.

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.

update

I have been painting away on my last supper. Da Vinci was well known for getting sidetracked and dropping one project for another. He even fled cities to avoid getting arrested for commissions he did not complete. I always try to complete what I started but I cant always control getting side-tracked. I have to take ten days now to work on making glass images of postage stamps for a stamp society in Pennsylvania. I must change my deadline for the last supper to the end of the month and it is not changing my TV appearance, I will still go on when done. This stamp job is very difficult, so on top of my painting I will be dealing with a sever deadline to make eight postage stamps in glass. I will post the images here as I finish them. Sorry for slacking on updates.

queens final

I had to make some changes as usual-- so this is the final final cover for queens yellow pages. This is the fifth time I painted this unisphere. It is left over from the 1964 worlds fair and is the first thing I remember seeing when I moved to NY from Texas as a child. For the first time I mixed photoshop and oil painting. I think I was the last artist still painting book covers with actual paint. The structure of this thing is nightmare to paint so I opted for a photoshop and oil paint approach. It is hard to keep things fresh when you have painted them many times but that is part of the challenge. Michelangelo stayed for four years on the chapel and actually got better as he progressed. So painting a small painting of the unisphere is not much of a battle!

art lesson of the day

my post yesterday is concerned with lighting and how light falls on concave objects vs. convex. I will expand later. commit this to memory in case you are ever on a quiz show.

NASA MARS CAVES

I came across this image on the NASA website that claims to have found "caves" on the Martian surface. I can't believe they are so naive. If you look closely you will that the surface markings are "raised." The light source is from the right in these photos. These are not craters but raised surface "bumps." The dark "caves" are actually shadows of raised projections. If you take a pebble and light it from the right side with a very bright light you will see what I mean. I cant believe they don't get this. It almost seems like propaganda and the F image doesnt seem to be an actual hole at all but a mistake or a black spot. i will make a drawing to show what I mean later.

dirty laundry

I hate showing work before it is done as it is never comforting to show the decisions you made before you decide they are bad decisions and throw them away. I am a very unorthodox artist and could never confirm to any thing orthodox as far as method, technique, etc. I know a hundred artist who are very methodical and careful and follow another artist like the good lord never gave them a personality or mind of their own. I paint from my gut and it goes to my hand and god made my guts so they must be good.

someone is selling my work.....

Someone is selling a bunch of my work on craigslist. I am okay with this and was actually contacted by the seller yesterday. Once your child is up for adoption you can only hope they grow up well. If I had extra money right now I would buy back the pieces. Here is one of the pieces for sale. I make no money off this and I only ask if you decided to resell my work you make it clear in the ads that I am not the seller. Otherwise the pieces are yours to do with what you please!


http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/art/433441953.html

loss of tribe and ritual

I think modern man has a built in emptiness and disconnect because he has lost his tribe. Deep in our collective cellular memory we have a need to be part of something. It is not in our true nature to be lone wolves. Modern man tries desperately to fill this psychic hole. Art (real and honest art) is sometimes a helpful way to fill this vacuum. Media has become a sugar fix for our needs. TV and the internet merely serve to distract us. Bars across america are full different tribes who gather regularly to partake in the communal ritual of drink. The media has become the way most people find ritual and commonality in their lives. But, unlike art, it offers little for the soul. Ritual is in our DNA and now we have lost ritual and even church rituals have become out of touch with the true reasons they were first used. People go to museums to experience ritual and they don't even know it. Modern Media and art does not fill this human need. Making empty art to express that we live in " empty times" is like bailing out a boat with a fork. (it doesn't help!) Gardega has decided that ritual AKA art can help us through our lives when it is made fro mthe hands of genius and genius only requires honesty.

the sacred crab

I have always believed that horseshoe crabs are a sacred animal. The american indians held the belief of power animals, animals that held magic/ sacred properties such as buffalo and eagles etc.. The medicine men believed in finding your own sacred animal that would guide you through the world. I am pretty confident my "animal" is the sacred horseshoe crab. The horseshoe crab is already used in saving human lives through its blue blood. A close artist friend brought me over a gift of five crabs she found on the beach. I decided to lay them out as they are on my other website...

update

My goal is to have the left side of painting fairly locked down by Sunday. I will have most of the faces pretty well finished and the gestures worked out as well. As usual a freelance life steal away your weekends.

craigslist

someone is selling works of mine on craigslist. I have no idea whom it is but It does not bother me if anyone wants to check it out. As long as they aren't stolen pieces we live in a free nation. (I promise it is not me selling the works..) I only sell on ebay or from my site but I am sure they are legit as I am not really aware of forgeries!


http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/art/427181695.html

the new apostles

I have finally found a name for my new painting. "The New Apostles" I think that has a ring and will serve my purposes very well. I will be painting all day today and try to upload progress as well.

gardega

I have two weeks to finish my last supper and will update progress starting tomorrow. I am enjoying the process and I am also trying to clarify across the boards that there is nothing blasphemous abut the piece, I think it is a positive message to get back to art ands spirituality that was lost when art became too much about commerce and humans actually had attention spans. I will post updates and drawings tomorrow.

religious art

In the words of the genius that is Peter Gabriel. "It is so strange the way things turn." I started making religious inspired art a few years ago without any reason as to why except my hand guided me there. Within a few months I had a request to do a mausoleum glass carving of St. Francis. I thought that was odd and then recently after I started my last supper painting I ran into a stranger who is working for a man who is looking for a leonardo mural on the ceiling of his house. So I may be painting a leonardo ceiling in the near future.

interview

I was interviewed today by Fox and I think I did okay without mumbling too much or sweating. When the painting is finished in two weeks they will have me on Hannity and Colmes for a live interview. They will use today's shoot as the intro to the live appearance on hannity and colmes.They were very nice and professional and it was a nice day for freedom. Now back to the easel!

american alex

I have a confirmation of the time my TV interview today. nature of TV and schedules change last minute etc. But It will most likely happen. I have decided to just go with the flow as I am not good a pre-scripted speech or ideas and I will just be my surrealist self. I love the idea of being on live camera where one can fumble all over one self and fall on your face. I am sure alex will remember most of why he painted this painting if they ask. The answer in truth is I have no idea why.

bread

the bread of the national collective psyche lies in wait to be broken and feasted upon by the establishment media. Washed down with a fine, sugary- wine and digested during the post- meal slumber.

american alex

Today is my last day to paint before the last supper is exposed "in progress" on Television. "In Progress" is never a happy thing for artists because it shows all the dirty laundry and ugly corners that still need to be painted. It is never comfortable to show one's baby while still in the womb but such is life.

american alex

after thirteen hours of painting I start to get messy and drop things, trip on things and generally get swallowed by chaos. I was never an artist who kept a neat palette or an immaculate work space as it does not allow for chaos (which is for me) is a primary ingredient in the soup of genius. Francis Bacon's studio always looked like a bomb hit it which is too messy for me. If you are working highly realistically it is often to your advantage to work in a highly ordered environment but then again art is not math and an art studio is not a finance office. The pizza man who delivered that pizza you can see was afraid of me and the painting and he seemed to want to run out the room as quickly as possible.

american alex

optical illusion----if you stare at my palette on the lower right it appears be floating above the surface of the painting. That is an illusion. Or is it just me who has been painting too many hours...

american alex

"don't be afraid of perfection, you will never achieve it"---S. Dali

american alex

In order to paint large, one must step away. I like to go up to my bedroom and look down through the window to view my latest piece to make artistic decisions.

american alex

american alex

sacred and profane

Art is sacred just as people's psyche's are sacred. What is fed into our collective mind via media is something to consider and be aware of! Our reality is spoon fed on a daily basis on a mass-level--- what goes in eventually comes out.

american alex

Is there salvation in media or has it rendered us impotent and blind to the great genius of human potential and thought? Is there a place for a youtube- Da Vinci? Can art compete with pop-up advertising? Who are our modern God's and are sound bites the new commandments? Attention spans grow shorter and and religious feeling hides beneath the stark light of a plasma screen. Have we amused ourselves to death?

monday

I have been confirmed for filming on monday for a major news network and I am painting away the hours until then. The star of alex streaks ever brighter across the grey-sullen sky of modern and contemporary art and will save us from the scourge of modernism that has rendered art impotent and passionless and soaked in the formaldehyde of ism's. A preserved shark is not art nor is gluing plates to a canvas with epoxy. One must step forward to save humanity from the emperor' and his false clothes and bring art back to place it came from, the heart of man.

who is this glassed man?

sketch 2

new figure---quick sketch

Here is another figure to be added to the last supper table. I am not concerned about likeness at this stage but gesture and pose. Monday is the new day for my TV coverage, excited to have the weekend to work on picture .

Great video

If anyone want to own something that you will always treasure (aside from my art) you should take a look at this DVD website called The Great Courses. A good friend of mine sent me the Michelangelo DVD and I have been watching it for two weeks. I never knew there was so much information to be had about michelangelo, it is such a great DVD I can't recommend it enough! I am not paid for this, but it is a must own and I plan on buying the leonardo DVD if there is one. I wont buy the DALI DVD because there is nothing they can tell me about Dali that I don't know.


click here for link:

loose ends

I cannot repeat this enough times---If anyone sent money and was not sent artwork or is not satisfied 100% please contact me. I sent out thousands of piece of art work so you can imagine that I have dealt with many people and it easy to let some things slip past my peripheral vision. I am confident that we did a great job in filling orders and I wish to confirm that as well. Even if someone just wishes to comment or speak about art you can email me.


alexgardega@gmail.com


alex

taupe

I recently came across the word taupe in a request for my art and I never really knew what he exact color of taupe was...here is one definition....you learn something everyday you are above ground.


link:

rough sketches

as I mentioned there are a lot of challenges in presenting a profile when you only have visual references for a frontal view. One way to work through such issues is to draw incessantly and think with the pencil. It is the journey of a a thousand doodles that begins with a single sketch.

watercolors

Often I will take a break from a piece and work on another smaller piece just to take a mental breather and refresh the batteries. I made this watercolor today after drawing media heads for many hours. Sometimes it is nice to limit the palette to muted tones.

painting

It is important when one starts a work of art to maintain enthusiasm throughout the process of painting the piece. The beginning stages or formative stages of a painting are usually fairly interesting and exciting as you are often tackling something new in regards to approach or composition or layout. Delacroix (one of my favorite painters) said that anyone can start a painting but it take nerves of steel to finish one. (I often agree with Delacroix.) Da Vinci was notorious for leaving efforts unfinished and moving on to his next interest like a child from toy to toy. I often battle with losing steam in the process of painting a work but I also enjoy the idea of "wrapping up" and finishing a work, knowing you stuck it out until the end.

last supper cam

I am setting up a web cam to show time-lapse images of my Last Supper progress. I am not very technical so it is a work in progress. When I have time I will make some videos of me painting and link them to here.

last supper study

Here is another "diner" at the Last Media Supper. I am selling all my sketches and studies for this media event so if anyone wants to own a piece of media history you can contact me through email. Imagine owning Da Vinci's last supper sketches! I would personally like to own Dali's studies of his last supper painting but alas I can only make my own last supper. Just as I start to explore the surreal nature of media O.J. jumps into the foreground like a fly at a summer picnic. In my last Supper painting there will be a fly on the bread that will be symbolic of OJ simpson as he affects the national psyche which will be represented by a humble pre-sliced loaf of bread.

Dali's DNA

Dali was fascinated by DNA or the idea of DNA. AS I have mentioned previously he predicted that (if discovered) DNA would be in the form of a spiral! (He understood the building blocks of the man upstairs.) A man close to Dali has discovered that Dali has his DNA remains on on a feeding tube that was used to feed him after a horrible (suspicious) fire engulfed him in his bedroom when he was in the end of his years. This DNA could be used to clone his genius (Jurassic park style) but I assume it will be used for art authentication purposes instead! There is a new film coming out with Dali played by Pacino (I tried real hard to be the guy to make the art for the film) but to no avail. They will use some Hollywood SFX hack, instead. I can't see Pacino playing Dali, it will not work and the film will be as flat as a phony modernist painting. I could have stepped up to the plate to help because I am a Dalinian scholar but I am only Gardega, not Dali.

latest supper update

Here is the latest update as of three o'clock today.

eleventh hour

It seems that Friday is locked in for some TV network coverage about the piece. If you don't have deadlines you never get anything done! The network is interested in an "in progress" shoot--- so It is not a panic situation but alex does have a hell of a hard week ahead of him!

new figure

I have roughed out another "media figure" for my last supper. I may have to make adjustments on first figure (or even repaint figure entirely) at some point as I have figured out something I did not foresee! It is a huge challenge to take a well known figure and paint him in profile when you only have frontal information of the persons face. An artist friend laughed at my thought of even attempting this. I will prevail! This new figure is known for his "freedom concerts"...that was my hint....

fox supper

this photo is little fuzzy but I am too tired to change it...I am painting everything I can before I have to face adding more people. In painting I always eat my dessert before my vegetables which makes me a lazy artist. My teachers used to laugh at me because I would have the messiest pallet. many artists work very neat and anally but I am comfortable with chaos and eventually make order out of it. I could have saved myself lots of stress in my life if I was one of them people who fold their socks when they put them away.