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Saw a group of people forming
Round a figure lying down
And someone runs to make a phone call
And the man kneels on the ground
The man kneels on the ground
Theres a tightening in my chest
I know that Im drawn in
Oh God let it not be you

Dont leave us
Dont leave like this
Dont leave me here again
Im not quitting on you
No one else
Youre not quitting on us
No running out

The colour in your shirt is darkening,
Against the paleness of your skin
I remember how you held the goldfish
Swimming around in a plastic bag
Swimming around in a plastic bag

You held it up so high
In the bright lights of the fair
It slipped and fell
We looked everywhere

Dont leave us (your eyes are bright, your blood is warm)
Dont leave like this (your heart is strong, youre holding on)
Dont leave me here again (I feel your pulse, I hold your hand)
Im not quitting on you
Theres no one else
Youre not quitting on us
Theres no way out
No way out

Dont leave us
Dont leave like this
Dont leave me here again (I feel your pulse, I hold your hand)
Im not quitting on you
Theres no one else
Youre not quitting on us
No running away no way out


p. gabriel

word of the day

rodomontade \rod-uh-muhn-TADE; roh-duh-; -TAHD\, noun:
Vain boasting; empty bluster; pretentious, bragging speech; rant.



(I am thinking of changing the name of this site to rodomontade..)

words of the day---peter gabriel

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
(I) just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
"Son," he said "Grab your things,
I've come to take you home."

To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Tho' my life was in a rut
"Till I thought of what I'd say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey" he said "Grab your things
I've come to take you home."
(Back home.)

When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey" I said "You can keep my things,
they've come to take me home."

moving

My move date is march 16th. Bear with my lack of devotion to this site and art while I pack boxes and pull up the stakes from my teepee. I have developed the flu so now I have major deadlines, I am sick and I have to pack. At least I have my sanity---um....

quote

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.
Niels Bohr

forest of souls

It is a long hard to of cleaning, painting and packing for a pack- rat. The advantage of being a pack rat is you find things you forgot you had. I painted this last year and put it away because I didn't understand it yet. I think it works on some levels. It is oil on masonite 21" x 24" It is for sale for if anyone wants to inquire via email.

painted hand of the day

someone sent me an email with a bunch of painted hands. I will share them daily.

word of the day---inchoate

Word of the Day for Monday, March 10, 2008

inchoate \in-KOH-it\, adjective:

1. In an initial or early stage; just begun.
2. Imperfectly formed or formulated.

Liquid Prozac

Next time you have some tap water in NY or New Jersey (or many other states that are united) you can rest happy knowing that the water is polluted with pharmaceuticals. There is trace pollution from prozac to estrogen in twenty four reservoirs in NY and in the drinking water of twenty four million americans. In Europe the fish in the Seine are actually changing sex due to the high level of estrogen in the water. How do they get in there one may ask? Sewage...I have always ranted that fluoride is a poison and now you can wash down your flouride with someone elses hormones. In Brave New world you chewed down a Soma, in brave New America you need only drink some water to lobotomize yourself or two have some estrogen to keep you from being too manly. Drink up, johnny---I'll have a whiskey.

procession

I sometimes like to mess around with photography when I am too lazy to draw/paint or actually work for my images. I often take photos off of my TV or You tube. This is a photo from a conspiracy video I was watching on you tube. I really like the color and mood and have been itching to make a watercolor of this photo. I may use my 20 dollar sheet of paper to paint this one. I think I will leave out the computer cursor in the upper right.

commuting snapshots

These are snapshots of my tiresome daily commute. As it will soon be over I decided to document my journey. These photos are not exciting and have the same lifelessness of modern art or a Whitney show. At least now you wont have to go to Chelsea to see modern art, you can simply look out the window of American Alex's pick up truck.

ride home

I will not miss my commute when I move into NYC--I drive into Brooklyn 7 days a week so I decided to take some photos for old time sake. Here is the Le Frak Building in Queens. To pass time in traffic I used to take photos of Le Frak each time I passed.

Vonnegut---cat's cradle terms

Terms of Bokononism

The religion of the people of San Lorenzo, called Bokononism, encompasses concepts unique to the novel, with San Lorenzan names such as:

• karass - a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. The people can be thought of as fingers in a Cat's Cradle.
• duprass - a karass of only two people, who almost always die within a week of each other. The typical example is a loving couple who work together for a great purpose.
• granfalloon - a false karass; i.e., a group of people who imagine they have a connection that does not really exist. An example is "Hoosiers"; Hoosiers are people from Indiana, and Hoosiers have no true spiritual destiny in common, so really share little more than a name.
• wampeter - the central point of a karass
• foma - harmless untruths
• wrang-wrang - Someone who steers a Bokononist away from their line of perception
• vin-dit - a sudden shove in the direction of Bokononism
• saroon - to acquiesce to a vin-dit
• duffle - the destiny of thousands of people placed on one person
• stuppa - a fogbound child
• sin-wat - a person who wants all of somebody's love for themself
• pool-pah - wrath of God, "shit storm"
• Busy, busy, busy - words Bokononists whisper when they see an example of how interconnected everything is
• boku-maru - the supreme act of worship of the Bokononists, which is an intimate act consisting of prolonged physical contact between the naked soles of the feet of two persons.
• Borasisi and Pabu, the Sun and Moon; the binary trans-Neptunian object (66652) Borasisi and its moon (66652) Borasisi I Pabu bear their names.†
  • Borasisi, the Sun, held Pabu, the Moon, in his arms and hoped that Pabu would bear him a fiery child. But poor Pabu gave birth to children that were cold, that did not burn...Then poor Pabu herself was cast away, and she went to live with her favorite child, which was Earth.

Oslo

My west village neighbor from many years ago found me online. She is from Oslo. It is in my celestial cards to go to Oslo, the birthplace of Munch and Nerdrum and blond hair. Vonnegut had a name for people who you meet in life and you learn something from, it was from his novel Cat's Cradle, I believe. Anyone?

movies

I do not go to movies and I dont watch TV. I keep the TV at night for company when I sleep to make up for all the brain programming I miss during day. I rent one movie a month and never watch it and return it late. I rented Beouwulf and it is still here late and unwatched. An unwatched movie never boils...must return!

mornin' america

I woke up at 4:30 this morning in order to get ready to paint my apt. I will hold "bigger brushes" today My landlord is a bit upset because I used my apt as an art studio first and a living quarter second (Priorities!!). I got paint on the walls and on the rug so I offered to replace the rug and to re-paint apt. My art comes from chaos and not from neatly ordered sketches or mechanical drawings, neat artists are like skinny chefs--dont trust them! I hate being in the zone of the "in-betweens' before I move in one week. I am a nomad and move once a year as I dont trust roots. I am paint-splattered tumble weed, rolling across the relatively new carpet of the american psyche. (I think I want to boycott the Whitney Museum because they are ruining american art with their Biennial of crap.) I would be perfectly happy living on the road drawing and painting different cities like a rock star or a traveling salesman. I have lived in 25 different places since I was a child and I like to pull up my teepee and head out to new plains when I can. One would think I was running from something or chasing my tail but I like to feed my ADD with new things so she doesnt chew my out insides.

Deadlines

I have the worst deadlines ever and then I have to move on top of it all. Good coordination/ thinking and timing is the key to my success! If I dont die I will emerge stronger and actually enjoy my spring! I still have not painted my watercolor on my 20 dollar paper as I am not feeling it yet.

upodato

I decided to take a break tonight from work and to (attempt) paint an nice watercolor to clear out my system from rust and stress. (I bought a $20.00 sheet of arches watercolor paper today.) There is always a fear factor when I attack an expensive canvas or paper because it seems so precious that you afraid of "mucking it up." The trick is to forget that it is a twenty dollar sheet and to just lose yourself in the work. I will post the result tonight (me promise.) I saw an artist in Brooklyn yesterday I used to assist as a kid, he needs work so I am may hire him a bit. It is funny how the world turns.

spring ahead

almost time to run the clock forward into spring and turn our backs on the foul witch of winter---Must be nice to live in a climate that doesn't freeze! (Then again the seasons build character.) I am buried under deadline hell and will emerge soon with art and wisdom. I will emerge soon like a butterfly from a chrysalis, I will transform myself from a serious "artiste" who is exploring the shadowy depths of a wayward psyche to one who will paint your beagle for some rusty shillings.

article of the day

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/travel/02next.html?ex=1362546000&en=b185f7e5a5975980&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

painting of the day---william blake

william blake

the great red dragon and woman clothed with the sun.

alex rates this piece:

imagination---- 9


skill/ technique---------4



soul--------10


mood----9


color----8

word of the day---rara avis

rara avis \RAIR-uh-AY-vis\, noun;

plural rara avises \RAIR-uh-AY-vuh-suhz\ or rarae aves \RAIR-ee-AY-veez\:

A rare or unique person or thing.

1377

This is post # 1378. That is a lot of posts and it was also probably a good year for wine. That is a lot of rambling/ mumbling/ preaching/ reaching/ beseeching and teaching. Today all my glass is ready to start laying out and designing and I am going to photograph the entire process of creating 8 glass carvings before march 23. I am not going to have too much time for typing etc but I will post the progress of the job all the way until completion and installation. I probably wont have real art to show until tomorrow but I will post some photos tonight of step numero uno.

mailboxes

although I am in a maelstrom of deadlines, my brain thinks often about mailboxes and especially of the rusty "southern variety" mailbox standing dutifully on dusty Texas roads. These were the mailboxes of my youth. Mailboxes are metaphors for waiting and patience, methinks.

election

this is the election process as I hear it from my TV:



blah blah blah change blah blah blah change blah blah blah change


although change is truly the only constant I agree with simon and garfunkel that any way you look at it you lose.

I think I should be president because I would dutifully ignore my duties and hide in the basement bunker of the white house and paint pictures and let things "unmuck" themselves over time.

quote of the day--mark twain

It is a gratification to me to know that I am ignorant of art, and ignorant also of surgery. Because people who understand art find nothing in pictures but blemishes, and surgeons and anatomists see no beautiful women in all their lives, but only a ghastly stack of bones with Latin names to them, and a network of nerves and muscles and tissues.

---M. Twain

ebay

Not sure why I bid on this on ebay but there is something strangely surreal that transcends the intention of the artist. There is no "irony" in this piece. I will one day have to paint some "blades" myself.

busy alex

I am buried trying to make eight glass carvings for a nightclub by march 25th. The deadline is more brutal than I can explain. It is 4:49 AM and so windy out I think a witch on a bicycle just went past my window. I will update with my glass pieces when they are ready to photograph. sorry for being lazy on my site.

artist of the day--arisman

This is a painting by a good friend of mine and a former professor at art school. his name is Marshall Arisman and he is an illustrator and fine artist who mainly focuses on fine art these days. He is a rare artist and and a rare human as he walks his own path and it seems to be a very honest path. There are not many living artists that inspire my work but he is a great artist and a lot of fun to hang out with, we took a journey together to find buffalo out east on long island and I wrote an article about it for a magazine. you can google his name to see more of his work or find his site at www.marshallarisman.com

disasters of war--goya

Goya was a genius of the highest level--- and he makes some great canned goods as well. I wonder if you canned the disasters of war if they would sell to a public. Instead of beans you could have this picture on a label. Some conceptual artist will probably steal this idea and run with it to the local superartmarket. These are the things I think about when I am doing my laudry at 6 am on a sunday.

a dark and ugly thing

I joined a gym yesterday to work out some rust and to get my brain in shape as winter has sculpted my psyche into a dark and ugly thing. I move in two weeks so I thought I would take some time and get in shape before I leave the white picket fences and SUVs behind. I drove this morning at 6:30 to work out and the gym was closed. They open at eight o'clock on Sunday. There is no place in the suburbs for maniacs who start the train of their day rolling at 5 Am on Sundays.

glass study--by gardega

Here is my fifth doodle/design for a glass carving. I think this piece can work with some refinement. I have to finish all work by march 20th.

Harvard Yard

My former assistant has been accepted to Harvard Med School, she will be attending in the fall. I am very happy for her and will recommend she study the blood of the noble horseshoe crab for her thesis and after she makes the big breakthrough that will cure all cancer she will give me a footnote in the great book of medical discoveries.

Jarvick gets canned---by gardega

I was one of the first to let you know that the claim that Jarvick invented the artificial heart had more holes in it than your average swiss cheese. I get very annoyed when people take other peoples labors and pretend they are their own. It was gardega who told you about paul winchell, the voice of Tigger, and his part in inventing the heart. I was informed by a friend that Jarvick has been canned from the commercials as the cat was released from its bag! Viva gardega and Viva knowledge and infomation which is more valuable than art at times. The truth will set you free.

I go swimming

The water was around 40F. It changes your perspective.

ocean man

I am doing my regular jump in the drink today. It is just cold enough to check the temp of the water with my brain. I may be lazy and jump in the sound and not the ocean.

first sketches---by gardega

This is my very first sketchbook page in which I am figuring out a series of glass women for a brooklyn club. I like the initial energy so i will try to keep it in my final designs. It is very easy to kill the life out of your initial thumbnail sketches when you enlarge them and "refine" them. If you refine a native you risk taking the magic of what made that person. The American Indians were a very powerful people who gained nothing from being refined (like sugar.) I prefer the raw and the savage in art combined with skill and discipline--- so maybe there is a happy middle. This page is for sale if anyone is interested.

solar dragonfly

Here is a small electronic dragonfly. The dragonfly was a popular motif in art nouveau. I am not sure where the robot version fits into the art world.

bad art--rauchenberg

This is the worst piece of art Alex has ever seen and it is so very famous. do not worry, you need only to scroll down to see Rembrandt and he will save your eyes from this treachery. Many artists tell me I should be nicer and let other artists make their art--to each his own...I say-- BAH!! I must raise the consciousness to highest branch in the Tree Of Art where the birds of genius nest and play

rembrandt

This painting haunted me as a child. What an advanced subject matter for an artist to choose way back in the 17th century! As a child in Texas I saw a pig get hung up and slaughtered in the same fashion, I remember the blood freezing on the ground. I cannot say I liked seeing a pig get killed but I sure do like bacon.

forgery

I am 99% convinced that this is not a real Rembrandt but a Forgerino. Forgerino was a very famous artist who has been around a long time---It is awkward and forced and does not have the distinctive odor of genius that normally emanates from the work of Rembrandt. Maybe he had a bad day or was hungover. There are a lot of paintings that I find very suspect as to being by the hand of certain artists. I find it interesting that artist's find their own voice or style and "this" is hard to copy or forge. Only Hendrix can play Hendrix--- Although I do play a mean Dali when I am in the mood...I never really think I have a style although many people say that they can see my style in my different works from my glass to my watercolors----My nose is too close to my face and I cannot see it.

the best laid plans...

every time I make big art plans I get sidetracked by the lure of money on a big project I cannot turn down.

blown by the wind...

news article of the day

hapless, hapless, hapless...


http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/28/biker.meeting/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Here is a photo i took yesterday on the subway in NYC. It has a NYC winter- vibe to it, methinks.

club photos

I have an insane amount of work to do for this night club in Brooklyn. They have essentially let me take a lot of control and make it as my own art gallery. I am so buried in work I cannot see. This is a photo one of many meetings I have had at the club. Everyone is super nice and there is zero club "sketchiness" going on--- which is very refreshing.

photo of man sewing

I took this picture through a storefront window in NYC yesterday. I am going to paint this soon as it reminds me of Vermeer's lace maker.

proof of genius

I stopped in a gas station yesterday morn. to take a picture of a Uhaul that has a horseshoe crab image on the side. (it is a Delaware Uhaul, ground zero for H.crabs ) I had to take out the Swamp Angel glass piece out of the cab of my truck to get to my digital camera. I took out the swamp angel and realized my camera was not in my truck. I drove away annoyed and then a few miles away I realized I had left something behind at the gas station. I turned around and drove back and picked up the lonely swamp angel that was waiting for me against a tree. (Somebody had already purchased it so I am very happy to have retrieved it as I was on my way to frame it.) I think this is sufficient proof that I am a genius and on a side note I forgot to get gas.

earthquake

I get regular premonitions of earthquakes and sometimes even the region comes to my mind. I had a bad dream of a California earthquake last night. Earthquakes are something I have never experienced except in dreams but I have seen many tornadoes in Texas.

I will draw your dreams---gardega

I woke up today thinking I would like to draw or illustrate peoples dreams. If anyone has visually interesting dream, email it to me and I will draw it. I will need as much information as you can remember. Recurring dreams are interesting, methinks.

the big bang explained--by gardega

A scientist said tonight , on TV, that the single biggest question in science is what set the "Big Bang" in motion. Firstly---Alex thinks, is that the whole question is backward. Why did anything have to set off the big bang, why is it limited to a cause/effect relation? If time is simply a mental construct as I believe (what is time without consciousness of time?) I think that by looking out we are actually looking in and ignoring the effect of the viewer on the experiment is foolish. Also, we must understand that our brain has never even been exposed to light, it has only created its own idea of what light is.

the map is not the territory---descartes

now back to our regularly scheduled program...

fluorescent future

There is a mission by "the powers that be" to rid us all of incandescent light and to force us to use fluorescent bulbs. In fact, it (a bill) has already been passed to do away with the regular bulbs that light our lives. I hate fluorescent light as much as I hate bad art, it is the worst thing I have ever heard of. I will break any and all laws as I cannot stand fluorescent light---it flutters and it is green and hellish and gives me bad nerves. I guess it makes sense that the future (1984) will be illuminated by the foul light of fluorescents! Fight back or we are doomed to a future lit with a sick and sad light. Fluorescents have been proven to cause severe psychic issues in homo sapiens and in animals.

by the way, they are all full of mercury.

lexi--by gardega

fun

I am going to have fun and upload stuff for the next two hours..old stuff, new stuff, random stuff.

strange day

I woke up at four this morning and then at five I went to get my big gulp at seven eleven. For some reason I decided to buy a scratch off ticket (I rarely gamble.) I won 50 dollars and bought a second and then I won seventy dollars. Then I went to get gas and I saw a Uhaul with a huge graphic of a horseshoe crab on the side (it was a Delaware Uhaul) Exhaustion has been breeding strange dreams in my head, the sleep of reason produces monsters...I need to start running again and drawing as well. I shipped mary's art today as promised.

bar design--- by gardega

Here is my first stab at a design for a bar inside the club I am doing glass art and design for. The design theme of the club is classical design meets rock & roll. My bar has a bit of a nod to art deco accented with some reverse carved smoked mirror that will be lit from behind with LED lighting. The carved mirror will have art nouveau influences and also a nod to tattoo type line quality to keep the rock and roll feel. I am working out the "shark fins" atop the bar. The bar will accented with an old chandelier above. The two end pillars will be semi- circle shelving. I am also designing the entry way as you climb up the stairs and will post that soon. I will be at post office today mailing late art so dont yell at me, it will be there soon!

howdy

long , long day. I was in brooklyn by six AM and I returned at 9:00 PM. I am caught up doing artwork for a night club interior that I will post soon. I told them I would help design the bar and draw it tonight but I am cross eyed and bleary and will probably wake up at four and scramble to get it done as I usually let the demons of panic motivate my pencil.

dream awards

I woke up at four this morning from a strange dream and started updating my site. I think that there should be an awards show for dreams. If your teeth fall out into the sink you can get an award for the most disturbing dream. If you run as hard as you can and get nowhere you get an award for frustration. Then there is the dream of falling, there should be falling dream awards--- Maybe I just took a quick dip in lake stupid.

artist of the day---dulac

One of my favorite artists of all time is a book illustrator you may not have heard of--Edmund Dulac. I would like you to compare this picture to the one I commented on below by the well-known artist jasper johns and compare the two. This picture took amazing skill and patience and planning and seeing, the other piece---not so much...Dulac thrived during the "golden age" of illustration. It is hard to find much about his life and I have tried to find biographies on him. He had a great eye for color and style in his work and often made use of contrasting patterns as well. I will soon buy new books by him as writing this got me interested in his work again. I hope your eyes feel better after I assaulted them with the last work.