kilauea--by gardega

Here is a great photo of a lava flow in Kilauea Hawaii. This reminds me of the mouth of hell as it is depicted in many old Flemish paintings and by the Bosch "school of art".

amused to death---flicker rate

I have totally given up watching television. I got rid of mine and I often miss it. I feel that I have to replace the "zombie time" with other things to keep me occupied. FYI, it is a little known fact that the flicker rate of a television was optimized to create an hypnotic effect in humans----Increase flicker rate and you can bring on epileptic seizures.

update---by gardega

Long day in the salt mines trying to wrap up loose ends on projects. I get a big kick when I look at my blog map and I can see where people log in from. Someone from Brisbane, Australia has caught on to the site. I have no idea how people find it but it motivates me to stay on my toes and stay out of the bars and work away. I have taken another photo of my Ghost of Renoir and will post tonight.

ghost of renoir

I finally attacked my 20 dollar sheet of watercolor paper (22 x 30 inches). It is nice to work with good quality paper and supplies. I finished this last night at 3am and this is a really bad photo and I must re-shoot tonight. This piece is concerned with and influenced by the novel "the other side" by Alfred Kubin. It is influenced by that novel in spirit, not in a direct visual fashion to the story line. I chose the name for this piece the ghost of Renoir because it brings to mind the paintings of Renoir's women with umbrellas. I wish I had a better photo but I am off to Brooklyn and I have no time to re-shoot.


On a sullen and blighted shore
where the hands of time can reach no more
there walks the ones who came before
as if the sky had never changed
as if the blood still flows in veins---gardega

quote of the day--carl jung

Today humanity, as never before, is split into two apparently irreconcilable halves.

The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.

That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves.

– C.G. Jung, 1959

buddha statue

no one thought the buddha statue resembled Bush sr. which I thought was an obvious likeness---Not that I consider any politician to have Buddha nature...

wine cellar mural--by gardega (longview)

here is a long view of mural...

wine cellar mural---by gardega

This is a shot of the finished wine cellar. I think the room itself is a work of art. It was a six month labor of love by the homeowner to create this room.

mural photos---by gardega

I went back to the wine cellar I painted today to take some shots (now that the wine cellar construction is 100% completed.) It was strange being in a room again where I spent three weeks working on a ceiling, the room felt like an old friend.. This is the Da Vinci inspired center of the 16 foot mural---Specifically it is the Battle of Anghiari. For any issues I have with the painting itself I forgive myself because I painted standing and straining my neck for three weeks.

great stuff!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3380991791665837177&q=courbet&total=312&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

I think it is great to take a new view on viewing art!

Buddha Sculpture

does anyone see a resemblance to a famous figure in this sculpture? email me answer--- I am very curious if others see what alex sees.

courbet at the met--by gardega

The Courbet show blew my mind wide open. I am letting it settle before I comment on it.

picasso---man with lollipop

Here is a very strange Picasso painting in The Met. It is called man with lollipop. it is so strange I am not sure what I think of it as I generally dont like this part of Picasso's art.

feet of the met---by gardega

Can anyone name these feet?

feet of the met---by gardega

feet of the met---by gardega

feet from the met--by gardega

met photos---by gardega

There is a great statue of Perseus in the met with Medusa's severed head. What a work of art!!!

the met--first to arrive

I was the first person to arrive at The Met this morning as I got there an hour early to make sure I was the first person in to see the Courbet show today. I even had ample time to take photos in Central park. The man behind me and second in line (an artist) and I got into a discussion and I made a a quip about the contrast of having both jasper Johns and Courbet shows at the same time. Turns out that he was a big fan of jasper Johns and thought Dali a third rate hack. I mentioned to him that Jasper Johns was a terrible draftsman and Dali was the greater draftsman than even Picasso and that Jasper Johns could not draw.. He said he "lettered well." I replied that sign shops also letter rather well. He knew that it was game over at that point and I pointed out that what makes the world great is each person is entitled to their own opinion. Gardega was glad he was first on line and not second as I scurried away from idiocy and into the great halls of genius.

springtime---- by gardega

Alex is weak on horticulture/botany and cannot tell you what flower I photographed here. Can anyone name this tree/ flower? There are some areas I am poorly versed in and that would be botany and patience.

alice in wonderland bronze--NYC

Here is a sculpture that I once had to paint for a book illustration. it is the famous Bronze in Central Park in the east 70's. I like this sculpture a lot because it is not artsy fartsy bologna concerned with the form of the form of the reality of the space..... but rather a simple and nice piece of work.

Pet Photography---by Gardega

I found this "living mop" in Central Park. The owner told me the name but Mop will suffice in my mind. This is the most surrealistic of all dogs, methinks. I have a strange suspicion this dog prefers winter over spring and summer.

Central Park---by gardega

I took some photos in Central Park before I ventured into the Met today. This is Cleopatra's Needle, a bit of Egypt in NYC.

The Met

I am going to The Met today. I will be the first person inside as they open at 9:30 and I am getting ready now at 7:00. I will take photos and maybe some drawings as well.

also at the MET--jasper Johns--TA DA!!!

I am sorry if any of you are Jasper John's fans as I am picking on him because he also has a show at The Met. This piece is called hart crane (persicope) --I have learned that if you are painting "Modern art" and your painting has no real merit to it (visual or otherwise) you can throw a random title on it to make it seem like it is more than it seems---like you are "in the know." Courbet's painting of a Desperate Man takes labor and skill and love and thought and sweat. these paintings take a can of cheap acrylic paint. I have also noticed the greater the con game in the art world--the greater amount of words you need to describe a piece of art or an artist. This is the opposite of ZEN, alex thinks---just sitting, painting.

yesterday

It was warm and sunny yesterday in NYC. I hid from my work and walked around the city. I am afraid to check my messages. It was my first day off in two months and I felt like I was getting warped like an old piece of wood. I had trouble adjusting to ignoring my phone but if they cant take a joke they should lose my number.

viva gardega

Courbet at The Met

Here is a painting by Courbet that is being used to advertise his show at The Met. I am going to see his show on Sunday. I am not working--I am going to Met. This painting is called "The Desperate Man." I would change title to "the artist known as Alex" or "deadlines." or "I have to make six glass pieces by when????" I own a journal of Courbets (not an original) but a published journal.

here is something I stole from the Mets website....

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), the self-proclaimed "proudest and most arrogant man in France," created a sensation at the Salon of 1850–51 when he exhibited a group of paintings set in his native Ornans, a village in eastern France. These works challenged convention by rendering scenes from daily life in an emphatically realistic style and on the large scale previously reserved for history painting.

Courbet's career was punctuated by a succession of scandals, which were usually cultivated by the artist and always welcomed. After a public fight with the all-powerful superintendent of fine arts, Comte Nieuwerkerke, several of his works were refused display in the great Salon and Universal Exposition of 1855. Courbet countered with his own Pavilion of Realism, audaciously built within sight of the official Salon, where he exhibited, among other works, a monumental canvas, The Painter's Studio (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). The accompanying exhibition catalogue included his "Realist Manifesto," in which he declared his aim "to be in a position to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my epoch, according to my own estimation." The press had a field day, and Courbet immediately became the most controversial artist in France.

A new generation of painters, among them Manet, Monet, Fantin-Latour, Degas, and Whistler, were drawn to Courbet's outsize personality and his realism. As a painter of landscapes, he developed a radical vision, expressed in tightly focused views of his native Franche-Comté as well as his "landscapes of the sea," which profoundly influenced the next generation of artists, especially Cézanne.

In 1870, he rejected the coveted award of the Legion of Honor, proclaiming his freedom and independence from any form of government. His involvement with the short-lived, socialist government, the Paris Commune of 1871, led to imprisonment and, ultimately, self-imposed exile in Switzerland, where he died in 1877. Through his powerful and idiosyncratic realism and his courtship of the press and controversy, Courbet became a pioneering figure in the history of modern art. His paintings, which moved Picasso,

quote of the day

"money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a yacht and you can pull right up along side it"
david lee roth

Almost out of my deadline mess and will take sunday off to go to The Met. I think there is a Courbet show there, does anyone know? I am looking forward to a day of nothing except art and wine without some deadline on my shoulders. I was going to say art, women and wine but the only thing that is for sure is that if you have some money in your pocket you can have some art and some wine. I guess if you are a governor you can pay for women as well...I guess money can get you what you need sometimes but it can also steal your soul out from under you if you get obsessed with the stuff.

nyc and the sofa of time

In order to survive as an artist in NYC, one must be psychotically driven. It occurred to me that I have the psychotic part down but the whole driven thing sounds like a lot of work. However, since I have gotten got rid of my television I find lots of time I never knew I had. It is not unlike finding change in an old sofa.

words of the day----N.peart

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride
Just like pride

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover

[Chorus:]
Look in...to the eye of the storm
Look out...for the force without form
Look around...at the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around...

We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights

We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves
Thick as thieves...

thought of the day---gnomic thoughts

I have been waking up lately with thoughts that are half-dreams, half conceptual problems. It is very hard to explain but this morning I awoke with this idea in mind--- If nature uses a gnomic spirals to create things (sunflowers, nautilus shells, DNA, pine cones, leaf growth etc) Then perhaps thought or creative thought has similar properties. Maybe we create and think in rhythmic spirals. Maybe there is mathematical structure behind the outhouse of our emotional and creative thoughts. Perhaps we dont think in a linear fashion but in a spiral fashion.

Here is a bad photograph of my glass side panels for the stairs. The design of these pieces is art nouveau inspired.

long day

I worked from 2:30 AM until 10 PM but have very little to show for my labor...

another set

Here are the final two glass women I made for my commission. Again they are not lit yet and need to be switched.

photo by gardega

I stopped into a bar for a drink after a long day. It seems there was a horse race on and I could not resist sneaking a photo of the crowd---I am not sure if anyone caught on.

glass women--by gardega

Here are two of six glass women I created for Europa nightclub in brooklyn. It is a terrible photograph as the pieces are normally self illuminated by LED lighting and the color of the LED changes to the music and along with the lighting of the entire club. The frames are going to be repainted as they are just place holders at the moment. These pieces are three foot by four foot. I am hesitant to show them unlit as they are but I will have them shot professionally soon. The ominous faces reflect my ominous mood as my deadline was pretty overwhelming. I spent more time framing and lighting than I did on the pieces. These pieces are also for sale as I have an arrangement with europa to hang until they are sold.

the last supper---by monty python

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2849101111632452737&q=michelangelo&total=3850&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0


"I'll get a bloody photographer" (that about sums up art for me in a nutshell.)

word of the day---by gardega

camarilla \kam-uh-RIL-uh; -REE-yuh\, noun:

A group of secret and often scheming advisers, as of a king; a cabal or clique.

I have not heard this word and I am now one word smarter...

3:26 AM---leonardo and magic--by gardega

Alex once read that paintings were often looked upon in the Renaissance as magical talismans and that they had certain powers. For instance, Leonardo's Virgin on the rocks masterpiece was thought to be a talisman against the plague ( I believe alex read this in his past) I like the idea of paintings having powers (especially spiritual powers) as that is what I try to achieve in my watercolor work. Picasso (for all his faults and bullshit) was a great philosopher and felt that paintings had a certain magic. In the end his magic turned tragic as the snake eventually ate its own tail (as often is the case with genius.) If anyone finds any strange phallic symbols in this painting let me know as I just dont see any.

the bronx covers---by gardega

I woke up at midnight tonight and went out for a drink in my hood. The upper east side is a strange place as I watched people sucking margaritas out of communal gold fish bowls with fluorescent straws, a girl said to me that I do not seem like the fluorescent straw type which was something I took as a compliment and then I went back home and got to work on my "Bronx covers." I am still getting used to (after five years) of painting on a yellow background. Since it is the yellow pages, I really cannot argue for a different background color so I try to make magic come out of yellow and grow where I am planted.

brooklyn bridge photo----by gardega

Here is a photo I took in the pouring rain this morning as I drove down the FDR to my Brooklyn studio. I have a deep rooted fascination with the Brooklyn Bridge as I have painted it many times. I don't do pet photos, don't ask me...

update

Today is the last day for me to correct framing and lighting on my glass art that is hanging on the walls of a nightclub. I should be happy to wash my hands of it and start my bronx covers. I will photograph the art today as well. On monday I must return to long island to ship glass art to Colorado as my framer is afraid to package glass.

NYC poem---by gardega

I dreamt these words last night so if they are weak I cannot be blamed...here is what I remember of them..

the city is a surrogate womb,
soft and swollen
her timeless, ancient face
her buildings rise and fall like fingers
and the people who walk her streets
and ancient alleys.

long day

I started my day at three today and just returned home at 10pm. It was my intention to carve three pieces of glass tonight but as I turned on my equipment I blew out a fuse and my brain melted down and my cerebral sails lost their wind. I can draw fairly well and paint like a saint but I cannot even hammer two damn pieces of wood together to save me. I am not handy and it kills me as any equipment problem for me is like trying to pick up watermelon seeds with my elbows. I am not sure how long a day three to ten is but it felt long and I exited my day pissed off at the god's of equipment once again. I may have to do a watercolor tonight to calm me down. I understand that a Philip screwdriver is the one with the x at the end--- but that is all I know.

crop circles---by gardega

Here is a crop circle photo of the "flower of life." I once had a person tell me crop circles were a hoax and that it was just people with sticks in the field with a lot of free time. I have been laying out geometric designs in glass for 20 years and studying geometry since I was a child and there is not enough time in a month for me to be able to render this single image so precisely in a field of wheat. Of Course, the meat head who told me this cannot draw a circle and knows nothing about geometry, so I did not respond as it was "pearls before swine."Many crop circles are actually complex mathematical problems, sacred geometry and 2 D versions of 3D platonic solids. I would love to give these "mythbuster types 1,000 dollars and some sticks and string and let them have a go at this crop circle, good luck and call me when you are done.

FYI

Those mercury filled fluorescent lights you sit under at work are bathing you in UV radiation. The government and industry will tell you it is low level and safe but so was saccharin. I would be vocal against forced mandates of use of fluorescents on any level. (unless you enjoy a nice cubicle tan, of course)

ultraviolet effects on skin and DNA

without going into much detail this is the effect of too much UV radiation on DNA. Notice the breakup of the DNA "ladder." That cant be a good thing, methinks. What you cant see can hurt you.

an event

I am planning an event for may 17th as it is the one year anniversary of this website/ blogfest. It is also very close to Dali's birthday (may 11th) I will update soon.

word of the day----bellwether

bellwether \BEL-weth-uhr\, noun:

A leader of a movement or activity; also, a leading indicator of future trends.

as in:

Gardega, the creator of the New Renaissance in art promises to save modernism from the slop-trough of falsity and poor craftsmanship. He is the bellwether of his artistic generation.

Bronx Covers

I am working on two Bronx covers for the yellow pages. one is a painting of Yankee stadium and the other is the Bronx botanical gardens. Same book--two covers....finish soon...

table top---by gardega

I figured out the exact weight of my previously mentioned table top. It was only 107 lbs. It only seemed to weigh 250 lbs.

visible spectrum

I woke up at three AM this morning as I was thinking (in my dream) about the visible spectrum. the visible spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see with our eyes. A typical human eye can respond to 380nm to 750 nm in air. Beyond the visible lies the infrared and the long wavelength which humans cannot "see." Insects and bees can see ultraviolet light which even gardega cannot see. ultra violet light is kind of like a turbo charged regular "violet" light (which yours truly and my humble readers can plainly see.) The reason I bring this -up is to illustrate that we are standing in a large room that is the called the "full spectrum of reality" and the only reality we believe is the tiny corner window that is our "optical" or "visible" reality---We believe it when we see it...We are foolish enough to believe "if it aint out that window, it aint out there..." which brings me to these words at 3:48 AM..so early before the dawn while even NYC seems to sleep.

I woke up and the world outside was dark
All so quiet before the dawn
Opened up the door and walked outside
The ground was cold

I walked until I couldnt walk anymore
To a place Id never been
There was something stirring in the air
In front of me, I could see

More than this
More than this
So much more than this
There is something else there
When all that you had has all gone
And more than this
I stand
Feeling so connected
And Im all there
Right next to you

It started when I saw the ship go down
I saw them struggle in the sea
And suddenly the picture disappears
In front of me

Now were busy making all our busy plans
On foundations built to last
But nothing fades as fast as the future
And nothing clings like the past, until we can see

More than this
More than this
So much more than this
There is something out there
More than this
Its coming through
And more than this
I stand alone and so connected
And Im all there
Right next to you

Oh then its alright
When with every day another bit falls away
Oh but its still alright, alright, alright
And like words together we can make some sense

Much more than this
Way beyond imagination
Much more than this
Beyond the stars
With my head so full
So full of fractured pictures
And Im all there
Right next to you
So much more than this
There is something else there
When all that you had has all gone
And more than this
Im alone
Feeling so connected
And Im all there right next to you

More than this
More than this
More than this

the bees are dying---by gardega

The bees are dying and I have researched this matter and alex believes that genetically altered crops have been their undoing. They have lived through too many years of pesticides to blame simple chemicals on their demise. We have opened Pandora's Box with our genetic altered foods and stuck our grubby hands into god's picnic basket one too many times---he is not happy. If the bees die, the crops die and then "Houston, we have a problem." I am sure this ridiculous spraying for a non-threatening west Nile has not helped either but I like to look to mythology to understand reality in the tradition of the great genius that was carl jung.

update by gardega

I spent 8 hours today working on the frames for my glass pieces and making sure they were lit correctly---LED lighting must be directly on the edge of a glass carving to fill it with light (not unlike fiber optics) I should spend two more days perfecting the framing and lighting then I will share the photos.

deadlines

I missed a deadline which has thrown me into a funk that is the color I cannot explain.

pop up

I have nothing to do with the ring tone pop up--- at least it is peter gabriel.

my foyer

I found these books in the foyer of my building today. I still find it strange to walk into a building and see my covers piled up. It is a good feeling but one that has a certain oddness to it. It is like getting food that you cooked yopurself delivered to your door. Do you tip?

photo

I found this photo online and I like it.

art by gardega----archimedes spiral

I am going to introduce to my readers today what is known as the Archimede's Spiral. It is a thing to behold and her importance ranks right up there with oxygen, the wheel, and the Dallas Cowboys. Also known as an arithmetic spiral, Her distance grows from a fixed point at a steady rate. We can find this spiral in those black things people used to buy called "records" or in the common screw but also our DNA is formed with an Archimedes Spiral. Barbers poles would be nothing without it and you would not know where to get your hair cut so we would all run around looking like hippies. One could do worse than to research the namesake of this spiral as his genius surpasses many of the frogs who have inhabited this strange and wondrous pond called humanity.

final glass table top ----by gardega

Here is my etched table top laying a-happily on her jade base. Mission complete.

table top layout---by gardega

Here is a photo of the glass table top in my studio after it is etched but before I remove the rubber "resist" material I use for sandblasting. This is the ugly "behind the scenes" side of glass art.

table top--by gardega

I carved a table top for a lady in Brooklyn today. It weighed two hundred pounds and I had no assistant so I had to carry it. The scary part was trying to put it down gently on an expensive Jade base. I survived (as did the table) and and she was very happy. Will post photos in an hour as I left my camera in my vehicle. The table top design was based off the jade urn base and I thought it worked pretty nicely. It is nice to make art for nice people and not miserable people. She was a sweet lady and proof that age/ life/ time doesn't have to make you dour. (unless, of course, you make art for a living.) Photo come up in one hour. I am planning nyc Dali party in mid-May. so I expect all to attend ...

brooklyn lady

Here is a photo I took from my truck of a lady in Brooklyn---She is a distinctly NewYork/ Brooklyn character.

progress photo

glass piece (covered in rubber resist)

agony

Here is the piece that made me a day late on my deadline. (It is on its side for working purposes.) It is a piece of glass 3 feet by five foot. Missing deadlines is a rare and horrible feeling for me. It happens. On the bright side, the final finished piece is something worth looking at, methinks...exhausted

done and done

I have finished my glass pieces for the club and I am exhausted and worn out. I had to get an extra day on my large piece because I couldn't rush it or hack it and they were not happy but it is better than hanging a bad piece of art. I always make my deadlines but I dropped the ball on this large piece--- photos soon...

words of the day---rupert brookes

III. The Dead

Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!

There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,

But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.

These laid the world away; poured out the red

Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be

Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,

That men call age; and those who would have been,

Their sons, they gave, their immortality.

Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,

Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.

Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,

And paid his subjects with a royal wage;

And Nobleness walks in our ways again;

And we have come into our heritage.

tibet

I am not a cosmonger nor am I of the tree hugging ilk but occasionally I get heated about politics and I am really upset with china and the way they have attempted to ruin the sacred gem that was/ is tibet. I hate to see monks getting clubbed and I wished it wasnt part of the world in which I live. I Cant support china on any level until they start let Tibet be Tibet. I am not going to watch the olympics as I cannot support something that makes me feel like I am chewing on a lead filled cookie.

hope and monday morning

All I can do is look to monday and I should be out of the small deadline hell I am in. I often run through my head the jimmy buffet lyrics "come monday, it will be alright..." when things get rough. On my next post I am going to include the lyrics to all my favorite instrumentals.

contour pillows, cheese and fox news

I bought a contour pillow for my neck yesterday and was excited to use it to sleep with last night---It was not unlike sleeping on a contoured wedge of hard cheese. If you are going to sleep on cheese I suggest a soft Camembert (which incidentally was the inspiration behind Dali's melting clocks) I am sure I will put it in my closet and keep it filed under things you dont use but dont want to throw away. What this has to do with art is beyond me but I have occasional sculpted cheese and I was once on Fox News for sculptures I made out of cheese (true story)

finished piece

Here is a small part of the overall finished piece. (Sorry for the horrid snapshot.) I will take better photos when they are installed. Yes it is backwards, it will be viewed from other side. You have nice view into the warm and fuzzy industrial studio I make my glass in.

layout

Here is what the logo looks like. What you are seeing is rubber material on glass and the letters have been removed (waiting to be sandblasted.) Luckily both of these pieces are done--- I am digging through past a bit to show process. The Logo is surrounded by a bunch of art nouveau "organics" that I designed. The original Logo design was made by brian christi.

update

I am still mired in deadlines but I am closing in (like a fly to a windshield.) Pictured above is one of two pieces of glass eight foot by three foot--- half inch thick pieces of glass I am carving to go on the side of a stair as you enter the location. These pieces are very heavy and hard to work with but I have finished them and will deliver today. I must then return to carving my woman. I have a meeting with a magazine today at four I must attend so the pressure is really on as the place opens tomorrow. It doesnt look like glass because it is covered in rubber..FYI.

glass update

here is a layout for a glass carving I making. this piece is 36 inches by 48 inches. I will carve this one today and start a second one as well.

quote of the day---bible

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."

update

I took a few photos of my glass deadline....as alice cooper once said "welcome to my nightmare"--- will post tonight

a thing well framed...

alex is very happy when collectors of my work get my paintings framed and framed well. Framing is a nebulous art like reading foreheads or tarot or palms. I often agonize over framing (and not just over the cost of framing.) Here is a painting on glass I made--- I believe it was titled "On a Pale Horse." Google will help you find out the meaning of this piece. This piece is hanging happily in a home in colorado. I came home so stressed from deadline torture and this email made me see light again. Viva Something! It has become clear to me that the average person is not adept at photography but that is fine as kmart will fix you up with some fine photos for $4.99.

quote of the day----jimmy buffet

"indecision may or may not be my problem"

gardega's medusa

This is "my medusa" I made her when I was twenty or so---It is painted and carved glass. I left this in a gallery and never picked it up as I was an erratic lad in my twenties.

Bocklin's medusa

As much as I like bocklin I must say that this medusa is an utter mess and a failure of a painting and when I saw it when I was twenty I decided I could do better and tried to make a better medusa (see above entry) it is up to you if I succeeded . This painting looks like she ate bad chicken and the snakes dont seem to be a part of her. (They should have fired the plumber and brought in gardega plumbing.)


a

artist of the day---arnold bocklin

Bocklin is one of my favorite artists as he is technically very skilled but he still manages to keep a great air of mystery about his works without feeling "forced" there are those who would call home kitsch but I promise you they are either non-artists or slop-artists who think jasper johns is a genius.

Arnold Böcklin was born on October 19, 1827 in Basel, Switzerland and died on January 16, 1901 in S. Domenico in Fiesole. After completing his studies between 1845 and 1847 under the tutelage of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer in Dusseldorf, Böcklin travelled to Rome in 1850 where he made the acquaintance of Oswald Achenbach and Anselm Feuerbach. In 1855 he returned to Basel as a portrait and landscape painter. In Munich during 1856-57, the painter caught the attention of King Ludwig I as well as that of Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack, who purchased 14 of his paintings. He was appointed Professor of Landscape at the Weimar School of Arts in 1860, a position he held for two years before travelling again to Rome, and then back to Basel in 1866. After these stays in Weimar, Rome and Basel, Böcklin returned again to Munich in 1871. In 1874 he relocated to Florence where he became associated with a group of artists linked with Adolf von Hildebrand and Hans von Marées, and then in 1876 he settled in Munich. From 1885 to 1892 he lived near Zurich.

Böcklin's work was quite popular during his time, and he was able to support a large family and lifelong career; a contract with the Berlin art dealer Fritz Gurlitt in 1880 helped to secured this existence. Originally devoting himself to landscape painting, as early as 1860 mythological references and symbolism began to permeate Böcklin's work, and gave us the pieces with which we are most familiar today.

good morning and happy monday

I will be taking some photos of the progress of my glass pieces today and post on this tonight. Today I have an artist/assistant helping me whom I used to assist ten years ago. It is funny how things turn.

infinity (as I see it)

I would like to comment tonight on infinity. Infinity is a concept that is not to be understood from the conceptual mind, it is beyond grasping. It is like a child in a field chasing a kite that broke from its string and soars far and far away. Infinity is timelessness and thought occurs within the construct of time so we cannot taste the fruit, it is forever beyond our grasp. It is possible to meditate and go beyond thought and achieve pure being which is a state beyond thought and beyond the cold grasp of time. (I used to meditate when I was seventeen.) People cannot seem to grasp that it is possible to think of nothing. It is possible to clear the mud from the puddle and let the waters turn clear again. Infinity is beyond the normal state of mind and the universe does not really exist in time as time is ( I believe) a solely human concept. It is possible that everything that has ever been and will be exist all at the same time...but we will chase that kite another day.

Leonardo on perspective

What qualities does Leonardo claim for his own art in contrast to that of others? Why does he feel that perspective is important?

Introduction

Because I can find no useful or pleasant subject to discourse on, since the men who came before me have taken all the useful and pleasant subjects and discoursed on them at length, I find I must behave like a pauper who comes to the fair last, and can provide for himself in no other way than to take those things of trivial value that have been rejected by other buyers. I, then, will fill my shopping bag with all these despised and rejected wares, trash passed over by previous buyers, and take them and distribute them, not in the great cities, but in the poorest villages, taking whatever money might be offered.

I realize many will call my little work useless; these people, as far as I'm concerned, are like those whom Demetrius was talking about when he said that he cared no more for the wind that issued from their mouths than the wind that issued from their lower extremities. These men desire only material wealth and are utterly lacking in wisdom, which is the only true food and wealth for the mind. The soul is so much greater than the body, its possessions so much nobler than those of the body. So, whenever a person of this sort picks up any of my works to read, I half expect him to put it to his nose the way a monkey does, or ask me if it's good to eat.

I also realize that I am not a literary man, and that certain people who know too much that is good for them will blame me, saying that I'm not a man of letters. Fools! Dolts! I may refute them the way Marius did to the Roman patricians when he said that some who adorn themselves with other people's labor won't allow me to do my own labor. These folks will say that since I have no skill at literature, I will not be able to decorously express what I'm talking about. What they don't know is that the subjects I am dealing with are to be dealt with by experience (1) rather than by words, and experience is the muse of all who write well. And so, as my muse, I will cite her in every case.

Although, unlike my critics, I am not able to facilely quote other writers, I will rely on an authority much greater and much more noble: on Experience, the Mistress of their Masters. These fellows waddle about puffed up and pretentious, all dressed up in the fruits, not of their own labors, but of other people's labors; these fellows will not allow me my own labors. They will scorn me as an inventor and a discoverer, but they should be blamed more, since they have invented and discovered nothing but rather go about holding forth and declaiming the ideas and works of others.

There are men who are discoverers and intermediaries and interpreters between Nature and Man, rather than boasters and declaimers of other people's work, and these must be admired and esteemed as the object in front of a mirror in comparison to the image seen in the mirror. The first is a real object in and of itself, the second is nothing. These people owe nothing to Nature; it is only good fortune that they wear a human form and, if it weren't for this good fortune, I'd classify them with the cattle and the animals.

There are many who would, with reason, blame me by pointing out that my proofs are contrary to established authority, which is, after all, held in great reverence by their inexperienced minds. They do not realize that my works arise from unadulterated and simple experience, which is the one true mistress, the one true muse. The rules of experience are all that is needed to discern the true from the false; experience is what helps all men to look temperately for the possible, rather than cloaking oneself in ignorance, which can result in no good thing, so that, in the end, one abandons oneself to despair and melancholy.

Among all the studies of natural causes, Light more than anything else delights the beholder, and among the greatest features of Mathematics is the certainty of all its demonstrations which more than anything else elevates the mind of the thinker. Therefore, perspective is to be preferred to all other discourses and systems of knowledge, for in this science the ray of light is explained using methods of demonstration which glorify both Mathematics and Physics and grace the flowers of both these magnificent sciences. But since the axioms of Perspective have been treated extensively, I will abridge them, arranging them in their natural order and the order of their mathematical demonstration. Sometimes I will deduce the effects from their causes, and sometimes I will induce the causes from the effects, while adding my own conclusions that might be inferred from these.

strange eggs of genius--happy easter

Today and all holidays are fine days for searching through the green fields of your spirit (mowed and unmowed) and finding the brightly colored eggs of genius that we all have but are afraid to pick up much less tuck away in the basket of hope. Quiet days are rare and are best for reflection and thinking and family. Memories are the fabric of our lives and they weave strange and wondrous patterns that make us human. No two humans are alike as even identical twins have different memories and their tapestries differ as much as a Raphael and Michelangelo. I am aware I have shown a picture of an iris and not a lily (an iris is a significantly superior flower) I hope jesus understands.

breadlines and deadlines

I am sorry for my udder (cowlike) lack of art posting lately but I promise I will photograph these large glass pieces I am making (deadline looming like a bruised and sullen stormcloud) and post those ASAP. The deadline is the 28th so I will work through easter around clock. If all goes well I may be making a large glass carving for a famous fashion designers new digs but that will be up to the gods of art. I do not like kinkos and look forward to having my own internet up soon! back soon...

BACK IN NYC

"I see faces and traces of home, back in NYC" ----peter gabriel

I am no longer of the flu-tribe and my move has been concluded. Moving is the spiritual equilvalent to a root canal on the heart and frontal lobe. I have been endured much and grown little! My ex-friend always made fun of my grammar but I am not interested in the trivial corners of the BIG PICTURE but rather in the whole effect of said picture. Some are mathemeticians some are carpenter's wives, I dont know how this all got started, I dont know what they do with their lives---Bob Dylan.... I am very happy and excited to be back in NYC and cant wait to start painting again! ALAS----I have major deadlines due before april 1 and I am so stressed I wake up at 4 AM and stare at a white ceiling. I have to make 8 large glass pieces for a nightclub and I can only pray that the God's of Glass and equipment are on my side. The people in NYC seemed to be a bit stressed as there is still the foul stench of winter's breath in her air (at least they are not in SUV'S on cell phones cutting me off as I drive.) I thought milk was expensive but imagine a Uhaul full of milk! It only cost me 366 amero's to get my commercial vehicle on a parkway. I am in kinkos and a lady is screaming that she was charged for tape to tape a box. What any of this has to do with art is hard for even I to fathom but I will wrap up this package and pay for my tape and....as I packed my uhaul and looked at my lives work I was taken aback by the lack of art I had actually packed and how much crap I own that is not worth an icecube to an iceman. I thought back and realized that I have sold almost everyhting I ever made and that made me both happy and sad at the same time because the money was long spent on previous moves and wine. I have determined that I am addicted to updating this thing because if I dont I feel I am being lazy and useless.

will the following people please call me?!


barry

amy

angela from smithtown

andrea and sister

mary

carla

joe from NYC

evan


S.dali

and whomever logs in from nepal...

(anyone who wants to talk)

917 400 1317

morning

I move today and I have my flu-haul ready to load. ...I will update asap even if I haven to use a different computer. I am planning on doing an entire series of central park watercolors soon. will update.


my ghost likes to travel.---peter gabriel


good luck

alex