flower of life---leonardo

great minds must think alike!!!

come talk to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmMw1GSrtY

watercolor of the day---flower of life

this is one of those symbols that existed in numerous ancient cultures at the same time. It is a sacred symbol and is very interesting to construct and paint. I amde this today..it takes a long time to make one of these paintings

watercolor of the day---strange world---open space

watercolors are like therapy (and cheaper.)

watercolor of the day--- strange world---ascension

for sale.

quote of the day--paul newman

"If you don't have enemies, you don't have character...."

ROME

I am gearing up for a much needed vacation to ROME to look at the School of Athens by Raphael. It is a great time to buy my art and support me on my journey, methinks...Remember, there are many intellectual starving people out there who must be fed the nutrients of genius so they can grow into healthy adults.

book number 2

Here is the second book I am reading. I am not a huge fan of Warhol but his interviews are pretty funny and he was clever. Many people do not know that he stole much of his ideas about cult of personality etc. (admittedly) from Dali. Also, Dali used a coke bottle in a painting long before Warhol's soup can. This was (I believe) Warhol's inspiration for pop culture imagery etc. Warhol was a clever artist but he was no Dali and I am not sure I would place the of label genius on him as I often do with dali.

what I am reading

I read three books at a time...here is number one... verdict---not sure yet but it is great to read about the early settlers of america and the trials and hardships they faced.

happy birthday Jacqueline

Happy Birthday to my former assistant and all around great girl who has moved onwards and upwards to Harvard Med school.

I will update soon--finishing my glass wall. will photograph...deadline is sunday.

story of the day

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/22/hail.cannon.ap/index.html

daily sunspot

scientists have been very concerned lately. There has been almost zero sunspot activity for a very long time. Nasa has even started to have conferences regarding this fact. Today there are small sunspots in upper right of this picture.

here is some info. regarding the history of sunspots:

The Maunder Minimum

Early records of sunspots indicate that the Sun went through a period of inactivity in the late 17th century. Very few sunspots were seen on the Sun from about 1645 to 1715 (38 kb JPEG image). Although the observations were not as extensive as in later years, the Sun was in fact well observed during this time and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age" when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past. The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.

painting of the day--flying dutchman--albert ryder

here is a painting by one of the strangest artists of all time. I like his work and it has influenced me in a largely subconscious way. I like artist who paint thinks that are seen only from the corner of ones eye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pinkham_Ryder

found this essay online today--has some good points

WHAT IS GREAT ART

By B. John Zavrel
Chancellor of the Alexander Order

Great art is more than a treat for the eye or a tonic for the spirit. Truly great art is an expression of the innermost soul of a people: an expression of that people's yearnings and ideals, of its deepest hopes and joys, of its meaning and purpose.

Is there anything which Americans need more today than a renewed sense of purpose in their lives? Our forefathers in Europe strove to uplift themselves and their people to new levels of greatness. The best of them saw their purpose as the elevation of man, and they were often able to inspire their fellows with the same feeling of purpose. In America today there seems to be little, if any, sense of purpose beyond the individual accumulation of material wealth and the pursuit of pleasure. This aimlessness has taken an enormous toll, not only in lives destroyed by drugs and alcohol, but even more in the degeneration of our national life.

Today the great standards which guided us in the past have been ridiculed, belittled, and torn down. This is true of art, which in turning to modernism has lost all meaning for the American majority, and it is true of most other aspects of our social and cultural life. In view of this it is hardly surprising that so many of our young people are leading confusing lives and are looking to the future without hope.

It need not be this way. We can have standards again. We can renew the purpose and meaning in the life of our people. The great art which inspired and guided our forefathers is not dead. It lives today in the magnificent sculpture of Arno Breker. His art is the living expression of the same spirit which inspired the Greeks of the Classical Age and which flowered again during the European Renaissance. It can also inspire Americans in these dark days and guide them again to the light.

Classical art is the true art of Europe, the true art of our people. This is why so many great leaders of the past--Napoleon, for example--took care to instill Classical ideals in their citizens. This is why they commissioned artists to create art in the Classical tradition for state buildings and public monuments, to serve as a standard and an ideal for the government and for the people. They knew that only with great and noble ideals is it possible for a nation to achieve and maintain greatness.

Greatness is what we want for America. Our hearts yearn for a great culture once again, for great deeds once again, for great heroes once again. We yearn for the elevation of our people, for the bringing forth of a higher man: a man of will and purpose and greatness of spirit. We want our people to glorify the great, the noble, the beautiful, and the divinely creative once again.

song of the day

found this story on the web

Welcome Home, Soldier

"Eighteen hours wasn't enough."

My Freedom Bird touched down at Travis Air Force base in southern California on November 3, 1968, two days before Richard Nixon was elected President. When our landing gear touched the runway, almost every soldier, Marine, airmen and sailor aboard that plane cheered and howled.

At Travis, many of us headed for the bathrooms to change our uniforms. We shed our tropical khakis and donned our dress winter greens. From Travis, a group of us took a bus ride to the San Francisco Airport to catch our flights home. At the airport, the men on the bus, veterans who had been traveling together since leaving Nam more than eighteen hours earlier, shook hands, wished each other luck, and walked off in different directions.

With duffel bag slung over my shoulder, I went looking for an airport bar to have a cold beer and call home. Throughout the long flight from Nam, I had this knot in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t figure it. It wasn't my fear of flying. It was something else. Unlike the other veterans on the plane, I hadn’t cheered when the plane landed. A beer would help relax me, I thought.

As I walked through the terminal looking for a bar I noticed the way civilians looked at me. The stares of some made me uneasy. I was sure it was the uniform. A beer would help. But first I had to call Brooklyn and let my family know I was back in the States.

I found a bar with a phone booth in the back. A single customer sat at the bar, a middle aged man in a gray business suit. The bartender watched me as I walked to the back of the bar. I dropped my duffel bag outside the booth, closed the door and made the long distance call. As I waited for someone to pick up at the other end, I glanced at the bartender. He was watching me. It's the uniform again, I thought.

I heard my eighteen year old kid sister on the phone. It was great. Hearing her voice helped ease the tension in my gut. When she realized who was calling, she became excited on the phone. She was happy I was safe in California. She asked for my flight's expected arrival time in New York so she could invite family and friends over the house for a homecoming party. I told her I didn’t want a party, at least not for a few days. She sounded disappointed, but said she understood. That's what I wanted, I said.

After the call, I looked forward to a cold beer. I picked up my duffel bag and walked over to the bar. The bartender was waiting, looking as if he expected trouble. I ordered a beer.

"I'm sorry soldier," said the bartender, " but I need to see some ID. You have to be twenty-one to drink in California. I’m sorry, but it’s the law." He was a big guy, half-a-foot taller than me, yet he seemed nervous asking me for ID.

I remember thinking he was joking. This is a comedian, I thought, who liked playing jokes on soldiers coming home from the war. I expected him to bust out laughing and tell me he was joking, maybe even offer me a beer on the house. So I waited, waited for the him to bust out laughing, to tell me he was joking, to ask me what kind of beer I wanted.

The place was empty except for the middle-aged man in the gray suit who sat a few stools away at the bar. I looked at the stranger. "He's kidding, right?" I said, not really expecting an answer. I turned back to the bartender and repeated my question, "You're kidding, right?"

"It's the law in California," he said, a little too loudly. "I'm sorry. I don’t like it, but it’s the law. Soldiers come in here all the time and I have to ask them for ID. I don't like it, they don't like it, but if you’re under twenty-one and I serve you alcohol I can lose my job."

I could see he was dead serious. He wasn't going to sell me a beer unless I could prove I was twenty-one, which I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure how to react. Wasn't it obvious I had just flown in from Nam. At first, I was more embarrassed than angry. Then I realized the situation was actually absurd, hilarious even. I began to laugh. I think the bartender misinterpreted my laughter for something more ominous. He started shaking his head, perhaps thinking I was about to do something crazy. After all, I had just emerged from a jungle war eighteen hours earlier. The bartender's concerned look kept me laughing. I realized this poor bastard was going through this shit with young veterans all the time. Maybe he'd gotten into a fight or two. Maybe police were called, arrests made.

For me, it was embarrassing, sad and funny all at once. There I stood in my dress greens, an airborne trooper back from the war, wearing a rainbow of ribbons on my chest, jump boots on my feet, trousers bloused, enemy shell fragments embedded in my jaw and neck, an airborne cap cocked to the side of my head. I didn't feel the part, but I looked like a goddamn war hero. But to the State of California and this bartender, I was still a minor.

This meant one thing. I was back in the Real World. The war was back there somewhere, with its own terrible rules. Goodbye to all that. For me, the war was over. I was now expected to live by a another set of rules. In the Real World they had rules about who could and couldn't drink beer. The problem was that I didn't have a switch in my head that I could flip to make an immediate adjustment. I wasn't ready to accommodate these new rules. It was too sudden. Eighteen hours wasn't enough. I still had this knot in my stomach. I was thirsty. I needed a beer and didn't really give a shit about the laws of California. My uniform was my fucking ID. The situation stopped being amusing.

The bartender was still talking but I wasn't listening. I watched the bartender as he took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator behind the bar and brought it to the only other customer in the place, the middle aged man in the suit. The refrigerator had big glass doors. I could see the cold, green and brown bottles of beer inside sitting on the shelves. I decided I would walk behind the bar and take one. I would warn the bartender so he wouldn't think I was coming after him. I didn’t want trouble. I would tell him up front I was going back there and get a beer and pay for it and since he wasn't serving me he shouldn't worry about losing his job.

I prepared myself for a scrap; but just before I spoke, the man in the suit took the bottle of beer just handed him and gently pushed it toward me, leaving it on the smooth, shiny bartop within my reach.

"Welcome home, soldier," said the stranger in the suit. "The beer’s on me."

deco deadlines

deadlines...deadlines...deadlines...

last supper geomtery study--by gardega

I decided to repost this for fun..I made this study a year ago---It shows how leonardo grouped his figures..I didnt copy this--it is my own theory.

artist of the day---blakelock

ralph albert blakelock...google him--- he is one of those little known artists who knew a hell of a lot about mood. I will expand later--busy

rapahel drawing

Since I was a teenager I always thought there was one single greatest draftsman and that is/ was Raphael. There is a life to his lines that goes beyond Michelangelo and beyond Leonardo and beyond even Dali! (Dali was a Raphael worshipper) . There is more to be learned from his drawings than from any teacher in college. there is an expression--economy of line--meaning to say a lot with a little, he was a master of this.

alex has determined that if death comes on a pale horse then madness surely comes as a black butterfly. I will explain this later when I am not under severe deadline stress. Alex needs vacation but will have to wait a few more months at least.

I have ten days left to finish my 90 foot wall of etched glass for a hotel and to paint a book cover for Queens...The wall will be photographed as I build it I just have to finish initial layout first...

school of athens geometry study

I have been carefully studying the geometry behind the School of Athens by Raphael. If you are going to copy something it is best understand the mechanics behind it--- The old masters never just haphazardly placed their figures and objects in space, they used very careful geometry and golden ratios. When I was in art school I asked my professors about this and they were at a loss to help me so I devoted myself to figuring out geometry on my own. I am fascinated by Raphael's use of the three central circles that seem to spawn from the midpoint of the circle below it. It almost seems to have celestial significance---just a thought...

PLEASE VOTE ON THE PAINTING BELOW, IT WAS DONE BY A FAMOUS ARTIST (NOT I) i AM MOST CURIOUS AS TO THE GENERAL VIEW OF THE PIECE.

HIS NAME IS DROGO

PLEASE NOTE THIS WAS MADE FOR A ROCK BANDS OFF BROADWAY SHOW AND MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME VIEWERS. I PERSONALLY DONT THINK IT OFFENSIVE BECAUSE IT WAS BASED OFF A TRUE STORY I HEARD FROM ONE OF DALIS OLD ASSISTANTS. VIEW AT OWN RISK OR STICK TO MY REGULAR CLASSICALLY INSPIRED ART.


http://kirbopher15.deviantart.com/art/Drogo-s-Christmas-71391768

bad art

it seems the former entry is bad art------sorry julian schnabel

good art -----bad art

please vote on this painting on the right--good art or bad art?

ill timed humor

I have decided to get out of the art game and seek a new career...I have provided a link to my new direction.

http://www.lehman.com/careers/workatlehman/index.htm

gardega of the day---indian chief--age six

painting of the day--black elk by arisman

My artist friend marshall arisman painted this painting. I want to buy this painting and one day I will buy this painting.

It seems that financial institutions are crumbling around us. The artist ( I uses the word loosely) damien hirst is having a large auction of his work at sothebys, he is bypassing his dealers and selling direct. I am curious if he does well given the circumstances. I will one day be rich so I can start a school of renaissance art and dedicate my life to the study and teaching of the old masters. In one week I will be done with these glass deadlines and I can draw and paint again..I will post my pictures of my glass progress. sorry for my lack of attention to this lately "been so busy with the washing of the dishes" as peter gabriel once said.

sketch of the day

I have been studying the school of Athens today..here is a quick painting/ study of Heraclitus..Michelangelo is the model used for this figure he was painting the sistine chapel nearby while Raphael painted the school of Athens.

cleburne texas

my hometown

david lynch on creativitiy

http://podcasts.theatlantic.com/2008/07/where-ideas-come-from.php

here is an interesting take on creativity and ideas by David Lynch.

painting of the day--school of athens

Raphael is and always has been my hero. Here is one of his masterworks. I will have to link to a wikipedia page to save time explaining this piece..will explain it in my own terms later...if god smiles on me I will be painting a large copy of this soon for a client.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens

summer

another summer has slipped past like a toy boat on a pond...my memories are pretty much of deadlines and running to get things done and an occasional walk through central park..thank god for Sundays and the Metropolitan.

you decide

This is a photo of my good friend marshall arsiman. to the right is one of his monkey sculptures. they say artist always paint themselves...what say you?

synchronicity

one of my favorite writings is carl jung's book on synchronicity..here is a photo a collector sent me of the very same piece I am etching in glass. She found this in NYC. My refernce came from the decor on the front of a bar in an interior. If I was rich I would buy this piece of stone or whatever material it is.

art deco drawing

Here is a bad photo of a five foot drawing I made for my next glass piece. It is an art deco design and is something that should look good in glass. I will photograph completed pieces as I work on them.

words of wisdom

I found this posted on a wall in brooklyn....

alex explains global warming

I dont have a TV so if I am not making art I research and study things.

this is my latest study.



the coldest point in the last 10,000 years was roughly 0ne hundred and forty years ago --this is known as the little ice age.


this ended around 1875. (this is also incidentally when man began to make his first recored meteorological observations. )


we began taking serious readings of climate at its lowest point in the last ten thousand years.


It seems natural that temperatures will rise up from their lowest level in 10,000 years. I think we should not be too quick to worry about global warming. we should worry more about the effects of TV on humans.

today I start my 90 foot glass wall....It should take a week to do if all goes well...will photograph

painting of the day

I took out a piece today I wasnt happy with. I finally managed to work out the color to where I was happy. I wasn't happy with the blue background so I tried to give it the visual equivalent of iridescent tifanny glass.

orwells route--google map

I find it hilarious that you can trace orwell's route via google map via big bro..
that is something I think he would find amusing...god must have a sense of humor.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=0,51.294998,0.478302&t=h&msa=0&msid=101812867577307634528.000453f255c69c417647b&ll=49.496675,0.439453&spn=27.484198,78.75&z=4

orwell diary---September 8, 1938, Gibraltar

Weather mostly hot & nights sometimes uncomfortably so. Sea variable mostly rather choppy. When no wind fish visible at least 10 feet below surface.
The Barbary Ape is said to be now very rare at Gibraltar & the authorities are trying to exterminate them as they are a nuisance. At a certain season of the year (owing to shortage of food I suppose) they come down from the rock & invade peoples° houses & gardens. They are described as large doglike ape with only a short stump of tail. The same species found on the African coast just opposite.
The breed of goat here is the Maltese, or at any rate is chiefly Maltese. The goat is rather small, & has the top half of its body covered with long & rather shaggy hair which overhangs to about the knees, giving the impression that it has very short legs. Ears are set low and drooping. Most of the goats are hornless, those having horns have ones that curve back so sharply that they lie against the head, & usually continue round in a semi-circle, the point of the horn being beside the eye. Udders are very pendulous & in many cases simply a bag with practically no teats, or teats barely 1/2 inch long. Colours black, white & (especially) reddish brown. Yield said to be about a litre a day. Goats apparently will graze on almost anything, eg. The flock I watched had grazed the wild fennel plants right to the ground.
Breed of donkeys here small, like the English. The conveyance peculiar to the place a little partly closed in carriage like the Indian gharry with the sides taken out.

update

I am on my glass projects again today..will post more drippings of genius later on.

ode to turner

I came home yesterday and painted an inspirational painting influenced by the turner show..not finished

back on deadlines today..post work soon

photo of the day

talent

here is a song by a relatively unknown songwriter (from a mass appeal POV) he did write a song that became very famous for willy nelson...I posted this because the reaction from the guy behind him is a s real as it gets.

Ulysses deriding Polyphemus - Homer's Odyssey, 1829

This painting by turner has one of the best painted skies ever created by a human. One must see it in person. I would trade every single piece of art made since 1900 (except for a few dalis) for one square inch of the sky in this painting. I cannot believe abstract expressionism ever became a movement when this painting already exisited, did they not know they were doomed to failure from the get go?

notes from turner show

Went back to the Turner show today. I will probably see the show about ten more times. I am a man obsessed, now... These notes will seem like gobbly gook as I write them in "gardega code."

artist of the day---Turner

I went to the met yesterday to check out the turner exhibit. I always like turner but never really mentioned him as an influence or inspiration. To see his work in person is a miracle to behold--- walked out of there a different person. He is one of the greatest artists who ever lived and he puts any abstract expressionist to shame. I never met an artist work that was so in line with my ideas of what painting is. The light and spiritual energy is as good and better than many of the old masters. I am going back today to take notes. his work was criticized often for being too "indistinct " it was viewed this way because he was so far ahead of his time. It puts me to shame how hard he worked in his lifetime.

buried in work will post updates tonight.

job 1

Here is one of 5 jobs I am working on. I have to convert this metal deco design into glass panels....there are many issues to tackle on this job but it is not terribly difficult..I am hoping to be done Tuesday. I am also working on re-doing a panel in a nightclub that was smashed by a man who thought he could jump through glass. I guess with enough vodka glass could appear as water or a cool stream and technically glass is a liquid--- not a solid...The glass is ready for my "birch wall" so I must address that item as well, I am hoping to get that done in two weeks. I have to paint the queens unisphere for the 5th time and that is due mid-sept-- need a vacation as I am getting worn down by a summer of endless work and no play. I need to fly away to somewhere so I can draw and paint and stare at my toes. I want to go to barcelona and drink sangria and see where dali grew up.

artist of the day---Masaccio

I am under a lot of deadlines so I have to get up at three AM and not my usual 5 AM. I went to the corner deli and the NY Post was not even there yet. Something I will discuss now about art history is the artist Masaccio. He was a lesser-known genius but very important in that he introduced the idea of one point perspective and even though he died young he had a profound effect on later artists. He also made breakthroughs in the way he painted the figure. I suppose he moved art forward from the stiffer, gothic, pre-renaissance style of painting and brought some life and fresh air into his figures. It is good to know that these great figures paved the way so the Metropolitan can have a shark in formaldehyde. Progress!?

orwell diary--sept. 3, 1938

Writing on the P. & O. ss. “Stratheden”, 23, 500 tons. No of passenger’s berths 1063. Left Tilbury dock 6pm yesterday. Position marked this morning (not certain whether 8 am or noon) as 49.25 N, 3.34 W, run being 288 miles. Distance to go 1007 miles. Passed Ushant, about 5-10 miles on port side, about 5pm. Now entering Bay of Biscay & traveling about due South. Should sight land again tomorrow night. Sea at present calm. Once or twice small shoal of fish, pilchards or sardines, leaping out of the water as though something were after them. Small land-bird, bunting or some such thing, came on board this morning when out of sight of land. Also pigeons perching on rigging.

painting of the day--kubin

Here is one of my favorite paintings of all time. it is a painting by an artist named alfred kubin. He is not a household name. This painting is one I would like to own. I am off to make glass art.

mural video

Here is a small test video I made from time lapse footage of me painting a ceiling mural over three weeks time in Long Island. I will work more on this soon.

mural movie

I am going to attempt a feat that will surely be my undoing. I am going to try to make a movie of the Leonardo mural I painted on a ceiling. I am will attempt to take the thousand images of time lapse photography and edit them into a movie. I wish I was a techie or a pet photographer so I would not suffer with such issues. the journey of a thousand miles..

update

I am sorry I have been lax on posting. I am gearing up to make this large glass wall. I have been swamped with images in my psyche of images of floods. I grew up on a farm in texas and we would have massive floods. for some reason all those memories have been coming back to me and I have been drawing and painting floods. The funny thing is that I realized today most of my art is about floods and water.

artist of the day---R. Crumb

a video of my work

artist of the day

orwell diary ---august 28, 1938

Night before last an hour’s rain. Yesterday hot & overcast. Today ditto, with a few drops of rain in the afternoon. The hop-picking due to start in about a week.

particle collider

They have just finished building a huge particle collider near France that is the largest (I believe, ever made) it is feared by some scientists that there is a chance it will create black holes in space time when it is used. It is being used to test for a theoretical partical called the The Higgs boson.
Much of this is beyond the brain of alex but I like the fact that they are trying to figure out how and why mass exists if most off the particles that make up mass are themselves without mass. I find this of interest.

finished

I finished my painting--birth of liquid flight today. next I will carve it in glass.

birth of liquid flight.

almost done with this piece, will finish today. I have to unify the background. I am going to carve this piece in glass soon.

orwell diary--august 26, 1938

Hot. Dense ground-mist early this morning. Many blackberries now ripe, very large & fairly sweet. Also fair number of dew-berries. Walnuts now nearly full sized. Plenty of English apples in the shops.

birch wall

today I finally get my glass for my 90 foot etched birch wall I am making for a hotel. It has been a long time coming. I am doing prep work today for it. I will photograph the process from beginning to final installation in hotel. I have other deadlines on top of this one as well.

orwell diary--august 25, 1938

Everything in Suffolk is much more dried-up than in Kent. Until the day we arrived there had been no rain for many weeks & various crops had failed. Near S’wold saw several fields of oats & barley being harvested which had grown only 1’ or 18” high. Ears nevertheless seemed normal. Wheat crop all over the world said to be heavy.
A bedstraw hawk-moth found in our back garden & mounted by Dr Collings¹. Evidently a straggler from the continent. Said to be the first seen in that locality for 50 years.
Little owl very common round here. Brown owl does not seem to exist.
Dr C. says the snake I caught was the “smooth snake”, non-poisonous & not very common.
Today hot again.
Gipsies beginning to arrive for the hop-picking. As soon as they have pitched their caravans the chickens are let loose & apparently can be depended on not to stray. The strips of tin for cloth-pegs are cut of biscuit boxes. Three people were on the job, one shaping the sticks, one cutting out the tin & another nailing it on. I should say one person doing all these jobs (also splitting the pegs after nailing) could make 10-15 pegs an hour.
Another white owl this evening.

watercolor of the day

I painted this to day...it is called The Birth of Liquid Flight---unfinished!

groupthink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKivdMAgdeA&NR=1

latest update

hemingway

Hemingway had 5 concussions in his lifetime. I have had 11 and I have a few decades left in my bones.

artist of the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35vrg7a64nY