quote of the day----H.L. Mencken

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl."

central park--by gardega

I ran a few miles in Central Park this morning. It was filled with cops and paramilitary as the pope was due to pass through. I sat down next to an old timer and we started talking about the police and the military and the erosion of civil liberties etc. He told me he spent two years in a communist prison near romania for speaking out against the government. He said they would torture him every day by putting his hand in a door and slamming it--- he showed me his bent fingers. He said America is crazy for giving up her liberties and rights. I agreed with him. If we wind up in a fascist theocracy or world communist government it is going to be like living everyday inside a dept. of motor vehicles.

orion nebula

I found this picture on the Nasa website today. This image is proof to me that there is no longer a need for abstract painting. Man has never even come close to achieving something of this power in abstract art. Lay down thy brushes.

magnetotail

This image is explained in posting below. this reminds me of an angel, a magnetic angel.

magneto tail

the earth is surrounded by a bubble of magnetism, this is in part to the molten metal "dynamo" core of the earth. this "bubble" stretches out into space into a "tail" that is basically a long mass of charged particles. If you ever look up and see it is a full moon you can know that the moon is in the middle of our magnetotail. When the moon is in our magnetotail she is being bombarded by charged particles. On the dark side of the moon this can cause the surface to raise into thousands of volts of electrostatic energy. There is speculation that this can actually create a wind, an electrical wind that raise particles into the air etc. This is one of Nasa's pictures to illustrate the tail...

bladder drugs cause memory loss

I read this morning that bladder drugs cause memory loss. I think that is how they are supposed to work. If you forget that you wet yourself then it doesnt really matter that your shorts are wet. what matters is perception. brilliant!

Update---by gardega

I have been back at my zen inspired watercolors. The more I mature in art the more I realize that there is a large philosophical difference between making art that is concerned with the "process" or "the journey" and making art that is concerned primarily with having a nice finished product to hang above and match your sofa ---Maybe the two meet somewhere on a dusty highway. It is very unlike me to leave out a lot of detail in my work but for some reason I have been working in a minimal fashion on these watercolors. I don't think it is laziness because I like to paint detail. It is more about restraint. Notice my 5 foot "priest" painting tucked behind my desk watching me paint....These are for sale if anyone wishes to buy one or all. Just state which one you would like to see from left to right and I will email you a better photo/ version of it.

article of the day

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=559967&in_page_id=1770

quote of the day

Anatole France - "It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion."

how to be a great artist---by gardega

If you are determined (or have a deep rooted wish to be an "artiste") I would like to offer up the rules of engagement that I have gathered up like crumbs in a german forest over the years.

the rules:

1) First you must have a great and unforgettable name before you even take a step onto the rocky path towards fame. Names as Picasso, Dali, Goya, Magritte, Kubin. These are names that carry with them the faint yet unmistakable odor of grandeur and destiny.


2) second it is best to have rich parents as you will not have to pick old pizza out of trash bins for ten years as you strive against impossible odds that would weigh down the most heroic of figures. Gardega had not such luxuries but you can compensate with stubbornness and tenacity and know that one day after the ten thousandth try you will find the right filament to light the bulb of truth and success.


3)thirdly, you must think for yourself and avoid the groupthink of modern life and it is best to be an individual to the 9th degree if you are understood or not you will be better off as it is much better to fail as Gardega than to be another at any cost.

4) Press my friend!!! If you are an unkown artist it is because you are not putting your turkey neck on the chopping block of fear and rejection. It is best to be known and to have people read about you and to buy your art. If you would prefer to hide in the shadows and drive a milk truck down the road of failed destinies you are so entitled! It is good to be on TV and radio and in the gossips and on the pavement casting the long shadows of envy among your comrades.

5) throw out your television. If you spend your time in front of the idiot box your mind with bog down like a chicken in a glue factory. Read those little things called books and research and study and do geometry and be not lazy. If you need to visit bacchus when your mind is weighed down with problems of analytical geometry and you cannot sleep then wine is fine and as baudelaire famously said "stay drunk young man" stay drunk on art, and life and wisdom and words.

ghost of renoir---by gardega

SOLD


watercolor on Arches paper 22" x 30".

This watercolor is done on a wonderfully crafted (and expensive) sheet of arches watercolor paper. I recommend when framing it that it is framed behind glass in a "Shadow Box" type frame so the rough edges of the paper are visible to the viewer as opposed to being hidden by a matte.

AHPPY RITHDBYA

GARDEGA SAYS "THINK OUTSIDE THE MAILBOX!"

another chance apparel

a good friend and collector of my work sent me an email about her clothing line and I thought I would share it on here. Her name is mary and she is a popular DJ in Westchester NY on 103.9 WFAS..

I have a side project to tell you about - Another Chance Apparel - with my co-worker, JJ Kennedy. It's a line of shirts that have been recycled from cotton waste and plastic bottles spun into fabric and made into shirts. The concept is: Everyone and everything deserves Another Chance - people deserve another chance and so do 'things.' Manufacturing tee shirts made from recycled fabric requires 2/3 less energy, it keeps plastic soda bottles out of landfills, and is just as soft and cozy as regular cotton or organic cotton shirts. Plus, since the cotton is recycled, no pesticides or chemicals were used to grow and maintain cotton fields for these shirts.

Please check out the Another Chance Apparel website at www.marydesilva.com (it's very bare, I built it myself, the real site will be up as soon as my webmaster is done with finals!!) and on MySpace at:
www.myspace.com/anotherchanceapparel


feel free to view/ buy her shirts!

color of the day----green

I chose green as the color of the day because there is a large amount of focus on the environment and the green movement. As an artist I like to keep the planet in good shape myself and worry about the oceans etc. The downside of the whole thing is that if we are not careful with how we legislate we create greater problems. Because of the mandates on Biodiesel many very poor countries are losing their main source of food---CORN. There are food riots and the price of the foodstuffs many of these countries survive on is through the roof. I would rather stick to oil if it keeps these third world people from staving and eating tree bark to survive. Also, a global carbon tax and all the talk about carbon footprint etc is a great way to simply throw another tax on the plate of "the little guy." If you do not think that the "global elite" are getting an extended chuckle out of a "global carbon tax" you are mistaken---If you really peel back the layers and use your grey matter you will see that a carbon tax is essentially a tax on our breath---We exhale carbon. I hope you see the humor in that one... I hope we solve our planets enviro problems but I do not want idiots writing impactful legislation that causes more problems than it solves. I feel like drawing a political cartoon of a poor family at a dinner table and the mother telling the young child to drink his biodiesel....

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.