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Archive for September, 2013

The New Revelator

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , on September 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-The New Revelator smI usually take a small group of new work with me for the Gallery Talk I give each September at the Principle Gallery, which takes place this Saturday at the Alexandria gallery.  It’s nice to have a few new pieces to illustrate some of the points I am trying to make during the talk.  This is one of the new paintings that will be going with me, The New Revelator, a 16″ by 34″ piece on paper.

I’ve been finishing this piece over the last few days and it has underwent a dramatic transformation during the last stages, one that took it from a piece that was struggling to find its identity to one that has what I feel is a powerful presence.  When I look at it I see the bands in the field that run towards the center as being not only a crop but as a representation of some sort of communal knowledge or power that runs through our world, unseen.  The Red Tree stands at the center, joining this gathering knowledge with the greater power of the universe  that I see represented here by the open horizon behind it.  There is an ethereal quality in the descending hills, one that gives a feeling of movement through time especially when coupled with the breaking sky.  The Red Tree is the new revelator here, exposing the hidden powers of the universe to those who want to see.

That might seem a bit of a stretch for some, as far as what they see in this painting.  Again, I remind you that this is only what I see here, what this painting holds for me in an emotional sense.  You might see it as simply a landscape with interesting forms and colors.  That is good enough.  Or you may not like it all which, too, is okay.  Whatever the case, the painting stands as it  now, hopefully revealing something for you.

The New Revelator will be at the Principle Gallery this Saturday.  My Gallery Talk there starts at 1 PM and I will be in the gallery before and after if you would like to stop in and say hello.

For now, here’s an interesting version of the great old Blind Willie Johnson song, John the Revelator, from Nick Cave, who always seems to have a unique take on most things.

 

 

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A Day at the Fenimore

Posted in Favorite Things, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 4, 2013| 7 Comments »

Andrew Wyeth -Mother Archie's Church 1945

Andrew Wyeth -Mother Archie’s Church 1945

We went to Cooperstown this past Monday to catch the last day of the Wyeth Family exhibit at the Fenimore Art Museum.  It was a great show featuring work from patriarch NC Wyeth,   son Andrew, grandson Jamie, daughter Henriette and daughter Carolyn as well as Henriette’s husband, Peter Hurd and NC’s primary influence Howard Pyle.  That’s a lot of talent to jam into a relatively intimate space.  You might think that it would be less than satisfying but the curating of this show was masterful, showing each artist in a truly representative manner that gave a real taste of their body of work.   Just a wonderful show.  I am glad I got to see it  if only to see a few of NC Wyeth’s gorgeous works and to discover more about his son-in-law, Peter Hurd, whose work is wonderful, bringing to mind the regionalist painters such as Grant Wood.

Thomas Cole- The Course of Empire- Destruction

Thomas Cole- The Course of Empire- Destruction

Of course, there was also the spectacular Thaw Collection of American Indian Art to see.  As always, it was a thrill to see the beautiful aesthetic of the native culture.  And as good as both the Wyeth show and the Thaw Collection were, I was truly bowled over by the current show, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision, featuring works from the Hudson River painters of the 19th century,  Just beautiful and strong examples from the genre, highlighted for me by the works of Asher Durand and the spectacular Thomas Cole series of five paintings, The Course of Empire , which features the rise and fall of an empire in the landscape, a rocky peak with a precariously perched boulder standing as a constant witness.  You have probably seen some of the paintings from this series but to see them together  in their full scale is to really get a great appreciation for their power.  It hangs at the Fenimore until September 29, so if you can, take a trip and see some incredible work.

 

Cole, Course of Empire - Savage State 1834 Cole, Course of Empire - Arcadia, Pastoral State 1834 Cole, Course of Empire - Consummation of Empire 1835 Cole, Course of Empire - Desolation 1836

 

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Orphans/ Ode to Whitman

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , , , , , on September 3, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-Ode to Whitman Orphans is the word I use to describe the paintings that don’t find a home.  I’ve been fortunate in my career that there haven’t really been that many so that the ones that do keep coming back to me take on a special significance, especially the ones that I felt were somehow special beforehand.  It may be the extra time I get to spend with them, examining them again and again to see if there is some inherent flaw or lack of fire that keeps someone from making it their own, that gives it this significance.  I spend much more time with these orphans than those paintings that quickly find a home.

Ode to Whitman is such an orphan, it being a piece has toured the country and has yet to find a home.  It saddens me a bit when I look at this painting because I do see the spirit of Walt Whitman in this piece, at least as he translates into my own psyche.  Though quiet in nature, the Red Tree here is celebrating its very being and could be embodying Whitman’s verse:

I too am not a bit tamed,

I too am untranslatable,

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

These were words that were very influential in the formation of my artistic voice.  They dared me to stand apart.  They challenged me to reveal my inner self to the world, to let my light shine.  To let my yawp go free.

And that is what I see in this  piece.  It as though once the yawp has been released, even as the surrounding trees seem to be recoiling from its sound and fury, a placid pall has come into the center of its being.  It is calm now that it knows who it is, what it is.

As you can tell, I see and feel a lot in this simple painting.  I guess that is why it pulls at me to think of it as orphan.  That’s why I am going to give this piece a home and this is going to be the painting that will be given away at the Gallery Talk this coming Saturday at the Principle Gallery, which starts at 1 PM.  I know that it will find a good home in this way because someone who didn’t like my work would not spend an hour of their time listening to me talk about it.

So I hope you can make it  to the talk and that, if you’re the one who takes Ode to Whitman home , you realize the feeling that it carries with it.

Here’s another bit of Whitman that like, from the preface to his landmark Leaves of Grass:

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

 

 

 

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The Pride of Labor

Posted in Biographical, Quote, tagged , , on September 2, 2013| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- The Task Met smallIf a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Another Labor Day is here.  On this blog in the past I have bemoaned how the general public has forgot how much it owes to the labor movement, how the middle class that was the pride of this country during the middle of the last century was a direct result of hard fought gains from workers who banded together and stood against social injustice.  But today I just want to speak briefly about taking pride in one’s job, the same sentiment reflected in the quote above from Martin Luther King, Jr.

When I was a waiter in a pancake house, even after I had started showing my work in several galleries, I was always a waiter first when I was at my job.  Never a painter-slash-waiter, a title which served no purpose.  Circumstances had put me in this place at this time and I had determined that if I had to be there I would give it my complete attention and effort.  I would make it my own.  If I disliked it so much that it made me miserable, I would do something about changing my job when my day there was done and the task before me was complete.

 But while I was there, I treated it as though it were my destiny because, who knew, maybe it was.  I took great pride in being good at that job and some other jobs that I’ve done that could be classified as menial.  What was the cost in doing this?  If I had to be there then I would rather be recognized for my excellence rather than my misery.

Simply put, take pride in the task before you, however menial you see it.  Treat it as your destiny because in that very moment, it is.

Have a great Labor Day and remember what the day stands for.

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