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Archive for July, 2014

Stepping Up

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on July 19, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers-Stepping Up smWell, the studio seems very cool and empty this morning.  The work for this year’s show, Layers, at the West End Gallery has been delivered and I am left to clank around in a lot more open space, which is like having an empty canvas or a blank sheet of paper before you, the moment filled with possibility.

There’s exhilaration in this instant but also a bit of sadness at not having those now gone paintings close at hand.  There was something comforting and inspiring in having them surround me in the studio.  Their presence reinforced my belief in the work and new ideas and concepts were always bouncing from them, begging to be taken up.  They were very much like friends, albeit mute ones.

But, as you would hope for any friend, they must at some point set out on their own and find their own place in the world.  Reach their own potential.  And hopefully they soon will.  That would be most gratifying for me.  After nearly two decades of showing my work now,  I am always surprised at how many people have told me about the relationships they maintain with my works, how they continue to find something personally meaningful for themselves even after years of having the painting in their homes.  It would be enough to have the work simply decorating their homes or offices but to have it fulfill any greater role is a great pleasure and thrill, giving meaning to the time I spend in this now empty studio.

So, with hopes those friends who have went out into the world find homes in which they can serve some purpose, I start anew.   Looking for a new friend to spend some time with me here.   Just part of the rhythm and cycle of what I do.

The piece shown here, Stepping Up, is part of the show at the West End Gallery.  It is 6″ by 26″ on paper.  The show was being hung yesterday evening so if you would like a preview, stop in this weekend.

 

 

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Aswirl

Posted in Current Events, Painting, tagged , , , on July 18, 2014| 4 Comments »

GC Myers -AswirlI started writing a diatribe this morning about the dangerous world in which we live, given the recent events in the Ukraine and Israel.  But I realized there is more than enough talking (well, not really talking in substantive terms but mouths opening and words of some sort coming out) going on from politicos and pundits and little action actually taking place.  If you’re reading this, you’re probably fatigued by the whole thing and looking for something to calm you or at least divert your mind from the chaos of the outside world.  I know that is a great part of the motivation behind doing what I do, going inward to find a place of peace where I can take shelter.

So, today is a bit of both.  It’s a little anomaly of a piece that I am including in my upcoming West End Gallery show, Layers, which opens on July 25th.  It’s a small painting, about 5″ by 7″ on paper, that I call Aswirl.  It’s inward but it acknowledges the swirling nature of events in the outer world.  It is chaotic but finds a harmony in rhythm and color.

This is a piece that I have had in my studio for years and have wanted to show but just never got around to doing so.  But I like including at least a couple of small anomalies or oddities in my shows and as I assembled this group of work, this piece began to start popping up.  It always seemed to be in sight and though it is much different than almost anything in the show, it still feels like it fits.

Maybe that’s just me.

But I do know that it takes me away from the tensions of the events in the outer world and settles me as I find pattern and motion in the swirls of colors.  And if that is its only purpose, or my only purpose in what I do, then that is enough for the moment.

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The Empowering

Posted in Biographical, Quote, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , on July 17, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- The Empowering smWhat we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

-Plutarch

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I am in the very last day of preparations before delivering my show to the West End Gallery for next Friday’s opening of my show, Layers.  It’s a day that mixes the tense anticipation of how the work will be received at the show with the relief of finishing all the tasks required to make it happen.

Fear and elation from moment to moment.

This is just an accepted part of the process by now.  But it’s all too easy to let the fear part of this little dance grow, to imagine worst-case scenarios where the show is an abysmal flop and the work fails to move a single person on any level.  I can only imagine that  anyone who creates or performs has these fears.  The trick is to not succumb to them, not let them drown out what you know to be true in your work.

That’s where the elation part of the process comes in.  When I am framing and prepping, the work is arranged in stacks so that I can’t see much of it as I go through the process.  I am engrossed in doing these tasks and put the work itself out of my mind as I proceed.  But as I go along, I get to each individual piece, turning it over to reveal an image that had escaped my mind.  It’s exciting, like seeing it for the first time, and I find myself appreciating aspects of the painting that I had overlooked or not even noticed when it was consuming me in its creation.  It’s a moment that wipes away the fears and reinforces my own belief in the work.

That’s what happened yesterday with this piece, an 18″ by 18″ canvas painting that I call The Empowering.  It had slipped from my sight and memory and upon turning it, it just seemed to glow among the other work.  It really bolstered me and had me setting up pieces in my framing space so that I could see it alongside the other paintings in the show.  The fears were washed away and I was left with a great sense of internal satisfaction that this group was already a success, regardless of my fears.

Here’s hoping that Plutarch’s words hold true and this inner belief becomes an outward reality.

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Glimpse and Aspiration

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on July 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
–Joseph Conrad
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GC Myers- Glimpse and Aspiration sm
In the next week or so I will be featuring several of the new pieces that will be part of my show, Layers, which opens next Friday, July 25th,  at the West End Gallery.  This painting is titled Glimpse and Aspiration and is 24″ by 48″ on birch panel.  It has been a favorite from the moment that it began to take on its own life, midway through the time I was painting it.  Its size gives it a weightiness that fits well with the mood and  glow of the painting.  I find myself looking at it quite often in the studio with a great deal of internal satisfaction at the completeness of it.  It just does something for me.
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I see the Red Tree here as a symbol of the aspiration for  a life of purpose and meaning, the desire for one’s own place in the world.  It is not always a clearly defined objective, as Conrad points out in the quote at the top.  Our life’s path winds through other places and lives but once in a great while there is clarity and we fleetingly see that thing which we believe to be our purpose.  Our aspiration.  Just glimpsing it and having it take a tangible form in our mind is fortifying, making our footsteps lighter and our path even more defined.
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It is something  which we can hold in our minds to guide and inspire us on the path ahead.
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There’s something in this idea  that fills this piece,  making it a very comforting piece for myself.  I am going to very much  miss this painting in my studio when it has went out on its own.  But it has done what it must for me and is destined to hopefully do the same for someone else.
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Sending it out into the world is simply part of my purpose, my aspiration.  At least that is how it appeared to me in my brief glimpse.

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Layers

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on July 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Layers

I am in the final days of preparations for my annual solo show at the West End Gallery in Corning which opens next Friday, July 25th.  It’s really coming together in all areas and I think it will hang together very, very well.  I’m very much looking forward to seeing it in the gallery.

The title for the show comes from the painting shown here, Layers, a 24″ by 36″ canvas.  I was originally going to call the show Strata after a group of paintings from that series that will be in this show but after looking closer at the work in this show I realized that there were layers of all sorts in my work, not only in the underground portion of the Strata pieces.

I described this a bit more in a statement for the show:

I chose the title for this year’s West End Gallery show, Layers, after a re-examination of my work where I tried to determine what themes might have appeared in it, often without thought or guidance from me, through the years. The thing that struck me was how often the paintings were about layers.

Layers in the literal sense, as in the Archaeology and Strata series where the actual underground layers’ patterns become integral rhythmic parts of the painting.

Layers of depth into the picture plane, represented often by a path passing through layers of rolling landscape. Usually to a distant horizon and a sun/moon beyond.

Layers of texture, often chaotic, in the surface of the paintings which add depth and meaning, catching and darkening colors in the depths and lightening them at the highest points.

Layers of color as in the skies of much of my work that require dozens and dozens of layers of color, to the point that only a tiny bit of most of the layers show through. But without each layer, even those that barely show, the painting would lack its fullness.

Layers of meaning. Most of these works have an easy accessibility and a simplicity that can be understood and enjoyed with a casual observation but beyond that there is a layer, even layers, of emotion that are often only revealed by a deeper examination, allowing the color, the forms and the textures to fully fill in the blanks.

Perhaps these layers represent those layers in our world, our emotional and spiritual spheres that, while unseen, move us forward in our lives.

I don’t know the why’s or the what’s of them. I only know that for me these layers add something to the work that I never could have imagined.

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Grazing in the Grass

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , on July 13, 2014| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Solitary Song smThere are certain songs that immediately take you back to specific moments when you hear them, songs that are imprinted in you as a sort of timestamp.  Whenever I hear Grazing in the Grass I am instantly sent back to the summers of my youth.  Impressions of bright yellow sunlight seen through closed eyelids, dried  and brown cut grass on bare feet and the endless search for something to fill your summer days.  We lived relatively isolated in the country and it was a time without instant connection to the outer world– no computers, video games, DVDs, around the clock satellite television or even FM radio– so there was always a pervading sense of boredom.

But, in retrospect,  this boredom was a gift and a wonderful thing.  It made me create my own entertainment and trained me to bide my time within myself.   It gave me time to experiment and explore, to read and to look at the world around me.  It seems that I am eternally busy now and I find myself  missing  that boredom, of wondering what to do next. Or not.

I think boredom has gotten a bad rap with so many parents feeling that they need to fill each moment of their child’s life, depriving  the kids of developing self-reliance and  a certain creative ability.  I know that for me boredom seemed like a curse when I was a kid but was sorely missed once it was gone.

And that all comes to me with this song.  And it can be either version, the original Hugh Masekala instrumental #1 hit from 1968 or the Friends of Distinction‘s vocal hit from the following year, which I  personally prefer, if only for the chance to sing along with the chorus that ends with Can you dig it, Baby?!  I’ve included both versions below for comparison.

So enjoy your Sunday.  I hope you find a little time to be bored.

 

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Cut Rock

Posted in Biographical, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , on July 12, 2014| 4 Comments »

Murrine Glass by Loren StumpI came across this photo of a piece of murrine glass, which is made in long rods that contain patterns that run trough the entire length of the rod.  When the rod is cut at any point it reveals the same pattern.  It is normally done on a small scale that results in small cut discs with colorful patterns that are used in jewelry and in glass paperweights, among other things.  This masterwork of the form, done  by Sacramento-based artist Loren Stump, takes the form to a grand scale with a Renaissance-inspired scene with several full figures and a wonderful dark background that sets off the deep colors.  You can see more of his work at his website, Stumpchuck, or you can take a week long class with him at the nearby Corning Museum of Glass at the end of July.

Seeing this work reminded me of when I worked at the old A&P factory many years ago.  It was a huge building that sprawled over 37 acres that made all sorts of foods.  They claimed it had the capacity to produce enough each day to feed everyone east of the Mississippi.  In my time there,  I worked a number of jobs throughout the plant from  cleaning out the antique looking machines that bagged and sewed the teabags that were filled with tea that came from wooden crates with exotic markings and locales like Ceylon and scouring the inside of huge semolina tanks in the pasta department to making all forms of candy– jelly beans, candy corn, chocolate covered cherries, etc.

One thing I never did was make the rock candy which so reminds me of the murrine glass.   But I really enjoyed seeing them make it.

Cut-Rock-CandyI would often stop while passing through the hard candy department and watch the workers work the masses of glass-like candy on tables with mechanical arms that came in from each side to knead the candy into a ball.  They would then place the mass on heated rollers that would turn the mass into a uniform roll.  They would take these rolls of various colors and arrange them into patterns within one large roll on those same rollers.  They would then hoist the larger roll onto a machine that had telescoping rollers that fed the candy into a machine that stretched it until it was small enough to cut into bite size chinks of candy, like those shown just above.  It was fascinating to watch as were many of the processes there.

It seems like there is little in common between this candy and the work of Mr. Stump, which is shown in more detail below, but it is the same basic principle.  I wonder if you can buy cut rock candy with such an elaborate design?Murrine Glass Detail Loren Stump

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Change and Breakthrough/ Redux

Posted in Quote, Technique/History, tagged , , , on July 9, 2014| 2 Comments »

 

There’s a lot going on so I am a little short on time.  I thought I would rerun a post from this day four years ago that jibes well with a thought that has been going through my mind lately.  A while back, my friend Linda Leinen (you might recognize her as Shoreacres in the comments section) referred to a Robert Frost line– No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.  I have long contended that one of the most difficult parts of my job is maintaining that sense of excitement for myself in the studio, finding that thing that brings me wonder and surprise.  For me, that normally comes from varying the ways in which I work with the materials that I use in my work.  The materials always seem to hold the key to new surprises, new breakthroughs.  Which brings me to the post below.

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Helen Frankenthaler- Savage Breeze

Helen Frankenthaler- Savage Breeze

There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.

–Helen Frankenthaler

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I’m using this quote from Helen Frankenthaler, the famed Abstract Expressionist, as a sort of follow-up or addenda to yesterday’s post about change.  I remember reading about Frankenthaler when I was first beginning to really paint with purpose.  In an article that I read but can’t locate now, she spoke of how she came to her trademark stain paintings where very thinned oil paint is applied to unprimed canvas.  She said it was almost by accident that she first experienced the absorbing of the paint by the raw cotton canvas and how that it caused a reaction, a breakthrough, in her thinking about how she wanted to express herself within her work. 

She felt that all artistic breakthroughs were the result of a change in the way one saw and used their materials.  It could entail changing the type of material used or using them in a more unconventional manner, as her above quote stating there are no rules infers.

This immediately clicked with me at the time I read it.  I had been trying to shape my way of thinking to fit the materials I was using at the time.  Unsuccessfully.  What I needed to do was change the materials to fit the way I was thinking.  Allow my thought process more free rein and not cater to the restraints of materials.

That may sound kind of abstract but it allowed me to start working with my paints and grounds in a much different way, forming my own process that worked well for my way of thinking and has become entrenched in my thought process.  Even though it may be outside more traditional forms of using these same materials,this process has over time become as rigid in my use as the techniques used by the most steadfast adherent of the most traditional school of painting.  This is sort of what I was referring to when I mentioned the end of the cycle, as far as art is concerned.  You reach a certain point, a mastery of your materials, where there are few accidents, few surprises in the materials’ reactions and, as a result, fewer surprises in your own reactions. 

For most, this is the goal.  But I want that surprise, that not knowing exactly how the materials will react and that need to solve the problem presented by the need to express with the limitations of the materials used.  So I try to continually tweak, create a little tension in how the materials react to my use of them, to create a sense of surprise.  Breakthrough.

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Matisse

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Quote, tagged , , , on July 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

matisse_icarusI am after an art of equilibrium and purity, an art that neither unsettles nor confuses.  I would like people who are weary, stressed and broken to find peace and tranquility as they look at my pictures.

-Henri Matisse

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I list Henri Matisse, the French painter who was at the forefront of modern painting at the beginning of the 20th century, as a favorite and an influence.  It’s an odd pick because it is based not simply on the impact of his imagery.  In reality, some of his work does nothing for me and brings little reaction.  But there are pieces that do and when you couple these with his words on his art, his life’s ever evolving body of work  and the fearlessness with which he approached his art- well, then there is an overall impact that is huge.

I find myself nodding in agreement often when I read his words, like the quote at the top here, which sums up what I have been trying to say about my own work for some time.   His words shed a lot of light on his work for me, allow me to better see how he was seeing his own work which makes me appreciate it all the more as it changed over the course of his long career.  Born in 1869, Matisse began painting in the early 1890’s and worked at his art until his death in 1954.

Matisse Blue Nude cut ou 2tI use the term worked at this art because Matisse was not only a painter.  As health problems hindered him, he turned to other forms of expression such as cutting forms out of paper.  The image at the top, Jazz, and Blue Nude, shown here on the left, are two of his best known examples of the cut outs, both considered masterpieces of modern art.  This ability to express himself fully through his art despite hardships is really inspiring as is the fearless way in which he approached his painting.

It is bold and sure, with human curves throughout.  More about harmonizing color and simplifying form than capturing reality.  It makes me want to pick up a loaded brush and just paint freely and easily.  Let loose.

There’s a lot more to say about Matisse.  It took me a while to see why he was so influential to so many artists but now that I can fully see the scope of his work, I now better understand and take his influence and inspiration with me.

Matisse-The-Dessert-Harmony-in-Red-Henri-1908-fast Matisse- La_danse_ 1st Version MOMA

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Night Still Comes

Posted in Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on July 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Confessor Blue smYet another Sunday morning finds me in the studio working.  My show, Traveler,  at the Principle Gallery ends this week and my next show, Layers at the West End Gallery, opens in a few weeks on July 25th so there hasn’t been much of a break.  But that’s okay, I like the busyness and purposefulness of it.  It forces me to keep my head down and concentrate.  To forge ahead instead of being distracted by shiny things, something to which I , like many others, am prone.

Not that distraction is a bad thing.  You find interesting things when you allow your eyes and mind to wander and that, too, eventually finds its way into your work.  But that is for another time when there is a deadline involved.

So, its back to work.

But it is Sunday and I have made a habit of having some music on this day’s posts.  This week I am featuring one of my favorites, Neko Case, who I have featured many times over the years.  This is Night Still Comes from her most recent CD, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You– which is quite a mouthful.  I chose the painting above to go along with it.  Its title is  Confessor Blue and its one of the remaining paintings at the Principle Gallery show.

Enjoy and have a great Sunday…

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