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Archive for October, 2016

The Lesson Learned

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on October 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- The Lesson LearnedI have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
—Lao Tzu

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I am putting the finishing touches on my new show, Part of the Plan, that opens next Saturday, October 29, at the Kada Gallery, in Erie, PA.  I have been showing my work at the Kada Gallery for over twenty years now and this will be, I believe, my eighth solo show there.  Owners Kathy and Joe DeAngelo, along with their staff, do an absolutely wonderful job in representing my work and this is always an enjoyable show for me.

One of the new paintings for this show is the piece above, a 12″ by 16″ canvas titled The Lesson Learned.  The title is taken from the words of Lao Tzu, the Chinese  philosopher and father of Taoism, that are at the top of this page.  I believe that those three things– simplicity, patience and compassion— are the basis for a satisfying and peaceful life.  All three are critical in interacting with the outer world and with our understanding of that outer world and our place in it.

I see all three of those attributes in the Red Tree in this painting.  It stands placidly, taking in the simple pleasure of the scene before it.  It patiently waits for the light of the new day that approaches.  And it perches protectively and compassionately above the homes below it.

When I look at this painting I am instantly reminded of those three things simply by the feeling it instantly evokes in me.  This meshing of feeling and meaning is something I look for in my work because that takes the work to a level that is beyond my own limitations.  It gives it its own life that will move beyond me.  And that is all I can hope for my work…

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Introspection

Posted in Influences, Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- The Introspective MindIntrospection, or ‘sitting in the silence,’ is an unscientific way of trying to force apart the mind and senses, tied together by the life force. The contemplative mind, attempting its return to divinity, is constantly dragged back toward the senses by the life currents.

—Paramahansa Yogananda

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I often consider my landscapes as being deeply introspective even though by their very nature they are outward looking.  They are most often scenes where the central figure– the Red Tree in most cases– finds itself in a moment and place where the inner and outer, the mind and the senses, converge.

It is a moment of calmness, one that allows the mind to expand and soar outside itself, to see the world and itself from new perspectives.  It allows it to see all that it is and is not.  To see all possibility, paths that are open but not yet visible.  Perhaps even a return to divinity as the words of the great Hindi yogi Paramahansa Yogananda states in the quote above.

I like the idea of this juxtaposition of contrasts, the inner and the outer set side by side, each strengthening the other so long as they stay in balance.  I can’t say that I go into a painting with that as a goal in the front of my mind.  I think it’s just one of those things that when you recognize it in the final product realize that it was what you were looking for even though you didn’t know it at the outset.

And perhaps letting it slip from your consciousness was the key all along.  Trying too hard to find something so elusive usually ends in failure.  But just letting things go without placing too much emphasis on any aspect sometimes brings what is important to the forefront.

I know that in this new painting, a 15″ by 30″ canvas titled Introspection, that how I see it now had little to do with where I initially thought it would go or say.  At its start I never gave a single thought as to leading it to the message that it now holds for me.  I just let the paint work, let my mind move freely in the forms and color to release what it ultimately held.

So maybe that is the key– to free the mind from the senses as Yogananda says.  Easier said than done…

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The painting above, Introspection, is included in Part of the Plan, my solo show opening October 29 at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.

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Subterranean Homesick Blues

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , on October 16, 2016| 4 Comments »

Archaeology: UnburdenedIn these current strange days, I am not quite sure how I feel about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.  I think I’m okay with it.  After all, I’ve always though of him as much a writer/poet as a musician. His lyrics have been winding around the world for fifty some years and it’s hard to find any musician just about anywhere who hasn’t been influenced by his words, his music and his social consciousness.

I was trying to pick a song from Dylan for this Sunday’s musical selection and realized what an impossible task it is.  There is just such a vast and varied body of work, spanning so much time and covering so many phases in his career.  You could just play his old folk stuff from before 1965 and you might think that was a whole career.

So today I thought I would play two of my favorites from two distinct periods of Dylan’s career.  One is the early and fun Subterranean Homesick Blues with its well known video while the other is a mid-1990’s Love Sick.  Just plain good stuff from the now Nobel Prize  winning artist and writer.

Enjoy and have a good Sunday…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abbu5hcH0kk

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Absorbed in the Moment

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on October 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Absorbed in the MomentIt is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.
-Eckhart Tolle

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This new painting is a 20″ by 20″ canvas titled Absorbed in the Moment.  This was one of those rare pieces that felt strong from its very beginning all the way through to its completion.  It felt very directed and each piece seemed to fit easily into the painting, adding its own strength.

The progress of this piece very much kept me in the moment as I worked and maybe that is where that sense of awe in the moment that I get from this piece originates.  I know as I worked, I stayed only in the moment.  Setting aside the past and the future, I relished being in that place at that time.  The scene, the colors and the way everything fell together created an inviting and restful –even invigorating — place for my mind to linger.

And that held true even long after its completion.  Every time I look in its direction I sense a feeling of comfort, a great calming effect, in that moment.  The moment taking place on the surface becomes the moment I am living in the present.

It is always in the present moment and the present moment is always in it–that is all I can ask of anything I paint.

This painting will be included at my upcoming show, Part of the Plan, which opens October 29 at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.

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Where the Circle Meets

Posted in Opinion, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on October 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Where the Circle MeetsI am calling this new painting, an 18″ by 24″ canvas, Where the Circle Meets.  I am thinking of that part of a circle where the beginning starts and the end terminates, doing so constantly and endlessly through cycle after cycle until one is almost indistinguishable from the other.  The beginning contains the end and the  end contains a beginning.

I tend to think of us going through our lives in this sort of karmic cycle, one where we endlessly loop round and round through days and experiences as we go along.  Hopefully, as each cycle comes around we take something from that last turn to make the next one easier and more fulfilling.  Perhaps we shed bad intentions and selfishness.  Or look away from the dark and toward the light.

And I do see this in this painting.  There is a movement from darker to lighter tones as you move into this piece.  Around the bend  in the stream, the sun hovers above the horizon, bringing light which is shown in the form of pulsing beams of energy.

We live our lives in cycles and with that comes the opportunity to know that each cycle’s ending holds the promise of a new beginning.  The trick is in recognizing this and using learned knowledge to make the next one better from the beginning.

I may not be putting this very eloquently this morning.  Perhaps I am too tired or my mind is a bit fuzzy this morning. But regardless of that, I hope you’ll take a look and try to see what I am saying with this piece.

This painting is included in my show, Part of the Plan, which opens at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA on October 29th.

 

 

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No Rules/ Redux

Posted in Advice, Motivation, Painting, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 10, 2016| 2 Comments »

I do what I can to convey what I experience before nature and most often, in order to succeed in conveying what I feel, I totally forget the most elementary rules of painting, if they exist that is.  In short, I allow faults to appear, the better to fix my sensations.

–Claude Monet, 1912

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I have had this little sign hanging in my studio for the last 16 years [over 20 years now], a rough reminder to myself when I begin to feel like my work is bending to the rules and judgments of others.  It reminds me that I am working in my own realm, my world.  I control the parameters of what is possible, of what defines reality in my work.  The rules of others mean nothing in my little painted world.

Over the years  I have glimpsed this small sign at times when I have been feeling that my work is stagnating or beginning to adhere to  accepted conventions.  At those times I have been spurred to push my work in some new direction.  It might come in the form of heightening the intensity of color or introducing new hues that seems incompatible with nature, for example.

It’s as though these two words are prods that constantly  tell me that nobody can control me when I am here in my created world.  There’s a great liberation in this realization and I find myself trusting my own judgment of my work more and more.  Because I have created  my own criteria for its reality, criticism from others means little now.

I think that’s what I am trying to get at here, that an artist must fully believe that they are the sole voice of authority in their work, that they, not others, determine its validity. Maybe that’s why I am so drawn to  Outsider artists, those untrained artists who maintain this firm belief in their personal vision and create a personal inner world of art  in which it can live and prosper.  Rules mean nothing to them- only the expression of their inner self matters .

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Adagio in Blue

Posted in Music, Opinion, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , on October 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Adagio in BlueWow.

That’s about anyone can say after these last few days, days which may go down as some of the craziest ever seen in the history of our nation.  I am not going to say much here on the subject of candidate Trump.  There’s not much to say except that this is not a big shocker to me.  I’ve said it before: Trump has shown us who and what he is repeatedly over the past decades.

If you are surprised by any revelation about this creature– I hesitate to use the word man in this case– that has come out (or any that is bound to emerge because I have to believe there is plenty more in the bullpen just waiting patiently to be unleashed) then you haven’t been watching closely enough.  Either that or you are, as my father likes to say– even in his current state of Alzheimer’s–among  the most gullible people on the face of the earth.

And for those out there waking up this morning still believing that Trump is some kind of positive answer or agent of change, I feel pity for them.  That kind of denial of reality can only point to a life that will be further filled with anger, hatred and discontent.

And that is a sad thing for them. And for those around them. And for this country.

Okay, enough said on that for now.  I need some comforting on this ominously quiet Sunday morning.  The painting at the top is a new 9″ by 12″ canvas that is part of my upcoming show at the Kada Gallery which opens October 29.  I call this piece Adagio in Blue.  It has a calming presence in its colors and composition that fulfills my needs this morning.  I am coupling it with a classical piece this morning, the Adagio from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 as played by French pianist Hélène Grimaud.  It’s a beautiful piece and a well produced video presentation.

Think of it as a peaceful respite from the crap storm cutting through our political world at the moment.  Relax and try to have a good day.

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Skirting the Storm

Posted in Uncategorized on October 6, 2016| 7 Comments »

With Hurricane Matthew in mind:gc-myers-skirting-the-storm

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In Gratitude

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 5, 2016| 6 Comments »

GC Myers- In GratitudeTrue happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

—Seneca

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This new painting, which is about 4″ by 15″ is a bit of a rarity.  It is done on plain watercolor paper without the benefit of the texture from the gessoed surfaces that I typically use, much like my very earliest works.  It was a nice change, reverting to working on the smooth surface of untreated paper.  There’s a sense of purity in the way the colors flow on and set to the paper’s surface.

Very clean.  Crisp.

I call this piece In Gratitude.  The words at the top from the Roman philosopher Seneca very much capture the spirit of what I see in this painting and aspire to in my own life– to be always conscious of and grateful for that which I do have in my life.

I talk and think a lot about gratitude.  Gratitude for where I am in the present moment sets me free from dwelling on the past or fretting about the future, both things out of my hands.  Gratitude also makes me recognize the importance of those who have played key roles in my life.

 Recognizing that one depends on the help, the love and the recognition of others in their life is a key element in finding a level of contentment in one’s life.

We do nothing totally alone.

I may claim that my work is my creation alone but it is, in fact, a compilation of the interactions of my life with those who I have encountered along the way.  They have formed my sight, my perception of this world, and given shape to the hoped-for world that shows itself in my work.

And for that alone, I am so grateful.

So, this seems like a simple small painting but for me it speaks volumes.

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This painting, In Gratitude, is part of my solo show, Part of the Plan,  which opens October 29th at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.

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Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkins

Posted in Neat Stuff, tagged , , on October 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

yayoi-kusama-all-the-eternal-love-i-have-for-the-pumpkins-2016Well, October is the time for pumpkins.

Over the last day or so I keep coming back to the photo above after seeing it on the I Require Art page.  Titled  All the Eternal Love I Have For the Pumpkins, it’s from an installation from the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.  Now 87 years old and still highly  productive, she has long been at the forefront of the avant-garde and conceptual art movements.

yayoi-kusama-portrait-w-pumpkinI can’t write much about her as I don’t know much about her.  But the imagery I have come across with all its densely packed patterns consisting often of her trademark polka dots swirling and twisting on multiple surfaces.  Like the pumpkins above or the photo here on the left  with her becoming part of the installation in a most wonderful way.  It’s mesmerizing.

One of the ways I quickly judge the direction of an artist’s work is to do a Google image search.  Below is a quick shot of a search done with her name and the word pumpkin and below that is one just using her name.  Great continuity, great pop off the screen.  I just love the look of this work.

I urge you to look more into the work and life of Yayoi Kusama.  I know I will look further.

yayoi-kusama-pumpkinsyayoi-kusama-images

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