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Quote of the Week: Henry Moore

Posted in Biographical, Motivation, Quote, tagged , , , on September 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Henry Moore SculptureIt is a mistake for a sculptor or a painter to speak or write very often about his job. It releases tension needed for his work.

—Henry Moore

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Came across this quote from the great British sculptor Henry Moore and it struck me on two accounts, both in the words about an artist talking too much about his job and the other in the need for tension.  I am aware and worry about both things quite often.

Talking and writing about my work has been a normal thing for me for years now and, while I think it has helped me express myself in many ways especially in the way it acts as a confessional in which I can air out my anxieties, I have often feared that my willingness to be transparent will detract from my work in some way.  In times when I am less than confident, I fear that my words will somehow expose me as a fraud or, at least, point out the more obvious flaws in my character.

Even as I write this, I am questioning the very act of doing so.

But I do it.  And will probably continue to do so.  It’s become part of who I am at this point, even on those days when I find myself questioning the wisdom in it.

As for tension being needed for the work, that is something I have believed for myself for a long time.  Tension pushes me, makes me stretch forward out of my comfort zone.  Tension has been the igniter for every personal breakthrough in my work, creating an absolute need to find new imagery or new ways to use materials.

There are times when I feel that I have become too comfortable in the materials and processes that I use and that people have become too accustomed to seeing my work.  I feel stagnant, stalled at a plateau.  It is in these times when tension, even fear, begins to build in me and I begin to scan in all directions for a new way of seeing or a new material in which to work.  The tension becomes a burning need to prove myself.

This tension is not a comfortable thing.  But I know it is a necessary condition in order for my work to continue to grow, which is what I want and need.  To the casual observer it would seem to be a good thing to reach a point where you are comfortable and satisfied in what you do but when I don’t feel that tension I begin to worry.

Odd as it may seem, I see that anxiety as a path forward or an open door to be found.  It ultimately shows something.

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Learning Curve

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Influences, Motivation, tagged , , , on September 23, 2015| 4 Comments »

Paulina Garces Reid Ecuador In My Heart 2015

Paulina Garces Reid- ” Ecuador In My Heart” 2015

At the end of my workshop last week, one of the attendees presented me with a painting she had completed during the second day.  She even titled it for me!  Called Ecuador In My Heart it reflects many of the elements- the cities and villages, the sea, the mountains and the trees and flowers– of the native landscape of Ecuador-born artist Paulina Garces Reid.  I love this little painting, the way in which the blocks come together to tell their story and the manner in which Paulina  modulated her colors, which she pointed out are the colors of Ecuador, with dark glazes.

GC Myers Early Experiment 1994I was moved by her sharing this painting with me and amazed how far she, like all of the students, had progressed in such a short time.  I explained that she was at a point with my technique that had taken me months and hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours to reach.  Looking around the room, I could see on every table something that I know I could easily find in my bin of my own early experiments.  I saw one specific experiment of mine (shown here)  in Paulina’s piece, one that hadn’t reached as far as she had in just a handful of hours.

These students had shot past my own learning curve, had easily grasped concepts and processes that took me a long time to develop and master.  Going into this, I didn’t know what to expect as to what I might see from these students or how I might feel at the end.   I do know that after the first day I had absolutely no expectations and couldn’t see myself doing this again.  But that second day changed everything.  Like the students, I had my own learning curve to conquer and seeing the work from Paulina and the others  made me feel that it was something I could quickly get past to make my teaching more effective if there is a future opportunity to do this.

And I guess that’s the thing I take from this.  It established a starting point from where my learning curve began and I can see progress along that curve.  And like the students, it’s exciting to see progress in any endeavor.  So, I may teach again not just for the thrill of seeing others being excited by the work they produce as a result but for my own excitement in learning how to better deal with people, how to better communicate my own experience to them.  Like y paintings, it all comes down to communication…

Thank you again, Paulina, for the beautiful gift.  I will hang it with pride in my studio.

 

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Afterthoughts

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Motivation, tagged , , , on September 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Elemental Being smYesterday was a day to crash after a somewhat  hectic week, at least by my standards.  It was a week filled with hurried preparation, a lot of driving, some new experiences , meeting new (and old) friends and far more talking than I am used to.  By the time I finally got to stop yesterday afternoon, I laid down on the floor of my studio next to Hobie, my loving studio cat who had her nose slightly bent out of joint by my absences in the past week, and closed my eyes and quickly fell to sleep to the rhythms of Hobie’s incredibly loud purr of satisfaction.  It was the most satisfying little nap I had taken in some time.

The Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery on Sunday started slowly with a smaller group at its beginning that grew and grew as the time passed until the space was crowded.  That’s always nice because it seems that when the group is larger people are more liable to ask questions.  They are almost a little more shy when it is a smaller group and a larger group gives them cover.  But it ended up being a good talk that I think was entertaining and informative with a nice back and forth flow between us.

I know that I enjoyed myself especially when it was time to give away a few things at the end of the talk.  That’s always a fun time for the audience as well as myself.  It sounds goofy and even a little cheesy but I really enjoy being able to do this at my talks.  I’ve said this before but it’s a small token compared to everything that I have received from doing this.  Plus it’s just great to see the faces of people when they get even a small gift.

It was especially satisfying when two small girls, each no more than 9 or 10 I am sure,  each took home something on Sunday.  They were there with their dad and he told me that they had asked to come to the talk.  The family had two of my paintings, one a large Red Tree and another from the Archaeology series, and the girls love them.  One had brought a drawing she had made copying the composition of their Red Tree painting and the other, a lovely small drawing of leaves.  They asked me to sign them for them and I can’t even begin to tell you how much that means to me, how much it moves and amazes me even now as I sit here.

Leija and Scott DeLisi with me Principle Gallery Talk 2015

Leija and Scott DeLisi with me Principle Gallery Talk 2015

Also, another satisfying moment came when I looked over and  saw Ambassador Scott DeLisi and his wife, Leija, slide into two seats.  I was very surprised since only days before Scott was still in Uganda  in his final days as our Ambassador to that nation before taking retirement from a long and distinguished career in our foreign service, serving as our Ambassador to Eritrea, Nepal and Uganda along with prior posts around the globe.  We have had a mutual admiration– they for my painting and me for Scott’s admirable work abroad and for Leija’s wonderful candor– for some time but had never been able to cross paths–I don’t get to Kampala on a regular basis.  So to finally meet them in person  was just great and I felt like I had known them for many, many years.

I am looking forward to seeing Scott’s new role in retirement as he will continue working in the private sector for efforts to improve the lives of people around the world.  All the best to you, Ambassador DeLisi.  Many thanks to Leija and you  for taking the time to stop in on Sunday.

There are a lot more moments and stories to tell from that day as well as my workshop experience of a few days earlier but I am going to wrap this up.  It was  a great week, one that had way more validation than any one more person should get in that time frame.  I am going to let it all soak in for a while then get back to work, refreshed by the kindness of others.

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Labor Day/ Working Hands

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, tagged on September 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Since it is Labor Day, I thought I would rerun a post from several years back that is one of my favorites that very much has to do with one of the symbols of labor–the hands of the worker:

working-hands-photo-by-tony-smallman-2008I have always regarded manual labour as creative and looked with respect – and, yes, wonder – at people who work with their hands. It seems to me that their creativity is no less than that of a violinist or painter.

-Pablo Casals

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I came across this shot of working hands and it made me think of how I’ve viewed hands through my life.  I’ve always looked at people’s hands since I was a child.  The liver spotted hands of my grandmother had thin ivory fingers that seemed like translucent china, for instance.

The hands of our landlord Art, an old farmer, were thick and strong and missing at least one digit down to the knuckle on several fingers, the result of an impatient personality and old farm machinery.  Not a great match.  I saw quite a few farmers with missing fingers.

Fat Jack, who I wrote about here a ways back, had hands whose nails were longer than you might expect and permanently rimmed with the black from the oil and grease of the machines on which he was always working.  His hands were round and plump, like Jack himself, but surprisingly soft and nimble, good for manipulating the small nuts and bolts of his world.

There was a manager when I was in the world of automobiles who was a great guy but had extremely soft and damp hands.  It was like handling a cool dead fish when you shook hands.  A mushy, damp, boneless fish.

I admired working hands.  They reflected their use so perfectly, the scars and callouses  serving as badges of honor and the thick muscularity of the fingers attesting to the time spent at labor.  They seemed honest with nothing to hide.  They were direct indicators of that person’s life and world.

My own hands have changed over the years.  They were once more like working hands, calloused and thickening from many hours spent with a shovel.  There are a number of small scars from screwdrivers that jumped from the screwhead and into the flesh time and time again and another on the end of my middle finger from when I cut the very end of it off while trying to cut a leather strap with a hunting knife.  Not a great idea.

I always felt confident when my hands were harder and stronger.  Now, I have lost some of that thickness of strength and the fingers are thinner and a bit softer from doing less manual labor.  I look at them now and wonder how I would have judged them when I was younger, when I measured a man by his hands, something that  I don’t do  now.  I now know there are better ways to measure a life, that the work of the mind is now a possibility– something that seemed a million miles away then.  But when I come across working hands, strong and hard, I find myself admiring them still.

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Railbirds 1994

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Personal Mythology, tagged , , on August 21, 2015| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Railbirds 1994This is an older painting of mine from back in 1994.  I was in the transition from trying to simply replicate the work of others to developing my own visual voice.  I wasn’t sure where it would go from there and didn’t even have an idea of how to proceed.  I just painted and painted, letting each piece be the guide for the next.  Sometimes it brought forth breakthroughs and sometimes not.  But this time and this work still brings back that excitement of the unknown that was so present in that time.

This little piece is a favorite of mine from that time and is painted in a more traditional watercolor style that I was dabbling in at the time.  It is titled Railbirds and depicts a scuffle between the inhabitants at the rail of a horsetrack.  Perhaps there was a dispute over a mislaid wager or which jockey looked sharpest in their colors.  Who knows?

I spent an inordinate time as a kid at the race track, reading the Racing Form and drinking way too much Coke.  One summer, my father and I were at the track on average 3-4 times a week.  It was a time when a 13-year old kid could lay wagers at the betting windows without any questions and I would often act as a runner for bets, including my own.  I learned a lot of lessons there.

First, that I was lousy judge of horses and a pretty mediocre gambler.  But more importantly, it was a laboratory and showcase for human behavior and it stirred in me the beginnings of a realization that I didn’t want to spend my life in that way.  I saw lives that were heavily addicted to gambling and alcohol and it seemed like such a waste of time in what even then seemed like a too brief lifespan.  There were very unhappy, angry and greedy people there, always on display and they made an impression on me.

Maybe these lesson and these people formed the darkness that I use as a base for my work.  I often think it is the contrast between the underlying darkness and the overriding light of my work that sometimes makes it effective, makes it feel hopeful without being pollyanna-ish.

I don’t know for sure.  But I do look at this piece quite often in the studio, studying its rhythm and flow while thinking of those times, good and bad.

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Cruel August

Posted in Biographical, Motivation, Quote, tagged , , , , on August 12, 2015| 8 Comments »

 

pablopicassoskeletonYour willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.

—August Wilson

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As the post below from back in August of 2010 points out, most years I struggle with the month of August and this particular one is no different.  The doldrums set in and I am filled with an anxiety and a stifling restlessness that combine to create a sense of desperation within me.  If I hadn’t experienced this before, this feeling would seem unbearable.

But it’s not something new so I realize that it’s just a matter of hanging on and letting it pass, all the while trying to pull something from it that will show itself in my work.  I have found that such keen desperation is often the source of great work, much as playwright August Wilson —a fitting first name!— points out so eloquently in the quote above.  So, while I find myself fighting through the cruel days and demons of August, I do so as I listen for the song of angels to begin.

And from experience, I know they will begin soon enough.  Sing, angels, sing!

From August 18, 2010:

This print from Picasso [ Above] very much sums up my feelings for the month of August. 

I have never been a fan of August.  Memories of the so-called dog days of summer spent as a child.  Hot from a relentless sun.  Bored.  Burnt grass crunching underfoot.  The coming school year hanging overhead like the sword of Damocles.

August has always had a faint aura of death around it for me.  I remember the death of my grandfather in ’68.  My beloved dog Maggie years later.  Several friends over the years, from a variety of causes. Elvis.   The bright glare of the August sun seeming to taunt the grief of the moment.

August.

We were watching something on television the other night, perhaps Mad Men– I can’t really remember.  Anyway, the character in the scene that was on said , “I hate August.” 

It made my ears prick up and I couldn’t help but mutter, “I’m with you there, brother.”

August.

Well, I’ve got a lot to do this August  morning.  It takes a lot of work to keep busy to ward off the cruelty of  August…

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Outlaw’s Vigil

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Motivation, tagged , , , , , on August 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Outlaw's VigilAt last weekend’s Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery I was asked if there was work that I do for myself alone and I replied that there is, that I sometimes do small pieces in moments of frustration or anger that I won’t share with the outside world.  I feel that even a person living the most transparent of lives should not share every waking thought.  And I probably share more than I should as it is.

This question led to a short description of the work from my earlier Exiles and Outlaws series, both of which I have written here a number of times in the past.  The Outlaws series probably was closer as an answer to the question posed to me that day, consisting of images that examined the darker aspects that make up the prism of our personality.  The central characters in these pieces were often armed with handguns and were definitely haunted by their past actions, existing in a state of fear.

At least, that is how I saw them.  Some others saw them as predatory stalkers who might be lurking outside their own windows.  It was an interpretation that I wasn’t initially expecting when I painted this work. But it might make sense, given the fear and sometimes paranoia that feeds our obsession with guns.

The piece above, Outlaw’s Vigil, is from that series and hangs in my studio now.  It is a prime example of the differing perceptions of the work.  Many have seen him as a potential danger, a symbol of imminent evil, while I see him as a person filled with absolute fear, always looking over his shoulder to see what is coming upon him from behind, from his past.  He is forever frozen in this instance of terror.  There is no looking ahead, no future.

Odd as it might seem, this small painting is inspirational to me.  It serves as an object lesson, an example of how I do not want to exist in this world.  I do not want to live in fear of the past or so fearful of others that I cling to a gun in my own home, peeking out my windows.  This piece lets me know that I want to live a fearless life.  It may ultimately be a fool’s mission but it makes this odd little painting priceless to me.

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Gallery Talk Today (With Prizes!)

Posted in Biographical, Current Events, Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , , on August 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Destiny Bound framedIn everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption.

—Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder

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If you’re in the Corning area this afternoon, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery beginning at 1 PM.  My talks usually consist of some biographical background, a few stories about the paintings as well as some other things and honest answers to any questions asked of me.  Oh, and it comes to an end with a drawing for the painting above, Destiny Bound.

I try to make it as entertaining and informative as possible, usually just speaking off the cuff.  Sometimes there is a theme, other times there is not.  I may have a theme for today and perhaps the quote from author Raymond Chandler points to what it might be. Or not.  Maybe I just like and agree with this quote.  Or maybe the talk will go ina completely different direction right from the start.

I won’t know until I’m standing there and open my mouth for the first time.  These talks are kind of like my painting– sometimes I have an idea of where I want them to go and they go to a place I never saw coming.  And sometimes those unexpected places are the most gratifying.  So, we’ll see where we end up today.

Hope you can make it.

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Quote of the Week: Fellini

Posted in Biographical, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on July 30, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-Transmitters smAll art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.

—Federico Fellini

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I love this quote from legendary Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini and the image of us all having a pearl inside ourselves, just waiting to be revealed to the outer world.  It’s a pearl that is formed from the experiences and observations that make up our lives.

It fits well  with the theme for the Gallery Talk that takes place Saturday at the West End Gallery in Corning.  I plan on talking about  how art has transformed my life and how that transformation has made its way into my work.  In short, how my own simple pearl was formed and  brought to light.

An example of that might be in the painting at the top, a very new work that will be shown for the first time on Saturday called Transmitters which is 10″ by 20″ on canvas.  I see it as being about the need to communicate, about how we seek  and reach out to like-minded people throughout our lives.  For me this has been one of the biggest needs that  painting has fulfilled for me.  It has provided a platform for me to express thoughts and emotions that I would struggle to express in any other way.  In doing so it has created a path forward to reaching others who share similar thoughts and emotions.

So here the pearl is the Red Tree and it reaches across space to others who feel they have their own Red Tree within.  Hopefully, knowing that allows them to open their own shells and share it with the world.

Well, that might be part of what I’ll be talking about on Saturday.  Who knows what might come up?

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This Little Light of Mine

Posted in Biographical, Music, Painting, tagged , , , , , , on July 26, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Center Stage smI think I’ve written here in the past about how the aftermath of  a show is for me in the studio.  In the week or so after a show opens there is generally a little letdown, the result of a sudden loss of the energy that accumulates from the adrenaline and anxiety in the build up to the opening.  I usually mope in a way, floundering around for several days trying to refocus and regain my bearings, to find some point in which to direct my energy.

It’s often a frustrating time even while the show still hangs and does well.  I sometimes get a little lost in those moments where the very act of painting becomes absolutely abstract and foreign in nature to me.  The purpose that just a week ago seemed so apparent now has dissolved and I find myself questioning everything– my abilities, the purpose and direction of my work and so on.  Those particular moments weigh heavily on me.

As I said, it’s a frustrating time.  Fortunately, I know from times before that this was coming and will pass.  It’s part of the process, part of who I am, If, as Shakespeare says, all the world’s a stage and we’re all merely players, then this is simply part of the makeup of the character I portray in this play.  It’s maybe the only role for which I am truly suited by nature and ability.

And maybe that’s the thing I need to remember in these frustrating days; that this is the role that I best play, that this is the role that was written specifically for me.

That kind of ties in with the painting at the top, Center Stage, which is part of the Home+Land show at the West End Gallery.  We are all the main characters in our own plays and we need to be be willing to play the part with conviction, to embrace the role that is written for us.  When you are on that stage, let your light shine.

And that brings us, in a sneaky manner, to this week’s Sunday morning music.  I’m going with one of my favorites, Neko Case, and her rousing version of the children’s gospel classic, This Little Light of Mine.  Gets the day started with a kick and blows away those frustrations.  So, enjoy, have a great day and let that light shine.

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