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Archive for the ‘Biographical’ Category

Carving Away/ Redux

Posted in Biographical, Influences, tagged , , , , , on February 25, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers Sun CarvingOur internet  connection was down here for most of the day yesterday which was not really a surprise given the -19° on the thermometer.  Cold enough to make today’s puny 1° reading look appealing.  But because I didn’t have to focus on writing the blog I took the time to rearrange a couple of things in the studio, things that I often look at from my seat at the computer.  On the large stone wall that holds the fireplace in my studio there are three half-round stone shelves that hold several  wood carvings.

One is an inexpensive carving of Don Quixote that my sister gave me for Christmas when I was a kid and another is a beautiful carving of a crow from artist Don Sottile,  a talented sculptor from my home Finger Lakes region.  Then there are a few of my own carvings from the early 90’s, predating my first attempts at painting by a couple of years.  They are not nearly as well executed as Mr. Sottile’s work but they mean a lot to me, if only as a reminder that they were keys to a door in my mind that I was desperately trying to open at that time, one that would eventually lead me here.

I thought I would take this opportunity to rerun a blog entry about these pieces from back in early 2009:

GC Myers- Hank CarvingImmediately before I started painting in the mid-90’s, my form of expression was wood carving.  It was unpolished and rough but it provided the vehicle that I needed to spark further creativity.  Most were created with an inexpensive set of small chisels and scrap lumber, usually just pine boards leftover from projects.

Actually, the technique that is used in these carvings is linked very much to my earliest efforts at painting which consisted of a heavy layer of paint then removing the parts that didn’t belong leaving the desired image.  This is a technique that I use to this very day.

 

 GC Myers Poseidon CarvingThe thing that I learned most from doing these pieces is that I wanted to emphasize expression over technique.  By that I mean I did not want to focus so much on refining technique to obtain a very polished final product that the piece became more about craft and less about expression of emotion.  By doing so I realized the pieces would retain my own identity and idiosyncrasies.  It was my first real stab at creating a visual look and vocabulary of my own. 

I also took the idea of the work having a tactile feel to it.  The attraction of these for me was in holding them and feeling the wood and the weight of it in my hands.  When I first started painting I worked primarily on paper and I got this same feeling from the cotton of the watercolor papers.  It’s something that I also try to insert into my work today as well, through the use of texture and in the way I present the paintings.

When I look at these I’m not particularly impressed by them as art but I do appreciate them for the lessons they provided at a time when I needed guidance, lessons which I took to heart.  To me they are touchstones to a certain part of my life and as such are important to my development as an artist.

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Bacon’s Chaos

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, tagged , , on January 23, 2015| 4 Comments »

bacon-s-studio-1This is not my studio.

Although sometimes when I am in a really good groove of painting my studio does get progressively more and more cluttered.  At first, it doesn’t bother me at all that the floor didn’t get swept or that piles of papers are beginning to pile high on the stone kneewalls that separate the spaces in the studio.  Tubes and bottles of paint and old yogurt containers with brushes in varying degrees of wear all over the place.  New paintings propped against any available wall space so that I can freely see and consider them and a few old pieces and raw canvasses ready to be worked on stacked off to the side, creating a new wall in themselves.

bacon-studioBut at a certain point, the feeling of chaos begins to creep in and I can’t take it anymore. I have to organize at least a bit to calm the drone that the chaos has brought on in my head before it breaks into my painting rituals too much.  So, I re-stack paintings and paper, cleans some brushes and containers, put away some books and maybe vacuum.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

bacon-reece-mews-studioBut I feel a little lighter and my mind is clearer so I can easily fall back into that groove.  Plus my current studio is, even in its most cluttered state, less chaotic than my old studio in the woods above our home.  It was very rustic and I regularly purged the paints I soaked up in my process from my brushes on to the floor, creating a huge black spot of paint and ink.  Plus, being much smaller than the current studio made the space always seem filled and in a somewhat messy state even after I would pick up.

But even that space didn’t compare with the studio of Francis Bacon, the Irish born painter known for work that is sometimes violent and disturbing in nature.  The shots shown here are from his old London studio that was left intact after his death in 1992 at the age of 82.  It was moved exactly as it was, with every bit of dust and debris intact, to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin where it is on permanent display.

bacon_study1953I remember seeing these photos years ago and feeling so much better about my studio.  The huge black paint stain on my floor didn’t seem so bad.  But I wondered if I could function in his space.  I guess the concentration required to block out the mounds of debris would have to be incredible.  Maybe that is part of the painting obsession- to be so engrossed in what is before you that all else is pushed far off into the background.  Bacon did view his painting as an obsession, saying, “I have been lucky enough to be able to live on my obsession. This is my only success.”  

Bacon was an incredibly interesting character and one whose words often ring true for me.  He was self taught and talked in terminology that I understand, earthy and straightforward.  Very little artspeak.

The piece shown here from Bacon is one of my favorites, Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, and is very representative of the style of much of his work.  You can find a lot on Bacon and his work online.

Well, got to go– I think I better pick up a bit…

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Bang Your Drum / Redux

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, tagged , , , on January 15, 2015| 7 Comments »

GC Myers Exiles-Bang Your DrumThere are several upcoming projects  on the burner for this year, which I will reveal in the near future.  One of them has me going through a lot of images and writings from the past. It is sometimes painful and sometimes a pleasant surprise.  I came across this blog post from several years back  that I thought was worth sharing today while I get back to these projects. From February of 2009:

This is another piece from my early Exiles series, titled Bang Your Drum.  This is a later piece, finished in late 1996.  

Initially, I was a bit more ambivalent about this painting compared to the feeling I had for the other pieces of the Exiles series.  It exuded a different vibe.  For me, the fact that the drummer is marching signifies a move away from the pain and loss of the other Exiles pieces.  There is still solemnity but he is moving ahead to the future, away from the past.

Over the years, this piece has grown on me and I relate very strongly to the symbolism of the act of beating one’s own drum, something that is a very large part of promoting your work as an artist.  

For me and most artists, it is a very difficult aspect of the job, one that is the polar opposite to the traits that led many of us to art.  Many are introverted observers of the world, passively taking in the world as it races by as they quietly watch from a distance.  To have to suddenly be the the motor to propel your work outward is an awkward step for many, myself included.  Even this blog, which is a vehicle for informing the public about my ongoing work and remains very useful to me as a therapeutic tool for organizing  my thoughts , is often a tortuous chore, one that I sometimes agonize and fret over.  Even though my work is a public display of my personal feelings, this is different.  More obvious and out in the open.

There’s always the fear that I will expose myself to be less than my work.  The fear that people will suddenly discover the myriad weaknesses in my character that may not show in my paintings, forever altering their view of it.  The fear that I will be  revealed to be, as they say, a mile wide and an inch deep.  

But here I stand with my drumstick in hand, hoping to overcome these fears and trusting that people will look beyond my obvious flaws when they view my work.  Maybe they too have the same fears and that is the commonality they see and connect with in the work.  Whatever the case, there is something in the work that makes me believe that I must fight past these fears and move it forward, out into the world.

What that is, as I’ve said before, I just don’t know.  Can’t think about it now– I’ve got a drum to pound…

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Paint Your Own Painting

Posted in Biographical, Influences, Motivation, Technique/History, tagged , on January 10, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Listening to the MuseI spent quite a bit of time this morning looking at the image of the painting above, Listening to the Muse.  It’s part of my show at the Kada Gallery which is in it’s last weekend there.  This painting really captivates me on a personal level and reminds me of  a thought that once drove me forward as a younger painter.  It’s a thought that I often pass along as a bit of advice to aspiring artists:

Paint the paintings you want to see.

Sounds too simple to be of any help, doesn’t it?  But that simplicity is the beauty and strength of it.

For me, I wasn’t seeing the paintings out there that satisfied an inner desire I had to see certain deep colors that were being used in a manner that was both abstract and representative.  If I had seen something that fulfilled these desires, I most likely would not have went ahead as a painter.  I wouldn’t have felt the need to keep pushing.

It was this simple thought that marked the change in my evolution as a painter.  Before it, I was still trying to paint the paintings that I was seeing in the outer world, attempting to emulate those pieces and styles that already existed by other artists.  But it was unsatisfying, still the work of others, forever judged in comparison to these others.

But after the realization that I should simply paint what I wanted to see, my work changed and I went from a bondage to what existed to the freedom of what could be.  For me, that meant finding certain colors such as the deep reds and oranges tinged with dark edges that mark this piece.  It meant trying to simplify the forms of world I was portraying so that the colors and shapes collectively took on the same meditative quality that I was seeing in each of them.

In my case this seems to be the advice I needed.  But I think it’s advice that works for nearly anything you might attempt.  Paint the paintings you want to see.  Write the book you want to read.  Play the music you want to hear.  Make the film you want to see.  Cook the food you want to eat.  Sew the clothes you want to wear.

Make the world in which you want to live.

Simple.

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Looking Back in the New Year

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, tagged , on January 2, 2015| 5 Comments »

exiles-blue-guitarI spent the better part of New Year’s Day in the studio going through bins and boxes filled with old papers and old work.  It’s part of a project that I will be going into more detail at a later date but it had me clawing through things that had long left my memory bank.  Some for good reason.

One bin was filled with my very earliest work from the time soon after my accident when I was making my first forays into art.   There was even a drawing made with my left hand ( I am right-handed and you can definitely see it in the drawing) from just a few days after the actual fall, one that I don’t even remember doing in any shape or form.  I hadn’t looked at this bin in many years and was surprised by much of the work.  Most of it was absolutely horrible and I found myself asking what I was seeing in it at that time that made me keep pushing forward.  It was muddy in color and rough in every way.  I could see nothing that linked this to the work that was to come.

But I must have been seeing something or at least sensing movement towards something because the work came in even greater bursts at the time.  I began to see how the work shifted with new discoveries and the color began to clear and brighten.  The lines became more confident and the forms more defined and organic.   I finally came to a point where I began to see my thought process from that time and could see that I was seeing the potential of the work but still didn’t know how to fully pull it out at that point.  I was still flailing in the dark, experimenting with colors and surfaces and materials with the hope that I would stumble on something that would let me express what I was sensing was there.

first-day-gc-myers-1994Eventually, there was a tipping point and everything came together with a singular focus.  This little piece on the right is what I consider that tipping point, the moment when I as a baby spoke my first words in my new voice.  I know it doesn’t seem like much here on the page but this painting at the time changed everything for me and it definitely shows in the work that followed.  I still get a charge of the sensation I felt when I first painted this piece whenever I look at it, knowing in that moment that my life was changing.

But the work before that moment, as I shuffled through it yesterday, left me convinced that the thing I was seeing in my mind at that point was strong enough to let push on through some pretty awful crap.  I was half tempted to put much of it in the burner and set a match to it.  But I couldn’t do it because, awful as it is, it served a great purpose for me.  I wouldn’t want to be judged on it just as I wouldn’t to be judged on my actions as child but it is part of me and led to better things.

Barely a year later I finished the piece at the top, Exile: Blue Guitar, which was part of a group of paintings that was the first series that I completed and was able to show publicly.  This was one of three pieces from that group that I sold and perhaps the piece I most regret letting go.  Looking at the other pieces from that series yesterday only made me wish to see this piece again, just to be able to closely examine it, to see how the years had changed how I might see it now.

So, this morning I sit here with stacks of old, terrible pieces around me– none of which I am willing to share with you– reminding me of a time when I was without voice and how differently I felt about everything as a result.   It made me all the more grateful for the life I now have.

And that made for a pretty good way to start the new year.

 

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On Transparency

Posted in Biographical, Personal Mythology, tagged , on December 30, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers Ever ReachingI am now into the seventh year of writing this blog.  It seems hard to believe that so much time has passed and so many posts, well over 1800,  have been written.  I was initially hesitant in writing this thing, afraid that there would be too much sharing, that I would unwittingly uncover the less pleasant sides of my character or reveal myself as some sort of fraud.  The idea of transparency as an artist seemed at that point a very scary proposition.

But in the years that have passed I have learned that this transparency has not been the devil I feared.  If anything, it has added to my own perception of how I see my own work and what I see as my purpose as an artist.  I have learned that I cannot separate myself from my work, that these two entities are codependents, each needing the other for existence.  The work is a reflection of me and I am now evolving into a reflection of the work.

Or so I hope.  I have often described my work as aspirational, as being a hoped-for emotional destination for myself.  So it would be fitting that I move toward this endpoint.

As I reread the above, I realize that one of the biggest challenges faced by writing a semi-daily blog is writing it in off the cuff, in a diary-like manner without much editing of any sort.   There are moments where I hesitate and want to change or delete everything, fearing that I contradict myself or reveal too much.  But we are animals of contradiction and I am now comfortable with living my life in a somewhat transparent manner through this blog and in my work.  I know that it will show through in some way, either in these words or in the paint.

So I continue on.

It’s the only thing I know how to do.

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Kada Show Review

Posted in Biographical, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , , , on December 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Kada Show 2014 aIn today’s edition of the Erie Times-News, there is a review of Into the Common Ground, my show currently on view at the Kada Gallery.  Written by Karen Rene Merkle, it gives an insightful and positive overview of the show.

It’s always a treat to see how others view your work, especially when they make the effort and spend the time getting to know the work.  It is my understanding that Ms. Merkle does just this, giving each piece her undivided attention as she takes in the show at the gallery. This makes it easy for me to fully appreciate her observations and insights about the work.

In the review, she mentioned that over the course of my time with the Kada, going on 19 years now, that the Erie community had adopted me as one of their own.  That really struck a chord with me, being a person who has often felt out of place.

I have come to really appreciate the vibrancy of the Erie community, how it has maintained its dignity and identity through its transformation into the 21st century.   There is a lack of an inferiority complex  and a real strength in their self-belief which dispels any traces of  deference to larger cities.  As Joe DeAngelo at the Kada Gallery would say: It is what it is.

Most other  industrial-based Rust Belt cities have not been able to move forward with the spirit and pride that I have experienced in this city.

So to be adopted by a community that is proud of its people and history and looks forward with optimism makes me happy  to call Erie a second home.

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Christmas Dance

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Influences, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2014| 2 Comments »

Snoopy and Schroeder DanceAt the Kada Gallery opening last week,  a very pleasant man asked if my work was influenced by the Peanuts cartoons.  He said the work had that same feeling for him.  I laughed and said that, of course, these cartoons had been a large influence on my work and probably the way I see things in general.  After all, Snoopy was the first thing I ever learned to draw, the result of an older boy on my school bus ( thank you, Tom Hillman, wherever you might be) showing me how to do so in several easy steps.  Throughout grade school Snoopy was drawn all over every piece of paper I came across, his Joe Cool and World War I Flying Ace characters being personal favorites.

I explained that many of those early cartoons — the great Chuck Jones’ Looney Tunes , the very early Popeyes , the Disney cartoons with their gorgeous color, and so many more–informed and influenced the way I looked at things and set a pattern for the way I would later interpret the landscape.  They created a visual shorthand in the work that simplified the  forms in the surrounding landscape yet still gave a sense of place and time and emotion.

And that’s precisely what I try to do in my work today.

For me, A Charlie Brown Christmas is as close to perfect as any cartoon can be.  It’s a wonderful blending  of mood, movement and music with a smartness and charm that never seems to diminish. For this week’s dose of Sunday morning music, what could be more fitting than the Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas Dance from it?

Have a great Sunday and, if you feel like it, dance along with the Peanuts gang.  It’ll do ya’ good…

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The Red Chair in the Tree

Posted in Biographical, Influences, Personal Mythology, Recent Paintings, tagged , on December 9, 2014| 7 Comments »

GC Myers- Family Lines smDuring the openings for most of my shows, such as this past week’s opening at the Kada Gallery,   I inevitably get a number of questions about the meaning of the Red Chair especially when it’s suspended in a tree such as in the painting shown here from the show, Family Lines.  The empty chair itself is a simple and powerful symbol in many cultures of past ancestors or someone who is absent.  I have personally attached the concept of one’s own inner memory to it as well, seeing the chair as a distinct memory or myself in the narrative of that memory.  It is not always the same thing in each different circumstance.

But how it came to be aloft in the tree is a story that began when I was a kid.  I’ve told it innumerable times over the years but here it is:

Wilawana Road BarnGrowing up, we lived in the country in an isolated old farmhouse with an old barn across the road.  I happened to drive by the old place yesterday and snapped this photo of the old barn, now in a much more advanced stage of decay than when I was running around there.  It was pretty solid and complete at that earlier time.   In front of the barn, to the left of it here and out of the shot, is a large and old stone chimney, all that remains from the home of an early settler to the area, a stage coach driver who was killed there in an Indian raid in the late 18th century.  A small cemetery with old slate stones was nestled in the edge of the forest nearby. For a kid, it was a place filled with memory, a great place to play and let your imagination run wild.

One summer when I was 8 or 9 years old,  I came across a dead woodchuck laying next to the barn.  I don’t know how he died– he was just there.  Dead.  As the summer progressed and he dried out, a vine passed through his body and by summer’s end was suspended a couple of feet in the air.  To the eyes of a child this was something magical.  I was struck by the power of the earth to reclaim its creatures.  Everything seemed very ephemeral after that…

The idea of a tree growing through an object such as a chair, which is very representative of human existence, is a continuation of that early fascination.  It wasn’t until I had painted several pieces with the hanging chair that I began to also see the symbolism of the empty chair, which in some cultures represents the recently deceased.  That is what I see now– the family members who have passed on.  Again, this is my interpretation of this work.  I enjoy hearing what other people see in the work because many times it’s completely different from what I see but just as valid.  I often look at some pieces in a whole new light after hearing a new view.

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Cradle of Light

Posted in Biographical, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on November 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

–Vladimir Nabokov

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GC Myers- Cradle of LightThis another painting that is headed to the Kada Gallery as part of my solo show, Into the Common Ground, opening there on December 5th.  I call this 12″ by 16″ canvas Cradle of Light, very much based on the idea expressed in the quote above from Vladimir Nabokov.  Similarly, I tend to believe that our lives are bursts of ephemeral light in the darkness of the universe, so preciously short that each moment in the light is a gift.

Maybe that explains my rising at the first vague hint of light in the early morning sky.  Our time here seems so short , so tenuous, that to waste the light seems foolhardy.  Of course, this realization doesn’t keep me  from squandering this rare commodity on an epic scale nearly every day.  But at first light I am always reminded of the fact of our mortality, of that short time we have to fulfill our purpose here.

Whatever that purpose might be…

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