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Archive for the ‘Early Paintings’ Category

I Was Lost

Posted in Early Paintings, Motivation, Painting, Quote, tagged , , on February 19, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- I Was Lost 1997Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

—Henry David Thoreau

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I used the painting above to illustrate a post several years back.  Titled I Was Lost, this is an experimental piece I did back in early 1997.  It remains one of my favorite pieces, one that I linger over when I come across it in my computer’s files or when I go through some older work stored in a bin here in the studio.

There’s nothing special about this piece.  It’s a simple thought that was quickly rendered.  It definitely didn’t end up  anywhere in the vicinity of perfection.  Some of the lines veer  and quiver uncertainly while the tree trunks sometimes bulge erratically. There’s not really much to grab onto in  this piece.

Yet for all it’s deficiencies there is something in this painting that simply speaks to me in a personal way.  There’s a flawed elegance in it that moves me– a grace that provides me with hope on those days when the world seems bleak and it is hard to see beyond the trees that obscure the path ahead.

Thoreau’s words mesh well with this piece.  To put it another way: Adversity builds character.  A-B-C.

When we are lost in the woods, look past the trees that block our view.  There’s a way forward. We may not like it at the time but every challenge provides us with the opportunity to discover more of who we really are.

Sorry for going off on a pep talk this morning.  Hopefully, you didn’t need it.  And if you did, I hope this helps a bit.

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Hoodoo Voodoo

Posted in Current Events, Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , , , on February 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-The Incantation 1994I was going through some old images the other day and for some reason I always settle on this image shown here, an old piece from my earliest painting efforts over twenty years back.  I call it The Incantation.  At that moment a news station was on the TV, with its incessant and seemingly never-ending  coverage of the presidential primaries.

So much is said yet there seems to be so little substance in it that it turns into just words uttered.

Nonsense or an incantation, of sorts.

In my mind, the connection was made between this image and the song below, Hoodoo Voodoo from Billy Bragg and Wilco, based on unpublished lyrics from Woody Guthrie.  Guthrie had  several songs with nonsensical lyrics, often written for his children. I like this version– it spans that gap nicely between nonsense and incantation.

Actually, I think Sarah Palin quoted many parts of this song verbatim during some of her speeches, most notably her recent ones while stumping for Donald Trump. As I said: nonsense and incantation.

Give a listen and read along.  Hopefully the next time you’re held under a spell cast by the talking heads on one of the news networks, this song will start playing in your mind.  Nonsense is the only defense against their incantations.

Hoodoo voodoo, seven twenty one two
Haystacka hostacka, ABC
High poker, low joker, ninety-nine-a-zero
Sidewalk, streetcar, dance a goofy dance

Blackbirdy, bluejay, one, two, three, four
Trash sack, jump back, EFG
Biggy hat, little hat, fatty man, skinny man
Grasshopper greensnake, hold my hand

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Momma cat, Tommy cat, diapers on my clothes line
Two, four, six, eight, I run and hide
Pretty girl, pretty boy, pony on a tin can
I’ll be yours, you’ll be mine

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Jinga jangler, tinga lingle, picture on a bricky wall
Hot and scamper, foamy lather, huggle me close
Hot breeze, old cheese, slicky slacky fishy tails
Brush my hair, kissle me some more

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka chooky choo choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka chooky choo choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now
Kissle me now

Brush my hair
And kissle me some more

Kissle me some more
Kissle me some more

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It Ain’t Necessarily So

Posted in Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Moses ( I Supposes)Sometimes when I am walking over to the studio in the morning I will have a song stuck in my head.  Sometimes it is one that I recently heard, something from the radio.  But sometimes it’s one that just springs deeply from the past, something I haven’t thought of in some time.   That’s how it was this morning.  And thinking of that song linked me to a small painting that I did many years ago.

They just fit together in my mind for some reason.

The song was It Ain’t Necessarily So, the great song sung by the slick drug dealing Sporting Life in George and Ira Gershwin‘s Porgy and Bess.  Just a fantastic mix of sound and wordplay.

For some unknown reason, when I hear this song this old piece from over 20 years ago always comes to mind.  It’s a piece that I did very quickly, not really knowing what I was trying to paint.  It just sort of popped out and  I remember calling it Moses( I Supposes).  There was something about this piece that I have always liked. Maybe it’s the I-don’t-give-a-damn way way everything in it is painted, from the giant hands down to the giant feet.

It’s just a personal favorite that somehow always springs to mind when I think of this song.  Maybe because Moses is mentioned in a verse in the song–

Lil’ Moses was found in a stream
Lil’ Moses was found in a stream
He floated on water
‘Til Ole’ Pharaoh’s daughter
She fished him, she says from dat stream.
I don’t know for sure but I enjoy the combination.  Here is one of my favorite versions of the song, the one from the Simon Rattle directed version from the Glyndbourne Festival with Damon Evans as Sporting Life.  Have a great day and remember– not everything isn’t necessarily as it seems to be.

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Siesta

Posted in Early Paintings, Quote, tagged , , , on January 16, 2016| 3 Comments »

GC Myers -Siesta 2001No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

-George Eliot

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I came across this older piece from back in early 2001.  I remember this piece, an 18″ by 26″ painting on paper called Siesta, very well.  I recall being conflicted on this piece.  On one hand, I liked it very much for its simple construction and the ease with which it seemed to evoke its emotion.  But there was a part of me that felt it was too contrived or too thought out– it was just trying too hard.

Or so it seemed at the time.

But with fifteen years between us, I began to just look at it just as it is.  The things I liked about it then I liked just as much now.  Maybe more because it has a simplicity and ease that I now know is a very hard thing to capture.  I find myself being less bothered by the subject, by the idea of the sun hanging as a disc from the tree limb.  It just doesn’t seem too matter to me now in this piece.  It’s like the positive parts far outweigh what I once felt were negatives.

And that goes to the quote at the top from George Eliot.  Our perceptions and interpretations change as we ourselves change with age and experience.  I often run across my own work that I either liked or disliked at one point.  But time finds me now feeling very much different about some of these pieces.

And there  are some about which I feel absolutely the same, good or bad.  Maybe it’s that some things just don’t change or maybe it’s that I have to age and grow a bit more.

We’ll give that a shot.

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Imperfection/ Redux

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Quote, tagged , , , on November 21, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-2001 Seeking ImperfectionI’ve been taking a stained glass class for a few weeks now, trying to shake up my routine and thought process a bit.  In going over my work there with the instructor who is teaching me on a one-to-one basis, I try to explain that while I am seeking to learn proper technique I am not shooting for perfection.  I am looking for expression and things like rhythm and harmony.  It made me think of the painting above , Seeking Imperfection, which was the title piece for my second show at the Principle Gallery back in 2001.  I am re-running a post from a few years back that better explains my search for the not-perfect aspects of our world.

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Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

–Thomas Carlyle

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I was thinking early this morning about a comment made yesterday by Linda Leinen about how we go through life, starting fresh and clean, and progress as we absorb all that life deals out to us, leaving us somewhat scarred. It reminded me of  the title of  both a painting and a show that I did many years ago called Seeking Imperfection.  It remains one of my favorite titles, probably because it best describes my own relationship with perfection.

I’ve always been somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of perfection or the search for it.  Perfection is the antithesis of our humanity, at least in how I view it, and to seek it is to deny our imperfect natures.  We are flawed and scarred characters in a world that is definitely not perfect except in those rare moments when all of these flaws coalesce into instances of harmony and beauty.

That’s kind of what I hope for and sometimes see in  my paintings– harmony and beauty despite the inherent imperfections.  I can find flaws in any of my paintings but I don’t cringe at the sight of them.  Instead, they make me glad because in seeing them I recognize my connection to them, can see the struggle in trying to create these moments of harmony.  A pit here, a dot of stray paint  or a rough edge there, a bristle from a brush trapped in the paint– it all speaks to me, saying that it can be whole and harmonious-  beautiful- despite the flaws.  Perhaps not a bad way to view one’s life.

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The Man Who Couldn’t Cry

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Music, tagged , , , , , on November 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

Gc Myers -Exile Series 1995 smNovember sneaks in on a gray and damp Sunday morning this year.  It’s one of those months that bring about mixed memories.  Some, like those from Thanksgivings from the past , are warm and fuzzy while others bring much different emotions.  For instance, next week marks twenty years since my mother died.  Hard to believe that it’s been so long, a thought that comes to mind every year at the beginning of November.

I try to not remember Mom in terms of those last pain-filled months leading up to her death, instead focusing on better days and moments that I hold in my mind.  Despite that,  November reminds me of those last days and I find myself digging through the files to look at some of the images from my Exiles series that were painted back when she was going through her final days in 1995.  Looking at them now brings back a rush of emotions and memories, some that I try to avoid most days.

But ultimately, you can’t avoid those things we all must experience.  Life has its own way and we have to accept what it gives us as a gift.  Perhaps those painful moments and the tears we shed are proof of the preciousness of that gift.

I don’t fight back the tears in November.  Like any gift, I accept them now with what I hope is gratitude.

That brings us to this Sunday’s musical interlude.  I have chosen Johnny Cash‘s cover of the Loudon Wainwright song, The Man Who Couldn’t Cry.  I really like this version of this song about a man who finally learns to cry,  becoming a real human.

Have a great Sunday.  And if you feel like crying, go ahead…

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Homecoming

Posted in Early Paintings, Painting, tagged , , on October 13, 2015| 2 Comments »

1999 GC Myers TangoI was recently alerted that three of older pieces, pre-2000 and pre-Red Tree, were available at an antique shop in western Virginia, part of a recently acquired estate.  Looking into this, I found that they were indeed my paintings, including one, Tango (above), that was a favorite of mine from that time.

They were also mistakenly identified as prints, probably due to the numbering on the back that identifies the year and sequence of the painting.  Also, I was  painting on a smooth surface so there wasn’t a lot of evident surface texture.  To the the casual observer they might appear to be prints.  I used to have people ask about that a lot in those days.

As a result of mistaking them for prints they were priced at a very low price, far below what they were worth.  I was torn between the idea of contacting the shop to alert them that these were not prints and my desire to have these pieces back with me as I don’t have much work from this time, almost all of it having found new homes long ago.  Plus, the idea of having Tango return was exciting to me.  It’s one of those pieces that really stand out in my mind from that time and I wanted to see how it had aged over the past 16 years or so.

I decided that we would buy them back without notifying the seller of their mistake.  I don’t know if that was wrong but the shop had failed to do any research and were devaluing the work by their omission.   I looked at this as a way of taking them off the market at the devalued price that they asked.

They arrived last week and it was such a thrill to see them again.  The framing for Tango was in an older style, stained a deep green that I stopped using not too long after this time.  But it was tight and clean and the painting was just as I remembered it, actually a bit sharper and brighter than my memory.  It held up as well as I had hoped it might and that was satisfying.

A pleasant homecoming.  I don’t think I will let this one go again…

 

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Hogback Heaven/ Redux

Posted in Early Paintings, Music, Video, tagged , , , , on October 5, 2015| 1 Comment »

I am a little busy this Monday morning but I wanted to run something to replace yesterday’s post at the top of this blog.  Something a little lighter in feel  I came across this entry from back in 2011 and it made me stop.  It’s about an old experiment from my formative years along with a great little piece pf music.  Enjoy!

GC Myers- Hogback Heaven 1994Looking through some old work, most of which was done early on while I was still forming my technique and style and before I showed my work publicly, I came across this oddity that I noted as Hogback Heaven. It’s a goofy little scene of a rough hewn home and yard somewhere out on a back country road, the kind of place that I often passed years ago in my treks on the backroads around my home area. All that is missing here from my memories of those places are a barking hound and a toddler in a sagging diaper playing in the gravel of the driveway.

Whenever I come across this piece, I have to smile. I don’t know if it’s the subject or the crazy electric feel of the cobalt blue sky and hills and the red neon outlines of the house and ground. I’m still trying to figure out where that color came from. Maybe it’s a smile of embarassment that this little painting is hovering in my past. But there’s something in it that makes me not want to destroy it.

I wanted to set this post to some fitting music and in my search came across this other sort of oddity. Called Yiddish Hillbillies, it’s a vintage 40’s era cartoon that has had the soundtrack replaced ( in a very clever and coordinated way) with a song from Mickey Katz.  Katz was a comedian who specialized in Jewish humor, with Yiddish-tinged song parodies of contemporary songs of the time being his specialty. Think Borscht Riders in the Sky or Sixteen Tons (of Latkes). While much of the Yiddish-tinged wording goes over my head I do enjoy the klezmer feel here. A note on Mickey Katz: His son is actor Joel Grey which makes him the grandfather of actress Jennifer Grey.

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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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Crawl Up and Die

Posted in Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , , , on August 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Early Work mid-1994It’s Sunday morning which means I usually play a little bit of music.  This morning I didn’t have anything in particular in mind so I went to YouTube and just punched in something general then let myself be led by  randomly choosing from the selections that come up on the right side of every video.  It’s amazing where this will sometimes take you, sometimes to music that you know really well and other times opening new horizons.  Today it led me to a song that I have always liked by the Stray Cats from back when they were leading a little rockabilly resurgence in the 1980’s.

It wasn’t one of their hits from the time and I’m not even sure it is on any of their widely released albums.  But it is one of my favorites from their songs.  It’s called Crawl Up and Die and has a nice build up and finish, the perfect thing to kick off a sleepy Sunday morning despite the somewhat gloomy  title.

While trying to find an image to accompany this post and song I came across the old piece above from back when I was still forming a voice and working on processes.  This is among my earliest attempts at my reductive process where I put on a lot of very wet paint and pull off what doesn’t belong.  Kind of like carving in paint.

I wasn’t sure at this point where I was going with my work and was still considering straight  representation.  While I don’t think this is a bad piece, especially from where I was in my evolution, it didn’t have enough to make me want to move further in this direction. So I moved down a different path and, fortunately, it was the right choice.  I do like the mood of this piece however and feel it fits the title here.

Have a great Sunday!

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