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Archive for the ‘Favorite Things’ Category

Quote of the Week: Picasso

Posted in Favorite Things, Motivation, Quote, tagged , , on January 22, 2015| 2 Comments »

Pablo Picasso- GuernicaQuotes are often used here to illustrate the point of a certain blog post but sometimes a quote is just fun to examine on its own, without a lot of  wordiness.  I often read a quote this way and it sets me off in all sorts of directions, often away from the central theme of the quote.  It can be pretty inspirational in this manner.  To that end, I am starting a new weekly feature here on the blog called Quote of the Week.  I want to focus on themes that relate to painting and some of the central themes of life.

Hopefully, they will be enlightening  or, at the very least, interesting.

I am going to kick it off with one of my favorite quotes from Pablo Picasso.  It pretty sums up my own criteria for evaluating art.  At the top is one of his greater works, the anti-fascist masterpiece Guernica.

There is no past and future in art.  If a work of art cannot always live in the present it must not be considered at all.

–Pablo Picasso

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The Way It Goes

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

delicate-balanceI’m back after a few days away from the blog.  Part of that time was spent on a quick trip into NYC for some theater, meeting up with a class from our local high school led by their teacher (who is also our good neighbor and friend Bill Hynes) to attend a matinee of Edward Albee’s masterful play A Delicate Balance.  The cast was stellar headed by Glenn Close and John Lithgow along with Martha Plimpton, Bob Balaban and British stage veterans Lindsay Duncan and Claire Higgins.  The play has the guise of a normal drama (with highly comedic elements) dealing with themes concerning family and personal relationships but is really an exercise in absurdity as an already fractured family unit tries to cope with an existential terror being experienced by their best friends, a married couple who take refuge in their grown daughter’s bedroom.

It was a grand thing to see, watching these extraordinary talents perform this complexly structured piece.  They seemed like musicians to me, all working to bring their separate parts together into a living thing beyond themselves.  Indeed, looking down on the stage from our balcony seats, you could see a geometry in the way the characters set themselves and in the way their dialogue moved back and forth that reminded me very much of the shapes of music that I often see in my head when I am listening to music.  Albee himself has said that his plays often resemble pieces of music when they are going well and this seemed to be the case.

It was powerful stuff and was heightened even more by the fact that our friend had arranged a talk back session for his class with members of the cast.  Immediately after the show ended and the rest of the audience had departed, the class moved to the front rows of the theater and had a short session with stage manager Roy Harris and actors Claire Higgins and Bob Balaban, who played the married friends who were suffering the fear.  All were extraordinarily gracious and giving in dealing with the class and gave real insight into how this revival of the play had evolved and grown within the time of the run, how each performance was different , with its own rhythm and, sometimes, a different interpretation.

They pointed out a mistake in the performance that, to almost everyone outside the cast and crew, had went by unnoticed.   But to the cast it was like a spark that brought everyone into a type of hyper-focus.  They all felt that the play from that point on was electric and, indeed, to this untrained eye, this seemed to be the case.  It was highly enlightening and the kids were absolutely thrilled to be able to ask questions and get really thought out answers.  One even was hoisted on to the stage so that she could experience the thrill of looking out at the empty Broadway theater.  It will be a day that will live with those kids for  a long time.

And that made a great day of theater even more so.  Many kudos to Bill Hynes for providing this wonderful for the these kids as well as for teaching them such challenging material.

Well, it is Sunday so that means a little music to kick off the day.  I’ve noticed that Gillian Welch, a longtime favorite of mine, had fallen out of my listening rotation so I thought I would try to reinsert her distinct sound.  Here’s The Way It Goes.  Have a great Sunday!

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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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Soulful Shade of Blue

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Memory of Night smIt’s a Sunday morning, the first in the new year, and that means a little music to start the day.  I am still trying to figure out the feeling of this year.  I am not in any kind of rhythm yet, having taken a short hiatus, and am trying to break through to a hopefully rich vein.  Maybe today is the day.  We shall see.

But for my music I am going back to one of my favorites, Neko Case, whose music has appeared here a number of times.  This song is Soulful Shade of Blue, taken from a live set  in 2004 that became  The Tigers Have Spoken,  an album that instantly made me a fan when I was introduced to it.  This song is an old Buffy Saint-Marie tune which probably doesn’t mean much to you if you’re not of a certain age.  Click on her name for a quick education on her career.

It’s a wonderfully crafted song and Neko Case does it beautifully.  It’s a nice, easy entry into 2015.  Give a listen, take it easy and head down that road into the new year.

Have a great Sunday…

PS: The painting at the top is Memory of Night which is at the West End Gallery.

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We’ll Meet Again

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on December 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

dr-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb-originalI’ve been on a little break this week but thought I should come back for a little Sunday music.  I thought that since this was the final one for the year that we end with a song that is associated with endings, We’ll Meet Again.  Most of us probably know it mainly from the end of Stanley Kubrick‘s great satire Dr, Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb when it was played as Major ‘King’ Kong, played by Slim Pickens rode a nuclear warhead like a bucking bronc to begin our ultimate destruction.

The version played in that film was recorded by Britain’s Dame Vera Lynn in 1939 and became, for obvious reasons, one of the most popular songs for British soldiers and their loved ones during World War II.  It has had an enduring legacy, most recently used on the finale of The Colbert Report when a huge assemblage of famous guests sang it to end the show.

I am using my favorite version by Johnny Cash from his final album American IV: The Man Comes Around.  He recorded this album right up to the very end of his life and this was one of his final songs from those final days.  The voice is tired and strained at times but the sentiment of the song glows in this version.  It fits the situation perfectly.

I probably will post before year’s end but if for some reason you don’t check back, have a wonderful New Year.  I am looking forward to 2015 and what it might bring.

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Spirit of Christmas

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Opinion, Video, tagged , , , on December 24, 2014| 4 Comments »

2014 GC Myers Season Filled with ColorI am wishing all of you out there a wonderful Christmas holiday.  I hope that you find the spirit of season and carry it with you through the new year and beyond.   And that spirit is philanthropy.

Philanthropy is a word that seems only attributed to billionaires and large charities that benefit may people.  But it is a concept that anyone can adapt on a personal level.  As a word, it means a “love of humanity” in the sense of caring, nourishing, developing and enhancing “what it is to be human”.  In these terms, each of  us can be philanthropists by whatever means are available to us because it is truly about a generosity of spirit.

It’s a spirit that is more evident during the holidays but it doesn’t have to be reserved only for a short period of time in each year.  Smiling.  Engaging with people, listening, practicing patience and helping those in need in whatever small ways you can.  None of these things seem like a big deal in themselves.  But on an enduring daily basis they can change the world around you.

And maybe that small step will lead to something bigger.  Hey, it’s worth a try.  Be a philanthropist.  What have you got to lose?

In the words of the song:  Have yourself a merry little Christmas.  Here’s a great version from the one and only Ella Fitzgerald.

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The Past Floats In

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Motivation, Painting, Technique/History, tagged , , on December 23, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers Glory Run 2006It’s the time of the year when I take a slight pause and try to ascertain what the past year has brought and where the next year might head.  I often find myself going back through my files, looking at images of long gone but well remembered paintings from the past.  There are a lot of thoughts that come and go during this process.  I will see work that bring back strong memories of the emotions that brought it out from within and some that leaves me wondering where it came from, it seems so different than the work around it in the files.

Then there is work that seemed to be a constant in my body of work that suddenly stopped coming out at a certain point.  Boat paintings, for example.  They were a minor staple in my work through the mid-2000’s but around 2009 they suddenly stopped completely, save for a few ferry paintings.  I really have no explanation for the stoppage.  It just didn’t seem to need to come out over the last several years.

GC Myers Night Glides In 2006There is probably some psychological reasoning to be found but it doesn’t matter to me at this point.  Just seeing the work and realizing that they were a part of the body of work and may someday emerge again in some way is enough.  Seeing these pieces with some time past makes me look at them with a questioning eye.  Some are real anomalies that stand out among a crowd of colorful images.  For example, the piece shown here on the left, Night Glides In, is a definite one-of-a-kind with its serene blue tones and placid feel set against a lone craft, vaguely Viking in style, that is headed inland.  It could be the return of a warrior or fisherman or traveler or it could be something more ominous and threatening.

That possibility always comes to my mind when I see this image even though I personally tend to see it in more congenial and positive terms.  More homecoming than home invasion…

GC MyersTime and Tide 2006Another painting from about the same time that also draws my attention whenever I am skimming through is this piece, Time and Tide.  I always have to zoom in to take in the texture.  The texture in my pieces seem to shift and change over the years and the texture in this piece is different than that in subsequent years.  Maybe it was an alteration in the way I prepped my surface or a change in material but it gives this piece a distinct signature in that texture and in the perspective of the incoming ship within the picture.

Looking at these boat pieces brings back influences and thoughts that have faded a bit in time, making them seem rejuvenated with the passage of years and the gaining of new experiences in that time.  I can see a boat or two floating back into my work in the new year.

We shall see…

GC Myers Beyond Chaos 2008

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An Unlikely Christmas Classic

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on December 21, 2014| 3 Comments »

Bing and Bowie 1977Well, it is Sunday morning and that usually means that it is time for some music here.  Since it is the last Sunday before Christmas a little holiday music is called for.  This is a song that I have played here before.  It’s that odd pairing between Bing Crosby and David Bowie and the song The Little Drummer Boy/ Peace on Earth.

The story behind how it came about is pretty interesting.  In 1977, 73 year old Bing Crosby was in the midst of  what would be his last British tour.  While there , producers put together Crosby’s annual holiday special for American TV, this time with an English theme, a Merrie Olde Christmas.  It was filmed in September with a number of British celebrity guests, including the 30 year old rock star David Bowie.  Bing actually introduced and showed the video to Bowie’s song Heroes on the special.

On the day of shooting, Bowie learns that he is scheduled to sing Little Drummer Boy with Crosby.  He balks, telling producers that he hates the song and if that’s the song they wanted he might as well leave.  He said he was only there because his mother was huge Crosby fan.

Producers and composers went to work.  In just over an hour, they produced an original tune, Peace on Earth, that would be sung by Bowie as a counterpoint to Bing’s Little Drummer Boy.  The two singers both liked the new addition and the arrangement and ran through it together several times in less than an hour before recording the final version.

Bing Crosby died less than a month later and the special ran as scheduled in December of 1977.  The pairing of Bing and Bowie was considered an oddity then and producers of the show and song thought that was the end of it.  But bootlegs of the song circulated for several years, gaining in popularity to the point that RCA decided to release it as single in 1982.  It has become one of the most popular holiday songs in the intervening years.

I know it’s one of my favorites.  Have a great Sunday…

 

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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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A Change is Gonna Come

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on December 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Beyond the Blues smGreat opening night for my show, Into the Common Ground, this past Friday at the Kada Gallery in Erie.  Great crowd with a nice mix of people, old and new to my work.  Good questions and conversations.  Just a very successful show opening all the way around.

Many, many thanks to Kathy, Joe and Morgan at the Kada for making it such a wonderful night and making me feel like a part of the family there. Also, many thanks to everyone who came out and took part.  I can’t tell you how much it is appreciated.  And thanks to the weather for being relatively mild, a sometimes rare thing on the shores of Lake Erie in December.

Thank you!

Well. that being said, it is time for a little Sunday music.  I was thinking Otis Redding and that voice that I could listen to sing almost anything.  It’s hard to believe that in a few days it will 47 years since he was killed in a plane crash in 1967 at the age of 26.  Hard to imagine what might have come from this huge talent.  But he did leave behind an impressive legacy of music, including this great version of the Sam Cooke classic A Change is Gonna Come. It gives you something to think about on this Sunday morning.

Have a great day.

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