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Archive for the ‘Painting’ Category

And 20 Years Passed

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Painting, Quote, tagged , , , on July 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.
–Thomas Hardy
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1994 Bottle Factory - GC MyersI came across a group of work the other day and realized that they were from a week almost exactly twenty years ago when I had worked on them.  For instance, the piece above was done twenty years ago yesterday.   The sheer idea of twenty years passing seemed fantastic in the moment.  So much has happened and so many things changed over that time yet I still feel new in what I am doing, still feel like the person who looked with wonder at the painting above.

GC Myers the-heights 1994There have been only a few moments, most in the last year or so, when this passing of time has fully sunk in and I feel as though I am a veteran at what I do, feel as though I am what might be termed an established artist.  Maybe seeing these pieces will cement that feeling in place.

Looking at them, I can see my  confidence burgeoning in my work as I began to better understand the materials I worked with and how to control them.  It was all about learning control at that time.  At the time these were painted I was still torn over how and what I would paint.  I still didn’t fully understand the importance of personal vision and was only trying to harmonize forms and color in a pleasing way.   The  work still captured emotion but it was simply a by-product of being immersed in the process so deeply that it could not help but reflect what I was feeling internally.

As I said, I still feel very much like that same person from twenty years ago.  Outside of my marriage, this is the only thing that I have stuck at for so long and that is probably due to the ever-changing  and constant sense of newness and wonder it produces.  That same feeling that I felt years ago when I painted these is still felt today when I work on something new.  Thankfully, that is one thing that has not changed.

GC Myers factory-view 1994

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Hold On

Posted in Music, Opinion, Painting, Technique/History, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on July 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Observers (with frame)Sunday morning and I think I’m much more decompressed than yesterday morning after the show.  All back to normal, whatever that is.  This show has made me think on a wide variety of subjects, about purpose and meaning beyond what I see in the work as well the potential for legacy in these paintings– would they endure into the future?

A good friend stopped in the studio yesterday and we talked for a moment about the subject of legacy.  I pointed out that legacy is a big if for any artist and that I can only do what I do — where it ends up in the future is something that is far beyond my own control.  It could be in enduring collections or it could be in garage sales and dumpsters– you never know what the vagaries and tastes of the future hold.  I witness this all of the time when I go through the  records from the auction houses and see painters who were celebrated in their time who are now basically unknown.  Their work sells for a pittance, far below what one might expect from reading about their fame when alive.

As an artist, you can only hope that your work has a transcendent quality that allows it to live out of the time of its creator and be of the time in which it is viewed.  I don’t know how you do that outside of maintaining consistency in your own vision and hoping that it is one that somehow speaks to those in the future.  But there is always the question  that if your work does move ahead, does maintain life and attracts future collectors, what would your legacy work be?

I know that this a fool’s game– no one has the ability to predict that future for their own work.  You can’t be objective when you are so close to it, can’t discern your own personal feelings for it from how it reads to the outer world.  But there are pieces that I see that nag at me, that have a weight that tells me that they may be vital pieces in a potential legacy.  Pieces that I could see easily living in the future.  There are a number in the current show, including the piece above, Observers.

These pieces have an intangible quality that I wish I could more fully understand so that I could better describe it.  Or capture in a way  so that it would be in all of my work.  There is just something that seems beyond me, something that is beyond this time.

Could I be wrong?  Of course.  I have been wrong many times in the past and will no doubt be wrong in the future.  But for my work I can hope that in this instance I am correct and that they hold on.

Actually, this was all just an elaborate lead in for a little Sunday  morning music , some soul stirring from the Alabama Shakes and lead singer Brittany Howard.  It is a song titled, of course, Hold On.

Have a great Sunday!

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Energized

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on July 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum. . . . it is only an inveterate habit — the habit of inferiority to our full self.

— William James

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GC Myers- EnergizedThis is Energized, an 18″ by 36″ canvas that is part of the show opening Friday at the West End Gallery.  It was finished in the last days of preparing for the show and immediately lit up the studio with its bold colors and bands of texture that spin across it.  Even though it seemed  calm and placid in demeanor, it seemed filled with energy to me, every aspect of it appearing vibrant.

It was a struggle coming to terms with this combination of calmness and energy when I was searching for a title.  But reading the words above from American philosopher/psychologist William James brought it all into focus for me.  The painting was about being energized in an inner sense, using that energy to reach one’s highest potential and to live in each moment with great vitality.

I think the sun plays a symbolic part here representing the circular and regenerative nature of energy.  We often think of energy being used up like fuel being burned but often energy begets energy.  Effort creates inspiration and opportunity that brings forth new energy, forces that we never realized were waiting in store because we had avoided pushing to live at our optimum level, had  not dared to be our full self.

So Energized seemed like a natural at least in my interpretation of this painting.  You may see it differently and that is as it should be.  Hope ypu can make it out to the West End Gallery to make your own decision.

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Moon and Mood

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on July 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Moon and Mood

Moon and Mood

There are several paintings in my upcoming Layers show at the West End Gallery that feature the moon quite prominently.  I showed one, Moonlight Revelation, earlier in the month in a blog post.  I like these pieces as there is usually  a certain moodiness, a placid and contemplative feeling that permeates the work.

I don’t know if its the moon or the bluish tones that I use to represent the night sky, but is has a very calming effect on me.  The piece shown above, Moon and Mood, is a 16″ by 20″ canvas that very much represents this feeling that I describe.  Its purplish blue sky and pale moon give the the horizon a hazy, misty feel which creates a mysterious atmosphere.  If you’ve ever looked across broad moonlit fields, you’ve probably had that feeling that there are things there that are barely visible.  The imagination sometimes creates possibilities, some far from the realm of reality,  for what these things might be.

Below, is Traveler’s Moon, an 8″ by 24″ canvas, and the aforementioned Moonlight Revelation,  24″ by 24″ on linen.  Both are also part of the show.

The show, Layers, opens Friday, July 25th, at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.  The opening reception runs from 4:30 until 7:30 PM.  The exhibit hangs until August 29.

Traveler's Moon

Traveler’s Moon

Moonlight Revelation

Moonlight Revelation

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“Layers” Show Preview

Posted in Motivation, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , on July 20, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- In the Pocket of Time sm This coming February marks 20 years that I will have been showing my work at the West End Gallery.  It has been my pleasure over these two decades to be able to exhibit my work in my home area, to be able to share what I do with those folks who live in close proximity to me.

You would think this would make for an easy-going time when it comes to mounting a show each year, as I have done for the last twelve years.  After all, many of these people know me, have watched the evolution and growth of the paintings through this time and have supported me in so many ways that I will never be able to fully express my gratitude.

Maybe it’s that last point that makes this such a nerve-wracking show for me.   They have done so much for me that I don’t want to disappoint.   Like any performer or athlete, you always want to do well in front of a home crowd.

I feel very good about this show, feel that it will the space with deep glow of  saturated colors., feel that it really is a full expression of  myself in my work.  Hopefully, this will prove true.

Below is a short video that gives a preview of all of the work from my upcoming show, Layers, which opens this coming Friday, July 25th, at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.   The music is  a guitar interpretation of Gymnopedie #1 from composer  Erik Satie.  The painting at the top is from the show.  Called In the Pocket of Time, it’s a 24″ by 30″ canvas that was one of the first inspirations for the show’s title.

Have a great Sunday…

 

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Aswirl

Posted in Current Events, Painting, tagged , , , on July 18, 2014| 4 Comments »

GC Myers -AswirlI started writing a diatribe this morning about the dangerous world in which we live, given the recent events in the Ukraine and Israel.  But I realized there is more than enough talking (well, not really talking in substantive terms but mouths opening and words of some sort coming out) going on from politicos and pundits and little action actually taking place.  If you’re reading this, you’re probably fatigued by the whole thing and looking for something to calm you or at least divert your mind from the chaos of the outside world.  I know that is a great part of the motivation behind doing what I do, going inward to find a place of peace where I can take shelter.

So, today is a bit of both.  It’s a little anomaly of a piece that I am including in my upcoming West End Gallery show, Layers, which opens on July 25th.  It’s a small painting, about 5″ by 7″ on paper, that I call Aswirl.  It’s inward but it acknowledges the swirling nature of events in the outer world.  It is chaotic but finds a harmony in rhythm and color.

This is a piece that I have had in my studio for years and have wanted to show but just never got around to doing so.  But I like including at least a couple of small anomalies or oddities in my shows and as I assembled this group of work, this piece began to start popping up.  It always seemed to be in sight and though it is much different than almost anything in the show, it still feels like it fits.

Maybe that’s just me.

But I do know that it takes me away from the tensions of the events in the outer world and settles me as I find pattern and motion in the swirls of colors.  And if that is its only purpose, or my only purpose in what I do, then that is enough for the moment.

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Glimpse and Aspiration

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on July 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
–Joseph Conrad
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GC Myers- Glimpse and Aspiration sm
In the next week or so I will be featuring several of the new pieces that will be part of my show, Layers, which opens next Friday, July 25th,  at the West End Gallery.  This painting is titled Glimpse and Aspiration and is 24″ by 48″ on birch panel.  It has been a favorite from the moment that it began to take on its own life, midway through the time I was painting it.  Its size gives it a weightiness that fits well with the mood and  glow of the painting.  I find myself looking at it quite often in the studio with a great deal of internal satisfaction at the completeness of it.  It just does something for me.
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I see the Red Tree here as a symbol of the aspiration for  a life of purpose and meaning, the desire for one’s own place in the world.  It is not always a clearly defined objective, as Conrad points out in the quote at the top.  Our life’s path winds through other places and lives but once in a great while there is clarity and we fleetingly see that thing which we believe to be our purpose.  Our aspiration.  Just glimpsing it and having it take a tangible form in our mind is fortifying, making our footsteps lighter and our path even more defined.
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It is something  which we can hold in our minds to guide and inspire us on the path ahead.
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There’s something in this idea  that fills this piece,  making it a very comforting piece for myself.  I am going to very much  miss this painting in my studio when it has went out on its own.  But it has done what it must for me and is destined to hopefully do the same for someone else.
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Sending it out into the world is simply part of my purpose, my aspiration.  At least that is how it appeared to me in my brief glimpse.

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Layers

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on July 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Layers

I am in the final days of preparations for my annual solo show at the West End Gallery in Corning which opens next Friday, July 25th.  It’s really coming together in all areas and I think it will hang together very, very well.  I’m very much looking forward to seeing it in the gallery.

The title for the show comes from the painting shown here, Layers, a 24″ by 36″ canvas.  I was originally going to call the show Strata after a group of paintings from that series that will be in this show but after looking closer at the work in this show I realized that there were layers of all sorts in my work, not only in the underground portion of the Strata pieces.

I described this a bit more in a statement for the show:

I chose the title for this year’s West End Gallery show, Layers, after a re-examination of my work where I tried to determine what themes might have appeared in it, often without thought or guidance from me, through the years. The thing that struck me was how often the paintings were about layers.

Layers in the literal sense, as in the Archaeology and Strata series where the actual underground layers’ patterns become integral rhythmic parts of the painting.

Layers of depth into the picture plane, represented often by a path passing through layers of rolling landscape. Usually to a distant horizon and a sun/moon beyond.

Layers of texture, often chaotic, in the surface of the paintings which add depth and meaning, catching and darkening colors in the depths and lightening them at the highest points.

Layers of color as in the skies of much of my work that require dozens and dozens of layers of color, to the point that only a tiny bit of most of the layers show through. But without each layer, even those that barely show, the painting would lack its fullness.

Layers of meaning. Most of these works have an easy accessibility and a simplicity that can be understood and enjoyed with a casual observation but beyond that there is a layer, even layers, of emotion that are often only revealed by a deeper examination, allowing the color, the forms and the textures to fully fill in the blanks.

Perhaps these layers represent those layers in our world, our emotional and spiritual spheres that, while unseen, move us forward in our lives.

I don’t know the why’s or the what’s of them. I only know that for me these layers add something to the work that I never could have imagined.

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Finding Yourself Anew

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Influences, Painting, Quote, tagged , , on June 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Freedom DreamWhat are we when we are alone? Some, when  they are alone, cease to exist.

—Eric Hoffer

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I was contacted by another author for use of one of my images for inclusion in his upcoming book.  It was an old image, one that I still possessed and had used on the this blog, so I began to go through my files to find it.  Shuffling through the old work, many from before I began exhibiting publicly, brought a number of surprises.  There were pieces, like this one here on the right,  that had slipped my mind and seeing them rekindled instant recognition and memory, like stumbling upon an old acquaintance who you had not thought of in ages.  But there were others that had been lost in my memory and seeing them still only vaguely brought traces of their origin, as though you were again coming across someone who knew you but you couldn’t quite remember them even though there was something familiar in them, something you knew that you once knew.

Looking at these old pieces made me think of  all the time spent alone with these images.  The quote  above from Eric Hoffer came to mind.  What are we when we are alone?  Is that the real you? Or is the real you that person that interacts with all the outside world?  Looking at these pieces, I began to think that the person I was when I was alone had evolved slowly over the years, becoming closer to one entity.  What I mean is  that the person I was when I was alone, my inner voice,  did not always jibe with my outer voice and over time, especially as I have found a true voice in my work, has come closer and closer to becoming one and the same.

I don’t know if I can explain that with any clarity.  It’s a feel thing,  one that instantly comes from holding one of these paintings and still seeing the division that once was in them and in myself.  It is not anything to do with quality or subject or process.  It’s just a perceived feeling in the piece, an intangible that maybe only I can sense.  But it’s there and it makes me appreciate the journey and the work that brought these two voices closer together.

My alone time immersed in these pieces has seldom felt lonely and,  going back to Hoffer’s quote, never did I feel that I ceased to exist in my oneness.  I know people who are like that, that need constant interaction in order to feel alive and vital, but for me it has often felt almost the opposite.   That probably is a result of that division of my inner and outer voices that I have been trying to describe.  When I was alone I was always comfortable with my inner voice and the work that resulted from it served in the forms of companions.

I definitely exist  in my solitude and my work, my constant companion, is my proof.

I am going to stop now.  Enough confession for one morning.  I have new companions on the easel to which I must attend.

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The Ferryman

Posted in Neat Stuff, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on June 2, 2014| 4 Comments »

GC Myers-The Ferryman smOne of the new paintings that is part of my solo show, Traveler,  at the Principle Gallery is a small piece titled The Ferryman.  It’s a depiction of a man poling a small boat across a body of water, simply constructed with the impact coming from its starkness and the intensity of its color.  It’s a theme that I have revisited several times over the years.  Perhaps it is the symbolic nature of the crossing or the essential nature of a single individual propelling themselves forward.

Probably both apply to my reasoning  for returning to this theme.

Whatever the case, it is a theme that has resonated with others over these years and recently struck a chord with author Thomas William Simpson, who was looking for appropriate artwork for his new book, The Ferryman: 8 Crossings to a Gentler Life.  He came across images of my prior ferrymen pieces and got in touch with me.  The result was this painting which graces the cover of his book which is a parable of sorts.

Here is the book description from Amazon:

Thomas William Simpson-The Ferryman Cover / GC Myers art This short tale about a man’s desire to live a different kind of life unfolds during a single day. At the crack of dawn the ferryman opens his eyes to find an impatient businessman nudging him with his foot. The businessman demands they cross the river. Now. Right away. Not a minute to spare. The ferryman rises and offers tea and scones. The businessman says he has no time for tea and scones. He needs to reach the other side. Progress and profits depend on it. The ferryman understands. Before becoming a simple ferryman he had been a striver bristling with ambition, always angling to close the next deal. He had manipulated and deceived to accomplish his aims. He had believed material wealth the only true measure of success. But he cannot just yet haul the businessman across the river. He must wait for the old woman. The old woman is sick and needs to see the doctor on the other side. The Ferryman is an amusing and tender tale that attempts to shine a wide light on what might actually matter in life. Yes, we have our necessities: food and shelter, security and transportation. But what beyond these basics truly has relevance? The ferryman, who has been a humble ferryman for several years by the time we meet him, has identified eight (8) crossings that have changed his life, he thinks, for the better. By better the ferryman means richer, deeper, less stressful, more joyful. The crossings have civilized the ferryman. Benevolence in all things, the ferryman has come to believe, is the surest way to peace of mind. And really what greater gift can we bestow upon ourselves than a quiet and contented mind? Come ride the ferry with the ferryman. It’s a pleasant, scenic journey filled with small gifts, interesting characters, and boundless miracles. The Ferryman is a tale of self discovery you will read over and over as your own journey passes back and forth across the river of life. Thomas William Simpson is the author of such diverse novels as The Immortal, Full Moon Over America, The Fingerprints of Armless Mike, and This Way Madness Lies. His curiosity for the human condition, as evidenced in The Ferryman, knows no bounds.

Simpson is a very talented and well known author with an impressive resume with books, such as The Caretaker, The Hancock Boys, This Way Madness Lies  and The Editor, that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have garnered widespread critical acclaim.  It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Simpson and an honor to have my artwork on the cover of his book.  Please check out his website, Simpson Books,  which is very informative on his writings and his career journey.

If you would like to purchase The Ferryman, click here or on the book cover above to be taken to its Amazon page.

If you would like to see the original painting for this cover, it is currently at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA as part of Traveler, my solo show opening this coming Friday.  It is a modest sized painting, only 5″ by 9″ on paper.  Stop in and see it.

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