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Archive for the ‘Quote’ Category

Joyous One

Posted in Motivation, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on June 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC myers- Joyous One smThis is the true joy in life: the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

-George Bernard Shaw

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Joy was the word that first came to mind when I finished this new piece, a 16″ by 20″ canvas that is part of my show that opens next month at the West End Gallery.  There was just a feeling of realized joy and happiness throughout it, the kind that Shaw described above in his play Man and Superman.

I think the feeling he describes must be one of the greatest joy in this world: to find a purpose into which you can fully throw your whole being for all of your time on this planet.

 A purpose that gives you a place to stand and rise above the selfishness and pettiness of those, including yourself, who would drag you down.

A purpose that allows you to tap into some greater force in order to gain energy for your toils.

A purpose that lets you deny the cynicism that sometimes shows up in abundance in this world.

A purpose that serves you endless joy in what seem to be empty moments.

A purpose that even finds the joy in tears.

I think there is a purpose for each of us.  Finding it is not always a simple matter and some of us will never find the one purpose that is truly our own.  We may not be willing to give enough of ourselves to something that is beyond our own needs and desires.  We might still find some joy in our life but it will no doubt be short lived.

For me, it has been painting.  At first, I found this surprising because I often viewed it as being selfish in nature.  My perspectives.  My emotions.  It was even called self-expression.  But the purpose came from having others find comfort and happiness in their reactions to my expression.  Their joy fed my joy.

But there are days when I still find myself losing sight of this purpose, when it is a struggle both in the studio and in the outer world and I feel drawn back down to less positive feelings.  But I will be somehow reminded of that purpose and that joyful feeling returns.

That happened the other day.  A gallery owner called and told me of a person who had bought a painting of mine that they had desired for quite a long time.  In fact, this person had come into the gallery for this painting and it was gone, having been returned to me.  I sent the piece back to the gallery and when the person returned to get it, they started crying in joy.  I can’t even express how this makes me feel outside of saying again that their joy fed my joy, their tears became my tears.

Those moments make my time alone in the studio seem more special and filled with purpose.  They make me that joyous one, if only for a while.

And that is good enough for me…

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Come Love

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Quote, tagged , , , on June 23, 2016| 3 Comments »

Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (Later known as The Band)I spent ninety percent of my money on wine, women and song and just wasted the other ten percent.

–Ronnie Hawkins

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I wasn’t going to post anything today but while I was doing a few morning exercises a song came on that really sparked me.  I realized soon after that I had never played it on the blog which I found kind of remarkable since I consider it one of my favorites.  It’s a song called Come Love from the great Canadian  rocker Ronnie Hawkins.  I say Canadian because though he hails from Arkansas  he gained his greatest fame and settled down in Canada.

He played his music and lived his life on his own terms– that being hard and furious– from the 1950’s onward.  A lot of great musicians played behind him over the years as part of his band, The Hawks, most notably the entire group that later formed The Band.  You can see them in the photo above as they learned the chops that carried to their own greatness.  A renowned showman, Ronnie also was famed for his own version of the Moonwalk many years pre-Michael Jackson.

This song is not one of his hard chargers although its guitar lines do have a bite in them.  It has a really cool flow to it.  When  I hear it I think that it sounds how I would like to go through life, like a cool trickle of water in an easy flowing stream.

Just saying…

Give a listen and have a great day.

 

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Bearable Vastness

Posted in Current Events, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on June 16, 2016| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Bearable VastnessShe had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. 
― Carl Sagan, Contact

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This year’s title for my annual solo show at the West End Gallery, which opens July 22, is Contact.  It has nothing to do with the famous Carl Sagan novel of the same name about our first encounter with an advanced alien life form, which was also made into a film with Jodie Foster.  But even though there is no real relationship between the Sagan story and this show, I did come across the quote above from the book that meshes very well with what I see as the theme of this show and much of my work in general:  how we cope with our role is as small and insignificant creatures in an endlessly vast and cold universe.

The painting above is from the show and is a 20″ by 30″ canvas titled Bearable Vastness.  I think, going back to the quote, that the Red Tree here has come to realize that the only thing that will bring it the peace of mind to accept its place as a tiny being in a vast universe of powerful forces beyond its comprehension is to work to achieve love in some way in its own time and place.

Put simply, love is the answer.

I know that in the current environment of terror, anger, hatred and outright stupidity that these words sound absolutely naive.

Maybe.

But I have never known of a time when anger and hatred and violence and ignorance have spawned anything but more of the same.  Never has a lasting peace risen from hatred and intolerance of others.  Nothing positive has ever been built on a foundation of hatred, anger and fear.  Only demagogues and dictators rise from that swamp.  For them, love is always replaced with fear and cynicism.

Maybe you still will call it naive.  So be it.  That’s your cross to bear.  As for me, while the universe is vast and uncaring I will always choose love as the way to somehow endure it.

It’s the only choice I could possibly make.

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Archaeology: The Golden Age Beyond

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on June 1, 2016| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Archaeology- The Golden Age Beyond smThe past slips from our grasp. It leaves us only scattered things. The bond that united them eludes us. Our imagination usually fills in the void by making use of preconceived theories…Archaeology, then, does not supply us with certitudes, but rather with vague hypotheses. And in the shade of these hypotheses some artists are content to dream, considering them less as scientific facts than as sources of inspiration.

-Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music in the Form – Six Lessons

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This is a new Archaeology painting that is included in Part of the Pattern, my solo show at the Principle Gallery which opens Friday,  June 3.  It is titled Archaeology: The Golden Age Beyond and is an 18″ by 24″ canvas.  It is the first new true Archaeology piece that I’ve done in several years and this piece really seems to connect with the original group of this work for me in its narrative element and dramatic effect.

I absolutely love the thought that the great composer Igor Stravinsky shares above.  It seems to fit so well with what I was thinking when I was working on this particular Archaeology painting.  Each bit of detritus seems separate and unconnected with the next yet my mind was always trying to see what the hidden connection between them might be or how they came together in a larger narrative.

It’s that interesting area between what is fact and what is its truth.  We may determine fact but we can’t always know context and connection.  An item may not hold the same meaning in every circumstance.

But we can imagine and create a narrative that seems to make sense of fact and, in many cases, may come close to the reality.

Perhaps archaeology is as much an art form as it is a science.  Or an artist is sometimes a sort of archaeologist.

Hmm, let me think about that.

Anyway, I hope you’ll come out to the Principle Gallery on Friday evening.  The opening reception begins at 6:30 PM at the Alexandria gallery on historic King Street. I look forward to seeing you there.

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Winds of Hope

Posted in Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , , on May 31, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Winds of Hope smA great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

—Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia

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This is another painting from my show at the Principle Gallery, Part of the Pattern, which opens this Friday, June 3, at their Old Town Alexandria location on historic King Street.  This piece is a 20″ by 24″ canvas that I call Winds of Hope.

The words above from Catherine the Great jibe well with the meaning that I take from this painting.  For me, the patterned winds symbolize the constantly changing nature of the world.  The world is never static and change is inevitable and beyond our ability to control it.  How we see this change and react to it is the only thing that we control.

For some, any change is scary and filled with imagined terrors.  They try to hold tight to a past that has long since spun away and can never return in the same form.  Their world is filled with their own fears and each new gust takes them further from that idealized past.

I guess that the winds of change would give these people a headache.

Others just ride the currents without any thought, barely if at all noticing that change is all around them.  Maybe they are the fortunate ones, these people who live with their eyes only on that which is directly in front of them, never seeing the pattern of change in the sky above them.  They only notice it when it hinders them.

Then there are those who realize that the winds cannot be controlled, that they will blow where they please.  The change they bring comes without a thought as to how is affects us.  These are the ones who try to find the positive aspect of this change, who attempt to spark their imagination to see hope in this new future.

They see hope in the winds of change.

Is that a naive way of seeing things?

Maybe.  Probably.

But I prefer the naivete of hope over the cynicism, fear and careless ignorance of the other views.

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Only 6 Days Left!

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“Part of the Pattern” Preview

Posted in Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , on May 23, 2016| 2 Comments »

American Art Colector June 2016 coverThere’s a nice preview of my upcoming Principle Gallery show, Part of the Pattern, in the new June issue of American Art Collector.  It’s always nice to see your work in the context of a national magazine, especially when the images show well and the article is well written.

And I think that is the case with this particular article.  When I was interviewed by the editor I wasn’t so sure that this would be the case.  In a telephone interview with limited time, it is sometimes hard to know if you’ve coherently made your point or if you’ve just made yourself sounds kind of nutty.  When I hung up the phone on this interview I wasn’t really sure in which camp I fell.

But it reads well, with a reference to an Erwin Schrödinger quote that sticks with me– The task is…not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees– which for me is about trying to take what could be mundane scenes and imbuing them with sensed meaning and emotion.

There is also a nice quote from a couple, Deidre and Jim, who have collected my work for the past fifteen years.  They do not consider themselves “art people” and came to my work through a chance encounter with a painting in the window of the Principle Gallery those many years ago.  They speak about how that one moment, that one look, has made a difference in their lives in those fifteen years.

The fact that Jim and Deidre don’t consider themselves “art people” very much pleases me.  That means that the work affected them in a way that took them out of their normal pattern, made them see something beyond what they normally were seeing.  That goes back to the words of  Schrödinger and is the hope of any artist.

So, if you see the magazine please check out the article.  And if you’re in the Alexandria area on the evening of June 3, stop in at the Principle Gallery for the opening of the show.

2016 June American Art Collector GC Myers article

 

 

 

 

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The Bridging

Posted in Advice, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on May 19, 2016| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- The Bridging

We want to be sure that it has that drama to it, that vividness to it, that focus, that cleanliness to it that is going to say something to you.

—Thomas Keller

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The words above from chef Thomas Keller, owner of the fabled French Laundry restaurant  in Napa Valley, were in reference to food but I couldn’t help thinking that it was good advice for artists as well.

As an artist, you want your work to have a sense of drama that compels the viewer (or listener or reader or whoever it is that is taking in your work) to pause and ponder the work.  This sense of drama tells the viewer that there is something beyond the surface if they only take the time to fully appreciate it.

The vividness is in the uniqueness of it, how quickly it reaches out with its essence and reaches its intended audience.  I think of this as the work being a sort of beacon that is calling out.  Sometime, I will go in a gallery or museum and there are things on the wall that just call out to me from a great distance away.  It can be in the color or contrast or composition– something that just grabs my eye.

Focus is in the sense that all of the elements in the work come together in a harmony that pushes the central theme through.  I think there is a lot of work that is quite well done but never fully comes together in a single message that comes through to the audience.  I’m sure you’ve experienced work that you know is well done but just doesn’t seem to have much to say to you.  It kind of leaves you cold.  Focus, I believe, brings the work to life.

And there’s cleanliness.  I don’t think Keller was speaking about the cleanliness of a sanitized kitchen in his quote.  I think he was referring to the execution of the work– in his case food– so that all the elements of it sparkle and there is no distraction from what it is meant to be.  There are no unnecessary flavors or embellishments.  All excess has been pared away and there is a lightness and brightness to it.

Taken all together these qualities make for a delicious dish.  But it doesn’t happen with every effort.  There are days when finding one of these is difficult.  Then there are days when they just emerge, seemingly without effort.

The example I’m putting forward that I think fulfills Keller’s requirements — you might not agree– is the painting at the top, a 10″ by 30″ canvas called The Bridging that is part of my show at the Principle Gallery, opening in a couple of weeks on June 3.

It was the first piece I looked at after reading Keller’s words and it just seemed to have that beacon effect on me.  It was vivid and focused in it’s communication and there was a sense of drama to it.  Plus, there was a sharpness in its look and finish that just made it very appetizing.  ‘

If this were food, I would gladly eat it.

As I said, you might disagree.  Our tastes in food and art may differ.

And that is just as it should be…

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In the Inner Place

Posted in Influences, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- In the Inner PlaceShakespeare said that art is a mirror held up to nature. And that’s what it is. The nature is your nature, and all of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring to something in you. When your mind is simply trapped by the image out there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread the image.
—Joseph Campbell (with Bill Moyers), The Power of Myth

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I think that the words above that Joseph Campbell spoke during his conversation with Bill Moyers for  The Power of Myth speak beautifully for both mythology and art, at least in my view.  I believe that we truly connect with myth and art when we see it as personal to ourselves, as being somehow symbolic of our own experience and being.  Our emotions and reactions.

Of course, many myths and much in art may not speak to us on this personal level.  I certainly don’t expect my work to speak to everyone no matter how much I may wish that it could.  It simply can’t.  My work is a reflection of my journey, my limited knowledge and my flawed self.  Yours is completely different.  But occasionally, there is a moment when you will see something of yourself in my representation of my inner world and that to me is magical.

This new painting, an 8″ by 24″ canvas, is what I see as being a very personal piece that might well reflect for others.  I call it In the Inner Place and it is included in my upcoming show, Part of the Pattern, at the Principle Gallery which opens June 3.  Without being specific, I see many things in this painting that I think speak strongly to how I want to see my world and my place in it.

An inner perception.

You might simply see it as a pleasant piece.

Or not.

Or you may see it as something reflective of your own inner world, something that speaks to who you are.  I can’t say.  We can’t control what anyone sees in a mirror.

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Prismatic Moment

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on May 10, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Prismatic Moment smThe soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.

–Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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When I was in the early stages of this piece, I wasn’t quite sure what I thought of it.  It just seemed too much.  Too much color.  Too much vibrancy.

But as I tweaked here and there, deepening some colors and inserting lighter segments, it seemed to coalesce into something that needed that vibrancy in order to express whatever it held within.  As the final marks were made and it was finished, that initial uncertainty was wiped away.  That thing that I had saw earlier as its weakness had become its strength.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this piece over the last week or so and there’s something about it  that keeps drawing me back to it.  Maybe it is simply the colors  or the meditative stillness between the Red Tree and the Moon.  I don’t know for sure.

I call this piece, which is a 12″ by 24″ canvas, Prismatic Moment.  I have spoke before of us all being prismatic beings, filled with many colors, dimensions and sides but seldom showing but only a few of these things to any other person.  I see this painting as being one of those rare moments when one is fully expressed, when one is seen for exactly who and what they truly are.

I don’t know if we have many of those moments in our lives.  I think they may be rare but I could be wrong.  Do we ever fully see another person for all their colors and sides?  And do we ever truly show all our own colors and sides?  This piece makes me consider that thought…

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Peaceful Abode

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on April 27, 2016| 6 Comments »

GC Myers- Peaceful Abode

-Isaiah 32:18

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This new painting, a 24″ by 18″ canvas, is titled Peaceful Abode.  and is part of my upcoming June show, Part of the Pattern, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

This piece has a bit of a different look even though it falls easily into my body of work. Maybe it’s the slight change in coloration or the slightly altered perspective from the rise of the hillside behind the lakefront buildings.

I don’t really know and, to tell the truth, I don’t want to think too much about it for fear of over-analyzing it.  I’ve enjoyed looking at this piece for the last week or so and find that it has a peaceful quality in it that is very soothing.

It takes me to a place far away from the rancor of politics, the horrors of violence we inflict on one another and the general chaos of our time.  It is the antithesis of nearly everything I see on the cable news networks.

The whole perspective of this piece seems to be inward looking, seeking that quiet and placid spot.  And looking at this piece, I believe for a brief moment that I have found it.

And that’s a good thing…

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