Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Recent Paintings’ Category

Balance (Known/Unknown)

Posted in Motivation, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on March 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Balance (Known/Unknown)We have to balance the lineality of the known universe with the nonlineality of the unknown universe.

—Carlos Castaneda
******************

I am calling this new painting Balance (Known/Unknown).  It is a 14″ by 32″ canvas and will have a slightly different edge detail that I will shown at a later date.

The Carlos Castaneda quote above just reached out to me when I was looking at this piece. The Red Tree here seems to be standing at the edge of the known, the terrestrial world that is defined here with earthy color, solid forms, and dark lines– the lineal universe.  Beyond it the non-lineal universe beckons, represented by a nebulous sky and a sun that acts as an unblinking eye.

It all is very much a metaphor for the purpose of art and that is to act as an intermediary between the known and the unknown, the go-between for that which is of our five senses and those things that go  far beyond those senses.

Things that we feel in an emotional sense.

And that is what art often does, putting the deep feeling of that which we cannot see onto those things that we do see.  It makes the intangible tangible.

That said, I like this new piece and have been enjoying my time with it. Every day I find a new angle within it that gives me pause, that excites me, and sets me thinking. And that is all I hope for in my work.

Read Full Post »

Synthesis

Posted in Influences, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on March 2, 2017| 1 Comment »

dscn0027sm

Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves.

—Ray Bradbury

*********

Yesterday I wrote briefly about the Aboriginal art of Australia, work that really stirs me up in a lot of ways. As I was looking at the Aboriginal paintings while writing the blog, different ideas for my own work were running through my mind. There was a rhythm and a pattern that kept biting at me and by the time I got to my own painting I had a sense of what I was hoping to see, as far as forms. The color would evolve as the painting moved along through the process.

Using a 12″ by 36″ piece of masonite prepped with gesso and a layer of black paint, I began and moved quickly.  Like late author Ray Bradbury said in the quote above, the idea was creating its own energy and I was feeding off it. At these times, the painting is absolutely effortless.  As the painting is finally all blocked in,  begin to see the final finished version come to form in my mind.

Layer after layer of color are applied quickly, each layer slightly altering the overall feeling of the piece and moving it by steps closer to what I am now seeing concretely in my mind. After a final pass through, I stop and feel satisfied.  That’s what you are seeing at the top of the page.  I am satisfied in the moment but am still spending time taking it.

Sometimes when I paint like this, the energy from the actual act of painting hangs with me for a while.  I have learned that I need to give these pieces a little more time so that I can see them without the influence of the energy created in the process.  Sometimes after a bit I might see that some colors need to be deepened or brightened in order to move the energy in the painting.

Looking at the piece now I can see the synthesis from the work I was looking at yesterday morning into the finished piece above. I took in the shapes, colors, rhythms, and patterns of that work and tried to translate it into my own visual voice without imitating or copying it in any way.  It is more about appropriating the energy and rhythm of that work.

Now without the context of yesterday’s blog, you might look at this piece and simply see my work.  But artists are, at their core, synthesizers that constantly take in information and imagery and sounds and movements then shape them into a unique form that fits the vision they have for the world. This is one very basic and direct example of that synthesization of influence.

So, gotta run– there’s some synthesizing to be done!

Read Full Post »

The Conversation

Posted in Poetry, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on February 27, 2017| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- The ConversationWhat did the tree learn from the earth
to be able to talk with the sky?

–Pablo Neruda, The Book of Questions

***********************

I think that much of my work has to do with asking questions.  Not necessarily about getting answers, mind you, but about making inquiries about those motivations and meanings of the world, both inner and outer. About trying to create a dialogue, a give and take between the worldly and the ethereal.

And that questioning, that conversation, is what I see in this simple, small painting.

Will there ever be an answer?

That can only be answered with another question: Who knows?

Read Full Post »

Freed Thought

Posted in Current Events, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2017| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Freed ThoughtThe omnipotence of evil has never resulted in anything but fruitless efforts. Our thoughts always escape from whoever tries to smother them.

—Victor Hugo

*************

I call this new painting, 10″ by 20″ on panel, Freed Thought.

Like many people, I am concerned with what is happening in this country and around the world as ideas such as nationalism and authoritarianism take hold in more and more places.  That is a scary thought when you consider the horrors that took place in the first part of the last century–world wars, civil wars and genocide– as a result of these ideologies.

Perhaps we are just far enough removed from that time that we allow ourselves to conveniently forget that bit of history. Or think that it doesn’t apply here and begin to believe that this time will be different, somehow treating us to a much more pleasant result.

I think a lot of people fall into that second category, the It Can’t Happen Here camp. That is easy to understand and easy to swallow, not requiring much work or thought.

Keep your head down, don’t make waves or ask too many questions, and it will all be fine.

Unfortunately, that is the fodder for those with evil intent.  To those who seek control, who want to rule over— not govern–people, this unquestioning attitude is as enabling as the ardor of their most loyal adherents.  They are the most easily managed and most easily convinced because they don’t want to stand out alone, away from the others in any way.

Those with evil intent then try to keep this easily led herd away from those who disbelieve, who choose to remember history and see the ghosts of the past in the actions of the present.  Those who would stop them from achieving their goals– both publicly stated and those whispered in the darkness. This is done by controlling the message, creating false realities and fostering doubt in one’s own observations and beliefs.  Destroy trust in all institutions and all information except for that coming from the singular ruling voice.

Oh, it can happen here.

But I take some solace in the words above from Hugo and from history itself. Every movement, however powerful and far reaching, that is based on the darker angels of greed, deception, and exclusion eventually fails. An empire based on falsehood is unsustainable and will eventually succumb to truth. Truth and thought can never be fully controlled. They will always find a way to break free.

The downside in all of these cases is that many, many people are ultimately hurt along the way. And I worry that this is the direction in which we are headed.

That is why it is so important to come clear of the other trees that shade your views.  Stand freely and ask the questions that need to be asked and answered.  Remember that every evasion from a question is a step away from the truth. The truth has nothing to hide, doesn’t need to be concealed or evaded.

A thought based in truth will always stand tall and will not be obscured.

So, for god’s sake, ask the questions and demand the answers. But most of all, use the power of thought and think.

Read Full Post »

Canyon of Doubts

Posted in Motivation, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on February 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Canyon of DoubtsCreativity requires introspection, self-examination, and a willingness to take risks. Because of this, artists are perhaps more susceptible to self-doubt and despair than those who do not court the creative muses.

–Eric Maisel

*************

This new painting, 8″ by 10″ on panel, is called Canyon of Doubts. For me, it represents the navigation that takes place in the creative process as the artist tries to get past the formidable obstacles of self doubt.  Doubt often throws up barriers that has the artist asking if they are good enough, if they have the talent, training, and drive to create true art that speaks for them to the world. Doubt makes them fear that they are out of place, that they don’t belong, that every other artist has more right to create than them.

Doubt keeps the artist seemingly boxed in with no apparent way forward.

__

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

–Kahlil Gibran

*************

I’ve been trapped in that canyon many times. I’ve thought many times that there was no way out, that the fears posed by my doubts were the realities of who and what I was.

I have always felt alone with my doubts.  Words of encouragement from others often felt hollow when I was lost in those canyons.  They didn’t know how steep the walls of doubts seemed to me or how inadequate, how ill-prepared I felt in that moment.

The only option that seemed available to me was to trust that I could somehow fight my way out of those daunting canyons. It would mean mustering every bit of talent, every ounce of energy, and a sustained belief that I deserved to have my voice rise from out of  those canyons. It was matter of  either having the faith in my own value as human to find my way free or withering away in a canyon of doubts.

__

Your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism.

–Rainer Maria Rilke

*************

I still find myself in those canyons. I still find myself periodically looking up at the walls that surround me and wonder if I am talented enough, strong enough, or even entitled to escape them.

But I now know that there is a path through them, one that is well worn with my own footprints from my past journeys in that shadowed place.  I know that, even though it is lonely and seemingly unbearable in that moment, I don’t have to be trapped in that place of doubt.

I’ve traveled this path and there is indeed a way out.

It takes time and effort and devotion.  It takes the belief in yourself, forged from past experience, that you will make the right decisions and not be trapped in those walls.  It’s in having the faith that when take a wrong turn, when you make a mistake, that you will recognize it and get quickly back to the path that sets you free.

At the moment, I may well be in that canyon still but I have the moon guiding me and its light shows me where the canyon ends.

And then I will be free once more.

__

Read Full Post »

The Eye of Imagining

Posted in Motivation, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 16, 2017| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- The Eye of ImaginingAll human accomplishment has the same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature. Is this not enough to make a person full of ecstasy? Imagination, imagination, imagination. It converts to actual. It sustains, it alters, it redeems!

—Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King

************

It converts to actual.

Those four words sum up the power and potential of the imagination.

Our dreams, our hopes, our desires– they all take place in our imaginations. There these concepts begin to take shape and create their own paths forward. It is in the imagination that those first tenuous steps take place that transform mere thought into reality.

Every worthwhile thing we have ever done and every aspiration we will ever have is a product of the imagination.

It is the seat of all humanly power. And it is ours if only we use it.

Dare to imagine.

I think that is what I am seeing in this new painting, an 18″ by 18″ canvas, that I call The Eye of Imagining. It’s about dreaming.  About transforming that which we know and see into a form that better suits our hopes and desires.

It’s about reminding ourselves that the only limits to our potential come from not dreaming, in not allowing our imaginations to run freely.

This throttling down of one’s imagination is something of which I am as guilty as anyone.  I often find myself compromising my dreams, making them smaller and less challenging because of self doubt and a lack of confidence.

And this lack of imagining makes me feel smaller as a person.

We need to dream.

We must dare to be the person we imagine ourselves to be. Dare to imagine that.

Read Full Post »

Tower of Lies

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on February 10, 2017| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Tower of LiesHow long can you stand on a tower of lies?
How long can you endure on a tower built with  lies for posts and boasts for beams ?
How long before you see the folly in reinforcing one lie with another?
How long before the foundations come apart and fail?
How long before truth comes as gravity to pull this tower down?
How long can we tolerate you standing brazenly atop your tower of lies?
How long until the inevitable collapse comes?
How long until we begin to tally the casualties from the fall?
How long before we begin to build a straighter and stronger tower?
How long can you stand on this tower of lies?

*********************

This is a new small painting that I hope to expand into a limited series based on what I call towers of folly.  We’ll see how that progresses…

 

 

Read Full Post »

The Calm Surface

Posted in Current Events, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 9, 2017| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Surface CalmThrough practice we can get to the point where some disturbance may occur but the negative effects on our mind remain on the surface, like the waves that may ripple on the surface of an ocean but don’t have much effect deep down. 
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

*******************

I’m finally getting into a bit of a better work groove here in the studio and it’s proving to be a nice distraction from the crapfest taking place here in our government. During both the actual painting process and just looking at it afterwards, pieces like this new 12″ by 12″ canvas are proving to be a great tool in making an escape from the chaotic idiocy of it all.  I think that’s why I am calling this new painting The Calm Surface.

It feels very placid and calm, as though the storms that may rage far away will not shake it’s  tranquil demeanor.

And that’s what I want for myself. I want to be, as the Dalai Lama advises above, that deep ocean water where the rough waves on the surface don’t reach down to the calm depths.

But I am not there.  I don’t have that kind of depth yet and maybe I never will attain it.

But at least in works like this I have a tangible goal, a target for which I can set my bearings.

And that’s what I need right now– something to really work for.

Read Full Post »

Truth Shines Through

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 7, 2017| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Truth Shines ThroughThe truth remains the same in every version of this world. It is a constant.

It cannot be obscured nor hidden for long.

And while we may be distracted from that which is truth, sometimes by pretty colors or words that poorly mimic the real thing, truth remains at the ready.

It needs nothing while it waits unlike the false truths that must be fed fear and selfishness in order to exist. Truth is an inextinguishable ember that is always ready to flame brightly when given the air and space in which it can breathe to life.

Yes, there is truth.  It’s out there and it’s waiting to bring light.

And to those who mishandle the truth, who try to forge it into something that falsely serves them, it will bring an all encompassing inferno that will leave them in ashes.

*************

If I’d thrown in some scripture, that might sound like I was auditioning to be a Baptist minister, huh?

Well, maybe the truth needs a little sermonizing because a large part of the flock these days seems to be distracted by a gold plated idol who feeds them a pablum of fear and selfishness.

And that’s what I see in this new piece, a 12″ by 6″ painting on panel,that I call Truth Shines Through.  Truth stands in here is in the guise of the Red Tree rising like a flame over and through the colors that seek to pull your eye away from it.

The Red Tree is the truth and reality of this piece and it burns brightly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Maintaining Hope

Posted in Current Events, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on January 25, 2017| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Keeping HopeTo be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

——Howard Zinn

*************

It’s easy in these times to let ourselves fall prey to our darker emotions.  From both sides of the political spectrum, we revert to anger and hatred, letting those emotions color our view of our every day lives.  These dark emotions begin to crowd in on our lives, preventing us from witnessing the good that exists even during troubled times.

Our better qualities should not be swayed by external forces.  True compassion and empathy is not subject to politics or prejudices.

But, as I said, it’s easy to fall prey to the darkness, to simmer in a stew of anger and fear.  God knows, I have.

But I can’t live that way. I won’t live that way.

I need the joy.  I need to smile and laugh. I need to feel quiet in my inner world. I need to feel the beauty of our humanity.

Anger takes those things from me and I will not have that.

Don’t get me wrong.  This is not a submission to the events currently taking place.  No, my anger remains.  My will to resist and fight against those things that I see as simply wrong remains as strong as ever.

I just refuse to let darkness take over my life, to change who I am– or who I aspire to be– as a person.

And that, in its own way, is a small  victory.

**********

The piece at the top is a new piece, a small 2″ by 6″ painting on paper called “Maintaining Hope.” It is part of the upcoming Little Gems show,  opening February 3 at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.

 

 

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »