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Archive for the ‘Recent Paintings’ Category

Where the Circle Meets

Posted in Opinion, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on October 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Where the Circle MeetsI am calling this new painting, an 18″ by 24″ canvas, Where the Circle Meets.  I am thinking of that part of a circle where the beginning starts and the end terminates, doing so constantly and endlessly through cycle after cycle until one is almost indistinguishable from the other.  The beginning contains the end and the  end contains a beginning.

I tend to think of us going through our lives in this sort of karmic cycle, one where we endlessly loop round and round through days and experiences as we go along.  Hopefully, as each cycle comes around we take something from that last turn to make the next one easier and more fulfilling.  Perhaps we shed bad intentions and selfishness.  Or look away from the dark and toward the light.

And I do see this in this painting.  There is a movement from darker to lighter tones as you move into this piece.  Around the bend  in the stream, the sun hovers above the horizon, bringing light which is shown in the form of pulsing beams of energy.

We live our lives in cycles and with that comes the opportunity to know that each cycle’s ending holds the promise of a new beginning.  The trick is in recognizing this and using learned knowledge to make the next one better from the beginning.

I may not be putting this very eloquently this morning.  Perhaps I am too tired or my mind is a bit fuzzy this morning. But regardless of that, I hope you’ll take a look and try to see what I am saying with this piece.

This painting is included in my show, Part of the Plan, which opens at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA on October 29th.

 

 

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Adagio in Blue

Posted in Music, Opinion, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , on October 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Adagio in BlueWow.

That’s about anyone can say after these last few days, days which may go down as some of the craziest ever seen in the history of our nation.  I am not going to say much here on the subject of candidate Trump.  There’s not much to say except that this is not a big shocker to me.  I’ve said it before: Trump has shown us who and what he is repeatedly over the past decades.

If you are surprised by any revelation about this creature– I hesitate to use the word man in this case– that has come out (or any that is bound to emerge because I have to believe there is plenty more in the bullpen just waiting patiently to be unleashed) then you haven’t been watching closely enough.  Either that or you are, as my father likes to say– even in his current state of Alzheimer’s–among  the most gullible people on the face of the earth.

And for those out there waking up this morning still believing that Trump is some kind of positive answer or agent of change, I feel pity for them.  That kind of denial of reality can only point to a life that will be further filled with anger, hatred and discontent.

And that is a sad thing for them. And for those around them. And for this country.

Okay, enough said on that for now.  I need some comforting on this ominously quiet Sunday morning.  The painting at the top is a new 9″ by 12″ canvas that is part of my upcoming show at the Kada Gallery which opens October 29.  I call this piece Adagio in Blue.  It has a calming presence in its colors and composition that fulfills my needs this morning.  I am coupling it with a classical piece this morning, the Adagio from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 as played by French pianist Hélène Grimaud.  It’s a beautiful piece and a well produced video presentation.

Think of it as a peaceful respite from the crap storm cutting through our political world at the moment.  Relax and try to have a good day.

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Breakthrough

Posted in Biographical, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on September 29, 2016| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Breakthrough

The painting above is called Breakthrough and is a 30″ by 30″ canvas.  I chose it for this post because it fits well with my state of mind this morning.  You see, sometimes a breakthrough announces itself in a big momentous way while sometimes it comes in quiet, barely awake moment.

I woke up this morning in the dark and for the first time in a long while found myself thinking about a painting I had been working on.  I was thinking about how I had left it at the end of yesterday and the approach I wanted to take when I went back into it today–the colors I wanted to add and the manner in which I would apply them.

For most of you, the thoughts of imminent work may not seem like a great way to start your waking day but for me it was an exciting thrill.  It felt normal in a good way to me, something that has been lacking in recent months when it seems as though every day offered a different task or challenge that took me further out of the routine that has long been my emotional and creative stabilizer.

But this morning it seemed closer to my normal normal.  And it felt good.  It was energizing in that it meant that my mind was moving away from things I can’t control and back to those things that control and guide me.  Just knowing that my waking mind transitioned immediately from the subconscious to a creative state was exciting.

And reassuring.  There have been moments in recent months when I thought that part of me was slipping away, that I would have trouble finding my way back to that creative wellspring that has nourished me for so many years.  But this morning I see a creative path moving forward and am eager to move ahead on it.  It feels like a breakthrough and that feels right and good.

Whew!

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Come Together

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on September 14, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Come TogetherThe reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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This new painting, a 12″ by 36″ canvas, that is headed to the Principle Gallery with me this weekend is called Come Together.  It’s a continuation of the island theme that has been running through my work as of late.

I think the words of Emerson above fit very much with what I see in this painting.  Though it appears to be two separate islands with trees linked by a bridge, I see them as having been once united and have somehow been separated.  In this case, it may have been the tumult of time where the seabeds rise and the mountaintops fall– many of the high peaks that we know are sedimentary rock, after all, raised from the bottoms of the oceans.

The disunity Emerson was writing about was man separating himself from nature instead of realizing that he is part of nature and operates best when he is united with it through order and reason in a sort of partnership.  It makes sense especially when you consider the way that nature reacts when we try to exercise our belief that we have dominion over it.

In the same essay, Emerson also wrote the following  that I think better puts this into context:

Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters, moulds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness of nature, is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit, it is fluid, it is volatile, it is obedient. Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobbler’s trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world.

We all have the ability to live within nature and to build our own world that reflects our spirit.  If only we can find unity with the nature that desires to be our partner.

Just remember, your world is what you make it.

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This painting will be with me at the Gallery Talk this Saturday, September 17, at the Principle Gallery.  It starts at 1 PM and  should be a good time.  There will be a drawing for the painting, Defiant Heart, which has been shown in the past couple of  posts. Plus there will be a few other surprises as well.  Hope to see you there!

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Watchman

Posted in Influences, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- WatchmanFor thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

—Isaiah 21:6

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The biblical verse above is of course the one which was the basis for the title for Harper Lee‘s sequel, to her classic To Kill A Mockingbird.  In the books, Scout regarded her father, Atticus Finch, as such a watchman, a moral and righteous sentinel looking out for injustice and evil.

And that is kind of how I see the central figure of this new painting, the lone Red Tree set high on rocky outcropping in what seems to be an endless sea.  Maybe it is the red of the sky that sets such a tone.  I don’t know.

I’ve been fascinated by small islands in my work lately.  The isolation of them gives these pieces a brooding quality and reminds me a bit of working as an artist.  I’ve often felt that the job of an artist is to act as a sort of watchman.

It is very much a job of isolation, one that is often formed in the solitariness of youth when one always felt like an outsider, observing the world quietly and mostly unseen from the edges of life.  The work itself is done and grows in isolation but is very much influenced by one’s observations of the world around them.  And much of the work, if it reaches the level of art, is based on a sensitivity to what that artist has observed and felt.

And maybe that is the real purpose of artists, to act as a watcher, looking to warn us of our own straying from reason and to keep our humanity intact.  Maybe that is what I see in this painting.

gc-myers-defiant-heart-smThis painting is 8″ by 24″ on canvas and is titled, of course, Watchman.  It is coming with me to the Principle Gallery this Saturday, September 17, when I give my Gallery Talk there beginning at 1 PM.  There will be a group of new paintings including this piece as well as a group of selected pieces from my studio that will only be available for that day.  And there is, of course, the drawing at the end of the talk for the painting, Defiant Heart.

Should be a good time and I hope you can make it to the Principle Gallery this Saturday!

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Doubt the Darkness

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on September 9, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Doubt the DarknessIf you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

— Rene Descartes

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As it neared completion, this new painting felt like it was about a questioning of some sort.  The Red Tree here seems to be casting doubt over the reality that is before it and even its own reality.  The question might be: Shall I hide in the darkness or stand in the light?

I call this 12″ by 12″ canvas Doubt the Darkness and I think it speaks to this question.  Darkness often obscures our perception of things and raises doubts in us as to what is and is not real.  Darkness is an agent of doubt and fear.  But by casting our own doubt and light upon that darkness we come to understand that it only hides that which was already there and does not bring anything more with it.

Its only power over us is our own doubting of what we know is there.

Okay, maybe that’s too much for me to try to make sense of so early in the morning.  But even if it seems like gibberish when you read this, I hope you’ll at least take a look at the painting and try to to find something for yourself in it that makes sense.  Maybe you’ll even see what I was babbling about.

This is a new painting that will be accompanying me to next Saturday’s Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  It runs on September 17th from one until about 2 PM.  There will be some new work along with a select group of older pieces from the studio at this talk and, as has been tradition over the past several years, there will be a drawing at the end of the talk where one of the folks in attendance will win an original painting.  I will be sharing more details in the next few days.

It’s usually a lot of fun and I hope you’ll try to make it to this year’s talk.

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Suffering Memory

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on September 7, 2016| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Suffering Memory“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
You forget some things, don’t you?
Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Road

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 Much of my work concerns itself with our memory, how we perceive our past and how the memory of that past affects our present and our future.  It often seems a treasure, this memory, but it also comes with the price of suffering as well.  After all, the word nostalgia is created from two Greek roots, nostos which means return and algos which means pain or grief.

We suffer in our desire to return.

I see that feeling in this new piece, an 11″ by 15″ painting on paper that I call Suffering Memory.  There is something in the color and the placement of the elements that has a bittersweet quality much like that feeling of looking back through time to a point that you know is long gone and will never come again.

You desire a return but too much has changed–  knowledge gained, the self revealed and innocence lost.

The strong chaos of the texture underneath gives this piece an effect that I think adds to the distance of the memory felt.  The texture acts as a distorting agent which represents the natural distortion that time casts over all of our memories. As we all know, while we would like to think that memory is an absolute truth, time often seems to bend it even further from reality.

The texture here creates areas of light and dark that represent for me the alternating facets of memory’s truthfulness.  While it would be nice to have all memories be completely faithful to the absolute truth of the moment, it is that texture, that flawed recall of our memory that gives it the meaning that it holds for us.

In reality, nothing is seldom as good or as bad as we remember.  But that doesn’t really matter because it is not the truth to which we react.  It is our memory of it, our personal version of that truth with its own color and texture that affects us, that causes us to suffer the memory.

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Blue Fires

Posted in Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2016| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Blue Flame smFirst, too many thanks to send out to everyone who made yesterday’s talk at the West End Gallery such a fun event.  That may well be one of the most enjoyable talks I’ve participated out of the many that I’ve done.  What a wonderful and engaged group of folks!  They were so welcoming and warm that it made me feel very comfortable and free to tell my little stories.  I had a good time and I hope they did as well.

Thank you a hundred times over to those of you who took time on a warm August day to come sit for a bit with me.  I was so honored by your presence and will feed off the memory of yesterday for a long time to come.

I have to add that after the talk ended I found myself completely exhausted–wiped out completely.  More so than I remember from the aftermath of past talks.  I think it’s a combination the built-up anxiety of having to talk in front of a group of people, the actual mental effort expended and the release from having it all go off in a very good way that left me sapped.  But it was a satisfied exhaustion.

For today’s Sunday Morning music I thought I’d couple one of the paintings from the West End Gallery show with a song.  My painting shown here is titled Blue Flame, a thin 2″ by 14″ on paper.  The song I’ve chosen is titled Blue Fires from case/lang/veirs which is a one time grouping for this year of singers Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs.  I’ve been a fan of k.d.lang for over 30 years now and am a huge fan of Neko Case so this was no-brainer for me.  Just a lovely song that I think meshes well with the image here.

So, enjoy and have yourself a pleasant Sunday.

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Rooted

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on August 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Rooted smOnly when man succeeds in developing his reason and love further than he has done so far, only when he can build a world based on human solidarity and justice, only when he can feel rooted in the experience of universal brotherliness, will he have transformed his world into a truly human home.

–Erich Fromm, Sane Society, 1955

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This painting  hangs in my current show at the West End Gallery.  It is a 30″ by 10″ canvas that I call Rooted.

I often see the Red Chairs hanging in a tree as a symbol of human solidarity, of being part of a continuum that started long before its own origins, descended from a common beginning born in the very elements of this earth.

It’s this common beginning that we often forget in our journey through life. We find that we are separating and dividing ourselves, isolating ourselves further from the common root that bore us all.   In this isolation we fail to see our own humanity in others, seeing only our differences and not our common bonds.

And it is these common bonds that will no doubt determine our future on this earth.

Is the ideal of human solidarity a possibility or a pipe-dream?  I do not know.  It certainly seems improbable, given where we are at this point in time.  But I do know that if we dismiss it as a possibility then we don’t have much of a future ahead of us.  Our strength is carried in our roots, our oneness.

And that’s how I am seeing this painting…

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GC Myers- Private Glow 2016REMINDER;

GALLERY TALK at the WEST END GALLERY

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1-2 PM

Join me for what I hope will be a lively conversation along with a free drawing for the painting, “Private Glow”, shown here on the left, as well as a few other surprises!

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Gallery Talk Saturday

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on August 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Private Glow 2016Saturday, August 6, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery in conjunction with my show, Contact,  that is currently hanging there.  The talk runs from 1 to 2 PM.

If you’ve never been to one of my talks, they are usually pretty free flowing affairs with a lot of back and forth between the participants and me.  I try to make it as interesting and fast moving as I can to make everybody feel engaged and involved in some way.  The really good talks usually have me talking at the audience less and just responding off the cuff to all sorts of questions in a conversational manner.

I never know exactly what’s going to come out of my mouth during these conversational talks.  I try to be absolutely honest in my responses sometimes surprise myself with what I say so, for good or bad, there is that wild card at play as well.

Of course, if you’re aware of my Gallery Talks, you know that I normally have a drawing for an original painting at the end of the talk.  Unsurprisingly, it has become a very popular part of the talks, both for the audience and myself.  For me, I see it as an expression of gratitude for all that they and others have given me in this life as an artist with their enthusiastic support over these many years.  I get a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction from this part of the talks.

The painting that I have selected to give away at this Gallery Talk is the painting shown at the top, Private Glow.  It is a 12″ by 12″ painting on canvas that has a little story about how it came to this point that I will share at the talk.  It has my favorite Red Tree on an island which very much fits with a current theme in my work.  I think it’s a strong piece in many ways and am pleased to choose it for this talk.

And, of course, there are usually other surprises at the talks.  So if you can take time from a summer Saturday, I invite you to the West End Gallery for this year’s Gallery Talk.

I will do everything I can to make it a good time.  Promise.

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