Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Daylight Savings
Posted in Uncategorized on November 5, 2016| 1 Comment »
Normalized
Posted in Uncategorized on November 4, 2016| 4 Comments »
Believe me, this presidential race is not a fight I want to climb into. It’s not one that leaves any of us feeling better and none of our minds will be swayed at this point by anything said by someone on the other side.
But I have to say my piece because I want to be able to say in the future that I tried, that maybe I swayed one mind or got one person to shake their complacency and vote. So let me make my case:
In Central New York the landscape above the Finger Lakes between Syracuse and Rochester is a flat glacial plain with broad fields and not a hill in sight. But around Seneca Falls there is one large green hill that has grown over the years to a point that you can’t miss it as you approach from the south.
It is a huge landfill. A mountain of garbage standing tall amidst the flatness of the fields around it.
At first , the idea of it drove me crazy. It seemed intolerable that this mound of rubbish dominated the view in this area. But as time went by, this now grass covered hillock became normal, part of the place.
But inside it is still a pile of garbage.
That hill is Donald Trump.
This is a man who has so many faults, so many deficiencies, so many negative features that he has shown us over the past several decades that to stack them all would create a mighty mountain. Any one or two of his flaws would easily disqualify any normal candidate but his lies, his misrepresentations, his misdeeds are so prodigious that as they pile up before us we become inured to the sheer number of them. You can’t keep up with the all the truckloads of his crap being dumped on the heap.
After the past 18 months of campaigning, he and his awful behavior have somehow become acceptable in our eyes.
Normalized.
He has normalized racism with his dog-whistle overtures to the white nationalists and organized racists who support him. He has normalized anti-intellectualism with his constant trashing of the press and scientific norms. He has normalized a lack of faith in our government with a constant stream of conspiracies. He has normalized bullying, the idea that opposing views are not to be tolerated but shamed, humiliated and crushed. He has normalized the idea that nuclear weapons are there to be used and that he, an intellectually lazy real estate guy, has something to teach our generals and military strategists.
He has normalized the idea of prosecuting your political opponents. He has normalized fear and the threat of violence as a motivating force. He has normalized division among the races, religions and ethnicities of this country. He has normalized incivility among everyone. He has normalized empty boasting, outright lying and the coarsening of our discourse.
He has normalized the acceptance of a man with 75 pending lawsuits including one for racketeering and one potentially for child-rape as as the next possible symbolic figurehead for our nation.
He has normalized the me-first mindset.
There is so much more crap in this heap that I could point out. But what it comes down to is that before a single vote has been counted, whether he wins or loses, he has damaged our democracy.
You wanted change? Be careful what you wish for…
If he wins, this is the new normal– a man/baby with the emotional maturity of a 16-year old lashing out at every perceived slight or threat as he deflects all blame to everyone but himself for anything that will go wrong. And believe me –sorry for using one of his catchphrases– things will go wrong. They always do. That is the way of the world and reacting to those problems is part of being the leader of an entire nation. The president’s reaction sets the tone for our response as a nation.
And even if all the ridiculous claims leveled against Hillary Clinton were improbably proved true, her pile of trash would still be but a tiny knoll next to Trump’s Everest of lies, brags and cons.
You might get used to that mountain of garbage. But I know that no amount of grass (or gold-plating) will hide the fact that it is made of stinking trash.
Okay, I had my say. Vote how you will but vote.
“Part of the Plan” Opening Tonight!
Posted in Uncategorized on October 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »
A quick reminder that tonight is the opening for my new show, Part of the Plan, at the Kada Gallery in Erie. It begins with a reception that runs from 6 PM until 9.
I have been anticipating this show for a while now and believe that it’s a very strong and cohesive group. I am looking forward to seeing it hanging together in the gallery where I can step back and see how the different pieces play off one another. That often reveals the show’s real truth.
I hope that if you are in the Erie area that you’ll stop into the Kada Gallery tonight and take a look for yourself and say hello. I’ll be glad to see you there!
PS- If you can’t make it to Erie and you’re in the vicinity of Alexandria VA, please stop in at the Principle Gallery this afternoon from 4-7 PM for the Artists Engaging Nepal gala. The event is sponsored by the Soarway Foundation whose work I have spoke of here on a number of different occasions. There is a wonderful exhibit of art from artists in Nepal and Uganda with the proceeds from all sales going to further the work of the Soarway Foundation in their mission to aid in the restoration of Nepal after recent earthquakes as well as assist in preventing extensive damage in future earthquakes through better planning and design. Stop in today or take a look at the online catalog.
Sense of Wonder
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged GC Myers, Music, New Painting, Red Tree, Van Morrison on October 23, 2016| 1 Comment »
There are two ways of looking at my paintings for me. During the process, I view it as an assemblage of parts, a series of decisions to be made and obstacles to overcome. It feels very much like it is part of me at that point, like I hold all the cards and determine where it will go and what it will inevitably be. I feel a bit like a mechanic or a surgeon in that time.
But there is a point just after it reaches completion where the piece stumbles to its feet and moves away from on its own volition. It has its own power, its own forward moving force and I am left powerless to influence it at that point. I no longer see it as parts or pieces to be adjusted. It is whole and seems to only be mine in only a familiar way, like a father looking at his child and seeing the resemblance but not understanding how and why the child does what it does as it grows away from him.
I don’t mean that in a negative way though I have to admit it could be taken that way. I was thinking of a sort of gratification in seeing their child do things they never imagined for themselves. In a moment that is both prideful and sad when he realizes that he has created something that he will never be himself, something that exceeds his whole.
I thought of this the other morning while working out with a number of newly framed paintings within my sight. Only days before some of them had still been just parts and pieces,still problematic and with little life. Yet now I was looking at them and they felt whole and away from me. I recognized them as mine in that moment but I could see that they had their own things to say, their own feelings to express.
It was a moment that caught me off guard. I have spoken of the work taking on its own life many times before but in that instant it seemed so much more palpable and concrete.
It created a sense of wonder in me.
This new piece, a 10″ by 20″ canvas, carries that phrase, Sense of Wonder, as its title. I think the Red Tree conveys that feeling of gratification and wonder that I felt in that moment. Looking at it now, I see that it is mine but it expresses feelings I have yet to feel and truths that I have yet to realize. And that sense of wonder is created again.
I guess it’s only fitting that this Sunday morning music be a song from Van Morrison called A Sense of Wonder. Give listen and have a great Sunday. Hope you find your own sense of wonder…
FYI: This painting, Sense of Wonder, is included in my show at the Kada Gallery which opens next Saturday, October 29.
I’m Your Puppet
Posted in Uncategorized on October 20, 2016| 4 Comments »
Thank god that we are finally past the three presidential debates. I thought I’d have a little musical break to cleanse the taste of last night’s debate out of my mouth. Oops, I guess I can’t get away from it– I think we all know who the puppet was last night.
No Rules/ Redux
Posted in Advice, Motivation, Painting, Uncategorized, tagged Creativity, GC Myers, Painting, Rules on October 10, 2016| 2 Comments »
I do what I can to convey what I experience before nature and most often, in order to succeed in conveying what I feel, I totally forget the most elementary rules of painting, if they exist that is. In short, I allow faults to appear, the better to fix my sensations.
–Claude Monet, 1912
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I have had this little sign hanging in my studio for the last 16 years [over 20 years now], a rough reminder to myself when I begin to feel like my work is bending to the rules and judgments of others. It reminds me that I am working in my own realm, my world. I control the parameters of what is possible, of what defines reality in my work. The rules of others mean nothing in my little painted world.
Over the years I have glimpsed this small sign at times when I have been feeling that my work is stagnating or beginning to adhere to accepted conventions. At those times I have been spurred to push my work in some new direction. It might come in the form of heightening the intensity of color or introducing new hues that seems incompatible with nature, for example.
It’s as though these two words are prods that constantly tell me that nobody can control me when I am here in my created world. There’s a great liberation in this realization and I find myself trusting my own judgment of my work more and more. Because I have created my own criteria for its reality, criticism from others means little now.
I think that’s what I am trying to get at here, that an artist must fully believe that they are the sole voice of authority in their work, that they, not others, determine its validity. Maybe that’s why I am so drawn to Outsider artists, those untrained artists who maintain this firm belief in their personal vision and create a personal inner world of art in which it can live and prosper. Rules mean nothing to them- only the expression of their inner self matters .
Skirting the Storm
Posted in Uncategorized on October 6, 2016| 7 Comments »
With Hurricane Matthew in mind:
In Gratitude
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged GC Myers, New Painting, Quote, Red Tree, Seneca on October 5, 2016| 6 Comments »
True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.
—Seneca
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This new painting, which is about 4″ by 15″ is a bit of a rarity. It is done on plain watercolor paper without the benefit of the texture from the gessoed surfaces that I typically use, much like my very earliest works. It was a nice change, reverting to working on the smooth surface of untreated paper. There’s a sense of purity in the way the colors flow on and set to the paper’s surface.
Very clean. Crisp.
I call this piece In Gratitude. The words at the top from the Roman philosopher Seneca very much capture the spirit of what I see in this painting and aspire to in my own life– to be always conscious of and grateful for that which I do have in my life.
I talk and think a lot about gratitude. Gratitude for where I am in the present moment sets me free from dwelling on the past or fretting about the future, both things out of my hands. Gratitude also makes me recognize the importance of those who have played key roles in my life.
Recognizing that one depends on the help, the love and the recognition of others in their life is a key element in finding a level of contentment in one’s life.
We do nothing totally alone.
I may claim that my work is my creation alone but it is, in fact, a compilation of the interactions of my life with those who I have encountered along the way. They have formed my sight, my perception of this world, and given shape to the hoped-for world that shows itself in my work.
And for that alone, I am so grateful.
So, this seems like a simple small painting but for me it speaks volumes.
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This painting, In Gratitude, is part of my solo show, Part of the Plan, which opens October 29th at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.
Urge For Going
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged GC Myers, Joni Mitchell, Laurentian University, Let's Sing Out, Recent Painting, Red Tree on October 2, 2016| 1 Comment »
October and the rampant heat of summer is finally letting go. There’s a little color coming into the trees but it seems muted against the slate grayness of the clouds that are bringing us some much needed rain. The change of seasons seems to be upon us and soon the green of the grass will be a bleached beige and the green clad trees will shed their leaves exposing the bone grey structures of the trees. Color fades and everything takes on a the colors of the earth– shades of gray and brown.
This can make many folks a bit melancholy as they wistfully long for the sun and light of those longer summer days. They want to flee the somber tones of the landscape around them. They get the urge for going.
I understand this feeling. But I more often than not find myself relishing this change of season, the more essential feel of this time of year. I think the somberness of the colors outside the studio help me express the colors I am seeing inside and allows me to use my own urge for going in a constructive manner. I believe that piece at the top is a good example. It’s called Breathing Room. and is an 18″ by 24″ canvas. It could easily be called Urge For Going as the path moves through a deeply colored foreground toward a light-filled and expansive horizon.
That, of course, brings us to this week’s Sunday morning musical selection. It’s a very early version of Urge For Going from Joni Mitchell. This is taken from a Canadian television program, Let’s Sing Out, that ran from 1963-1967. It was broadcast from various Canadian college campuses and featured many folk performers of the day. Joni Mitchell first appeared on the show in 1965 using her maiden name, Joni Anderson. This particular performance using the more familiar Mitchell is from October of 1966 at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. I think it’s a beautiful rendition of the song, especially for a fifty year old television clip.
So give a listen and consider your own urge for going. Have a great day.
Oh, the painting, Breathing Room is part of my upcoming show, Part of the Plan, which opens October 29 at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.
You Can Win It! Gallery Talk Today!
Posted in Uncategorized on September 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Defiant Heart! Win this Painting!
Redtree Times 