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Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on November 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Sly Stone gifI thought I’d play some music for this Sunday music with the theme being giving thanks.  Looking around, I found there weren’t a lot of choices and none that really were explicitly about the holiday.  I guess the circumstances of the original event  didn’t lend themselves to really interesting holiday music, certainly not on the level of Christmas songs and carols.  But whenever I think of songs that mention thanks in them, even in a way that barely grazes the  idea of Thanksgiving, I always immediately come back to  the song of thanks from the magnificent funkiness that is Sly and the Family Stone.

Of course, I am talking about Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin.)   Love the wordplay.

I wrote about Sly Stone back in August on the 45th anniversary of his epic Woodstock appearance.  I mentioned then that whenever I hear something from him I find myself wondering why I am not listening to him all the time.  It seems to always perk me up, make me feel invigorated.  And this song is no different.

So, while it might not be on the playlists of any Pilgrims, here is a little Sly to kickstart your Sunday.  Have a great day and give some thanks to someone or something today.  Why wait until Thursday?

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Faces of Picasso

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on November 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Pablo Picasso- Self Portrait 1907

Pablo Picasso- Self Portrait 1907

I am really busy this morning with the last details of preparation for the upcoming Kada Gallery show.  I am a little hectic but felt compelled to put something up on the blog out of a sense of obligation to the regimen that has been formed over the six years that I have been writing this blog.  I always feel somewhat guilty if I miss more than a day.   Five years ago, I shared a video of  female portraits throughout the art of last 500 years that was put together by video enthusiast Philip Scott Johnson.  It was a well done assemblage with portraits morphing from one to another and was immensely popular  with over 14 million views on YouTube.

I came across another of his morph films, this time featuring the portraits of Pablo Picasso.  I thought I would share this short but interesting film today.

I sometimes think that Picasso’s immense worldwide fame, especially around the 60’s and 70’s, kept me from fully appreciating his work.  I never thought of him as an artistic inspiration for my own work but over time I have found that his work almost always captures my attention when I come across it.   There is usually something in it that has that sense of rightness I often struggle to explain here.   I have become, more and more,  a fan of his work over the years.

Take a look at the film and see for yourself in this great little film that features the laying of Yo-Yo Ma.

 

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Take the “A” Train

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on November 16, 2014| 5 Comments »

Subway TrainI heard a version of  Duke Ellington‘s signature tune, Take the “A” Train, the other day that caught me off guard.  The music was playing in the background and I caught the notes of a tune that made me stop and listen.  It was so familiar but it was so different.  Then I recognized it and realized it was someone other than the Duke and his orchestra.  It didn’t have the urbane and upbeat swing, that joyful feeling of breezing carefree along that marked the original.

No, it was a slow jaunt, a meandering and elegantly peaceful ride.  No horns.  Just a thumping upright bass and gorgeous piano work over some light drum work.  It was still the same tune but it was oh so different in feel.  It was from jazz great Ray Brown and his trio– Gene Harris on the piano.  Beautiful stuff.

GC Myers Call To Waking smallIt reminded me of the times when I had taken the color from my work and work in tones of gray or sepia just to change things up a bit, to cleanse the palette so to speak.  The piece shown here on the left is an example.

I described it as being like hearing a song that you’ve heard a thousand times before then hearing a completely different take on it.  It’s the same tune, same notes and chords, but it just feels different, opens up something new inside.  This version by the Ray Brown Trio is exactly what I was describing.

It is the same but different.  Plus soaking in that bass thump is just a great way to kick off a quiet Sunday morning.  Have a great day…

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Science and The Starry Night

Posted in Neat Stuff, Painting, Video, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2014| 3 Comments »

Van Gogh The Starry Night 1889 MOMAThe Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most beloved paintings of all time, stirring all sorts of emotions from a wide spectrum of the population as it presents a paradox of serenity and turbulence in the night sky of Provence.  It has been analyzed to death by art critics, psychologists, theologians and every art history student since it was painted in 1889, each striving to explain the meaning that they pull from it.

And maybe they’re all right.

But recently there has been a different analysis of this work.  It has to do with fluid dynamics and the problem of finding a mathematical equation for turbulence– the sort of turbulence you might see in an eddy in a stream or that which is depicted in the swirling light and color of Van Gogh’s painting.  Russian mathematician Andrei Kolmogorov (1903-1987) came closest to solving this problem in the early 1950’s yet it remains one of the great unsolved problems of physics.

Back in 2004, the Hubble telescope picked up images of eddies of gas and dust around a distant star and scientists were reminded of Van Gogh’s painting.  Scientists from a number of countries collaborated on an analysis of the luminance in his painting and discovered that the structure of his painting was very much patterned like Kolmogorov’s equations for turbulence.

I am not going to say much more.  There is a wonderful short film below from TED-Ed and Natalya St. Clair that much better explains this. But before you watch, I wanted to add one more thing which is the supposed inspiration for Van Gogh’s sky.

Drawing of M51 Whirlpool Galaxy Lord Rosse 19th CenturyThere was a drawing that was well known in Europe in the latter part of the 19th century that was done by William Parsons, also known as Lord Rosse, who had built a large telescope on his Irish castle in the 1840’s.  Called Leviathan, it was the largest telescope in the world until 1918.  With it, Lord Rosse was able to observe the great swirls of the near universe, turning them into drawings which circulated throughout Europe.  This one shown on the left is of  the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, and is believed to have been the spark for Van Gogh’s sky.

Anyway, watch this great short on the analysis of Van Gogh’s great painting.  Or perhaps you would rather just be content with our own interpretation of the work and what it does for you personally.  Either way is good.

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Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya

Posted in At the Movies, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 9, 2014| 1 Comment »

The-Best-Years-of-Our-Lives- Dana WinterVeteran’s Day is coming up and I thought I might have an image that somewhat represents the experience of some vets on their return home.  In the 1946 movie, The Best Years of Our Lives, Dana Andrews‘ character, Fred, struggles on his return to his hometown and comes across a local airfield where they are junking old war planes from the recently ended World War II.  He crawls into an old B-17 bomber and takes his former seat in the front turret of the plane where he was a nose gunner.  He vividly relives for a brief moment the terror that was still haunting him, tainting every moment of his life.  The haunting image of Andrews appearing ghost-like in the nose of that B-17 is a powerful one in a movie filled with powerful scenes, one that doesn’t sugarcoat the experiences and hardships of the returning vets.  It remains relevant to this very day.

I thought for this Sunday’s musical interlude, I would play something in the spirit of this upcoming holiday.  It would be easy enough to play something patriotic but this isn’t really a holiday of nationalism and a call to arms.   No, this is a holiday that celebrates an end to war , namely World War I when the holiday was originated as Armistice Day, and honors the service of all soldiers with the hope that they will soon return home and resume their lives there.  This holiday honors those who have served and sacrificed so much, not the wars to which they are sent.

The song is Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya which is the original tune on which the Civil War era  song When Johnny Comes Marching Home is based.  While When Johnny Comes Marching Home is more celebratory and martial in tone, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya is pointedly anti-war and mournful.  It was supposedly written in the 1790′s as a protest to the British imperialist invasion of Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka.  It tells of a young woman seeing her lover , who left her after their illegitimate child was born to join the army,  returning from war.  He is much changed in appearance and she mourns for his loss.

This is a very emotional version of the song from British opera and folk singer Benjamin Luxon accompanied by American Bill Crofut on banjo.  Have a great Sunday and gives some thought to the men and women who have given their time and their selves to serving their countries.  Let’s vow to treat them better.

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Project Yosemite

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , , , on October 28, 2014| 1 Comment »

Project Yosemite Night ImageYosemite National Park is an elemental place, one formed from a beautiful union of stone, wood, water and light.  There is a wonderful time-lapse film project, Project Yosemite, filmed by Colin Delehanty and Sheldon Neill,  that  attempts to capture this elemental beauty.  It has stunning vistas showing the changing light of both day and night set against the backdrop of some of the park’s iconic landmarks.

The night scenes with the heavens moving above as shooting stars fire across the starry sky are pretty incredible as are the movements of the climbers on some of the massive rock faces.  They appear as bug-like figures and at night they become fireflies as their lights cast tiny but bright specks of light against the granite monoliths.

There are two great films.  Take a look and definitely check out the Project Yosemite site.  Just beautiful work.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Yosemite HD II from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

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O’Keeffe’s Bones in the Sky

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Video, tagged , , , on October 25, 2014| 4 Comments »

Georgia O'Keeffe-Cow's Skull Red, White and Blue -1931

Georgia O’Keeffe-Cow’s Skull Red, White and Blue -1931

I don’t know if I have talked much about Georgia ‘OKeeffe (1887-1985) here on the blog.  Her work was a big influence on me when I was starting, especially with her use of  bold, clear color and in the way she pared away detail in her compositions, leaving only the essential.  Her lines and forms were always organic and natural, something in them almost creating a harmony or vibration that easily meshed with the viewer on a gut level.

I was looking at films of artists at work earlier and came across a short segment from a 1977 documentary by filmmaker Perry Miller Adato that was aired on PBS at the time to mark O’Keeffe 90th birthday.  I was immediately captivated by the film of her as younger woman early in her time in New Mexico set against her at 90, listening to talk about paintings that were based on the bones she found in the high desert, telling a bit about the iconic painting shown here.

Her words were direct and plain-spoken in a mid-western voice that reflected her mid-western upbringing.  There’s an interesting juxtaposition of her speaking in very simple terms about her work set against a curator speaking in a bit of artspeak.  I’m not saying his point wasn’t valid.  It was just interesting to see how she spoke easily on the subject, it all being just a part of who she was.

It was just a neat clip that reminded me of why I liked her work so much in those early years.  As I said, this is just a clip and I am sorry that I don’t know where you can see the entire film.  But enjoy this and perhaps you’ll stumble across the whole film some other day.

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Walk On By/ WIP

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, Work In Progress, tagged , , , , , on October 19, 2014| 6 Comments »

GC Myers WIP 2014 smOnce in a great while I show my works in progress here on the blog.  I ‘m never too excited about it because  in many of the stages that are shown the work still lacks that thing, that completeness, that gives it life.  But there is a point earlier in the process where it does attain a certain sense of completion.  It’s right after the initial blocking in of the painting with red oxide paint and after the the first layers of color have given the beginnings of light to the sky.  It has a mood of its own at this juncture, a direction and a sense of the life it will have.

Outside of the final moments near the completion of the moment, this is by far my favorite stage of the process.  After this, as more layers of color are added, it devolves for a while, becoming flat and dull on the surface.  It loses any brightness.  Without this early glimpse of what it might be, these later stages might be discouraging.

This early stage is one where I sometimes find myself wanting to stop, to go no further and just let it be as it is.  But I always seem to push past this and move on to the fuller version that has more color and a bit more polish.   I may show a few more stages along the way until the final version emerges.  By the way, this a 24″ by 48″ canvas.

Being Sunday morning, it’s time for a little music.  I have had an old Burt Bacharach song in my head for a few days, one from his heyday with Hal David where they churned out an amazing string of hits for Dionne Warwick in the early 60’s.  His music always has a distinctive sound and feel.  There is a coolness  and lightness in the sound of  much of his music that I can’t fully describe and Warwick’s strong but delicate phrasing fits it like a glove in these songs.  I guess that’s why it sticks in my mind so well.  Here’s Walk On By from Dionne Warwick.  A little coolness for what I hope will be a great Sunday for you.

 

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Ride Into the Wild

Posted in Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , , , on October 8, 2014| 2 Comments »

danny-macaskill-rides-the-ridge-at-the-isle-of-skye-scotlandDanny MacAskill is a Scottish bicycle trials rider, which means he has amazing bicycle-handling skills.  Trials riding involves going through extremely difficult obstacle courses without setting a foot to the ground at any point.  MacAskill has taken this ability to new levels over the years, traveling the world to find ever more arduous challenges for him and his bike, releasing a number of videos documenting his feats.  You can go to his website for more information on his past exploits.

But perhaps his greatest feat to date took place in the very place from which he came, the Isle of Skye in Scotland.  He recently took on the fabled  peaks of the Cuillin Mountains,  a rugged and jagged ridgeline that seems almost impassable for anyone on two wheels let alone two legs.  The resulting film is a beautifully shot and pretty amazing.  There is breath-taking scenery and riding that will make you hold your breath.  If you have a few minutes, take a look.  You will be thrilled in some form.

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Dedicated Follower of Fashion/ Redux

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on October 7, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers-Dedicated Follower of FashionThis piece from years ago always sticks out to me when I am rambling around in my past work.  I am never quite sure if I like this piece which is an odd thing for me.  I usually have one overriding opinion on most of my work with little ambivalence.  But this one always gnaws at me and I stll find myself wondering why. 

I showed this on this blog back in 2009 but I thought it was worth showing again today along with its inspiration, a Kinks song describing the 60’s era London fashionistas.

Here it is:

This is called Dedicated Follower of Fashion, based on the song of the same name from the mind of Ray Davies and the Kinks.

I call this one of the Exiles pieces but I’m not really sure if it truly fits. It was done at the same time back in 1995 or ’96 and performed in the same manner but lacks the emotional depth of the others. In fact, it’s defining feature is its lack of emotional content.

I think that this blankness may have been the factor that led me to shape this piece into its final form. The elements of the face were the first part completed and basically dictate, in the way I work, where the painting goes. For instance, he could have been place on a vast and deep plain that sweeps to the distance behind him but that didn’t fit for me.

There was something in his oddly colored features that reminded me of the vanity and obsequiousness of many fashionistas. And that’s where the Kinks come in.

So, maybe he doesn’t quite fit in with the other Exiles but maybe that in itself makes him an exile of sorts.

Anyway, here are the Kinks doing the song…

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