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Celebratio

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Point of Contact 2016

Point of Contact — Grand Prize at Saturday’s Gallery Talk

The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos.

–Carl Sagan, Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery, beginning at 1 PM. I’ve been doing these talks at the Alexandria, VA gallery since 2003, with the only break coming during the pandemic. I enjoy these events, getting to speak with folks, answering some questions, and hopefully sharing some stories or information that is new to those in attendance.

I also have made a habit of giving away some things, including the painting chosen for this year’s event, shown at the top. This piece, Point of Contact, is one that is near and dear to me, which is why it was chosen. I’ve pointed out a number of times here that I only choose work to give away that has meaning to me.

GC Myers- Celebratio sm

Celebratio– Coming to the Principle Gallery

I’ve always believed that real giving has to hurt a bit in order to have real meaning. That’s the case with this piece for me.

I am also readying a group of new work to bring along on Saturday. Mixed in with this group are a few favorite pieces from the past decade. One, Celebratio,  10″ by 20″ on canvas, shown here on the right, is from the same time frame, 2016, as Point of Contact. It slipped under the radar at the time, getting limited exposure in the galleries. Inexplicably, it was never shown at the Principle Gallery or even shared here on this blog. but has become a favorite of mine here in the studio in recent years.

But it has become a favorite of mine here in the studio in recent years. Maybe it is the joy I see in it that inspired its title. It always lifts my spirits and that’s saying a lot, considering what has occurred in the world in the past eight years since it was created.

I like to think that it echoes the words of Carl Sagan at the top of the page, that it represents the coming to an understanding and merging of oneself with the magnificence of the Cosmos.

A reason for celebration, indeed.

Hope you can make it to the Gallery Talk on Saturday.

Here’s a song from Sly & The Family Stone that I think meshes pretty well with Celebratio. Like the painting, I was surprised to find that I have never shared this song on this site.

Better late than never, as they say…

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Comes a Wind

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 13, 2024| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Comes a Wind 2024

Comes a Wind— Now at Principle Gallery

That man’s best works should be such bungling imitations of Nature’s infinite perfection, matters not much; but that he should make himself an imitation, this is the fact which Nature moans over, and deprecates beseechingly. Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals! is the song she sings through warbling birds, and whispering pines, and roaring waves, and screeching winds.

—Lydia Maria Child, Letters from New York (1843)

Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals!

Is there any better advice than those words from Lydia Maria Child way back in 1843? She is best known for writing the famous Thanksgiving poem, Over the River and Through the Woods. But more than that, she was a forward thinker in her time– an abolitionist, women’s rights and Native American rights activist, journalist, poet and novelist whose work often took on white supremacy and male dominance, issues that plague us to this day.

She would no doubt be a forward thinker in our time. Her words certainly ring true, then and now.

I am using her words today to accompany the new painting above, Comes a Wind. It’s one of the larger pieces, 30″ by 48″ on canvas, from my Principle Gallery show that opens tomorrow night. I chose her words because I felt they somewhat described how I view my landscape work. I never have tried to imitate the reality nature, never wanting exactitude or even a representation of a single real location.

I just wanted to capture the feel and rhythm of the landscape. We live in it and with it. We are part of it, carrying that same feel and rhythm within us. At least, that’s the hope. I believe we sometimes lose that feel and rhythm that connects us to the land. We fail to see the grace and inevitability of nature. When left to its own devices, the landscape achieves an organic perfection.

It is as it should be and only as it can be.

I think this piece is a great example at my attempt to capture that feel and rhythm. It has an organic quality in the curves and lines of the landforms that calms me in much the same way that I feel looking at a panoramic landscape in reality. Like much of my work, there is an area somewhere near the center of the landscape where the landscape’s layers go down then rises up, creating what I call the saddle or easy chair (taken from an old Dylan song) of the painting. I don’t know exactly why I do that, but it feels like it acts as place for the eye to settle in and rest, like one might in a saddle. Or easy chair.

When I first finished this painting, I saw it as being about some forewarning brought on the wind. I still see that somewhat but I now also see the wind as pictured as being about letting ourselves go with the rhythms of nature, about reconnecting to our place within the greater forces.

Or as Ms. Child may have put it: Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals!

Here’s that Bob Dylan song with the easy chair reference, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere. From1967, it was part of his Basement Tapes and more famously recorded by the Byrds in 1968. This is a newer version that I like very much from Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. It’s a great tune. Worth a listen.

Comes a Wind is included in Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 which opens tomorrow, Friday, June 14, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria. The opening reception runs from 6-8:30 PM on Friday. I will be there so please stop in and check out the show. Maybe have a chat.

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Continuum/A Preview

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-- Flame Feeding Flame 2024

Flame Feeding Flame— At the Principle Gallery

I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.

-Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

A couple of days before the Principle Gallery show opens. I am, of course, filled with anxiety. It’s to the point that I find myself leery about writing anything about this show.

I know that in the greater scheme of things, this show and all I do is insignificant. But every show from any artist has great significance and meaning to that artist. The artist defines themself and what they do by how their work is received in the world. You try to act like it doesn’t matter what people think of your work or how they respond to it but that is just a mask.

You want people to like and respond to it, especially when you feel the work is among your best.

But sometimes the artist’s perception of the work and that of the viewing public don’t correspond. The artist might be responding to some personal prompts within the work that don’t mean anything to others. Maybe it is too close, too personal, to the artist. I guess that is why I worry so much when I feel that a group of work is exceptionally strong.

Maybe it is work meant for only me. I don’t think that’s the case with this show. I hope it isn’t but don’t really have a way of knowing.

I find that you don’t have to prepare to be pleased by how a show turns out, but disappointment takes some preparation. So, I spend these days before any show getting ready for that result, creating rationales that will sooth me. That way, I’m ready.

After 25 years, you would think this horrid angst would have gone away by now. But it never does. It’s a funny and maddening thing, this art gig. The best and the worst.

Here’s a slideshow preview of the work from the show. Take a look. I promise you that this is a mere echo of how it looks in person.

The painting at the top is Flame Feeding Flame, a 30″ by 40″ canvas included in the show. The show is called Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 which opens Friday, June 14, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria. The opening reception runs from 6-8:30 PM on Friday. I invite you to come to the gallery to see if I can cover up my anxiety.

The flop sweat might give me away.

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A Rising Awareness

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 10, 2018| 2 Comments »

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The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives – the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in yourself.

–Norman Cousins

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This is a new 18″ by 18″ painting that I call A Rising Awareness which is included in my show, The Rising, that is now hanging and opens Friday at the West End Gallery.

I think the words above from the late journalist Norman Cousins capture what I feel the representative Red Roof house is rising above in this painting. It is a constant battle for us humans to hold on to those things– genuine feeling,inspired response and an empathy with the pain or glory of others– as we live our lives on this planet. We sometimes become self-centered and guarded in our response to many things and emotionally distant in our dealings with others. Instead of feeling their pain or glory, we sometimes experience envy at their successes and a pang of relief that their failures are not ours.

Our humanity dulls and much joy is lost to us.

But the idea that we can recognize this dulling in ourselves and somehow fight against and rise above it intrigues me. I have come to believe that we can make conscious decisions to raise our awareness, to feel and respond in more positive ways, that we are enriched by maintaining a spirit of generosity and empathy towards others.

I like to think that the Red Roof here represents one who has taken this higher road and has made the decision to listen to its better angels. There’s a feeling of a letting go of angry and mean-spirited thoughts and an acknowledgment of a unity of sorts with the universal human spirit.

Warmth and tranquility. Maybe that is what I am seeing. You judge for yourself.

 

 

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Night Gem Rising

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , on July 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

There’s a lot I would like to write about this painting as it hits so many notes for me personally. Titled Night Gem Rising, it’s a 12″ by 36″ painting on canvas that is one of those pieces that goes past any expectations that were gathered at its beginning. It feels like so much more than anything I put into it  or the sum of my own parts.

It’s funny but it is sometimes harder to write about these pieces that hit so closely on a personal level. Maybe it’s because they get so close to the core. Too close to conceal one’s own tears, fears, desires and doubts.

So, I am just showing it with that little explanation today. It is included in my annual show at the West End Gallery,this year called The Rising. The show is now hung in the Market Street gallery for previews and the opening reception takes place this coming Friday, July 13, running from 5-7:30. Please stop in and take a look.

For this Sunday morning music I thought I’d pick a version of a favorite of mine from singer/songwriter Richard Thompson. It’s Dimming of the Day and it fits perfectly for my feelings on this painting. This is one of those songs that will no doubt go down as a modern classic if it isn’t already thought of as such, considering the long list of artists who have covered it. There are so many great versions but I still prefer Thompson’s performances of it. This is a recent live version from an NPR radio broadcast.

Enjoy and have a good Sunday.

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“The Rising” Preview

Posted in Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on July 7, 2018| 1 Comment »

Just a short video preview of some of the work from my show, The Rising, that opens this coming Friday, July 13, at the West End Gallery in Corning.

One of the paintings not included in the video is this painting on the right, Generosity’s Bounty. At 24″ by 12″ on canvas, it’s a painting that really jumped off the easel with its warmth and the depth and richness of its layered colors.

The feeling I get from it fulfills its title.
https://spark.adobe.com/video/nmupmpDR3al5f/embed

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Gems Revealed

Posted in Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , , , , on July 6, 2018| 1 Comment »

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Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.

― Albert Szent-Györgyi 

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My annual show at the West End Gallery opens a week from today, on Friday, July 13. This show is called The Rising based very much on the number of rising moons and suns along with trees that rise boldly into the sky. It also refers to a rising awareness of the worlds in which we live and our relationship with these worlds.

I use the plural worlds because I believe there are layers in this world, some physical and some extending into the realm of the metaphysical, the psychological and the spiritual. I also believe we have the ability to live in multiple layers. I can’t say that many of us do or if I do myself. Most days I feel like I am barely existing in the surface layer we all know.

But I think the gateway for discovering comes as Albert Szent-Györgi, the Hungarian biochemist who discovered Vitamin C, states in the quote at the top. We all see the same things on a daily basis but it is only when we think of those common things in other terms that we make discoveries.

That willingness to see the commonplace in another light is the basis for science, for mythology and for art. I think the art that remains vital and continues to speak through time has the ability to illuminate the extraordinary that exists in the commonplace.

I know that this is what I hope occurs in my own work. My hopes and words mean nothing because only time will tell if it was a successful effort.

The painting at the top, a new 18″ by 24″ canvas from the show that is titled Gems Revealed, is an illustration of this thought. It is a simple scene, a group of fields under a night sky lit by a rising moon. But the light brings out colors and forms in the fields as well in the sky an don the clouds that have an otherworldly quality, one that seems to be teeming with life and color and motion. The path that winds through the field takes on the quality of a snake or a stream and the clouds appear to be swimming through the ether of the night sky.

Perhaps a new layer of being is revealed in this light?

I cannot say myself. Only time will tell.

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The work for this show has been delivered and will be hung today and tomorrow so you can get a preview if you’re in the Corning area. The opening reception for the show is next Friday, July 13, from 5-7:30 PM.

 

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