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Posts Tagged ‘Exiles’

Outlaw’s Vigil

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Motivation, tagged , , , , , on August 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Outlaw's VigilAt last weekend’s Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery I was asked if there was work that I do for myself alone and I replied that there is, that I sometimes do small pieces in moments of frustration or anger that I won’t share with the outside world.  I feel that even a person living the most transparent of lives should not share every waking thought.  And I probably share more than I should as it is.

This question led to a short description of the work from my earlier Exiles and Outlaws series, both of which I have written here a number of times in the past.  The Outlaws series probably was closer as an answer to the question posed to me that day, consisting of images that examined the darker aspects that make up the prism of our personality.  The central characters in these pieces were often armed with handguns and were definitely haunted by their past actions, existing in a state of fear.

At least, that is how I saw them.  Some others saw them as predatory stalkers who might be lurking outside their own windows.  It was an interpretation that I wasn’t initially expecting when I painted this work. But it might make sense, given the fear and sometimes paranoia that feeds our obsession with guns.

The piece above, Outlaw’s Vigil, is from that series and hangs in my studio now.  It is a prime example of the differing perceptions of the work.  Many have seen him as a potential danger, a symbol of imminent evil, while I see him as a person filled with absolute fear, always looking over his shoulder to see what is coming upon him from behind, from his past.  He is forever frozen in this instance of terror.  There is no looking ahead, no future.

Odd as it might seem, this small painting is inspirational to me.  It serves as an object lesson, an example of how I do not want to exist in this world.  I do not want to live in fear of the past or so fearful of others that I cling to a gun in my own home, peeking out my windows.  This piece lets me know that I want to live a fearless life.  It may ultimately be a fool’s mission but it makes this odd little painting priceless to me.

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Bang Your Drum / Redux

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, tagged , , , on January 15, 2015| 7 Comments »

GC Myers Exiles-Bang Your DrumThere are several upcoming projects  on the burner for this year, which I will reveal in the near future.  One of them has me going through a lot of images and writings from the past. It is sometimes painful and sometimes a pleasant surprise.  I came across this blog post from several years back  that I thought was worth sharing today while I get back to these projects. From February of 2009:

This is another piece from my early Exiles series, titled Bang Your Drum.  This is a later piece, finished in late 1996.  

Initially, I was a bit more ambivalent about this painting compared to the feeling I had for the other pieces of the Exiles series.  It exuded a different vibe.  For me, the fact that the drummer is marching signifies a move away from the pain and loss of the other Exiles pieces.  There is still solemnity but he is moving ahead to the future, away from the past.

Over the years, this piece has grown on me and I relate very strongly to the symbolism of the act of beating one’s own drum, something that is a very large part of promoting your work as an artist.  

For me and most artists, it is a very difficult aspect of the job, one that is the polar opposite to the traits that led many of us to art.  Many are introverted observers of the world, passively taking in the world as it races by as they quietly watch from a distance.  To have to suddenly be the the motor to propel your work outward is an awkward step for many, myself included.  Even this blog, which is a vehicle for informing the public about my ongoing work and remains very useful to me as a therapeutic tool for organizing  my thoughts , is often a tortuous chore, one that I sometimes agonize and fret over.  Even though my work is a public display of my personal feelings, this is different.  More obvious and out in the open.

There’s always the fear that I will expose myself to be less than my work.  The fear that people will suddenly discover the myriad weaknesses in my character that may not show in my paintings, forever altering their view of it.  The fear that I will be  revealed to be, as they say, a mile wide and an inch deep.  

But here I stand with my drumstick in hand, hoping to overcome these fears and trusting that people will look beyond my obvious flaws when they view my work.  Maybe they too have the same fears and that is the commonality they see and connect with in the work.  Whatever the case, there is something in the work that makes me believe that I must fight past these fears and move it forward, out into the world.

What that is, as I’ve said before, I just don’t know.  Can’t think about it now– I’ve got a drum to pound…

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Looking Back in the New Year

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, tagged , on January 2, 2015| 5 Comments »

exiles-blue-guitarI spent the better part of New Year’s Day in the studio going through bins and boxes filled with old papers and old work.  It’s part of a project that I will be going into more detail at a later date but it had me clawing through things that had long left my memory bank.  Some for good reason.

One bin was filled with my very earliest work from the time soon after my accident when I was making my first forays into art.   There was even a drawing made with my left hand ( I am right-handed and you can definitely see it in the drawing) from just a few days after the actual fall, one that I don’t even remember doing in any shape or form.  I hadn’t looked at this bin in many years and was surprised by much of the work.  Most of it was absolutely horrible and I found myself asking what I was seeing in it at that time that made me keep pushing forward.  It was muddy in color and rough in every way.  I could see nothing that linked this to the work that was to come.

But I must have been seeing something or at least sensing movement towards something because the work came in even greater bursts at the time.  I began to see how the work shifted with new discoveries and the color began to clear and brighten.  The lines became more confident and the forms more defined and organic.   I finally came to a point where I began to see my thought process from that time and could see that I was seeing the potential of the work but still didn’t know how to fully pull it out at that point.  I was still flailing in the dark, experimenting with colors and surfaces and materials with the hope that I would stumble on something that would let me express what I was sensing was there.

first-day-gc-myers-1994Eventually, there was a tipping point and everything came together with a singular focus.  This little piece on the right is what I consider that tipping point, the moment when I as a baby spoke my first words in my new voice.  I know it doesn’t seem like much here on the page but this painting at the time changed everything for me and it definitely shows in the work that followed.  I still get a charge of the sensation I felt when I first painted this piece whenever I look at it, knowing in that moment that my life was changing.

But the work before that moment, as I shuffled through it yesterday, left me convinced that the thing I was seeing in my mind at that point was strong enough to let push on through some pretty awful crap.  I was half tempted to put much of it in the burner and set a match to it.  But I couldn’t do it because, awful as it is, it served a great purpose for me.  I wouldn’t want to be judged on it just as I wouldn’t to be judged on my actions as child but it is part of me and led to better things.

Barely a year later I finished the piece at the top, Exile: Blue Guitar, which was part of a group of paintings that was the first series that I completed and was able to show publicly.  This was one of three pieces from that group that I sold and perhaps the piece I most regret letting go.  Looking at the other pieces from that series yesterday only made me wish to see this piece again, just to be able to closely examine it, to see how the years had changed how I might see it now.

So, this morning I sit here with stacks of old, terrible pieces around me– none of which I am willing to share with you– reminding me of a time when I was without voice and how differently I felt about everything as a result.   It made me all the more grateful for the life I now have.

And that made for a pretty good way to start the new year.

 

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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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Exiles: Quartet

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Quote, tagged , , , on October 2, 2013| 5 Comments »

Exiles--QuartetWe all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, and our ravages. But our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others.

—Albert Camus

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I have written about and showed a number of the pieces from my early Exiles series here on this blog.  It was a very important group of work for me in that it was the first real break towards forming my own voice, creating and displaying work that was emotional for myself.  It was also the work that spawned my first solo show in early 1997.

The inspiration for this work was mainly drawn from the experience of watching my mother suffer and die from lung cancer over a short five or six month period in 1995.  Her short and awful struggle was hard to witness, leaving me with a deep sense of helplessness as I could only wish that there was a way in which I could somehow alleviate her pain.  Most of the work deals with figures who are in some form of retrospection or prayer, wishing for an end to their own suffering.

But another part of this work was drawn from my own feelings of emotional exile, a feeling of estrangement in almost every situation.  I had spent the better part of my life to that point  as though I didn’t belong anywhere,  always on the outside viewing the world around me as a stranger in a strange land,  to borrow the words of that most famous biblical exile, Moses.  These figures were manifestations of that sense of inner exile that I carried with me.

Little did I know that these very figures would help me find a way out of this exile.  With their creation came a sense of confidence and trust in the power of my self-revelation.  I could now see that the path from the hinterlands of my exile was not in drawing my emotions more and more inward, allowing no one to see.  No, the path to a reunion with the world was through pouring this emotion onto the surface of paper or canvas for all to see.

This is hard to write and I am struggling with it as I sit here this morning.  I started writing this because I had been reconsidering revisiting this series, creating a new generation of Exiles.  But in pondering this idea I realized that the biggest obstacle was in the fact that I no longer felt so much a stranger in a strange land.  I no longer felt like the Exile, no longer lived every moment with these figures.  It turned out that they were guides for me, leading me back to the world to which I now feel somewhat connected, thanks to my work.

If there is to be a new series, they will most likely not be Exiles.

The piece shown here, Quartet,  is one of my favorites, a grouping of four figures.  You may not see it in these figures but the visual influence for this work were the carvings found on Mayan ruins of Mexico and Central America.  I myself see this mainly in the figure at the bottom right.

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Acoustic Blues

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on August 20, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Early Blues Study in wc and markerI love to watch the hands of guitarists or pianists when they are playing.  Maybe it’s just a desirous envy for a talent and dexterity that I will never attain or maybe it’s just the particular rhythm of the two hands working to create this sound that has a harmony and  life of its own.  I don’t really know but whenever I see films of piano or guitar players I am mesmerized.

I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan at a show in Utica, NY  back in  1986, I believe.  It was a great show although the quality of the sound was not great, poorly mixed with a lot of distortion.  From what I understand, this wasn’t uncommon for SRV shows.  I just wish we had better seats to better see his playing hands.

I came across this video on YouTube of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing acoustically for a French interview from 1982.  It’s shot in just the way I like, with the hands highlighted in a way that shows their syncopated dance.  Just wish it were longer.

PS–The image at the top is an older oddity, an experiment from the mid-90’s, painted in watercolor and a Sharpie marker.  The figure was a simplified and stylized representation of the way in which the figures from my early Exiles series were painted, composed from blocks of color.  It was never meant to be seen outside my studio but I like this for some reason …

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Days of Labor

Posted in Biographical, Opinion, tagged , , , , on September 3, 2012| 26 Comments »

It’s another Labor Day here in America.  Just another holiday for most, one that marks the end of summer and the transition into autumn.  That’s what it was to me in my younger days.  But it began as a way of honoring the contributions of the working class to our country’s growth and progress.  From the fields and factories to the shipyards and mines, labor has been the backbone that held this country up.  The idea of labor has taken on added meaning for me as I became more and more aware of the importance of it in our history as well as its relevance to my own well-being and identity.

You see, I consider myself a working man, probably before I consider myself an artist.  I learned in my early days working in a factory and toiling as a laborer in other jobs the value of  being able to put my head down and focus on the task at hand.   I learned that effort was the one variable I could control and that effort often overcame my deficiencies.  I might not be as strong or smart or as talented as the next guy but I firmly believed that I could always outwork  him.    Effort brought out the most in whatever limited attributes I might possess.  I believe that any success I have achieved as an artist can be directly tied to these lessons learned with a shovel in hand and the sweat running down.

This value of labor is often portrayed in my work, most often in the form of rows of fields.  This   piece above, from my early Exiles series, always reminds me of the tenant farmers in the Dust Bowl-era photos of Walker Evans in the famous James Agee book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.  Labor and effort was all they knew.

I could go on and on here about the value of the labor movement in America and the great debt we owe to those ancestors who fought and died for the rights and protective  regulations which we take for granted today.  Too many of us don’t realize how difficult the battle was for these rights and how quickly they could erode without continued effort and vigilance.   So, enjoy your holiday but remember what it means.

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The Creeper

Posted in Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , on August 21, 2011| 1 Comment »

I came across a song yesterday, an old surf guitar instrumental from the Ventures called The Creeper, that reminded me of this painting of mine of the same title.  I had written about this painting before here a couple of years back but had not mentioned how it was one of the paintings that I regret selling.  This was part of the Exiles series that I painted in the mid 90’s, mostly grieving figures painted with segmented features. 

 It was the first real series I had painted and was the basis for my first solo show.  I think I only sold three of those pieces and regret having taken any of them from that group of work.  I think because those pieces were so much the product of a specific emotional state at a certain time, I will not be able to capture that exact feel again.  I have periodically painted figures in that style over the years since and  while they have certain charms, they lack the impact of these earlier pieces.

These few pieces are gone but at least I have images to take a look at when their memories start to creep in, much like that fellow above.

Here’s the song that reminded me of this painting, The Creeper from the Ventures.  This piece is very reminiscent of Wipeout ( with maybe a little Peter Gunn thrown in) but is really distinguished by some super organ work  from the great Leon Russell in an early appearance in 1964.  Give a listen– it’ll rev up your Sunday.

 

 

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Exile 2011

Posted in Painting, Personal Mythology, Technique/History, tagged , on February 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I first painted one these faces back in 1995 when they became what I call my Exile series.  They were painted in very much the way I paint some of my landscapes, starting with one block of color and letting that block dictate what the next will be.  I had no reference points to work from, just letting the image grow on its own and for much of the time when I was painting these I had no idea how the face would emerge.  Often, they completely surprised me.

This 12″ square canvas was my first new Exile piece since that time and it took a while to reengage.  The originals were painted from a very emotional personal standpoint and  I am in a different emotional place now, sixteen years later.  But after I haltingly began there came a point where it began to take hold and pull out its own emotion, with which I began to empathetically identify.

Call it an existential melancholy.

I see some of these figures in that way, alienated from their past and haunted by memories.  They are, in a way, prisoners of their own experience, trapped in a moment long gone and never to be seen again.  Not all of them, but many, fall into this category.

I’ve been wanting to restart the Exiles series for some time.  To what end, I can’t say.  I don’t know if I will show these anywhere but here.  I don’t know if they would want to venture from the safe haven I offer them here. 

We’ll see.

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The Writing’s on the Wall

Posted in Early Paintings, Favorite Things, tagged on December 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is another from the Exiles series of 1995, one that is called The Writing’s on the Wall.  It’s the smallest of the Exiles series at a mere 4″ by 6″.  But, for me, the size does not diminish the potency of this piece. 

Painted at the time of my mother’s death from cancer in 1995, it’s about the resignation  that comes from seeing the life of one you love about to end.  The hope for recovery has passed and an end seems imminent, leaving you somewhat empty.  The world around you moves ahead and you are left struggling to regain the pace, not wanting to for fear that leaving the past behind will mean that you’ve left that person behind as well.  It’s a daunting moment that actually lasts for weeks and months.  Maybe years.

As I painted this piece and the face began to take shape, the intent was to have an expansive landscape in the background.  But the circumstances at the time began to make clear the inevitable was coming and the landscape closed inward, walled in.  I mostly seek ambiguity in the message for my work but here I wanted to be unequivocal with the message from this piece and opted for the graffiti that stated it clearly.  For me, this piece meant only one thing and I didn’t want it to read any other way, at least for myself.

I can’t say that this is a good painting, can’t compare it objectively with other work.  The feeling for me is to close to the bone here and makes such comparisons moot.  It is what it is and that is what I want it to be.

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