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Posts Tagged ‘Layers’

Pulse

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on August 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The final mystery is oneself.  When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself.  Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?

–Oscar Wilde, De Profundis

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GC Myers- Pulse This painting, a 10″ by 20″ canvas titled Pulse, is part of the show, Layers, that is hanging at the the West End Gallery for just over another week, until August 29th.  I was going to write more about this painting but reading the words of Oscar Wilde above make me think that I need not say more.

The mystery of the universe and that of the self are one and the same.

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Filling In the Gaps

Posted in Early Paintings, Painting, tagged , , , , on August 16, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Peaceful Tidings sm

Peaceful Tidings- GC Myers

My show, Layers, at the West End Gallery hangs for another two weeks, until August 29th.  It has been a very good show thus far with many of the paintings having found new homes, many of them in distant locales.  In fact, more than half of those sold have left the state, including two leaving yesterday for Utah. This has created a lot of gaps in the exhibit, enough so that Jesse Gardner, the assistant director there, asked if I had some larger pieces available to fill in the gaps. 

This struck me as a nice opportunity to show a few paintings that have not been seen in a while, pieces that have been biding their time with me in the studio. Included is the piece shown to the right, Peaceful Tidings, a piece measuring about 18″ by 36″ on paper.  It is a painting that inexplicably only showed in one gallery for a short time before coming to the studio.  Why I have kept it under wraps is a question that I can’t answer.  It has always seemed to be here, always drawing my attention when I am near it.  So this seems like a nice chance to let it out once more.

A few are from the group of work that I call the Dark Work, from around 2002.  Includes in this group are two pieces shown below, Night Karma and Night Vibrations, which is a larger piece, coming in at 30″ by 34″ on paper.  This series was a departure in style and tone from the much lighter and transparent work I was doing at the time and was very reflective of the tone of the time just after 9/11. Darker and with more weight, more ponderous.

But over the years as this work has become less associated with that time and people take it in with a different perspective, viewing it for what it is expressing in the now.  As a result, there are only a handful of these pieces from that time floating around, including this small group.  This work has great meaning for me and served a great purpose in my development, allowing me to better follow the inner voice that is most true to who I am as a person.  It’s good to show these pieces, even if only for a short time.

So, if you’ve already seen the show at the West End Gallery or if you have not, there is something new for you to see before it comes down in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully, you will find it interesting.

GC Myers- Night Vibrations sm

Night Vibrations- GC Myers

GC Myers- Night Karma sm

Night Karma- GC Myers

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Win This Painting Today!

Posted in Early Paintings, tagged , , , , on August 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Silent Passage

GC Myers- Silent Passage

Well, I give a Gallery Talk this afternoon, starting at 1 PM  at the West End Gallery in Corning in support of my show, Layers, which hangs there for another few weeks.  One of the attractions for this talk is a drawing that will be held among the attendees for a painting of mine. The process of deciding what that painting will be resembles a dance, going back and forth between selections.

I have been spending the last few days looking at some of the pieces that I have here in the studio, trying to find one that is right for this event.  I have given away paintings before at these talks and it has always been important to me that the pieces have some significance for me.  I don’t want to simply pick out an old piece that I now recognize as having weaknesses.  I have a few of those from many  years ago that still take up space here.  It would be easy to grab one of those and be done with the whole selection process.

But that would be like handing out discards and that doesn’t seem like the right thing to do when the whole concept  behind the drawing is to display the appreciation I have for those who have followed and supported my work through the years.  If the folks take time on a summer weekend  afternoon to come to the gallery to participate in a Gallery Talk then they deserve a piece that is real and alive, something meaningful and of value to me.

So, after going back and forth, I settled on this painting from a number of years ago.  It is titled Silent Passage and has long been a favorite of mine.  It is a real painting  with an image of  9″ wide by 29″ high on paper.  Its framed dimensions come in at 18″ by 38″, so it has presence in its size and its value.  But more important to than the size or monetary value of  this painting is the meaning of this work for myself.  It encapsulates much of what I have tried to put across for these years.

A study in quiet and movement.  Color and texture.  Light and dark.  Now and eternity.

I hope whoever takes this home this afternoon will understand the meaning it holds for me and will see it for themselves.

The Gallery Talk starts at 1 PM.  Hope you can make it there.

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Breaking It Up

Posted in Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , , on August 7, 2014| 2 Comments »

Jigsaw Planet Resolution Bay GC MyersI had a comment from someone this morning that mentioned a post from a couple of years back about a site that used my images for online jigsaws.  Coincidentally, someone had asked me at the opening of my show about the possibility of using my art on a puzzle and I had told them about this same site. I hadn’t thought of this site for the longest time.

Called Jigsaw Planet, it allows users to upload any image and create an online puzzle that they can work on their computer screen.  They are not as difficult as some of the larger normal puzzles in that the largest puzzle only has 300 pieces but it has its own challenges. Some are broken into angular shards that makes matching the shapes quite a bit more difficult.

Just for fun, I put up several pieces from the Layers show now hanging at the West End Gallery.  Click here or on the image at the top to go to the site. It’s a pleasant little diversion.  By the way, the image at the top is Resolution Bay,shown below.

GC Myers- Resolution Bay 72 sm

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Gallery Talk at the West End!

Posted in Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , on August 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Shine Your Light

GC Myers- Shine Your Light

I’ve written a number of times here about giving talks at the different galleries where my work is shown, where I speak for a bit and field questions.  It usually ends up as lively discussion,  like a conversation between friends .

And sometimes there’s a little more, a little extra as a show of my appreciation to those folks there who have supported my work over the years and those who think enough of it to spend an hour or so at the talk.

This coming Saturday, August 9th, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery in Corning.  And , yes, there is an extra to be had at this talk that starts at 1 PM and runs for about an hour or so.

There will be a drawing for  a painting from my studio along with some other surprises at this Gallery Talk so if you’re in the Corning area this Saturday, please come in to the West End Gallery on Market Street.  Maybe you’ll leave with a painting!

PS– It is not the painting shown here, Shine Your Light, which is part of my show,  Layers , now hanging at the West End.

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Hold On

Posted in Music, Opinion, Painting, Technique/History, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on July 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Observers (with frame)Sunday morning and I think I’m much more decompressed than yesterday morning after the show.  All back to normal, whatever that is.  This show has made me think on a wide variety of subjects, about purpose and meaning beyond what I see in the work as well the potential for legacy in these paintings– would they endure into the future?

A good friend stopped in the studio yesterday and we talked for a moment about the subject of legacy.  I pointed out that legacy is a big if for any artist and that I can only do what I do — where it ends up in the future is something that is far beyond my own control.  It could be in enduring collections or it could be in garage sales and dumpsters– you never know what the vagaries and tastes of the future hold.  I witness this all of the time when I go through the  records from the auction houses and see painters who were celebrated in their time who are now basically unknown.  Their work sells for a pittance, far below what one might expect from reading about their fame when alive.

As an artist, you can only hope that your work has a transcendent quality that allows it to live out of the time of its creator and be of the time in which it is viewed.  I don’t know how you do that outside of maintaining consistency in your own vision and hoping that it is one that somehow speaks to those in the future.  But there is always the question  that if your work does move ahead, does maintain life and attracts future collectors, what would your legacy work be?

I know that this a fool’s game– no one has the ability to predict that future for their own work.  You can’t be objective when you are so close to it, can’t discern your own personal feelings for it from how it reads to the outer world.  But there are pieces that I see that nag at me, that have a weight that tells me that they may be vital pieces in a potential legacy.  Pieces that I could see easily living in the future.  There are a number in the current show, including the piece above, Observers.

These pieces have an intangible quality that I wish I could more fully understand so that I could better describe it.  Or capture in a way  so that it would be in all of my work.  There is just something that seems beyond me, something that is beyond this time.

Could I be wrong?  Of course.  I have been wrong many times in the past and will no doubt be wrong in the future.  But for my work I can hope that in this instance I am correct and that they hold on.

Actually, this was all just an elaborate lead in for a little Sunday  morning music , some soul stirring from the Alabama Shakes and lead singer Brittany Howard.  It is a song titled, of course, Hold On.

Have a great Sunday!

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Saturday After

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 26, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers-Led to Gold smWell, I’m in the midst of my Saturday morning decompression after a show.  It’s a period of trying to gather all the bits and pieces of conversation, names and faces into some sort of order so that they remain in my memory in a coherent form.  It’s a struggle and I find myself fretting over the faces and names that might have slipped through the sieve of my memory.  So, I try to relive some of the previous night in my mind,  hoping to jog my memory in some way.

It was a nice turnout for the opening, actually better than expected given the events taking place in town at the same time.  Many thanks to everyone who stopped in at the West End Gallery, especially to those who made special efforts to attend.  And a special thank you to Linda and Jesse at the gallery for the hard work they put into that gallery, against all odds maintaining  a nurturing space that allows artists such as myself a place to show their work in their home area.  The work they do often goes unnoticed and unappreciated but plays a vital role in maintaining the cultural vibrancy in a region that has struggled mightily in the economic sense over the past decades.  So, from those who attended  to Lin and Jesse, I am ever appreciative of everyone who took part in last night’s opening.  Your support has carried me through a lot of rough patches through the now almost twenty years of showing my work at the West End.

I am so grateful.  Thank you…

 

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The Richness of the Moment

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on July 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
– Saint Augustine
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GC Myers- The Richness of the Moment This new painting, a 20″ by 24″ canvas,  is titled The Richness of the Moment .  It was one of the last of the paintings finished for the Layers show which opens tonight at the West End Gallery.   I saw the show hanging together for the first time yesterday and this piece hangs in a group of paintings along the back wall of the space that glows like a bank of  backlit stained glass windows.  There is a luminosity and richness to these pieces that fills that space with warmth.   This work has just the effect as I had hoped it might have when I was looking at it in the studio.
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I think this painting has a richness in it just as its title implies but it is the type of richness that Saint Augustine might have been  referring to in the passage above.  We often search wide and far for new wonders but don’t see the rich tapestry that is right before us in our own lives.  There is wonderment to be found in almost everything we see or touch– it is only its constant presence that has made it seem ordinary and unremarkable to us.  But if we pause to take in the world that within our reach at that moment with a greater awareness and appreciation, the richness becomes apparent.  Each life has the potential for wonder and each moment that may seem ordinary has an element of the sacred within it.
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This painting, at least in my eyes, embodies this thought.  It is simply composed and stated– its subject is absolutely unremarkable at first blush.  But the colors and the juxtaposition of forms and tones that make this piece take on that feeling of the wonder in the surrounding richness to which I referred.
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The Sacred Ordinary.
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I hope you can make it in to the West End Gallery at some point over the course of the next month– the exhibit hangs until August 29th– to judge this for yourself.  The opening reception begins at 4:30 and runs until 7:30 today, Friday, July 25.  I will be in attendance for the duration to answer any questions you might have about the work.  Hope to see you there!

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Blue Zone

Posted in Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on July 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Blue Zone

I wanted to take a bit of a break from writing about tomorrow’s opening of my show, Layers, at the West End Gallery.  But while I was planning to just feature a song here today I found that this painting from the show, Blue Zone, fit in with the feel of the song I had selected, What’s Going On, from the late, great Marvin Gaye.

There’s a tiny figure standing alone on the horizon outside the house under a  segmented sky with a blue sun above.  It’s a piece that has both an inviting warmth and a feeling of alienation as the figure seems overwhelmed by the strangeness of this world.  I can almost hear him saying, … tell me, what’s going on…

This song from Marvin Gaye, one of the more elegant songs of protest, is one that is old enough that it sometimes slips from memory.  But  simply hearing that saxophone come in at the beginning and Gaye’s silky smooth voice following it is an ample reminder that this is truly a great song.

Enjoy and have a great day…

 

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Archaeology: All We Leave Behind

Posted in Biographical, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , , , on July 23, 2014| 1 Comment »

Archaeology: All We Leave Behind

Archaeology: All We Leave Behind

As the title suggests, there are a few paintings from my Strata and Archaeology series in the Layers show that opens Friday at the West End Gallery.  The piece above, Archaeology: All We Leave Behind, is a 12″ by 24″ canvas is the latest and perhaps last entry in the Archaeology series.

I am considering retiring this series that started back in 2008 although I can’t say I won’t revisit it at some distant point in the future.  It has been a series of paintings that has been among my favorites, both in painting and in delving deeper into them, as well as being important to my development as an artist.  When I first started the series, it came at point when I was in need of inspiration and was questioning my future as an artist.  These paintings gave me footing, a firm base to rest on while I gathered what I needed to move on.

Looking at these pieces, I am almost always surprised when I get to inspect the underground artifacts.  So many of the items  were painted  without any forethought or afterthought so once they were done and I had moved on to the next item in the debris field, they sometimes escaped my notice of their singularity.  They just became part of a larger pattern of forms and color.  But going back and looking at the items later gives me little surprises that sometimes make me smile and sometimes scratch my head, wondering what the hell some not quite recognizable thing is or what I might have meant by its inclusion.

But all things must come to an end, which is actually the theme of this series.  And this piece, which took over a year to complete as I worked on it a bit at a time,  seems like a fitting end.  And if it does end up being the last in its line, what better place to show it than where my little journey as a painter began back in 1995, the West End Gallery.

Here’s another Archaeology piece in the show, Archaeology: Formed in the Past,  one from a few years back that has a favorite of mine from the minute it was completed:

Archaeology: Formed in the Past

Archaeology: Formed in the Past

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