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Posts Tagged ‘Mother’s Day’

They Can’t Take That Away From Me

Posted in Biographical, Quote, tagged , , , on May 9, 2021| 1 Comment »

gc-myers-mothers-day-1994-sm (1)

Art is the child of nature in whom we trace the features of the mothers face.

― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hard to believe that 25 Mother’s Days have come and gone since my mom passed away. Seems like it was just a year or so back in time.

Longfellow was probably right about art being a product of the influence of our mothers, if I am understanding his words correctly. I know my mom played a role in me becoming an artist if only for the fact that she never discouraged me from following any particular path and always gave the encouragement she could.

I wish she had lived long enough to see that things worked out okay for me and my work. She only saw my earliest work, like the piece at the top that I gave to her on Mother’s Day in 1994 and which now hangs in my studio to remind me of her. She never saw it hanging in a gallery or museum nor would she know that I would end up making art as my livelihood.

Looking around the studio at the work assembled for my show in June, I think she would be really happy with it. I am not saying she would love the work itself. I will never really know that. But she would love the fact that I did it and I know that would be enough, that it would be a source of great pride for her.

And that makes me happy.

Maybe that’s what Longfellow was referring to with his words.

I don’t know. Just going to take some time today to remember my mom, though a day seldom goes by without some trace of her coming through to me. So glad I have those memories of her.

Like the song says: they can’t take those away from me.

For this Mother’s Day Sunday musical selection, here’s a recording of that classic George and Ira Gershwin tune done by Billie Holiday at a later stage of her career, in 1957. I like this performance a lot with Ben Webster on sax and Barney Kessel on guitar.

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Helpless

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , on May 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I wasn’t going to make Mother’s Day the subject of today’s blog but walking over to the studio in the gray,cool drizzle put me in a slightly sad and wistful mood, one that made me think of my own mother on this day. I’ve posted the bit of writing below a couple of times over the years and thought it was worth doing so again this morning.  I ran this post before with an old Eddy Arnold song that I knew Mom liked very much but today I am running it with one she most likely never heard, Helpless, from Neil Young. It’s one of my favorites and one that certainly aligns with the tone of this morning here. Have a good day.

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GC Myers- A Hard PastIt’s Mother’s Day again. You might think the image I am showing today is an odd selection for this day. It’s a small painting called A Hard Past that is from my 2008 Outlaws series. It’s one of a few pieces that I deeply regret ever letting go as it holds great personal meaning for me. I just didn’t realize it at the time.

I know that this may not seem like a flattering thing to say but every time I look at this image I see my Mom’s face. At least, a certain look she had when she was sitting by herself in silence at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea and smoking her ever-present Camel cigarettes, those unfiltered beauties that no doubt contributed to the lung cancer that took her life at age 63.

She would sit in stillness for a long period time at that table with a distant and hardened gaze on her face. I always wondered what she was thinking or where she was in that moment. But when you’re a kid you just move through the kitchen without a word or a question.

Oh, the things we leave unsaid and the questions that go unasked.

More’s the pity…

The title, A Hard Past, came from this memory of her. She had a pretty hard life- her mother died when she was three, no school beyond ninth grade, years of toiling in a factory and a long, turbulent and angry marriage to my father. It gave her a hard edge, a toughness that several people commented on after her death back in 1995.

But they also commented on her humor, generosity and willingness to help others who might need a hand– those qualities that I also saw in her. Those qualities that I so miss.

So while this painting may not seem like a flattering tribute, just seeing my Mom in this piece means so much to me, reminding me of all she was to me.

Have a pleasant Mother’s Day…

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7rQvJgTQ9U

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Days Like This

Posted in Current Events, Music, tagged , , on May 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Well, it’s Mother’s Day.  I am not going to wax sentimental here today except to say that I will think of my Mom today, just like I have nearly every day since she passed away nearly 22 years ago. I miss her in so many ways.

The painting at the top is called Days Like This and is a little 6″ by 12″ canvas that will be in my Principle Gallery show in June.  The hanging Red Chair here represents, as it often does for me, a deceased ancestor. Maybe my Mom on this day.

The title is taken from the Van Morrison song of the same name that fits right in with the day and is my selection for this week’s Sunday morning music. Instead of the warnings of bad days and lost loves ahead that The Shirelles offered in the early 60’s hit Mama Said, Morrison’s mother in his song let him know that there would be good days ahead as well.

Hope you have a good day. Be nice to your Mom and if she’s no longer around, remember some good times with her.

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You Don’t Know Me

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Music, Painting, tagged , , , , on May 8, 2016| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- A Hard PastIt’s Mother’s Day again. You might think the image I am showing today is an odd selection for this day. It’s a small painting called A Hard Past that is from my 2008 Outlaws series.  It’s one of a few pieces that I deeply regret ever letting go as it holds personal meaning for me.  I just didn’t realize this at the time.

I know that this may not seem like a flattering thing to say but every time I look at this image I see my Mom’s face.  At least,  a certain look she had when she was sitting by herself in silence at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea and smoking her ever-present Camel cigarettes, those unfiltered beauties that no doubt contributed to the lung cancer that took her life at age 63.

She would sit in stillness for a long period time at that table with a distant and hardened gaze on her face.  I always wondered what she was thinking or where she was in that moment.  But when you’re a kid you just move through the kitchen without a word or a question.

More’s the pity…

The title, A Hard Past, came from this memory of her.  She had a pretty hard life- her mother died when she was three,  no school beyond ninth grade, years of toiling in a factory and a long, turbulent and angry marriage to my father.  It gave her a hard edge, a toughness that several people commented on after her death back in 1995.  But they also commented on her humor, generosity and willingness to help others who might need a hand– those qualities that I also saw in her.  Those qualities that I so miss.

So while it may not seem like a flattering tribute, just seeing my Mom in this piece means so much to me.

For today’s music, I’m going with her favorite, Eddy Arnold, and a song that she probably felt fit her like a glove, You Don’t Know Me.  It’s a classic song that Arnold is credited with co-writing along with songwriter Cindy Walker in 1955.

Have  great Mother’s Day…

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Make the World Go Away

Posted in Biographical, Music, tagged , , on May 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Mothers Day 1994 smI thought I would take the opportunity on this Mother’s Day, to dedicate this week’s Sunday music to my late mom.  It’s hard for me to believe but later this year will mark twenty years since she passed away after a short but brutal battle with cancer. Needless to say, I miss her very much and wish she could have seen the things that came in the years after she died, such as the great-grandkids she never got to dote on.

For my parts, she never lived to see my work hanging in a gallery or museum, never got to see how it has grown over the years.  Looking at two large pieces on easels next to me at this moment, I realize that there is a whole different world of mine she never got to witness.

But I think she would be pleased to know that things worked out okay, that I found something to ease my mind and give me something of a purpose.  I would hope she would like the work I’ve done.  I know she liked the earliest pieces, the only ones she would know, like the piece at the top which was one of my earliest efforts in early 1994, long before I had experienced any kind of creative breakthrough,  It was gift to her on Mother’s Day of that year and it hangs in my studio now, always reminding me of her.

So, for this bit of Sunday music, I thought I would play one of the songs I know to be a favorite of hers.  She always loved Eddy Arnold‘s voice and I have specific memories of this song coming from our old stereo console.  The title,  Make the World Go Away, just seemed to fit Mom so well.  For that matter, looking at the alternative world that surrounds me here in the studio, I guess it fits me as well. I am my mother’s child, after all.

Have a good Mother’s Day.

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Mother Knows Best

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , , , on May 11, 2014| 5 Comments »

Save the BabyI spent this entire past week fighting a fatiguing  flu that just doesn’t want to say good-bye  yet somehow find myself at another Sunday morning, this one marking Mother’s Day for this year.  I am reminded of the old school cures my mom would administer when we kids were sick.  There was always a can of Cloverine Salve and a bottle of Save The Baby on hand.  It was a small glass bottle filled cloudy, camphor-based product that she would heat then dole out in a tablespoon along with a little sugar.  The grainy sweetness of the sugar couldn’t hide the pungent camphor taste but  acted as enough of a distraction to make it bearable.  Plus, there always seemed to be some sort of relief from the coughing afterwards.  You can’t buy this product now as camphor has been banned for internal use by the FDA but it will always have a place in my heart as a symbol for the care Mom offered when we were feeling under the weather.  Miss you, Mom.

Being Sunday morning, I usually offer some music and this week I have chosen a somewhat topical song.  It’s called Mother Knows Best and is from one of my favorite albums, Rumor and Sigh, from the great Richard Thompson.  Enjoy your Mother’s Day.

 

Cloverine Salve

 

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Mother’s Day

Posted in Influences, Music, Video, tagged , , on May 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
-Abraham Lincoln

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My Mom passed away back  in 1995.  It’s hard to believe that it has been so many years now.   A day doesn’t go by that the thought of her doesn’t enter my mind in some way.  A memory of her movement, her voice, her good and bad points– they are all set off by suddenly noticing how deeply they are all ingrained in myself.  When I am walking, I see my mother walking.  When I am angry, I see her anger.  When I am sitting alone, I see her sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and her everpresent  cigarette, wordless and still.

It’s always hard on Mother’s Day, as it probably is for most whose mothers have long passed.  For me , it is often a day filled with regrets for words, both said and unsaid, and actions.  Regrets for not speaking more words of love and appreciation.  Regrets for speaking words as a selfish child that may have unknowingly hurt her.  But, like most days, these regrets fade away and are replaced with only the memory of her– a simple yet complex woman for which I owe that I am or hope to be, as Uncle Abe said.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Here’s Sundown from Gordon Lightfoot.  Mom really  liked this song and Lightfoot’s voice in general.  She also loved  Eddy Arnold‘s voice but that will have to wait until another Mother’s Day..

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