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Posts Tagged ‘Music’

Bring It On Home To Me

Posted in Music, Painting, Video, tagged , , , , , , on July 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Back to the Land smWell, the opening for my Home+Land show at the West End Gallery was Friday evening and went very well– just a perfectly wonderful night with plenty of people and lots of conversation.  It was a pretty large crowd, especially for a summer opening, but it still was one that met my criteria for a good show:  most of the attention was focused on the work on the wall.

I have been to plenty of crowded openings where the work is sometimes an afterthought and all the people there are facing inward in private conversations.  For me, a good show is one that is outward focused, one where the eyes oriented to the wall.  And even though there  was a good number of people, it seemed to me that most were there for the work.

And that really satisfies me in some deep way and for that I would like to thank all of you who took time from your summer schedule to spend a little time to take a look at the work.  I could not be more appreciative.  And thanks to Linda and Jesse once again for hanging the show in a way that seems to bring it all together in the gallery. Again, I could not be more appreciative.

That said, it’s time for a Sunday morning music and this week I felt like something older and mellow and, for me, the voice of the late and great Sam Cooke can often fill that bill.  This is a song he wrote that has been covered by many artists but his version always seems the real thing for me.  It’s from 1962 and has very recognizable backing vocals from Lou Rawls. Here’s Bring It on Home to Me.

PS: The painting at the top is from the show and is 12″ by 24″ canvas piece titled Back to the Land.

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It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers Seeker of Light smThis is another new painting from the Home+Land show that opens this coming Friday at the West End Gallery.  It’s  16″ by 20″ on panel and is titled Seeker of Light.  It’s a painting that drew my attention on a daily basis in the days before it left the studio, the blue tones in it satisfying a personal desire for that color that often comes over me.

There’s something in that blue that, for me, creates a sort of color intoxication.  At the end of a day when I have been working up close, only inches away, I find myself smitten with the color, wanting to just keep painting endlessly with that color.  I’ve talked with people in the past about this, trying to describe how I actually have to consciously pull myself away from the color or it would engulf my entire body of work.  It’s pull for me is that strong.

And even though the whitish light of the moon seems to be the center of attraction here, I think it is pull from the blues that is the strength of this piece.  At first glance, it’s a scene that should feel wintry and cool but the blue tones here have a deceptive warmth, supported by the underlying reds and violets, that belies the natural coolness of the color.  It gives it a welcoming feel, inviting you in to follow the lines running in toward the light.

There’s so much more I could say about this painting but I won’t as it no doubt says it best for itself in the eyes of the viewer.

But that does lead us to this week’s Sunday morning music which has a reference to that color blue.  This song is from Van Morrison when he was starting his career with the Irish band, Them, back in the musical British Invasion of the mid-60’s.  Though they had a short life as a band, only about two years, Them produced some of the most enduring music from that era including the classic Gloria and  Here Comes the Night along with this cover of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue written by Bob Dylan.  This song, with its haunting lead in,  certainly doesn’t feel its age, almost 50 years old, to me.

Give a listen and have great Sunday.

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Beginning to See the Light

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on July 6, 2015| 3 Comments »

Beginning to See the Light smHere’s another new painting that is part of my upcoming show, Home+Land,at the West End Gallery, opening July 17.  This 12″ by 12″ canvas is titled Beginning to See the Light, which sort of continues a theme from yesterday’s post as the title is also the title of a Velvet Underground song.

While I was working on yesterday’s post and listening to some music from the Velvets, I kept looking at this piece and when this song came on it just seemed right as a title for it in the moment.  It’s not that the lyrics necessarily jibed well but just the idea of that moment of realization that the title possesses seemed right because this is what I see in this piece– arriving at a moment of understanding.  The world seems calm and right but vivid in that moment.

Here’s the song that gave me the title.  It’s coupled with some absurdist/avant garde imagery from a 1968 Soviet film, The Color of Pomegranates.  I don’t know how relevant this is to the song but it’s kind of interesting?

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Some Kinda Love

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on July 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-Heartshare smSunday morning on a holiday weekend but no holiday here in the studio yet.  No, not for another week or so as I get ready for my Home+Land show that opens in just under two weeks, on July 17 at the West End Gallery.  It’s been crazy busy the last couple of weeks but I am seeing the results coming clearer now and I think it has a real pop to it, one that has me getting excited to see the work hanging in the gallery.

There’s just something about seeing the work spaced on the gallery wall and not propped up in various positions around the studio that makes me see it as something apart from myself, something in and of itself.  It’s a bittersweet but exciting moment for me when I see a painting that has taken on personal meaning for me in the studio, like the one shown above, Heartshare, on the wall of the gallery.

It really lays claim to its own identity at that point and my time with it is close to an end.  It has become what it is and takes on the characteristics of the viewer, perhaps symbolizing things that I never saw or imagined in it myself.  That’s the mystery and beauty of this thing called art– sometimes one thing takes on many different meanings for different people.  There are no absolutes.

Well, it is Sunday morning and time for a little music so I thought I’d carry through on the theme of the painting at the top.  Here’s a song  called Some Kinda Love from the Velvet Underground.  Formed by Lou Reed and John Cale, the Velvets were one of the most influential bands of the mid-60’s.  A good rhythm to start your Sunday.  Have a great day.

FYI: The painting at the top, Heartshare, is 16″ by 20″ on canvas and is part of a series of paintings I’ve done over the last several years based on the myth of Baucis and Philemon.

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4th of July, Asbury Park

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , , , , on July 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Madam Marie Asbury ParkI am coming into the last week of preparing my solo show, Heart+Land, which opens July 17 at the West End Gallery.  It’s at this point every year, after the second show in a matter of a couple of months, that I begin to feel a bit worn down.  I really see it in trying to write the blog.  A lot of mornings I find myself sitting here just staring at the screen and feel that my mind is blank as well, as though the wheels in my mind feel like they will never turn again.  I am preoccupied with with those pieces that still need work and other tasks that are waiting for me just out of my sight.  Out of sight but not out of mind.

So, I thought I would start the holiday a day early with a little music and one of my favorite Springsteen songs.  Some know it as Sandy from the name of the girl to which Bruce’s character is singing but it’s actually titled 4th of July, Asbury Park from his 1973 (yes, it was that long ago) album The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.  It’s a song that immortalized the Jersey boardwalk culture of that time, like the fortune teller Madam Marie whose real life shop is shown above, with its bittersweet lamentation about lost love and outgrowing the lures of youth’s easy pleasures.

So, I am giving it a listen then heading back to those tasks that are beginning to tap their toes with impatience.  Have a great 4th of July.

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I Loves You Porgy

Posted in Current Events, Music, Opinion, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Cabbage Row- Catfish Row Charleston SCFirst things first, a happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there, including my own living down in Florida.  I was going to say more about him today and some recent cognition troubles he’s been experiencing but I think I will keep it simple and just send out my wishes for a Happy Father’s Day.

Being Sunday, it’s time for some Sunday Morning Music.  I was going to play something with a father-y theme but this week’s tragic event down in Charleston has been on my mind.

In the late 1980’s, my parents lived  for a couple years on one of the sea islands outside of Charleston so we were able to visit a few times.  It was hard not to embrace the place with all its charms, its people and history always on display.  I’ve had a soft spot for that area ever since and when the Principle Gallery opened a new location there two years ago I was thrilled in that it might give me an excuse to visit that place once more.

So when a hate-filled , weak-minded coward given  power through a gun takes the lives of nine innocent people in that city, I am filled a multitude of emotions.  Sadness for the families and friends of those victims, for the city itself and for this nation that seems to accept this type of tragedy more and more as the norm.  Anger at the killer and at ridiculous hatred he possesses.  Anger at the societal mindset that incubates or tolerates this hatred, especially in a state where the Confederate flag brazenly flies about the state capital.  Anger at those people who believe that this is somehow “their”country and that it is their duty to somehow take it back.  Anger at politicians who give lip service but little else in the aftermath, only looking to put the event in a perspective that suits their own agenda.

How many more times will we tolerate this?  Many, many more I am sure because there is no easy answer here, no magic pill that wipes away racism, especially in a society where the constant thinly-veiled racism shown  in the contempt and disrespect for our president is accepted as the normal.  We can’t continue the way we have int he past, simply accepting this as the everyday event it is quickly becoming.  We must not tolerate intolerance. We must choose to change.

But Charleston will survive, will get past this time as it has so many other dark days.  This morning I am playing a song that has a foot in those earlier days of Charleston.  It’s a song from George and Ira Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess based on the Dubose Heyward novel, Porgy, set in the the real Cabbage Row area of Charleston.  This became Catfish Row in the story so that it could be relocated to the seafront.  The photo above with the Catfish Row sign is the actual site of Cabbage Row where families of freed slaves lived in the late 1800’s and ealry 1900’s, selling cabbage from the windowsills.

The song is I Loves You, Porgy from the late and oh so great Nina Simone.  She was one of the greatest and most distinct interpreters of song ever.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing anything that didn’t become hers once it was sang.  This song is a tour de force among many version of it from a wide range of singers. Enjoy and have a great Sunday and a great Father’s Day.

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Time Flows

Posted in Music, Painting, Video, tagged , , , on June 15, 2015| 4 Comments »

GC Myers Time Flows 2007Just a while ago I had been thinking about this painting, about 18″ by 26″ on paper, from back in 2007.  It’s called Time Flows and it’s a bit of an anomaly for me, with all the stonework and waterfall.  A one time only thing that pops back into my thoughts now and again.

But it is its texture rather than the subject that always sticks out for me– thickly layered and very rough with deep pits that go all the way to the paper below.  It was coarser in many ways than my normal surface but it worked perfectly for this particular piece.  The pits captured pigment in an interesting way, more interesting than if I had tried to paint it with a brush.

It came back to mind this morning in the aftermath of last night’s flooding that took place just a few miles north of the studio.  Small streams and falls turned into raging cascades, washing out and covering many roads.  Thankfully, no injuries.

Seeing the videos of the local water in motion made me think of it connected to a song from Jimi Hendrix titled May This Be Love.  I always  think of the song  as being titled Waterfalls.  Like the painting, it is definitely more placid than the swollen streams from last night.

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The Shining

Posted in Music, Photography, Video, tagged , , , , , on June 14, 2015| 1 Comment »

Lost World Photo by Mikko LagerstedtThe other day I came across this luminous photo from Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt.  Titled Lost World, it shows a sailing ship partially sunk in shallow water beneath a densely star-filled sky.  All of the elements of the image– the color, the composition, the reflection on the water and the glow of the sky– give this photo a mysterious and intriguing vibe.  Just a great photo.

Mikko Lagerstedt is a self-taught photographer who specializes in what he terms atmospheric photography with an emphasis on simplistic landscapes and  night scenes.  They have a brilliance in them that plays well off the sparseness of the landscape and the immensity of his skies.  For more images and info, go to his site by clicking here.

I thought I would find a piece of music to go along with it for this week’s Sunday music and one of the first things I stumbled across had the feel that I was looking for.  It’s The Shining by Badly Drawn Boy from back in 2000.  It’s a song that pops up on my playlist every so often and always pulls me in with its opening moments that feature a mix of cello and french horn.

Enjoy.  Hope your Sunday goes swimmingly.  Not exactly sure what that means but I’m sticking with it.

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À La Mer

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 31, 2015| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- À La Mer smIt was a good trip down to Alexandria yesterday.  I was there to deliver the the work for my show, Native Voice, which opens this coming Friday, June 5, at the Principle Gallery there on historic King Street.

It’s always a good feeling to get the work safely into the gallery for any show.  There’s a sense of relief  in this step in the process of letting the work move on to their new lives but there is also a bit of excitement in seeing the work in the gallery environment, to have the staff get their first look and to see how the work itself looks within the space.

For the entire time I have shown with the Principle Gallery, in my 19th year now, the walls of the main gallery space were painted in a burnt orange color, one that really highlighted and complemented the color of my work and may have even, in some small way, influenced the direction of my work’s color palette over the years. But a freshening makeover of the space this past year brought a new wall color, a slightly warm shade of white.

At my first look at it in September, I was fearing that the color would be too cool, too stark.  But seeing it again yesterday, alleviated those concerns and it seems to have gained warmth and I am excited to that the new work, mostly deeply colored with a number of larger pieces, will definitely pop on the new walls.  In fact, the wall color is not to far removed from the wall color of the Fenimore Art Museum gallery where my work hung in 2012 and I was very pleased with how that worked out.

One of those pieces is the one shown at the top, a 24″ by 24″ painting on linen that I call À La Mer which translates from the French as To the Sea.  I like the mix of motion and stillness in this piece with its sky that could almost be an extension of the sea’s movement with ripples of color running through it.  There’s just something tranquil in the way the eye moves toward the sea in this piece, a feeling that very much reminds me of the tone of the old French song La Mer (The Sea) which is better known here in the US by the wonderful version in English from Bobby Darin, Beyond the Sea.

So, of course, for this Sunday’s musical selection I have chosen a version of La Mer, this one by French Canadian singer Chantal Chamberland.  I hope you’ll enjoy it and take that feeling into the rest of your day.  Have a great Sunday!

 

 

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Clair de Lune

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Clair de Lune smI was going to take a day off from the blog.  After all, it’s the final day in the studio for the work in my solo show, Native Voice,  that will be heading down to the Principle Gallery in Alexandria tomorrow.  This is always both a day filled with stress and great relief.  There is still much to do on this day but in what seems like an instant it is suddenly done and I let out a great sigh of satisfaction in that the task has been completed, which is always easier when I feel good about the work that I am doing and that is the case with this show.

So the idea of taking the day off on this busy day was appealing.  But I wanted to really show this piece, a 24″ by 30″ canvas that I call Clair de Lune after the famous DeBussy piece.  I was searching for a title for this painting and was stuck, wanting to steer it away from references to the blue hues in it, when this song came up on the Pandora station to which I was listening.  It was a version by pianist Michael Dulin.  As the music played , I could almost see it meshing with the colors of this painting, the calming tones of the music resting easily in the blues and greens of it.

It just felt right. It fit.  So give a listen and take a look.  Maybe you’ll see what I saw.  Now it’s back to work for me– much to do before I travel tomorrow.

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