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Posts Tagged ‘New Painting’

The Calm Surface

Posted in Current Events, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 9, 2017| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Surface CalmThrough practice we can get to the point where some disturbance may occur but the negative effects on our mind remain on the surface, like the waves that may ripple on the surface of an ocean but don’t have much effect deep down. 
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

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I’m finally getting into a bit of a better work groove here in the studio and it’s proving to be a nice distraction from the crapfest taking place here in our government. During both the actual painting process and just looking at it afterwards, pieces like this new 12″ by 12″ canvas are proving to be a great tool in making an escape from the chaotic idiocy of it all.  I think that’s why I am calling this new painting The Calm Surface.

It feels very placid and calm, as though the storms that may rage far away will not shake it’s  tranquil demeanor.

And that’s what I want for myself. I want to be, as the Dalai Lama advises above, that deep ocean water where the rough waves on the surface don’t reach down to the calm depths.

But I am not there.  I don’t have that kind of depth yet and maybe I never will attain it.

But at least in works like this I have a tangible goal, a target for which I can set my bearings.

And that’s what I need right now– something to really work for.

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Truth Shines Through

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 7, 2017| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Truth Shines ThroughThe truth remains the same in every version of this world. It is a constant.

It cannot be obscured nor hidden for long.

And while we may be distracted from that which is truth, sometimes by pretty colors or words that poorly mimic the real thing, truth remains at the ready.

It needs nothing while it waits unlike the false truths that must be fed fear and selfishness in order to exist. Truth is an inextinguishable ember that is always ready to flame brightly when given the air and space in which it can breathe to life.

Yes, there is truth.  It’s out there and it’s waiting to bring light.

And to those who mishandle the truth, who try to forge it into something that falsely serves them, it will bring an all encompassing inferno that will leave them in ashes.

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If I’d thrown in some scripture, that might sound like I was auditioning to be a Baptist minister, huh?

Well, maybe the truth needs a little sermonizing because a large part of the flock these days seems to be distracted by a gold plated idol who feeds them a pablum of fear and selfishness.

And that’s what I see in this new piece, a 12″ by 6″ painting on panel,that I call Truth Shines Through.  Truth stands in here is in the guise of the Red Tree rising like a flame over and through the colors that seek to pull your eye away from it.

The Red Tree is the truth and reality of this piece and it burns brightly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Maintaining Hope

Posted in Current Events, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on January 25, 2017| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Keeping HopeTo be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

——Howard Zinn

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It’s easy in these times to let ourselves fall prey to our darker emotions.  From both sides of the political spectrum, we revert to anger and hatred, letting those emotions color our view of our every day lives.  These dark emotions begin to crowd in on our lives, preventing us from witnessing the good that exists even during troubled times.

Our better qualities should not be swayed by external forces.  True compassion and empathy is not subject to politics or prejudices.

But, as I said, it’s easy to fall prey to the darkness, to simmer in a stew of anger and fear.  God knows, I have.

But I can’t live that way. I won’t live that way.

I need the joy.  I need to smile and laugh. I need to feel quiet in my inner world. I need to feel the beauty of our humanity.

Anger takes those things from me and I will not have that.

Don’t get me wrong.  This is not a submission to the events currently taking place.  No, my anger remains.  My will to resist and fight against those things that I see as simply wrong remains as strong as ever.

I just refuse to let darkness take over my life, to change who I am– or who I aspire to be– as a person.

And that, in its own way, is a small  victory.

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The piece at the top is a new piece, a small 2″ by 6″ painting on paper called “Maintaining Hope.” It is part of the upcoming Little Gems show,  opening February 3 at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.

 

 

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Hope and Certainty

Posted in Current Events, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on January 23, 2017| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Hope and CertaintyHope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
–Vaclav Havel
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Above is a new painting, a 9″ by 12″ canvas, that I am calling Hope and Certainty.  From the moment it was complete I thought of the meaning of this piece in terms of a hopeful look forward.  It was not necessarily optimistic but was simply looking ahead to see a future, even one that was darker and more ominous than the desire contained in the hope.

And this hope was in the certainty that time would heal the open wounds that were with us in the present time.

And that made sense but still didn’t comfort me in the way such a piece or thought might have in the past.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on why this was, why I was still feeling unease and uncertain.

Then I came across the words above from Vaclav Havel, the late Czech president/writer/philosopher/dissident.  It explained this piece and it explained so well the anger of the people in this country and around the world who stand in opposition to [he-who-will-not-be-named-here].  His ascent and the way he has shown how he plans to rule thus far do not make sense, it challenges all that we know to be right and real.

His is a world of alternative facts.

And that takes away all possibility of sense. And with it goes certainty.

We live by rhythms and patterns that have been written into our DNA.  We know that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. That the dark of night will be replaced by the light of day. That the cold of winter will soon give way to the warmth of spring.  That fire is hot and ice is cold. And for the most part, we know that right is good and wrong is bad.

But in a world that challenges the reality of every word in every moment, where falsehoods and lies are expected and accepted, is there is no certainty and thus no sense.

Hope flounders without sense and certainty.  It becomes anger.

So what I am seeing in this painting is the Red Tree trying to find sense, trying to see a pattern or rhythm in the future that lays before it that has hope and certainty.

Now it makes makes sense and I can move into it more easily.

And that is a small victory.

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Hard Freedom

Posted in Painting, Quote, tagged , , , on January 18, 2017| 7 Comments »

GC Myers- Real FreedomI am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

—Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1966

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How do you define freedom?

It’s a word that’s thrown around and owned by groups of every political persuasion and we as a people like to sing out the claim that we are the land of the free.  But what is it?

Is it simply the freedom to speak our opinions or move freely?  Or is it a freedom to live in a manner that we choose?

It’s a hard and multi-faceted question.  Probably more than I should be biting off here since, to start with, I don’t know that I can even define the reality of the word.  I mean, is it even a real thing or merely an accepted illusion, something that sounds pretty good in theory but never really becomes real?

At the end of the day, I do think that any definition we give is based on our own personal preferences, our own need to rationalize our life choices and still feel pretty good after all is said and done.  We choose our freedom.

There’s a lot more to be said about this subject.  In fact, I’ve written many more paragraphs that won’t show up here today just because I couldn’t decide which direction to take my thoughts. But I wanted to at least broach the subject to talk about it in the context of the new painting at the top of this page, a 12″ by 12″ canvas that I call Hard Freedom.

In this piece, I see freedom as a hard choice, one that requires a willingness to step away from group thought and definition. It is built on hard decisions to reject anything that wants to impinge on the sovereignty of your freedom.  As a result, it can be an isolating thing, one that requires constant vigilance to insure the protection of that freedom.  In this freedom, the price that is paid is in being ultimately responsible for every decision made.

Real freedom has very few safety nets and can be a scary thing.  I am sure a lot of you seeing this island might think of it not as a place of freedom but more like a prison.

And that’s okay.  My freedom is most likely not the same as your freedom.

As I said, this subject has a lot of places to take us and maybe in the days ahead we can search these places.  For this morning, I will leave you with these scrambled half-thoughts along with the painting at the top and the words of Robert Heinlein.

And a question: What does your freedom look like?

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Become the Light

Posted in Painting, tagged , , on December 21, 2016| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Outshine the DarkThe Night is a temporary condition.  

It always departs and its darkness remains only if we refuse to open our eyes.

Open your eyes.  

Look for the Light.

And if there is no Light, Become the Light.

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A new small painting,  4″ by 4″ on paper, that I call Become the Light.

I’ll leave it at that.  Have a good day…

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The Intention

Posted in Influences, Motivation, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on December 15, 2016| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- The IntentionEvery intention sets energy into motion, whether you are conscious of it or not.

–Gary Zukav

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I am calling this new painting, a small 5″ by 7″ panel, The Intention.  It is based somewhat on the quote above from Gary Zukav although the thought behind it, that we must first identify that thing that we seek in order to find it, is one that I have believed for quite some time.

I have long thought that once we identify our true need or desire that the energy of the universe reacts to that intention and sets a course for us to that destination which satisfies our want.  We begin to move in ways, sometimes subconscious and almost imperceptible, that lead us forward to that goal.  Small decisions end up having large consequences and we creep ever closer even though we may not be fully aware of our progress.

However, that end is not always reached nor is it always attainable.  Sometimes along the way we may reset our sights, realizing that we weren’t as earnest in our desire as we first believed.  The required effort may be more than we are willing to give or the results we are getting don’t produce the satisfaction we thought they might.

Or we might simply not be equipped to complete the journey.  We may just not have the ability, talent or temperament to reach our dreamed of goals.  But in that case we normally, while discovering what we cannot do, have uncovered some things that we can.

In finding what we are not, we sometimes uncover what we truly are.  And the universe takes note anew and leads us to that.

And that all starts with that initial intention which in turn becomes purpose.

I like to think that this piece reflects this idea, that the Red Tree here is sending out its plea to the universe and it is responding by setting energies in motion.

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In a Blue Place

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Quote, tagged , , , , , , on December 13, 2016| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- In a Blue Place

You cannot get a grip on blue.

Blue is the sky, the sea, a god’s eye, a devil’s tail, a birth, a strangulation, a virgin’s cloak, a monkey’s ass. It’s a butterfly, a bird, a spicy joke, the saddest song, the brightest day.

Blue is sly, slick, it slides into the room sideways, a slippery trickster.

This is a story about the color blue, and like blue, there’s nothing true about it. Blue is beauty, not truth. ‘True blue’ is a ruse, a rhyme; it’s there, then it’s not. Blue is a deeply sneaky color.      

― Christopher Moore, Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d’Art

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He’s right, blue is a deeply tricky color.

Even looking now at the new painting above on this screen, an 8″ by 8″ panel that I call In a Blue Place, I can’t be sure that it is the same blue that I  see when I look at the actual painting.  And that change of hue can alter the reality of the painting, the feeling that comes from it.

Each person sees blue in a different way, some absorbing the overall tone of it while others latch on to the subtler tones within it.  If I say blue the blue that might spring to your mind may be so much different than the one I am trying to describe that they might be entirely different colors.

As Moore says: How do you know, when you think blue — when you say blue — that you are talking about the same blue as anyone else?

It can mean and be so many different things. And maybe this multiplicity is the basis in the lure of blue for me.

Blue is also tricky to properly capture in an image.  A painting like this particular piece is a nightmare to edit for me with all of its varying blues and tones and darknesses.  I know that the image that you’re looking at is not the same one that I am looking at beside me at this moment.

The one on the screen took me about an hour of editing to get to the point where on the screen it is only a mile away from the original.  I like it on the screen now but it is still a pale facsimile to the real thing.  There are whole hues of blue that aren’t showing in this image above and I’m not sure if I will ever be able to proplerly capture them.

I like that elusiveness, that slippery quality that comes with blue.  Yes, it is a color filled with meaning and emotion but it doesn’t want to be contained. And that is the thrill of working with it.

And that I will continue to do.

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The Stranger

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on December 9, 2016| 6 Comments »

GC Myers--The StrangerAnd I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy, and that I was happy still.

—Albert Camus, The Stranger

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It’s a time that very much feels like something out of a piece of dark literature, something torn from the pages of Camus’ The Plague or The Stranger or Kafka’s The Trial.  There is something coldly oppressive in the atmosphere. The prevailing logic and language of the world seems alien and indecipherable. The world at large is indifferent to the lessons of the past. Or facts.

The world seems plainly out of rhythm.

Yet standing beneath the moon and the stars at night I feel a strange kinship, like Camus’ character in The Stranger, with the indifference of the universe to this all. It simply stares at us without pity, anger, sympathy or any feeling at all.

It just is.

And even though we might burn this planet to the ground so that it might one day flower again, it will always be.

That is a truth we cannot change.

I think that is what is behind this new small piece, 5″ by 7″on paper,  I recently finished.  It’s one the first things I’ve done in several weeks.

I think I will call it The Stranger.

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Part of the Plan

Posted in Biographical, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on October 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

 Saturday, October 29, marks the opening date for my show, Part of the Plan, at Erie’s Kada Gallery. It starts with an opening reception— which is free and open to the public–beginning at 6 PM that I will be attending.  Below is the artist statement for this show along with the painting that shares its title with that of the show.

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GC Myers- Part of the PlanI guess most people would classify me as a landscape painter and it would be hard to dispute that statement.  After all, most of my work does use the lines and forms of the landscape as its basis.

Fields and skies.  Hills and lakes. Trees and trails.  All that surrounds us.

But for me, I have never saw my work as being about only the landscape.  It was never about capturing a singular place, never about representing an actual geographic reality.

For me the work was not about painting what is.  No, from the very beginning it was about capturing hopes and desires.  It was about providing a platform where I could freely express my innermost feelings.

But most importantly, it was about creating a world that welcomed me, that made me feel that I was somehow a piece of a larger pattern.  I don’t know if it can be called religious, spiritual, psychological or simply a matter of physics but I needed to create a world where I played a role.

A place where I was part of the plan.

The world I see in my work holds patterns and rhythms that swirl through the skies and surge through the rolls of the colorful landscape.  There are forces that are made visible that we would never see in our normal world and among it all the Red Tree stands as our representative, standing placidly with the knowledge that it belongs there as part of the plan.

This is a difficult thing to describe.  It is something that becomes more evident through viewing the work itself.  I hope you will take a moment to look a little deeper at these paintings and maybe see a glimpse of what I am describing.  Or better yet, see yourself for what you are—a part of the plan.

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