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Posts Tagged ‘New Painting’

Casting Spells

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 22, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Spellbound

“Be hole, be dust, be dream, be wind/Be night, be dark, be wish, be mind,/Now slip, now slide, now move unseen,/Above, beneath, betwixt, between”

—Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

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This new painting has a feeling of magic for me, the feeling of an incantation being cast out into the dark of night.  There’s a sense of wishing in the way the Red Tree postures beneath the moon, asking whatever force that moves the moon and brings the light to cast a spell and bring about some sort of change.

Perhaps a spell is nothing more than wishes spoken aloud and defining that gnawing desire inside ourselves.  After all, once we know what we truly want we begin to shape the world subtly, and often unwittingly, so that these wishes might be fulfilled.  And sometimes, if the belief behind them is strong,  these spells become reality.  But many other times the spell is lost in the ether of time and space and they  never come to be.

Such is the nature of spells.

I am calling this piece Casting Spells.

For this Sunday Morning Music, I thought this song  would be the right accompaniment to this painting.  It’s a version of I Put a Spell On You, originally written and performed by the inimitable Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.  This version is from  another true original, the late great  Nina Simone.  Great version.

Have a great Sunday and watch out for spells–they’re floating all over the place out there.

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Unafraid

Posted in Current Events, Painting, Poetry, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on November 19, 2015| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Unafraid 2015There’s nothing I’m afraid of like scared people.

–Robert Frost,  A Hundred Collars

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I think those eight words above from the Robert Frost poem, A Hundred Collars, says it all for me at the moment.  I don’t find myself filled with the fear of ISIS or terrorists in general.  I certainly don’t fear  that someone, a small child or a widow,  who has entered themselves into a long and grueling process to come here will one day attack me.

No, I am more afraid of the panic of scared people who throw calm thought and rationality out the window.  People who allow the fear raised by others to dictate their response.  People who react in a knee-jerk manner that does nothing to alleviate their fears and sometimes does harm to themselves and others around them.  People who fear the darkness and shoot blindly into it.

Don’t get me wrong– it’s a scary moment in time.  It deserves our full attention, cautious observation and appropriate response.  But to react in a reactionary manner that alters our identity, the makeup of who we are as a people, is to fall prey to the will of the terrorists.

So, while you may have fears, be careful and be calm.  Breath.  Think.  Know the world around you and try to let those fears go for a time.

I think that last short paragraph applies to the piece at the top, a new painting, 3.5″ by 5.5″ on paper, that I am calling Unafraid.

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Riding It Out

Posted in Biographical, tagged , , on November 10, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Riding It Out 2015I was and wasn’t surprised by the reaction to my last post where I noted a recent period of being deeply down in the dumps.  Almost instantly, well wishes and advice came from many quarters and to all of those who offered kind words I extend my most heartfelt gratitude.  The reaction was very reassuring, to say the least.  But that doesn’t surprise me as those people who might read the blog or follow my work tend to be feeling, empathetic beings.

But I was a little embarrassed by the reaction.  I mentioned in the post that  I thought about deleting the whole thing and it was just for that reason– I didn’t want to appear needy, begging for validation and attention even if it came in the form of pity.  And I didn’t want to show any signs of my own vulnerability.  The stigma of having one’s insecurity labeled a weakness is a powerful silencer for many people who suffer depression.

But I decided to let it go out to the world.  After all, I have always exposed both my strengths and vulnerabilities in my work and in my words.  Emotion and response to it is the basis for my work at its core.  Vulnerability is, in fact, a strength and certainly not a weakness in that realm.

In fact, exposing that vulnerability and not worrying about masking it is the key, at least for me, to climbing out of the hole.  That allows you to move, to break the paralysis of fear and lost confidence.  And sometimes the simplest movement provide that spark.

For me, it was combination of a couple of things.  First, I began to take lessons in stained glass.  Just focusing and concentrating on mastering a new process helped block out the negative thoughts and opened up new avenues of potential.  Second, I simply set my mind on clearing the cattails from one edge of my pond.  It is  mindless labor that finds me in waist and chest deep water  where I reach as deep as I can into the murky water and try to tug the whole reed and root from the pond’s bottom.  It is a grueling task, leaving me with a sore back and hands that ache severely this morning when I try to bend my fingers.

But while I am in the water in my chest waders,  I block out everything but the task of the next group of cattails ahead of me. But it is instantly satisfying to see the progress as the reeds begin to disappear, revealing the beautiful surface of the pond that I built about seventeen years back.  Seeing it without the frame of reeds that has been blocking my view brings back the pride in its creation that I often feel when I look upon it.

I have often thought that I was as proud of the pond as any painting I have ever done.  There is something wonderful in seeing how it spawns life around it.  The fish and frogs and the herons and occasional ospreys who feed on them, the yearly invasion of tiny toads migrating from it, the deer and other animals who drink and eat at its edge, the blackbirds who build elegant nests in the cattails, the dragonflies who hover inquisitively in front of me as I stand on the bank, the turtles who splash into the water from an old half submerged log, the coyote tracks that crisscross it in its frozen months, the bats that shoot across it in the twilight feasting on the bugs who rise from it,the ring of irises around it and the water lilies in it that provide sparks of bright color– they all come together in a wondrous way.

The pond has done much for those creatures and now it once again does much for me.  How could a person not begin to feel better after a few days of quietly working in that environment?

And I do feel better with each passing day, with each new effort to move ahead.  Thank you again for your concern.  It humbles me.

PS- The painting is another new small piece that I call Riding It Out.  Fits the subject, I suppose.

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Nobody Knows

Posted in Biographical, Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on November 8, 2015| 12 Comments »

GC Myers- Nobody KnowsI’ve been in a pretty deep funk lately.  I wasn’t going to write about this at all though I am sure it seeps into the writing that I do post.  But in the name of transparency I thought I would share a few words on the subject.

I have often experienced down periods (or funks as I call them) throughout my life.  In the recent past they are less frequent and last for a relatively short period of time, mainly due to having built up some knowledge in how to pull out of them.  There is a general disinterest in most things and a dulling of emotions as well as a loss of confidence where I find myself questioning everything I think I know.  I feel tired and listless and anxious to the point that I can’t focus fully on much of anything or get anything done.  For example, writing this blog has been a tremendous chore over the past several weeks.

As I say, I can usually work my way out these within days or a week or so.  That has been the gift that my painting has presented me over the past two decades.  But this recent bout has been  a doozy with a complete collapse of confidence in everything  that I do or  have done.  I felt dead inside and paralyzed in every way, fearful to move in any direction.

This extended to  my work, that one thing with which would  normally  buoy my emotions, to the point that I couldn’t even pick up a brush.  The mere thought of it formed a giant knot in my gut, as if actually painting would provide proof of the doubts and fears that were eating at me.  I kept putting  off working on a couple of commissioned pieces or starting any other new work and worked only in fits on another project that was several months late already.

But slowly I find myself creeping out of the pit.  Small goals and small steps forward.  Yesterday I finally picked up a brush and worked on a couple of very small pieces, such as the one shown at the top.  And much to my surprise, I felt that spark once again, a positive emotion generated.  It just felt good again.

So, I see a light at the end of my tunnel.  And believe me when I say I am running toward this light.

As I said, I wasn’t going to write about this here.  In fact, I still am thinking about deleting the whole thing even now.  But I won’t.  I’ve tried to maintain transparency in how my life translates into my work and this is certainly part of my life.  It might be that bit of darkness that underscores the lightness in my work.

I don’t know but at least I feel like thinking about it once again.  And that is a good thing…

So, for this week’s Sunday morning musical break. let’s listen to one of my all time favorites, Sam Cooke, who I believe could sing any song and make it sound incredible.  I took a shortened title from this song for the piece at the top, calling it Nobody Knows.  Of, course, the song is Cooke’s upbeat version of the  old spiritual Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, which might seem a bit on the nose for today’s entry.  But it feels positive and so do I.  So, give a listen and have a great day.

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Bag of Tools

Posted in Motivation, Neat Stuff, Painting, Poetry, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on October 20, 2015| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Blocked 2015 smIsn’t it strange how princes and kings,
and clowns that caper in sawdust rings,
and common people, like you and me,
are builders for eternity?

Each is given a list of rules;
a shapeless mass; a bag of tools.
And each must fashion, ere life is flown,
A stumbling block, or a Stepping-Stone.

–R. L. Sharpe

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I came across the short poem, Bag of Tools, above recently and it caught my eye with its simple yet insightful message.  Looking deeper, into it, I found that it is often quoted and there are even videos of people reciting it, including one with Maggie Smith that was used in an ad for a large bank.

But who was the author , this R. L. Sharpe and when was it written?

There is little info on the poet and I have seen the poem dated 1890 as well as 1809, although I felt the earlier date was just a misinterpretation of the 1890. date.  So after a bit of digging, I came across  one little blurb on a forum that stated about the poet:

He was born in the 1870s and died in the 1950s.
For years he worked with his father, Edwin R. Sharpe,
who owned The Carrollton Free Press and a printing shop in Carrollton, Georgia.
In his later years he traveled a lot, mostly freelancing for magazines
of the ’20s and ’30s.

I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the info although I have seen a number of references from books of the early 20th century with attributions from an R’L. Sharpe in Carrolton , GA.  I wonder if he ever realized the possibility that his words would one day become so widespread?  He obviously fashioned a stepping-stone.

The painting at the top is a new piece, 8″ by 8″ on paper, that I call Blocked.  It seems to fit…

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October Sky

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on October 3, 2015| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- October SkyThis is a new painting that I have been working on recently.  It’s a 24″ by 24″ canvas that has a working title of October Sky.  It has nothing to do with the movie of that title — the one about how Homer Hickam, the son of a West Virginia coal miner. overcame long odds to become a rocket scientist.  I’m not fully sure of the reason for the title except that during the time I was painting  this the sky was gray and rainy.  The title just seemed to emotionally fall to this piece but that might change as I live with it.

And it’s a piece that I like living with right now.

It’s darker tones and clashing, interweaving lines satisfy something in me at this time.  There’s part of me that feels that I need to bring more light into it but  I find myself wondering if that is just a remnant of my past experience with my dark work from the aftermath of 9/11  that was not as well received as my lighter and more brightly colored work of that time.  It was my first experience working on a dark base and it took time for me to develop the style I use now where I create more color and light on the surface, far more than was on those earlier pieces.

So I have become accustomed to working past stages where the darkness is still strong in my work, sometimes when I am deeply drawn tot he darker aspects of the work.

And this is one such piece.  Looking at it now, I think it might be diminished by going too much further into the light.  But that is at just this moment and might change.  This is one of those pieces that require deliberation, time to ponder the painting’s real point of existence and feeling.  Some pieces announce themselves before the last strokes are even considered and others are more ambiguous.

And it is this ambiguity that I think gives this piece its strength.  It doesn’t announce itself as one thing.

And I like that.

I’m going to continue looking at this for a while, just taking it in for what it is in the moment.

 

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Past Present Future

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on September 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Past Present FutureI start my first experience as a teacher today with the  two day workshop being held at the Yates County Arts Center in Penn Yan.  I have to admit to being a bit nervous even though I will simply be doing what I have done nearly every day for the past two decades.  It’s just that I normally do it in the privacy of my studio– silently and without a group watching every move.  I hope all the spitting and swearing doesn’t turn the students off too much.

Of course, that’s a joke– I don’t swear that much in the studio.  But in the weeks leading up to this workshop, I have become very self conscious of my actions as I paint, trying to minimize any goofy traits that might come across when I am standing in front of the group.  I think I have the spitting under control.

During this time, as I was prepping for the workshop and finishing a group of new work to take with me for Sunday’s Gallery talk at the Principle Gallery, I noticed that so many of the techniques that I will be showing in the next couple of days still make up the basis for my new work.

Take for example the painting shown at the top, a 12″ by 12″ canvas called Past Present Future.  Outside of several layers of glazing,  it is very much painted in the same manner as much of my work from 17 or 18 years back.  The shapes evolve and layers are added, but the basic technique is very much the same.

I am excited to see how the students at this workshop adapt this technique to their own sensibilities and their own expression.  I will let you know how it goes.

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Jazz (Song One)

Posted in Influences, Music, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on September 12, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Jazz ( Song One)The artist is a man who finds that the form or shape of things externally corresponds, in some strange way, to the movements of his mental and emotional life.

—Graham Collier 

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I have been working on dream inspired patterned forms, as I’ve noted here several times recently.  I have been incorporating into the layers that make up my skies in simple landscapes where they serve to give added depth and texture.  It works really well in that context and it would be easy to just use it in that way.

But there is something about some of them that make me just push them to the forefront alone without masking them with any representational forms over them.  Something beyond narrative.  Elemental.  Like it is somehow tied to my own internal shapes and forms and patterns.

I was thinking this when I came across the quote at the top from the late jazz musician/composer Graham Collier.  It made so much sense because I think that is, in general, the attraction of art  for me– it’s an external harmony of internal elements.

I didn’t know much about Collier who died in 2011.  He was a bassist/bandleader/composer who was the first British grad of the Berklee College of Music.  He played around the world and also wrote extensively on jazz but he still wasn’t on my radar.  While I like jazz my knowledge, as it is in many things,  is pretty shallow.  So I decided that i should listen to some of Collier’s music.

The first song I heard was titled  Song One (Seven-Four) and it just clicked for me.  It was so familiar and seemed to be right in line with the piece at the top, a 12″ by 12″ painting on masonite panel.  It made me think about the connection with music, how sounds often take the form of shapes and colors in the minds of both musicians and listeners.

Again, very elemental.

So I began to think of these newer pieces as music.  It creates a context that makes sense for my mind, one that gives me a way of looking at the work without seeking representational forms.  It’s an exciting thing for me and I look forward to some newer explorations in this realm in the near future. For Graham Collier’s clarification, I am calling the piece at the top Jazz ( Song One).  Here it is :

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Quote of the Week: Candle

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on September 10, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- CandleThere are two ways of spreading light… To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.

–Edith Wharton

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This is a new piece,  8″ by 10″ on paper, that I am calling Candle.  Working on this painting, I determined that I wanted to keep the composition very simple and stark.  There was so much energy in the radiating forms that adding anything beyond the blue panel at the bottom would change the whole feel of the piece as I was seeing it.  The blue provides contrast and forms a horizon line that gives the whole image a measure of inward depth without detracting from the simplicity of the image, which I see as being essential to the strength of this painting.

Simplicity, as is often the case, translates as grace.  And grace of some form was what began to show in this piece as it unfolded.  I was reminded as I worked on this of the great (in my mind, the greatest British artist) JMW Turner‘s reputed dying words: The sun is God.  There is a spiritual element in how the sun is depicted in his work and I often feel that I am representing something more than a source of physical light and energy when I paint these sun orbs in my work.

Perhaps that something more is a presence beyond the physical.

I don’t know.  But for a moment, my uncertainty is relieved and I feel connected with the warmth and light from the presence that is the sun in this piece.

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Perpetua

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , on September 4, 2015| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Perpetua

The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.

—Franz Kafka

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I have been working on some new work that is built on layers of painted textures in the under painting.  They are often in their own way abstract pieces in themselves and I find myself contemplating the possibility of building more on these to create pure abstract paintings without any direction toward representation.  I think there will be at least several attempts in the future to at least explore the possibility, trying to see if I can satisfy my own needs within the realm of abstraction.  But for the moment, the abstract elements support, and hopefully enhance,  my own imagery.

Much like my normal gessoed surfaces, these painted underlying elements are meant to create a visual thumbprint, a distinct and individual surface that has a life force of its own and adds a measure of depth to the whole of the painting.  Some of the painted textures have been chaotic with multiple shapes and colors throughout.  Others use similar forms and colors set in a loosely patterned manner.  Whether they are random or built in a pattern, they must have some natural flow and depth within.

This new piece above is an 18″ by 18″ canvas that I call Perpetua.  It is built on a base of what I would call painted rectangular plates that seem to be descending into the background.  For me, it takes a simple image comprised of only a couple of elements and gives it added levels of depth and meaning.

When I look at this, that background has me considering things beyond the central figure of the Red Tree and its place in the moment.  It becomes a mere marker in a larger continuum, perhaps at the vanguard in its own present time but soon to be surpassed by the progress of the coming future.  Perhaps those plates represent images of past times and those things that were the cutting edges of those times, hovering in the background and supporting a new ascension.

Maybe.  Who knows?  I painted it and much of it remains a mystery to me.

And maybe that is the whole point…

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