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Posts Tagged ‘New Painting’

Many Ways to Wander

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on October 23, 2014| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Many Ways to Wander smWandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.

-Anatole France

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On Monday,  I showed  a work-in-progress at an early stage of a painting that is bound for my December show at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.  Above is the resulting painting,  a 24″ by 48″ canvas that I am calling Many Ways to Wander.

For me, the title connects with the many paths that show themselves to the eye, from the fragmented white roads going in what seem to be several directions among the rolling foothills to the observatory’s relationship with the sun and space.  There is also the Red Tree’s posture which represents a spiritual questioning of the universe.  I also see it in the depth created by the distant hills and valleys, which create a sort of visual portal, representing for me an inner wandering.

There is a lot going on in this painting, with direction, color and shape.  But despite this it remains a quiet contemplative piece, with a sun that oversees all and acknowledges our need to search with a cool and non-judgmental eye, knowing that each will find their own path to follow in their own way.  And that is as it should be.

I’m enjoying this piece in the studio over the past few days.  There always seems to be a new angle to see it from, something new to glean from the details and forms, and that seems to pull m eye to it on a regular basis.  I find myself wandering in it throughout the day and I am calmed by it.  And that is all I can ask of it…

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Family Lines

Posted in Influences, Personal Mythology, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on October 21, 2014| 5 Comments »

In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man’s skin, — seven or eight ancestors at least, — and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.
―Ralph Waldo Emerson

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GC Myers- Family Lines smThis is another newer painting that is headed to Erie for my show, Into the Common Ground,  in December at the Kada Gallery.  This 30′ by 40″ canvas is titled Family Lines with the Red Tree serving as the symbol of a family tree and the Red Chair acting as an offspring of it.  The broken segments of the winding path leading up to it represent for me the often arduous task of finding your connection to this tree while the light of the sky represents ultimate discovery and illumination.

I’ve often felt as though I had little definition of myself or my connection to the world through my ancestors.  My work as an artist has helped change this in many ways, giving me a portal for displaying who I am or  at least aspire to be in definition.  But my connection to my ancestors was always vague and hidden away beyond my knowledge.  I wondered who they were, what their stories held  and what traits they fed forward  through time to me.  I began to study my genealogy, hoping to discover some form of connection with the past that might help me better understand who I was in the present.  To discover what worlds the winding path that led to my own life traveled through.

It’s been a wonderful process that has given me greater connection with the past and with the history of this country and with those countries that gave birth to my ancestors.  Naturally, I am always drawn to the grand stories that are uncovered, the heroic and celebrated ancestors that I find myself hoping have somehow contributed some of their positive traits to my DNA.  But I am equally intrigued and touched by the simple and sometimes tragic tales that are uncovered.

I had earlier written of a great grand uncle who had lived his whole life in a county home for the infirmed. He was described in the censuses during his life as “feeble-minded” and he was unceremoniously buried  in an unmarked grave there at the county home.  I recently came across his death certificate and they listed him as a lifelong sufferer of epilepsy.  It made the story even more tragic in that this was perhaps a person who had a condition that would be treatable today.

I think of this person quite often.  His story is as much a part of that tree as those of  its more celebrated members.  It may not be the most beautiful leaf on the branch but it is there.  As Emerson says, we represent in some form a number of our ancestors and whose to say what part this ancestor plays in that piece of new music that is my life.

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Walk On By/ WIP

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, Work In Progress, tagged , , , , , on October 19, 2014| 6 Comments »

GC Myers WIP 2014 smOnce in a great while I show my works in progress here on the blog.  I ‘m never too excited about it because  in many of the stages that are shown the work still lacks that thing, that completeness, that gives it life.  But there is a point earlier in the process where it does attain a certain sense of completion.  It’s right after the initial blocking in of the painting with red oxide paint and after the the first layers of color have given the beginnings of light to the sky.  It has a mood of its own at this juncture, a direction and a sense of the life it will have.

Outside of the final moments near the completion of the moment, this is by far my favorite stage of the process.  After this, as more layers of color are added, it devolves for a while, becoming flat and dull on the surface.  It loses any brightness.  Without this early glimpse of what it might be, these later stages might be discouraging.

This early stage is one where I sometimes find myself wanting to stop, to go no further and just let it be as it is.  But I always seem to push past this and move on to the fuller version that has more color and a bit more polish.   I may show a few more stages along the way until the final version emerges.  By the way, this a 24″ by 48″ canvas.

Being Sunday morning, it’s time for a little music.  I have had an old Burt Bacharach song in my head for a few days, one from his heyday with Hal David where they churned out an amazing string of hits for Dionne Warwick in the early 60’s.  His music always has a distinctive sound and feel.  There is a coolness  and lightness in the sound of  much of his music that I can’t fully describe and Warwick’s strong but delicate phrasing fits it like a glove in these songs.  I guess that’s why it sticks in my mind so well.  Here’s Walk On By from Dionne Warwick.  A little coolness for what I hope will be a great Sunday for you.

 

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Here There Everywhere

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on October 15, 2014| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- Here There Everywhere smI’ve done several paintings through the years using textured surface that has bands or strings that twist and turn throughout.  It’s an extreme texture, more pronounced on than my typical surfaces, and, as a result, takes center stage in these pieces.  They become the driving force in the painting.

These bands that run through these paintings always spur something in me, some sense of wonder at the great unknowns of our world and universe.  The new painting shown here, Here There Everywhere, certainly does this for me.  Looking at it, I am filled with questions about the world or worlds that lie just past our perceptions.  Are there other dimensions, other pasts and futures swirling around us at any moment?  And if so, are we connected in some way to this web of chaotic energy or are we merely physical beings, unwitting bystanders in the great dance of the universe?

In this painting, the Red Tree serves as the questioner, living in the moment but recognizing the forces that permeate everything and give that moment a discernible depth and meaning beyond the simple beauty it can physically observe.  I know that I have had that feeling.  I might be out driving and see a certain curve of a field, a bend of a tree or the filtering light from the sun and suddenly feel an intense emotional response that seems to have no basis of origin in my past , one so strong that I find myself asking why and where it came from.

Perhaps this indefinable emotional is a brush with these other worlds, these energy forces?

I certainly don’t know.  Part of me wishes it to be so but part of me simply wants to savor that moment and emotion without questioning it.  Something to ponder on a gray autumn morning.

This painting, Here There Everywhere, is a 24″ by 30″ canvas and is part of my show, Into the Common Ground, at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA which opens in early December.

 

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Ever Reaching

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , on October 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Ever ReachingThree Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

–Albert Einstein

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This Einstein is a pretty smart guy.

 Simplification, harmony and opportunity could be  ingredients for any recipe to success in any field but I think they apply particularly well to art.  I know that I can easily apply these three rules to my own work.

For me, its strength lies in its ability to transmit through simplification and harmony.  The forms are often simplified versions of reality, shedding details that don’t factor into what it is trying to express.

There is often an underlying texture in the work that is chaotic and discordant.  The harmonies in color and form painted over these create a tension, a feeling of wholeness in the work.  A feeling of finding a pattern in the chaos that makes it all seem sensible.

And the final rule–opportunity lying in the midst of difficulty– is perhaps the easiest to apply.  The best work always seems to rise from the greatest depths, those times when the mind has to move from its normal trench of thought.  Times when it has to find new ways to move the message ahead.   The difficulties of life are often great but there is almost always an opportunity or lesson to be found within them if only we are able to take a deep breath and see them.  These lesson always find their way into the work in some way.

Thanks for the thought, Mr. Einstein.

The painting above is called Ever Reaching, a new 16″ by 20″ canvas that is part of my upcoming show at the Kada Gallery in early December.

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Winding Through

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on October 10, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Winding Through smJourneys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think.

-Lawrence Durrell

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This new painting, Winding Through, is making its own journey, heading out to the Just Looking Gallery in San Luis Obispo, CA along with a group of other new work.  The idea of journeying, inwardly and outwardly, is very much the theme of this  36″ by 24″ canvas and the above quote from Lawrence Durrell fits well with this theme.

We can set a course for a destination and make all sorts of plans toward arriving at that endpoint.  But plans seldom account for the obstacles encountered along the way and the way in which we react to and are changed by them.  These reactions and changes mold us, create a new version of ourselves.  And despite our best intentions to remain true to the course we set earlier, we may find our new selves on a completely different path headed to a very different endpoint, sometimes much better or worse than that originally intended.

But occasionally, we wind our way through the obstacles and changes and find ourselves at a place where we had hoped to be right from the start.  We are much different than we began as a result of the journey and how we see that endpoint may be slightly different than we first imagined.  In fact, it may only seem like our original endpoint because as we adapted to the bumps of the road our endpoint adjusted as well, moving to coincide with the lessons we were learning along the way.

We become what we are to become.

This is only a quick, early morning reading of what I see here.  Off hand, I can think of hundreds, maybe thousands, of exceptions and additions to the paragraphs above.  I may not even agree with it by the end of the day.

But that, too, is part of the journey…

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Into the Common Ground

Posted in Opinion, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on September 30, 2014| 1 Comment »

Into the Common Ground/ GC MyersCommon Ground

Blood tells the story of your life
in heartbeats as you live it;
bones speak in the language
of death, and flesh thins
with age when up
through your pores rises
the stuff of your origin.

These days,
when I look in the mirror I see
my grandmother’s stern lips
speaking in parentheses at the corners
of my mouth of pain and deprivation
I have never known. I recognize
my father’s brows arching in disdain
over the objects of my vanity, my mother’s
nervous hands smoothing lines
just appearing on my skin,
like arrows pointing downward
to our common ground.

–Judith Ortiz Cofer

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The painting above, a 36″ by 36″ canvas, is titled Into the Common Ground.  It is part of my exhibit of the same name that will open in early December at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.  I think the poem above from author Judith Ortiz Cofer fits very well with the theme of this show which is about recognizing the common bonds that are between us.

It seems that our world has become more and more fractured, the distance between people growing greater even as the world itself seems to be shrinking in so many ways.  We actively seek to find difference, something that distinguishes us from others.  And while I am an advocate of the individual and individualism, it should not come at the expense of losing the ability to identify the commonality that exists in all of us.  For to look in that mirror, as Cofer does in her poem, and not see the traces of your family and the influences of others written on your face is to lose empathy.

When empathy leaves, we fail to see the sufferings of others as our own, fail to imagine that such things could ever occur to ourselves.  The pain of others becomes dull and distant, unfelt to us as selfishness and greed pushes our empathy aside.  To lose empathy is to choose to live in a savage and ugly world.

And that is not the world that I see in this painting.

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Open All Night

Posted in Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on September 7, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Moonshadows

GC Myers- Moonshadows

I am in the midst of preparing a group of work to take with me when I go to Alexandria this coming weekend for my annual Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery on Saturday.  It’s like a mini-show with some new paintings fresh from the studio including the piece shown here, Moonshadows.  It’s a smaller painting on paper, a 6″ by 9″ image, that moodily focuses on the moon and the  shadows cast from it by the Red Tree and the Traveler on the path.  It’s a simple and quiet piece, one that invites thought.

I have also narrowed down the field for the painting that will be given away in a drawing at the Gallery Talk.  There are two pieces that I am going back and forth on, both having real meaning for me.  As I pointed out before, it’s important to me to give away work that is real and alive at these events and I think either of the two pieces I am considering easily meet that requirement. I will reveal the piece in the next day or two so check back.

Being Sunday it’s time for some music and in keeping with the theme of the painting I chose an older song, Open All Night,  from Bruce Springsteen’s great 1982 acoustic album, Nebraska.  I find it hard to believe that this album is over thirty years old but when I consider how many times I have ran these lyrics through my head as I’ve been driving somewhere, I am less surprised.

Anyway, enjoy and have a great Sunday…

 

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Energized

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on July 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum. . . . it is only an inveterate habit — the habit of inferiority to our full self.

— William James

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GC Myers- EnergizedThis is Energized, an 18″ by 36″ canvas that is part of the show opening Friday at the West End Gallery.  It was finished in the last days of preparing for the show and immediately lit up the studio with its bold colors and bands of texture that spin across it.  Even though it seemed  calm and placid in demeanor, it seemed filled with energy to me, every aspect of it appearing vibrant.

It was a struggle coming to terms with this combination of calmness and energy when I was searching for a title.  But reading the words above from American philosopher/psychologist William James brought it all into focus for me.  The painting was about being energized in an inner sense, using that energy to reach one’s highest potential and to live in each moment with great vitality.

I think the sun plays a symbolic part here representing the circular and regenerative nature of energy.  We often think of energy being used up like fuel being burned but often energy begets energy.  Effort creates inspiration and opportunity that brings forth new energy, forces that we never realized were waiting in store because we had avoided pushing to live at our optimum level, had  not dared to be our full self.

So Energized seemed like a natural at least in my interpretation of this painting.  You may see it differently and that is as it should be.  Hope ypu can make it out to the West End Gallery to make your own decision.

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Stepping Up

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on July 19, 2014| 1 Comment »

GC Myers-Stepping Up smWell, the studio seems very cool and empty this morning.  The work for this year’s show, Layers, at the West End Gallery has been delivered and I am left to clank around in a lot more open space, which is like having an empty canvas or a blank sheet of paper before you, the moment filled with possibility.

There’s exhilaration in this instant but also a bit of sadness at not having those now gone paintings close at hand.  There was something comforting and inspiring in having them surround me in the studio.  Their presence reinforced my belief in the work and new ideas and concepts were always bouncing from them, begging to be taken up.  They were very much like friends, albeit mute ones.

But, as you would hope for any friend, they must at some point set out on their own and find their own place in the world.  Reach their own potential.  And hopefully they soon will.  That would be most gratifying for me.  After nearly two decades of showing my work now,  I am always surprised at how many people have told me about the relationships they maintain with my works, how they continue to find something personally meaningful for themselves even after years of having the painting in their homes.  It would be enough to have the work simply decorating their homes or offices but to have it fulfill any greater role is a great pleasure and thrill, giving meaning to the time I spend in this now empty studio.

So, with hopes those friends who have went out into the world find homes in which they can serve some purpose, I start anew.   Looking for a new friend to spend some time with me here.   Just part of the rhythm and cycle of what I do.

The piece shown here, Stepping Up, is part of the show at the West End Gallery.  It is 6″ by 26″ on paper.  The show was being hung yesterday evening so if you would like a preview, stop in this weekend.

 

 

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