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Posts Tagged ‘Principle Gallery’

Show Nights, Now and Then

Posted in Biographical, tagged , , , , , on June 6, 2013| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Boundless smWell, tomorrow’s the day of another show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, this one called Observers.  Opening tomorrow evening ( the opening reception begins at 6:30 PM ) and running through the first week of July, it is, as I’ve noted here a number of times, my fourteenth consecutive annual show at the gallery, dating back to 2000.  My first show was called, fittingly, Redtree  and featured the premiere of that tree that has long since populated my work.  At that point I couldn’t imagine that I’d be fortunate enough to still be having solo shows there all these years later.

But even though this show has become a part of my life and it seems as natural as breathing to be preparing for this show in the first half of every year, I still feel the same nerves as I did with that first show, a distinct mix of anxiety and fear that somehow never fails to show up in the days and hours before a show.  But it’s a fear that I expect and even relish at times, knowing that it is this fear that often spurs me on in trying to push the work in new directions.  Maybe it’s superstition but if I think that if I were too confident and without this fear the show might be a total disaster.

I can’t tell you how appreciative I am as an artist to have the inspiration that galleries like the Principle and the wonderful people  who come to these shows there provide.  Michele and her staff have always encouraged me in letting the work expand and grow through the years and the many people I have met over the years have provided me with a reassuring presence in the studio on those days when I am struggling and less than confident.  It is often like they are looking over my shoulder, wanting to see what is brewing.  I’ve said this before but I feel an obligation to really extend myself for these shows for these people.

I think  that this show meets that obligation and is a really strong group of work, one that I am proud of.  But I can’t judge it objectively.  Hopefully, others will let me know.  Hope you can make it to the show and  have a few minutes to talk.

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The painting at the top is part of this show and is titled Boundless.  It is a 20″ by 60″ canvas.

 

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The Question

Posted in Biographical, Influences, tagged , , , , on June 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- Link to the Past smThere is but one success– to be able to spend your life in your own way.

— Christopher Morley, 1922

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I was contacted a week or two back by a man who had early on given me a great opportunity as an artist, a large commission that gave me the confidence to make the leap to painting on a full-time basis.  We had not seen one another in many years but  he had seen some of the recent publicity about my work and he reached out to me, wanting to congratulate me and see how things were going in general.  For me, it was an opportunity to offer him the gratitude I felt he deserved even though it had been fifteen years since he had worked with me.  The years had clarified how large his decision to use my work meant to my career.

So we talked for a bit, me thanking him and him telling me how proud he was of my work and of his ability to have seen something in it in those early days.  It was a nice talk and , after agreeing to get together soon, he put a  final question before me that gave me pause.

“Are you successful, Gary?”  he asked.

I wasn’t sure what he meant by successful and the possibilities ran through my mind.  Was he talking about being a financial success?  A critical success, one based on notoriety?  Or was he asking if I was simply happy, satisfied by my life?  It suddenly seemed that success was such a relative term, that one person’s definition of success might not even begin to satisfy the next person’s requirements for it.

But my own?  In the flash of that moment, I tried to put this all together  and determine what success was for myself.  I thought for a split-second of success being determined by money and fame but settled quickly on my own self-satisfaction as being the determinant of what I might define as success.  I knew in that moment that there would always be those who will make more money, gain more fame and influence than me.  But I also knew that even with more of these things I would be no more  satisfied with the life I was leading–  I do what I want  and I am able to do it on my own terms.  The image came to me then of those times when I am walking through the woods between my house and my studio and I stop and look around, thinking that I am more fortunate in this way than I ever dreamed of in my early years.

I knew in that flash that this  feeling of that satisfied moment in the woods was success for me.  I told him that yes, I was successful, more than I had hoped for.

I have thought about this conversation a number of times.  I still have fears and anxieties, still aspire for more in my career.  But it’s those moments of feeling truly fortunate to do what I do, feeling that warm glow of satisfaction in my life if only for a few seconds here and there each day, that define success for me.

 I think back to a few weeks ago when I spoke with a group of high school students and I hope that I gave them  some idea that this is what success is– that if they can set their own  expectations and find satisfaction in these, they will be successful.

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The painting at the top of this page is titled Link to the Past  and is 5″ by 21″ on paper.  It is part of Observers, my annual solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery that opens Friday.

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Samadhi

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , on June 4, 2013| 3 Comments »

9913-181 Samadhi smThis new painting, a thin slice at 4″ by 24″ on paper,  is called Samadhi and is part of my show, Observers, that opens Friday at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  It was one of those pieces that I start then somehow lose its momentum during the process.  The first movements  come easily and a flow is developing and it seems as though it will soon reveal its true self.  Then suddenly it’s gone.  There is no obvious next move  and the surface gives me no hints, has no voice for the time being.   Even the marks that are made have lost all animation, seeming lifeless.  All I can do is put it aside with the hope that at some point it would call out and want to emerge fully realized.

And that is how this piece evolved.  It shined than dulled then suddenly became energized once more.  The end result seems effortless and graceful but coming to this end was a struggle to clear the mind so that it might come through.

I suppose that is where the title, Samadhi, comes in.  Samadhi is a Hindu/ Buddhist  term that represents a meditative one-mindedness, a connection with the ultimate reality of things.  A union with the divine.

Now, I am not a Buddhist or schooled in Eastern religion so I am not going into a long explanation here.  It’s a word that describes  a fragile, fleeting state of being, one that suddenly appears for those who have the ability to release the binders of self  and enter a meditative state where they are not in the moment but are the moment, bound with everything around them and beyond.

It seems so easy but  becomes impossible with too much effort, too much struggle.

And that is what I saw with this painting.  I struggled with it and it became more and more distant and alien.  But I set it aside and came back with a clear mind and no expectation.  It would be what it would be.  And what emerged reflected this attitude.

Calm.  Accepting. Ethereal and always in the present, the continuum of the past and the future connected in the moment.

Samadhi…

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The Internal Landscape

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on June 2, 2013| 2 Comments »

gc-myers-internal-landscape-2012I am really pleased to have this painting, The Internal Landscape,  as part of my show, Observers, which opens at the the Principle Gallery this coming Friday.  If you have read this blog over the last year you may recognize it as it was featured  here as it was in the process of being painted and was the centerpiece of my exhibition last year at the Fenimore Art Museum.  It is a very large painting, my largest by far to date, that measures in at 54″ high by 84″ wide on canvas and can really dominate a space.

I mean that in a good way.

I can’t recall at the moment what I have written or said about this piece in the past so I am just going to write a few lines that are my impressions of it.  Hopefully, some of these line up with those words from the past.

I think of this as a very musical painting, filled with  rhythmic lines and notes of color.  Where some of my paintings are musical  and are songs, some simple, this piece is more symphonic, comprised of multiple elements and themes running through it and coming together in  harmony.  Even the gathering of houses on the right side of the lake remind me of a chorus of voices.  The whole piece sings for me.

Of course, that may just be me.  I am a bit embarrassed in writing about my work in glowing terms but I do like this painting a lot and think it is a culmination of sorts, a milestone on this journey, one that I am really pleased to be able to hang at this show at the Principle Gallery.  I have been showing there for over 16 years  and this is my 14th consecutive annual solo show there so it means a lot to me to be able include this if only to show that the work has been evolving and growing over the years there.

It will be interesting to see it hanging in that space.  Hopefully, it will live up to my words…

 

 

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Observers

Posted in Biographical, Personal Mythology, Recent Paintings, tagged on May 28, 2013| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Observers frm smI am in the last stages of putting the finishing touches on the work for my Principle Gallery show before I deliver it later this week.  It’s always a thrill to see the work move from the raw image into its finished state, like seeing a raw gem put into a proper setting that focuses the light and color.  The piece above is a good example.  I showed it here  back in the first days of April in a fairly finished state but lacking the frame and the gold edge that surrounds each panel.  I really liked it then, liked the interaction of the elements and the way the color popped off the wood panel.

But these finishing touches have really transformed it for me.  Though it is pretty large, measuring in at about 28″ by 52″, it seems larger and demands the eye more than before.  Amazing how how little things can change the whole effect and feel.

Like the show, this piece is called Observers.  I think many many of us are observers, those people never quite in the middle of things, just off to the side as they watch the action take place.  They never have much control over and seldom set the course of anything but note how it proceeds. Some members of this group, artists and writers among them,  notice this as well, along with little details that give their accounts depth and meaning.  Things like how the light was and what the air smelled like at certain moments, the facial expressions and body language of those around them.  Things like patterns and shapes and quality of color in the environment of the moment.

Growing up, I often felt like I was watching things from a distance, never in the center of things.  Oh, I had those moments of being the center of attention.  I was the baby of our family and at times got more attention than I warranted.  But often  I felt like a third party watching things from the outside.  A lot of this came from spending a lot of time in the adult world, kind of a tagalong.

I remember spending several days one spring break when I was maybe 9 years old at my aunt’s house.  My cousin and best friend of the same age was still in school as their spring break was a week later than ours so I didn’t have him for companionship.  While he was in school I would go to work with my uncle who was a water well driller.  I just followed along for several days, not saying much and just watching his world.  I still remember vividly the coldness and thickness of the mud we slogged around in  around the drilling site.  I remember the smell of the cheese and dried blood in an old country store where we stopped to grab some lunch, a rich cheddar stench that blossomed when the proprietor pulled the heavy glass cover off the huge cheese round.  I remember the small glass of soda with the huge ice cubes that I drank at the tavern while I stood next to him at the bar, all the time reading the goofy plaques behind the bar with risque quips and jokes on them.  I can still see the lettering and words of those plaques and my uncle’s face when he asked me what I was smiling about.  I pointed out the one that had something to do with male genitalia and itching (that’s all the info I’m sharing about this although I remember it well) and he chuckled and told me not to read so much.

It wasn’t much fun for those few days but the memory is vivid and there is something there that I hold on to.  I think that is what observers do , hold onto fleeting bits of memory and detail.  And that’s a bit of what I  see in this work.

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The Bridge

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , on May 24, 2013| 5 Comments »

GC Myers- The Bridge

This is another new painting that is headed to the Principle Gallery  for my new exhibition, Observers, which opens there June 7, two weeks from today.  This piece , which I call  The Bridge, is 8″ by 18″ on paper.  The small bridge between the two masses is a variation on the island theme  that has figured prominently in my work recently.

There are probably multiple interpretations for this image.  With a single I look   I can read it in several different ways but the one that sticks with me is seeing the bridge as that connection between the two poles of our individual selves, that link that both connects and differentiates our opposing forces. The  masculine and feminine.  Our good and not so good impulses.  Maybe  even life and death.

In this way it reminds me a bit of the corpus callosum in our brains, the bridge of neural fibers that connects the two hemispheres and transmits information between them.  It allows the two sides to function as a single, efficient unit- – well, somewhat efficient on good days– and in some cases when there is a problem on either side where function is impaired allows that function to migrate to the other side .

As my not-so-efficient brain struggles to write this ( and believe me, it is a struggle) I am bombarded by other ways of seeing this piece.  I really like that it has a multitude of ways of being seen.  I am going to stop and just look at it for a few moments.  Have a great day!

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Triple Play

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Painting, Personal Mythology, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on May 22, 2013| 10 Comments »

Foundation smBack in early April I showed a painting , Geometry of the Heart, on this blog.  It was an overhead scene of a baseball diamond being crowded in by a mass of red-roofed houses, one in which I found a lot of personal meaning.  It represented the way the game embeds itself in the minds of those who love it, how it creates a connection to tradition and memories of youth.  Perhaps more than anything in my life, baseball makes me feel connected to my  country and its history.

Putting this feeling on canvas was long overdue and I was so pleased with how both the finished painting as well as the feeling I experienced as I painted that I felt that I would do a small group for the my upcoming Principle Gallery show in June.  The result was trio of three small paintings, all on paper, that show three ball fields.  The first is shown here on the left and is approximately 6″ by 12″ and  titled Foundation.  I see the diamond serving as a base or foundation for the buildings beyond the outfield fence which seem to be sprouting from it.  Maybe the thought here is that the diamond serves as a classroom for the life lessons needed to survive  in the world beyond the fence.  I’ve written before how baseball is a game that is very humbling, that the best hitters in the game fail 7 out of 10 times at bat and that the greatest pitchers ever have had many losses.  It rewards individual effort but only in a limited way in that winning is based on a total team effort, dependent on each member of the team performing their job with their best effort.

Diamond smThe next is titled simply Diamond, and is 6″ by 8″.  This is the most reminiscent of  Geometry of the Heat and has a simplicity that brings to mind the innocence of the first days of playing the game, that first foray onto a real field.  For me, it brings back memories of the Little League field in Waverly, NY and the thrill of being on that diamond.  It was a beautiful park with bleachers along both foul lines, a well manicured infield and a wooden outfield fence emblazoned with local merchants ads.  To hear your name announced on the PA was a big thrill, a rite of passage from throwing the ball safely in your own yard to performing before strangers.  Daunting, yes, but it all seemed familiar because the game was the same, the diamond the same.

Night Game smThe third piece in this group is called Night Game and is 7″ by 9″.  The thing I get fro  this piece is that feeling when the daylight is fading and kids are still playing the game, not wanting to stop even as the ball becomes more and more difficult to see, until finally they must stop.   The empty field is still ringing with possibility and potential plays.  It seems as though there are always ghosts on ballfields,  phantoms from the past throwing the ball and running the bases.  This piece brings to mind a memory from my Little League days when I was put into pitch one game.  I had lousy mechanics and was never meant to pitch but I was game.  One of the first batters I faced hit a rocket that easily cleared the left center field fence. The whoops of the other team seemed to fade into the background as I watched the ball sail in the sky.

The ump came out to give me  a new ball as the other kid victoriously rounded the bases and the cheers from the other bench became loud again in my ears.  I smiled and said, “Wow, he really crushed that one, huh?”

“He sure did.”  He gave me the ball and I went back to it for a short while until I was mercifully pulled.  You give it a try and learn what you are and what you’re not.  Lessons learned.

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Getting Out There

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2013| 3 Comments »

AACThis week I have a couple of things happening in the media concerning my work.  First, is the release of the June issue of American Art Collector magazine which has a preview of my upcoming show, Observers, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, which  opens on June 7 and runs until July 5.

I have to admit that at earlier points in my career having my work featured in such a magazine, a beautifully produced national  publication featuring some of the country’s finest galleries and representational artists , that I would have felt a huge level of anxiety. Most of the work in this magazine is at the highest level of traditional representation and very little  that looks anything like my work is normally seen in its pages.  Early in my career this idea of not being in step with the accepted norm would have had me in a tizzy.  The confidence to stand alone was just not developed enough at that point and I always felt that if my work was to be judged against other work, what it was not would count more than what it was.

But time has taught me that it is actually the other way around and I have found  real confidence in my voice.  I now see that it is that very uniqueness, what the work is rather than what it is not,  that differentiates my work.  I am now pleased, not anxious or intimidated,  that my work stands alone in its look among these extraordinarily talented artists.   The article looks great  (shown at the bottom here) and the work definitely maintains its uniqueness among a lot of beautiful work.

The June  issue should be hitting the mailboxes and  newsstands this week.

Also, this coming Sunday, May 26th at 5:30 PM,will be the first airing of my segment on WSKG’s Artist Cafe.  I wrote earlier here about them coming to my studio for filming  and it’s finally going to air.  It’s a short segment, four or five minutes in length, that will be available on YouTube within a day or two after the broadcast for those of you living outside the WSKG broadcast area who want to view it.  I will let you know here when it goes online.

AAC June 2013 Complete Spread sm

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Strands

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , on May 2, 2013| 2 Comments »

GCMyers- Strands smHere’s a new piece for my upcoming Principle Gallery show, a 6″ by 22″ painting on paper, that I call Strands.  It has a series of pools climbing upward toward another pool (or lake or sea) that has a distant horizon line while the Red Tree looks on from a hummock.  I’ve used this theme of  rising pools in the past year and find something really appealing in it, both from a design and an interpretive perspective.

I call this piece Strands because of the dual nature of the word strand, which can either be the land adjoining a body of water or a thin fiber.  The land part is obvious here but it is actually the path running upward between the pools that caught my eye.  I began to see the land here as representing the whole of the land forms on Earth and the pools as both the actual  bodies of water of the Earth as well as the genetic pools which we all sprang.  The path then became a connector between these pools, these beginnings of people.  Like a strand of DNA with the fields alongside acting as markers that designate an individual’s makeup.  The larger body at the top takes on greater significance, representing the infinity of time and space in its horizon.

Of course, as always, I must point out that this is just my own reading of this painting and even that is only conditional.  Sometimes, I look at this piece and  simply see a pleasant landscape with pleasing colors and forms.  And that is certainly good enough for me.

Maybe a cigar is sometimes just a cigar, as Freud is reported to have said.

Hey, this painting is shaped like an upright  stubby cigar.  Or is it?

 

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Destiny

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on April 24, 2013| 7 Comments »

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. 

-Joseph Campbell

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GC Myers- Destiny AwaitsImagine us all as being boats on the oceans of the world.

 Some of us drift aimlessly, of course.  That was how I first set out.  No idea where I was going or even in which direction to navigate.  At any given moment, what might be my destination could have been  right in front of me or in a totally different hemisphere thousands of miles away and I would not know.  I had no idea what to even look for as I drifted.

But  some of us set out for a known destination and fully expect to arrive at that point.  We have studied the maps and charts and set a course, making all the needed preparations and taking every precaution.  We have sought out the advice of those who have made that voyage before and have formed an image in our mind of how the whole journey will go.

 But sometimes things don’t go as we plan.  Sometimes we get blown off course by storms and lose our way.  Or we were not as prepared as we thought for the hardship of the voyage.  Or the advice we received was mistaken.  Or sometimes we arrive and find that there is no room for us to dock or that our destination just wasn’t as we had imagined before we set sail.

 Perhaps ultimately that destination was not our destiny after all and we must set off once more in search of it.  It must be out there, that place, that one spot that we feel is totally our own.

I suppose this is how I see this new painting, an 8″ by 20″ on paper that I simply call Destiny.  It’s a composition that I have visited several times in the past and one that always attracts me for the simple elegance and balance of it.  There’s a confidence and clean sharpness in the way the image comes across that makes it very palatable– it immediately announces itself to the viewer, regardless of how they personally interpret it.

This piece’s destiny is my June show, Observers, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

 

 

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