Posts Tagged ‘Quote’
A More Than Ordinary Moment
Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Quote, tagged Quote, Robert Henri on November 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Moment of Decision
Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged Cheshire Cat, Erie PA, GC Myers, KADA Gallery, Lewis Carroll, New Painting, Quote, Red Tree on October 30, 2014| 2 Comments »
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don’t know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.
–Lewis Carroll
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Maybe I should call this new painting The Cheshire Cat Tree instead of The Moment of Decision, which is the title I gave to it. There is a sort of built-in grin in the curve of the lower path, as though it is all that remains after the Cheshire Cat has disappeared and the advice he offered Alice in the quote at the top seems to fit so well with anyone coming to any fork in the road. And the Red Tree offers only, like the Cheshire Cat, enigmatic advice and guidance at best for it knows that we alone are responsible for our decisions and the path that we will ultimately follow.
For me, this painting also has an interesting interplay between the direction of the two paths, the lower one being more earthly and the other heading upward toward a light filled horizon and the heavens above. It seems to break the painting in two parts, opposing forces that co-exist in harmony. Yin and yang.
Just a thought.
The Moment of Decision is 24″ by 36″ on canvas and will be part of my show at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA opening December 5.
Many Ways to Wander
Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged Anatole France, Erie PA, GC Myers, KADA Gallery, New Painting, Quote, Red Tree on October 23, 2014| 4 Comments »
Wandering 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…
Family Lines
Posted in Influences, Personal Mythology, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged Erie PA, GC Myers, Genealogy, KADA Gallery, New Painting, Quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Red Tree 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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This 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.
Ever Reaching
Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged Albert Einstein, Erie PA, KADA Gallery, New Painting, Quote on October 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Three 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.
Winding Through
Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged Just Looking Gallery, Lawrence Durrell, New Painting, Quote, San Luis Obispo on October 10, 2014| 1 Comment »
Journeys, 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…
Change
Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Quote, Technique/History, tagged Early Work, GC Myers, Henri Bergson, Quote on October 3, 2014| 2 Comments »
To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
~Henri Bergson
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If you have read this blog for some time, you probably have noticed that I periodically like to revisit old work, especially those early pieces from when I was still in the process of finding voice. It’s an interesting period for me to look at because the changes were coming fast, sometimes on what seemed to be a daily basis, as new things were tried, some sparking new directions and some being quickly set aside.
It was a much different set of circumstances than the way I currently work. It was a period of fast and furious fireworks, little pops and crackles with every step forward where today it is quieter for periods of time followed by louder booms. I don’t know if I can explain that any better and am pretty sure it means nothing to anyone but that is the nature of this whole endeavor– trying to make sense of something inexplicable.
I was looking at some early pieces and stopped on this one at the top for a bit, looking at it closely for the first time in many years. It’s from around 1994 and was at a point where I was still trying to figure out things. It was very illustrative– I could see it being used in a kid’s book– but there were things I took from it. The treatment of the sky, for instance, presaged the way my process evolved. It’s a pleasant little piece but it is far from where I wanted to be and even back then I knew it when I finished it then set it aside. It was not an emotional carrier for me at the time and that was what I was seeking.
The piece below , Into the Valley, was from around six or seven months later, in early 1995, and shows the changes that were taking hold in my work. It is simpler in construction yet seems to say more for me, seems to have some more fundamental thought in it. 
I usually take something from these little visits back in time. The changes become more evident as the style matures then levels off, becoming a bit more subtle, less drastic but more confident. But always changing, always recreating itself as it matures.
Or so I hope…
Oh, The Places You’ll Go!: Kuwait Edition
Posted in Biographical, Painting, tagged Ambassador Douglas Silliman, Confucius, GC Myers, Kampala, Kathmandhu, Kuwait, Kuwait City, Quote on September 24, 2014| 3 Comments »
My paintings lead much more interesting lives than I do, many having made their way to every corner of this country and around the world, to all the continents save Antarctica. They have traveled from Kathmandhu to Kampala and many points in between and beyond. Well, yesterday brought the news that another painting has just began a new journey abroad. The new American Ambassador to Kuwait, Douglas Silliman, has chosen The Way of the Master , seen above, to hang in the American Embassy in Kuwait City.
This marks the third time that my work has been chosen by an Ambassador to hang in an embassy and it is always an honor. There is always a feeling of representing the United States, even if it is only in a small way, to those visitors who might come across the painting in the embassy as well as representing some form of home and comfort to the Ambassador. And in the region of the world where this painting is headed, that could serve a valuable purpose.
It’s a purpose that I think fits this painting very well. In a post I wrote about this painting back in May, I spoke of this representing the end of a journey, one that has culminated in a higher sense of being as a result of immense effort and dedication to the journey. And those are both things that will be needed to reach some sort of peaceful future for the region.
I would like to thank Ambassador Silliman for having chose this painting. It is an honor that I greatly appreciate and I hope that it serves him well in what may be the difficult days ahead. I wish him the best and hope that he does his best in this assignment in such a critical area of the world.
As I quoted from Confucius in that earlier post:
“There is one single thread binding my way together…the way of the Master consists in doing one’s best…that is all.”
New Dimension
Posted in Opinion, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged Erwin Schrodinger, gallery talk, GC Myers, Principle Gallery, Quote, Recent Painting, Vincent Van Gogh on September 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The task is…not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.
― Erwin Schrödinger
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I was looking for something to say about this new painting, New Dimension, when I came across this quote from physicist Erwin Schrodinger that deals with dimensional perception.
I have to admit to not knowing much about the quantum physics to which he refers with these words but the sentiment behind it could be describing the driving force behind this painting and much of what I attempt to do as an artist. I have maintained for some time that art is not about clever ideas or extraordinary subjects but in changing our perceptions of the ordinary, in trying to illuminate those dimensions of the world that remain unseen to us.
The example I often cite is of Van Gogh‘s painting of a vase of irises. It is an painting of an extremely ordinary subject, a vase filled with flowers, A common floral painting that has been the subject of perhaps a million or two painters over the ages. Yet seeing it, one feels that unseen animating energy of nature and the force of Van Gogh’s perceptions of it. It vibrates with energy. It is no longer a simple vase of irises but has become a conduit to a new and deeper dimension, one that delivers us closer to the essence our being. It is now the sacred ordinary.
This piece attempts to go there and does so for me. But I am too close to it to judge whether it hits it mark for others. It is as ordinary as it gets- a horizon, a sky, a sun, a field and a tree. Yet I am hoping that there is something in it that takes you beyond the mundane, something that sparks and allows your inner self to detect the essential forces at work in this simple scene. To find the extraordinary in the ordinary, to feel more connected to our essence. To find a new dimension in our selves.
This painting, New Dimension, is a 12″ by 36″ canvas and will be going with me to the Principle Gallery for my Gallery Talk there on Saturday, September 13th.
Pulse
Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged GC Myers, Layers, Oscar Wilde, Quote, West End Gallery on August 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?
–Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
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This painting, a 10″ by 20″ canvas titled Pulse, is part of the show, Layers, that is hanging at the the West End Gallery for just over another week, until August 29th. I was going to write more about this painting but reading the words of Oscar Wilde above make me think that I need not say more.
The mystery of the universe and that of the self are one and the same.
Redtree Times 