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Posts Tagged ‘Quote’

Voices From Another Planet

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Quote, tagged , on February 10, 2014| 4 Comments »

de-chirico1

Sometimes the horizon is defined by a wall behind which rises the noise of a disappearing train. The whole nostalgia of the infinite is revealed to us behind the geometrical precision of the square. We experience the most unforgettable movements when certain aspects of the world, whose existence we completely ignore, suddenly confront us with the revelation of mysteries lying all the time within our reach and which we cannot see because we are too short-sighted, and cannot feel because our senses are inadequately developed.  Their dead voices speak to us from nearby, but they sound like voices from another planet.

–Giorgio de Chirico

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de chirico the disquieting muses 1916I like this quote from de Chirico.  We are surrounded by mystery wonder at every turn yet we don’t even notice.  I especially love the last line — Their dead voices speak to us from nearby, but they sound like voices from another planet.  It has such a poetic rhythm and reminds me of stepping out from my studio and looking up into the night sky to see Jupiter shining so brightly above me, so huge and visible to us yet mostly unnoticed.  Voices from another planet.

De Chirico was an interesting  case. His earlier work, from his metaphysical period like the pieces shown here, is the work that defines him. Definitely the work that influenced me and a host of other artists.  It is work with a distinct and powerful voice, wok that you immediately recognize as his alone.  But in mid-career he basically set it aside and began to paint in a more traditional manner.  It was good work but was not distinctive and set apart from other artists.  It was work that could have been painted by any number of professional painters and lacked both the individual voice and the revelation of mystery that seemed ingrained in the early work.  This later work never garnered nearly the attention that his earlier work had, much to  de Chirico’s consternation.

I can’t say that de Chirico was wrong for following his mind in changing his style.  It was his to change.  But there is a lesson here in that your individual voice is the greatest asset that any person can possess– if you dare to stand apart and pay heed to those voices from another planet.

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Kandinsky Was Here- Pt II

Posted in Influences, Quote, Technique/History, tagged , , on December 18, 2013| 4 Comments »

Wassily Kandinsky- Composition VIII 1923In the final analysis, every serious work is tranquil….Every serious work resembles in poise the quiet phrase, ” I am here.” Like or dislike for the work evaporates; but the sound of that phrase is eternal.

– Wassily Kandinsky

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The above quote is from Wassily Kandinsky and concisely captures what might be the primary motive for my work. I think, for me, it was a matter of finding that thing, that outlet that gave me voice, that allowed me to honestly feel as though I had a place in this world. That I had worth. That I had thoughts deserving to be heard. That I was, indeed, here. 

That need to validate existence is still the primary driver behind my work. It is that search for adequacy that gives my work its expression and differentiates it from others. I’ve never said this before but I think that is what many people who respond to my work see in the paintings- their own need to be heard. They see themselves as part of the work and they are saying, “I am here.” 

Hmmm….

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I wrote the above a little over five years ago in one of the early posts on this blog.  I came across it and was going to re run it alone because I still feels it sums up a lot of what I feel about  my work but I also wanted to expand just a bit more on Wassily Kandinsky, who ended up not really getting much notice in this outside of his quote.

Kandinsky, who was born in Moscow in  1866  and died in Paris in 1944, was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century,  leading the  way into abstraction in painting.  I have sometimes been ambivalent about his work- some I have found entrancing but others have done nothing for me.  But seeing it chronologically, from his earliest efforts until the years just before his death, has made me see him in a different light.  Seeing his evolution from a painter strongly influenced by his mentors  and contemporaries to an artist with a distinct voice of his own is remarkable to witness.  This was a man who was always seeking more than he was seeing, an artist who didn’t rest at a plateau.  Seeing this evolution gave me a new respect for the work of Kandinsky

To see this clearly and for yourself, I suggest you go to WassilyKandinsky.net.  His career is divided into four sections and  each has a chronological gallery of work that you can scroll down.  It’s worth a look.

Wassily Kandinsky- Couple Riding 1906 Wassily Kandinsky- Murnau. A Village Street 1908 Wassily Kandinsky -Softened Construction 1927 1925Wassily Kandinsky- In Blue 1925 1923Wassily Kandinsky - Decisive Pink 1932

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The Long Way Home

Posted in Influences, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2013| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- The Long Way Home smHome is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.

  ~Charles Dickens

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This is a newer painting that went to the Principle Gallery recently.  It’s a 12″ by 16″ painting on paper that I call The Long Way Home.  Home, as a concept,  plays a large part in my work as it is the destination for the life journey that is the basis for much of what I do.  I don’t necessarily see home as a physical place but rather that interior space where we are comfortable with who and what we are.  For me, our real journey in life is always internal.

Everything leads inward.

We often set out on treks through the external world trying to find a place, a physical location where we  feel accepted and at home.  But it never happens until we find that inner peace and acceptance in that inner realm that is always with us.  Though we may have traveled a million miles, home is always within reach if we only stop and look inward.  And I think that is what this piece is communicating.  The title reflects on the search that always leads back to that internal place we often overlook in our zeal to find that place we call home.

Home is always with us.

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Becoming

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Quote, tagged , , on November 24, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Regal One The thought manifests as the word;

The word manifests as the deed;

The deed develops into habit;

And habit hardens into character;

So watch the thought and its ways with care,

And let it spring from love

Born out of concern for all beings…

 

As the shadow follows the body,

As we think, so we become.

 —From the Dhammapada,

Sayings of the Buddha

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I’vebeen writing this blog for over five years now which I find hard to believe.  Some days I have nothing to say but still feel the need to keep this habit alive.  Sometimes I read through older blog posts to gather inspiration and in doing so, I came across this bit of wisdom from the Buddha that I featured in a 2009 post.  When I used it at that time, I was referring to people’s words and deeds of  incivility eventually hardening into character.  This was of course inspired by extremist nature of the political climate.  But today when I read it, these words didn’t strike me in a cautionary way.

Instead, it seemed like good advice for the young artist or anyone aspiring to something more.  For me it was: Think as an artist.  Act as an artist.  Eventually, the thoughts, words and actions become part of who you are– an artist.  It took many years before this habit hardened into character.  I often questioned the validity of the claim over the years but slowly these doubts faded , replaced by a belief in those words and deeds.  I had practiced the habit of being an artist for so long that I could no longer  feel that doubt.

As I said, this applies to so many things, even simply being happy.  If you think of joy, speak of joy and act with joy, eventually happiness becomes part of who you truly are– your hardened character.  It’s a simple precept, almost too simple to be taken seriously especially on those days when it is challenging to remain joyful.  But it holds true, as the Buddha instructed, for those who can maintain the way.

Have a great Sunday and be happy…

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Inner Realm

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on November 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Take refuge in silence. You can be here or there or anywhere. Fixed in silence, established in the inner ‘I’, you can be as you are. The world will never perturb you if you are well founded upon the tranquility within. Gather your thoughts within. Find out the thought centre and discover your Self-equipoise. In storm and turmoil be calm and silent. Watch the events around as a witness. The world is a drama. Be a witness, inturned and introspective.

– Ramana Maharshi

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GC Myers- Inner Realm I often speak of seeking quiet, even absolute silence. I all too often come up short in my search, usually the victim of my own fears and shortcomings which cause me to fill the void around me with sound and chaos.

Silence is pushed aside.

It is only in those times when I allow myself to be pulled completely into my work that I feel the silence slowly creeping back in, stilling the fears and doubts that seem to wail around me like sirens at times.  It is at these moments while painting that I  feel in a small way as though I am like a witness  that the great guru Ramana Maharsi advises us to be in the quote above.

I am calm and silent.  I watch and gather my inner thoughts as I feel myself melding with the colors and forms before me.  It is absolute peace as I go deeper into this inner realm.

That’s as close as I can describe in words the feeling I have when I lose myself to painting.  The painting above, Inner Realm, a 12″ by 12″ canvas, is an example of this feeling.  It is a simple and quiet but harmonious and full.  It feels outside of time, always in the present.  It is not fearful of the future or regretful of the past.  It is just as it is– quiet and placid.

All that I seek.

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Inner Realm is part of Alchemy, my solo show at the Kada Gallery, opening Saturday, November 16th, with a reception from 6-9 PM.

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The Furthest Reach

Posted in Motivation, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on October 27, 2013| 6 Comments »

GC Myers- The Furthest Reach smNone of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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This painting is called The Furthest Reach, a 20″ by 24″ canvas headed to the Kada Gallery for my November show.  This has been done for a few weeks now and has been at the edge of my sight as I have been prepping for this show.  There is something quite reassuring about having it there, serving as a reminder of the trust I have placed in that inner voice that Emerson references in the quote above.

 It has taken a number of years and many thousands of hours spent in the relative isolation of the studio to truly trust that voice, to feel as though I have separated my work from all  external noise and distraction, including the subjective criticism and opinion of others.   It has allowed me to use this  trust as the sole criteria for my work, to no longer judge it against the work or opinion of others.

With this trust the work becomes self-sovereign and, as I have written here earlier this year, the  island serves as a symbol of  this self-sovereignty while the stance of the Red Tree, a symbol of the work for me here,  represents the liberated feeling attained in the realization of this trust.  I see the dock as the gateway to outer world, meaning that while there is trust in the work spawned from this inner voice there is also a willingness to share it  with this outer world.

Again, that’s how I have come to see it in the last few weeks here in the studio.  Perhaps you will see something quite different.  Maybe you will see a confidence and  tranquility in it that meshes with your own experience or perhaps  simply a pleasant scene with a quiet warmth.  Or maybe you won’t see anything in at all.

Whatever your inner voice whispers to you, place some trust in it…

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Encouragement/Redux

Posted in Biographical, Quote, tagged , , on October 25, 2013| 2 Comments »

The Find- smKnowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.

— George Santayana

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I was going through the blog archives and came across this blogpost from back in 2009 headlined with this quote from George Santayana.  The words really jumped off at me this morning.  So often it seems that we self-limit ourselves with our fears and anxieties, making tasks and goals that might actually be within our reach seem impossible to accomplish.  As a result we never reach beyond what we can see in our limited vision of the world.

This is just a short remembrance of my earliest aspirations, before any thought of what was possible or impossible had entered my thought process.  To an 8 year old everything is still attainable and, to their credit,  my parents never imposed any limits on my imagination or aspirations.  That was their form of encouragement.

Here is what I wrote back in 2009:

When I give gallery talks, generally there is a part at the beginning where I run through how I came to be a painter. I usually tell how I wanted to paint when I was a small child, maybe 7 or 8 years old, and my parents bought me an oil painting set from the old Cardinal Paint store in Elmira, where they sold art supplies alongside their house paints. 

Of course, I didn’t have the first idea how to use the paints and the canvas panel ended up covered with a smear of a color that could best be described as pukish looking. Discouraged, I moved on to other things. Many other things through the years. 

Now, that might seem, at first blush, like a sad little story but it always touches me. My parents didn’t know how to go about helping me but they did what they could and never discouraged me from whatever avenue I chose to follow. I was never told I couldn’t be this or that I should be that. They didn’t know what was possible and never tried to put limits on my hopes. 

In high school, I harbored dreams of being a writer and for Christmas one year they gave me a Remington Rand office typewriter. It was a reconditioned monster of a machine, must have weighed 75 pounds. I had it for years and when I did finally get rid of it, it was with great sadness. It was one of the best gifts I’d ever been given and was always a symbol of my parents’ encouragement. 

The point of this is that my parents allowed me the freedom to discover what was possible for me in my life. Did they always go about it in the best way or guide me in any way? Probably not but that didn’t seem as important as the freedom they gave me to search for what was possible for me. 

And being able to find what was possible, as the saying above says, is the beginning of happiness…

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The painting at the top is a new piece, The Find, going to the Kada Gallery for the November 16th show.  It is a 16″ by 20″ canvas,

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Deep Focus

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 23, 2013| 8 Comments »

GC Myers- Deep Focus sm

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.

–Buddha

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This is another new painting that is headed to the Kada Gallery for  Alchemy, my solo show that opens there on November 16.   This piece, 18″ by 18″ on canvas, is titled Deep Focus.  This was one of those pieces that just seemed to fall out with very little inner wrangling or consternation.  Once I started, it was off and running with what seemed very little assistance from me.

It was immediately clear that this painting was going to be about focus, about looking deeper and deeper into the canvas. Built from the bottom, each layer pushed the eye further inward.  About halfway into this I began to think of the title for this as being AutoFocus, just for the ease with which it was emerging.  But I finally opted for Deep Focus because of the depth I was seeing in  the picture and the way everything seemed to gravitate toward the central point of the sun that is peeking over the distant hill.

This piece seems to have a very meditative quality, a placid feeling that goes well with the ease of the piece.  Or at least,  the ease that I felt in its creation.  Sitting here now, taking it in, its construction seems simple, almost naive. Yet there is a feeling of opulence that I think comes from the colors and curves of the landscape that sheds this naivete and gives it a feeling of deeper knowledge.  or a way to deeper knowledge.  Far from naive.

Years ago, I had a  hard time trusting the validity of pieces that fell so easily from my hand, believing that  struggle must be part of making a painting come alive.  I was almost embarrassed by the ease with which some pieces came.  But over time, I have come to believe that it is this effortless work that is the goal, the work that is true and has the authenticity that I seek.  This piece is a testament to the trust in my intuition that has come with time.

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The Upward Gaze

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- The Upward Gaze smAstronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
–Plato

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I have painted a couple of paintings this past year that have featured an observatory propped upon a hill.   I like the idea that this building has a shape and a location that instantly defines it, making it almost symbolic of the desire to transcend this world that it contains.  This desire to transcend, to know more, is built within us and we  seek these existential answers in many ways, sometimes in the stars and sometimes in the spiritual.  Others seek these answers in other worldly ways, either through love , pleasure or labor, among many other things.

These different ways of searching  are what I think is the central theme of this new new painting, The Upward Gaze, a 20″by 24″ canvas that is part of my November show, Alchemy, at the Kada Gallery.  The observatory is there resting high above the other buildings as it looks for the celestial answer: where have we come from?  Then there is the a church with a steeple that is pointing upward seeking an response from above to its question: where are we going?  On the lower left there is a barn among the fields which for me symbolizes the question: what is our purpose here?  The Red Roofs of all of the buildings here act as indicators, each pointing upward.

The road heads outward from this group of building, moving  toward and disappearing before  the horizon, over which an all-knowing  sun/moon hovers among a mosaic sky.  The soft,broken colors of the sky feel like light particles to me, the energy that propels this whole thing.

It’s a seemingly simple painting but I think there is much more to it…

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