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Posts Tagged ‘Red Tree’

“Home+Land” in the Gallery

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , on July 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers - Heart+Land

GC Myers – Heart+Land

Well, this morning has been a quiet one as I knock about in my studio that now feel empty after delivering the work for my solo show, Home+Land, to the West End Gallery.  There’s a sense of relief and befuddlement hanging in the air.  Over the past year I have had deadlines always hovering ahead of me, always something  waiting to be done.  So when a rare moment without a deadline pops up, it takes me a while to figure out how to deal with this bit of free time.  But I will find a way through this pesky free time.

At the West End, they were planning on hanging the show last night and this morning so that it would be available for previews by this afternoon and I’m eager to see how it looks.  It’s a pretty big show and I think it will be show with a lot of oomph in the space but I can’t be sure until it’s on the walls.

One piece that I think will look great in the space is the painting at the top, Heart+Land, a large 36″ by 36″ canvas. The size coupled with an opulently warm feel and a sky that seems to reach out to you makes it a piece that is hard to ignore.  At least, that’s how I feel.

I know when it was in the studio it was a piece that drew my eye on a regular basis.  For a while, I had this piece along with several others set up in the basement of my studio in an area where I do my daily workout.  I found this painting a great one to focus on while exercising, allowing myself to get lost in the layers of texture and the many shapes throughout the piece.  Very meditative. It made my workout so much easier.  I’m going to miss this piece for that reason and many others.

Anyway, the show is in the gallery.  Please stop into the West End Gallery to preview the work and if you’re in the Corning area on Friday evening, please stop in and say hello.

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Beginning to See the Light

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on July 6, 2015| 3 Comments »

Beginning to See the Light smHere’s another new painting that is part of my upcoming show, Home+Land,at the West End Gallery, opening July 17.  This 12″ by 12″ canvas is titled Beginning to See the Light, which sort of continues a theme from yesterday’s post as the title is also the title of a Velvet Underground song.

While I was working on yesterday’s post and listening to some music from the Velvets, I kept looking at this piece and when this song came on it just seemed right as a title for it in the moment.  It’s not that the lyrics necessarily jibed well but just the idea of that moment of realization that the title possesses seemed right because this is what I see in this piece– arriving at a moment of understanding.  The world seems calm and right but vivid in that moment.

Here’s the song that gave me the title.  It’s coupled with some absurdist/avant garde imagery from a 1968 Soviet film, The Color of Pomegranates.  I don’t know how relevant this is to the song but it’s kind of interesting?

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Home+Land

Posted in Influences, Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on June 22, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers Home+Land smThe ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

–Maya Angelou

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This is the title painting, Home+Land,  for my next solo show which opens July 17 at the West End Gallery in Corning.  It’s a pretty large painting at 36″ high  by 48″ wide on canvas and one that fairly represents my feelings on how we are tied to the land, how we identify home with a sense of place.  This is the theme for this show as well as for much of my work in general.

I have long equated the idea of home with the landscape, with how we are shaped by those places that we know from an early age.  The rhythm, the shapes and the perspectives of the landscape that surrounds us becomes part of who we are , something that travels with us throughout our lives. Wherever we go, we look for similarities to that feeling of our home landscape.

It might be in the actual landforms or the way in which the vegetation interacts with the land and the structures of the homes there. It simply looks like home.  Or it might be just in the way the light strikes the land or the rhythm and flow of movement within the landscape that create a level of comfort that equates to that feeling of home.

I know, for myself, that there have been places where I have been where the landscape has been so different from the hills and fields surrounding my original home yet I still feel a sense of being at home.  And there are other places that, while similar in shape and having beauty and charms of their own, leave me uneasy and feeling out of place.  And there are places in which I immediately feel out of place in an alien way, places to which I could never fully adapt.  Definitely not at home.

I guess what I am trying to say is that home is a mix of feeling and place.  It is that place where you feel as comfortable and satisfied in place as the Red Tree in the painting above.

 

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Native Voice

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on June 3, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers- Native Voice smThis is the painting, a 24″ by 48″ canvas, that spawned the title of my show, Native Voice, that opens this Friday at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.

I’ve been struggling to describe what I mean by the term native voice.  I think we all have a native voice, a quality that reflects the true self that comes out of us naturally, unguarded and without thought.  It is in the way we speak with family and friends, in the rhythm and manner of our words.  It is in our local accent and vernacular.

It reflects the people and places and events that shaped us, all blending together in one unique package that bears our unique fingerprint and signature.  We might be able to mask these things temporarily but our native voice is always near the surface, ready to emerge.

Applying this to painting, I see this native voice as being the way an artist naturally fashions a painting, in how they perceive the world and describe it to others through their work.  It is that state of being when pretense is put aside, conscious thought diminished, and the process becomes intuitive and reactive, each reaction coming naturally.  I would describe it in the way a child might paint when left to their own devices– pure and expressive.

I think this show bears this title well.  I know that it feels natural and true to myself.  I tried to not focus on concepts or themes as I painted, just let the work fall out as it would.  As a result, when I delivered the show this past Saturday, I had a hard time describing much of it to the folks at the gallery.  How do you describe something that is just a part of you, something that just is?

Now I doubt that this comes anywhere close to expressing what I see in that term Native Voice.  But like talking to friends or family, if you are attuned to what I do with my work  you’ll probably understand my native voice.  If not, you’ll most likely think I’m that strange guy walking down the street muttering to himself.

And that’s okay, too.

 

 

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“Native Voice” Preview

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 2, 2015| 4 Comments »

This is a short video previewing some of the work that is part of my Native Voice show that is opening this Friday, June 5, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  The opening reception runs from 6:30 until 9 PM and is open to the public.  This is a show that has some real visual oomph in its colors and textures and while I think the work shows well on the computer screen, it definitely comes across better in person.  So if you’re in the DC/Alexandria area on Friday evening, please stop in and see the work in person and say hello.

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Nova Harmonia

Posted in Opinion, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , on June 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Nova Harmonia smThis painting, a 16″ by 40″ canvas, is another piece from the Native Voice show and is titled Nova Harmonia.  That loosely translates as New Harmony but it doesn’t really anything to do with the short-lived 19th century Utopian community of that name in Indiana although the utopian aspect might apply.

The feeling and theme of the piece is very much about the concept of living in harmony with the forces of the world around us and that might seem like some far-fetched utopian concept to some.  And that’s  a shame because this coexistence we share with the earth should be something that we naturally accept and make part of our lives.  Far too many think of the earth as being something that we dominate, a servant– no, a slave– that provides us with a never-ending supply of fuel, food and everything else we can strip from it.

But that is so wrong in so many ways, mainly in its hubris, greed and short-sightedness.  We are temporary tenants here on a world that has seen many species and civilizations come and go before us. one that will be still revolving around that sun long after we are but a distant memory.

Instead, it should be viewed as our partner or our ward, something that we watch over with care and respect in exchange for the great bounty it has provided.  Perhaps it will allow us to inhabit its richness for a bit longer that way.

That’s the message I glean from this painting.  It has an optimism and unity that I find reassuring and hopeful.  In short, this painting makes me feel good.

As I said above, this piece is at the Principle Gallery for my Native Voice show which opens Friday, June 5.

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The Animating Presence

Posted in Biographical, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , , , , on May 28, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- The Anmating Presence smSometimes I am a little hesitant in showing certain paintings here on the blog.  Sometimes their photographed images just don’t fully convey the impact or depth of the work.

Take the painting shown above for an example.  Titled The Animating Presence, it produces a strong  initial impact with its large size– 20″ by 60″ on canvas— and its deep colors and textures.  The photo captures the colors (although not the depth within the colors) and a mere fraction of the texture but the  power in its size is lost on the smaller screen.  It is still a strong image but most people would be surprised at how truly different the actual painting comes across in person.

I showed this painting here a few months back in an early stage, shown now at the bottom.  The landscape was laid out in the red oxide paint I use for my underpainting and the sky with its first several layers of color, the emotional atmosphere of the piece beginning to take shape.  Many, many more layers produced the sky as it now looks above.  There are layers that are almost completely obscured, perhaps with only a tiny glimmer of it coming through here and there.  Looking at it, you may not be aware of it but its presence is vital to me, giving the whole thing the depth and life force that I seek in it.

And maybe that last sentence is a good way of explaining the title, The Animating Presence.  The more I worked on this piece, the more I began to feel as though the Red Tree was in some sort of communion with a greater power in this painting, represented by the light breaking over the horizon.

This is always a hard thing to explain for me.  As I have explained in the past, I was not brought up with religion of any sort.  I was never indoctrinated in any sort of system of faith, never led to have either belief or disbelief.  I was just here, neither a believer or an atheist.  But looking at the world I had a sense that there was something more, some unseen source of power that sparked all life and consciousness.  It wasn’t a benevolent god sitting on a throne in some heaven pulling the strings on human events and listening to our prayers.  No, it was more a matter of physics and light and energy, an unseen force that permeated everything– an animating presence.

Now, a couple of hundred words can’t really sum up the whole of  what I am describing or even what I see in this painting.  But it is this struggle to come to terms with this idea of that presence that I see in this painting.  That like those unseen layers of paint in the sky which give depth to the painting, one’s life is given meaning by an unseen force that we may never fully know or understand.

You can see this painting at the Principle Gallery at my Native Voice show,

2015-gc-myers-wip animating presence

 

 

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Eureka

Posted in Influences, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on May 26, 2015| 1 Comment »

GC Myers- EurekaI am in the final days of prep work for my upcoming show, Native Voice, at the Principle Gallery, which opens next Friday, June 5.  This will be my 16th show at the Alexandria gallery so my routine in finishing up in these few last days is pretty set.  Even so, it’s a hectic rush to get everything done.  For instance, even as I am framing I am still finishing up my final photography of the work.

For instance, just this morning I shot the 24″ by 30″ painting on canvas shown at the top.  I had photographed it before but the lighting  coupled with the blue tones made it a less than desirable photo, not really representative of the actual painting. But this one seems to hit the mark, capturing the blues in their actuality.

I call this painting Eureka.  The word is from the Greek, meaning “I have found it ” and was most famously attributed to Archimedes who upon sitting in a hot bath noticed that his body displaced an equal volume of water which meant that the volume of irregular objects could then be accurately measured.  That was not an easy thing to do around 250 BC.

But over the years, the word eureka has come to signify any great moment of discovery.  California uses it as their state motto after its use in the gold strikes of the mid 19th century.

In this painting, the bursting light which forms a corona around the Red Tree signifies a moment of  great recognition of some heretofore hidden truth, a discovery that forever alters one’s perspective of the world and their place in it.  It was not painted with this intent but the fact that the light is bursting from out of the blue of the sky is no small coincidence.  That is how these eureka moments normally reveal themselves– unannounced with little forewarning.

I’ve been fortunate to have one or two of these moments.  Well, one for sure.  And in that instance, I certainly felt like I was suddenly standing ablaze in the darkness that had surrounded me.  This piece really captures that instance for me.

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Concordia

Posted in Painting, Personal Mythology, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on May 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers-Concordia smThe title of this new painting, 36″ by 36″ on canvas. is Concordia, which is a Latin word for harmony as well as the name of the Roman goddess of harmony.  It translates literally as with one heart which I felt was really appropriate for this piece based on the role that the Red Tree has played in my career.

The beginning of the Red Tree is often asked about at the gallery talks I give and I usually just describe the chronology of its emergence in my work, how it was little more than a compositional element in the beginning, something that brought a central focus to the painting.  But describing what the Red Tree has evolved into for myself over the years in terms of its meaning is sometimes difficult to explain in the moment at these talks.

Yes, it is still a mere element that brings the eye to the center around which everything else in the painting more or less revolves.  In that respect, it is the sun in its own solar system.  But over time I have come to recognize that the Red Tree is the exposed heart of my work, the emotional center that speaks out to the world in a way I never could as myself.

It is a heart that seeks harmony in its existence, to be at one with the world.

With one heart.

Concordia.

________

This painting will be part of my solo show Native Voice which opens two weeks from today, June 5,  at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria. VA.

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Odyssey

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , on May 20, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Odysssey smI am in the last stages of preparation for my solo show at the Principle Gallery that I will be delivering at the end of next week.  As I’ve documented here many times in the past, it’s a very hectic time as I put the finishing touches on the last few paintings as I simultaneously begin the process of making the work show-ready.  That entails photographing and varnishing paintings, staining frames, cutting mats and glass then putting it all together so that each piece shows itself at its best.

It is a sometimes daunting task, one that has a much different tempo and thought process than the actual act of painting.  With painting there is an almost meandering journey taking place as the mind drifts during the act, sometimes sharply focusing and sometimes going blank as intuition takes over.  There are pauses and rests along the way as the painting takes shape.

But preparing the work to leave the studio is straightforward and far less cerebral.  Just put your head down and power through the task in front of you then on to the next and the next.  Drone work.

But one of the gifts in doing this is being able to handle and spend time with each painting once more, to stop for a few moments and really look deeply at each for what might be a last time.  There’s something very fulfilling in this part of process as each piece takes on a sense of completeness and acquires its own voice, becomes an entity beyond me.

That’s definitely the sense I got when I was photographing the painting above yesterday.  It’s a 16″ by 40″ canvas that didn’t have a name but looking at it closely yesterday it reminded me of a long and arduous journey, one that winds through mountains and across seas in search of home.  And there on a prominent peak was the Red Tree, looking patiently out to sea like Penelope scanning the horizon for the return of Odysseus. In an instant that was the voice of that painting for me.

I call this piece Odyssey.

And now, like Homer’s travelers, I must return to my own odyssey.  There is must to do before I rest…

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