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Posts Tagged ‘Van Morrison’

Moondancer

Posted in Music, Painting, Video, tagged , , , on December 10, 2012| 6 Comments »

GC Myers- MoondancerI am slowly trying to get back into some sort of rhythm in the studio after getting back from what for me was an extended absence  while traveling out to California for my show there.  It was only a week or so but it was enough to disrupt that fragile balance and set me a bit off kilter.  I can sense it in getting back into my painting rhythm as well as writing this blog.  Just a bit more of a struggle at the moment. I don’t fret over this as I once might have because I’ve been through this more than a few times.  If I put my head down and forge forward, it returns after a bit.

Sometimes it also helps to look at some of my recent work, trying to find the string of continuity that might run forward from it and latch on to that.  In doing so, I looked this morning at a piece from the show at the Just Looking Gallery  in San Luis Obispo, a 12″ by 36″ painting called Moondancer.  It’s a piece that’s built on bold color, one that instantly catches my attention.  The central figure of the red tree here definitely has the feel of a performer,  either as an entertainer doing an expressionistic dance before the moon or as some sort of shaman doing a ritual dance asking the moon for whatever gifts or powers  it might bestow.  The moon definitely is in audience to the performance.

It;s that sense of performance that I will probably take from this painting today in the studio, both as the central figure acting as a performer as well as seeing myself as a performer before the easel.  I often think of myself as a performing artist, each painting a new performance.  Each day is both rehearsal and performance.  I think that’s why breaks in my routine disrupt my rhythm so.  It’s like a musician not practicing for an extended period.  The ability is still there, just a little work away from returning.

Here’s a video of a classic song, Moondance,  from Van Morrison,  that might be the namesake for this painting.  I choose this song today because if you were to watch many of the available videos of it online, you would be hard pressed to find performances that were not unique.  Morrison does the song in different tempos and cadences, each time taking the same song and bringing something new to it.  Again, that’s echoes what I try to do in painting, trying to bring something new in common forms and images that populate my scenes.

Anyway,  it’s a great song from many years back.  This version is from a concert in Montreux in 1980.  Enjoy!

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The Unfortunate Rake

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, tagged , , on January 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

This painting took a long time to emerge.  I started with just a large block of color,  originally feeling that there was a distant, stark landscape in it.  But it never felt completely right and I let it sit for many months, occasionally picking it up and trying to decipher what it might hold.  But recently I decided that it was long enough and that I would either pull something from it or destroy it. 

Either way would be a bit of mercy for me.  There’s something in having a piece sitting unfulfilled for long periods that gnaws at me, as though they are poking at me in the studio, begging to be released from the state of limbo in which they are trapped.  I have a group of such paintings floating around and I have to hide them at times because of this constant, silent pleading from them.  So it is a degree of mercy in the relief that comes from finishing one– in one way or another.

What emerged in this painting, an image that measures about 6″ by 22″ on paper, is quite different from what I first envisioned.  It ended up as more of a silhouette piece, the dark boniness of the trees standing in stark contrast to the pale, almost sullen feel of the sky.  Even the sun struggles to bring light to this surface,  appearing darker than the sky itself.  The whole effect is quite somber with an air of drama.

Originally, the chair was the only other element in this piece but the more I looked at it, the more I wanted something to counter the chair.  Something to create a context for  the drama of the revealed moment.  The small figure in the background provided just that.  I saw him as a ghost of sorts– perhaps dead.  Perhaps not.  But caught somewhere between existences.  The Red Chair here fills in as his memory and he looks upon it, seeing all his misdeeds and regrets.  He has lived his life as a rake and the empty chair sums up his time.

That’s one way of looking at it. 

I chose the title from the old English folk song of the same name that evolved from it’s 18th century origins into the early blues song, St. James Infirmary Blues, a song covered over the years by many, many musicians.  It has a deep and wonderfully  mournful feel and  it meshes well with this image in my mind.  Here’s a great version from the Belfast Cowboy, Van Morrison, who gives the song the weight it requires. See if you feel the same.

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Gloria

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged on August 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Monday morning and I’ve got a lot to do this morning.  But I wanted to show some music and I realized I had never mentioned Van Morrison in my posts even though I have been a fan forever.  So much great music from the guy over the past 45 years or so.  Sounds funny to say that- 45 years or so.  But it’s true.  Consistently good if not great for all that time.  Songs like Brown Eyed Girl, Domino and Into the Mystic.  Caravan.  Moondance.  His night songs– Here Comes the Night and Wild Night.  So many great songs from the man from Belfast.

And then there’s Gloria.

Gloria became one of the icons of the rock era of the 60’s, being covered by scores of bands.  Performing with his band, Them, Morrison recorde this classic in 1965.  It was a B-side (we’re in the 45 RPM single era here, kids) to their hit single, a cover of the blues classic, Baby, Please Don’t Go.  The  sharp-edged marching rhythm  and Morrison’s snarling vocals on the song propelled it along to the chorus.

G-L-O-R-I-A!

Even illiterates could spell Gloria at the time.  Just plain, good stuff here.  Here’s a version I found that was perhaps produced for French television if the Les Them at the beginning is any indication.  It’s a curious video with a recurring image of a donkey throughout.  I have no idea what it means.  Anyway, here’s Van Morrison with Them…

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