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Posts Tagged ‘Video’

Shadowsong

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on October 15, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Shadowsong smWe are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

–Buddha

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It’s an idea that we all too often forget,  that our thoughts can form who we are.  I know for myself, the thought  that I was an artist was the most crucial step I made in becoming one.  Once I had made that decision that, yes, I was an artist, every decision  after that that contributed to me being an artist came much easier.  This was the road I was going to follow and any action that occurred would take place based on that fact.

But it took a long time to reach that point where I determined that I was indeed an artist.  In fact, for quite some time i was embarrassed to say it  when someone would ask what I did.  It just sounded too presumptuous to state it aloud even though in my mind it had become fact.  So I would say I was painter.  It sounded safer.

But inevitably, the person asking the question would determine that what I meant by painter was that I was a house painter and ask what it would cost to get their living room painted.  I guess I looked more  Sherwin Williams than Salvador Dali.  So I decided that I better just say that I was an artist.  Just less confusion and besides, that is what my mind  had already patterned itself in the shape of that word.

And, like Buddha said, joy followed.  Hopefully, it will stay with me like that shadow.

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The painting at the top is titled Shadowsong.  It’s a new piece, 6″ by 8″ on paper,  that is headed to Erie for my November show, Alchemy,  at the Kada Gallery.  Usually when I have an image of a musician, I will follow on the blog with a video.  So, in keeping with habit, here is The Train From Kansas City by Neko Case, a favorite of mine.  Plus , it has lots of film of trains.  have a great day.

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So What

Posted in Music, Opinion, Video, tagged , , , , , , on October 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

empathyAfter reading a recent Op-Ed piece in the NY Times from psychologist Daniel Goleman provocatively titled Rich People Just Care Less, which puts forward a theory that some of the problems caused by the growing inequality between the upper and lower classes may be the result of a lack of empathy by those in power, I was going to write once again about the the apparent empathy deficit in this world.  But this as far as I can go with it today.  It seems obvious to me that no amount of logic or evidence or words of shame can sway the actions of those lacking in empathy.  Need we  look any further for evidence than the current stalemate in Washington or the case now before the Supreme Court that will effectively take off all limits on campaign donations, further squelching the voice of the least powerful and most vulnerable?

No, I am not in the mood to go on with this today.  I throw up my hands and say “So what!”

Let’s listen to some music that fits the title.  Here’s one of my favorites, the great Chet Baker from 1964 with his version of the Miles Davis classic, So What.  Good music to chill to.

 

 

 

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Acoustic Blues

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on August 20, 2013| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- Early Blues Study in wc and markerI love to watch the hands of guitarists or pianists when they are playing.  Maybe it’s just a desirous envy for a talent and dexterity that I will never attain or maybe it’s just the particular rhythm of the two hands working to create this sound that has a harmony and  life of its own.  I don’t really know but whenever I see films of piano or guitar players I am mesmerized.

I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan at a show in Utica, NY  back in  1986, I believe.  It was a great show although the quality of the sound was not great, poorly mixed with a lot of distortion.  From what I understand, this wasn’t uncommon for SRV shows.  I just wish we had better seats to better see his playing hands.

I came across this video on YouTube of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing acoustically for a French interview from 1982.  It’s shot in just the way I like, with the hands highlighted in a way that shows their syncopated dance.  Just wish it were longer.

PS–The image at the top is an older oddity, an experiment from the mid-90’s, painted in watercolor and a Sharpie marker.  The figure was a simplified and stylized representation of the way in which the figures from my early Exiles series were painted, composed from blocks of color.  It was never meant to be seen outside my studio but I like this for some reason …

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The Wolves Inside

Posted in Influences, Music, Video, tagged , , , on August 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Spirits Within - Artwork from Charles Frizzel

A Native American grandfather talking to his young grandson tells the boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is fear, greed and hatred. Which wolf will win, grandfather? asks the young boy. Whichever one I feed, is the reply.

I came across the above, a short and often told story along with an illustration from artist Charles Frizzell,  on the Facebook page called Hippie Peace Freaks.   So simply put, it speaks of the dual natures  that reside in each of us, that polarity that I often try to capture in my work.  Our actions and choices form who we are and, hopefully, we opt to feed our peaceful wolves.

Here’s a video featuring the music of the great early bluesman Robert Johnson that also illustrates the point in a slightly different manner.  In Me and the Devil  Blues, his inner demon, his bad wolf, has taken a place beside him at all times.

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Island of Souls

Posted in At the Movies, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on April 19, 2013| 4 Comments »

GC Myers- Island of Souls  Called Island of Souls, this painting, 16″ by 26″ on paper, uses the isolation of an island as its central theme.  I am not sure if my photography on this particular piece accurately captures the true color and feel of this piece so I may have to re-shoot this.  But this image does get most of what is important so I will get on with it.

The idea of an island has always intrigued me.  I think it comes from the paradox of perception that comes with them.  The isolation offers escape and safe haven from the outer world on one hand but at the same time has a sense of captivity and limitation on the other.  As an artist my working life is spent on such an island, either safely ensconced in the quiet safety of my studio or trapped in a self-made prison, depending on your viewpoint.

A lot of artists have trouble with this isolation but for me it has always been preferable.  I always think of  the film Papillon where inmate Louis Dega, played by Dustin Hoffman, finally accepts and adapts to his fate on Devil’s Island, the penal colony off the coast of French Guiana.  He eventually lives in a little hut away from the others and lives a quiet and simple life until the end of his life there.  I have always thought that , outside it being forced upon him as punishment, it was an existence to which  many  people might aspire, living on a tropical island with little to worry about from the outside world.

Maybe that’s what I see here.  I suppose it could be seen as some sort of a prison with the cluster of huts on a rocky island with a dock and no visible boat.  I tend to see it in more aspirational terms, as a place of peace with a sense of tranquility in the colors of this piece that complements this reading of this picture for me.

One man’s penal colony is another man’s paradise.

Here’s a song of the same name from Sting.  It’s from his 1991 album The Soul Cages and uses the island as a dreamed of place of escape for the boat builders of Newcastle as they toil over the great ships that they will never sail on.

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Higher Ground

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , on March 19, 2013| 4 Comments »

I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then

Gonna keep on trying

Till reach my highest ground

GC Myers-Higher Ground

I wrote that when I was visited  last week in my studio by a film crew from WSKG  that they had taped me working on a painting in its early stages.  The painting above is the final version of that piece.  It’s a 20″ by 40″ canvas that I am calling Higher Ground, a title somewhat borrowed from the Stevie Wonder song of the same name quoted above.

This piece has a couple of different elements than most of my work.  For instance, the rocky walls of the canal/river as well as the rocky outcropping of the rise on which the Red Tree stand.  There’s also an orchard in the lower right corner that I use sparingly in these pieces.  I have sometimes said that these paintings are often not really about the Red Tree at all but are more about the mood created by the combinations of color and form.  But the Red Tree is definitely center stage here, everything revolving around and focusing on it.

Higher ground could  represent the safety offered by it  in times of flood or in combat.  For me, I see it as attaining a higher plane of being, or at least aspiring to it as a goal.  Perhaps not the same highest ground that Stevie Wonder is seeking ,  which seems to represent  a  Raptured heaven.  No, I see it more as being free of the the everyday, represented in the anonymous houses below.  To a point that is above hate and anger.  Above envy.  Above spitefulness and deceit.

Above judgement.  I add that because I don’t see the Red Tree as looking down on those house below it here. Rather,  I see it looking upward and outward.  And higher ground affords that better view…

Here’s the song from Stevie Wonder.  Great groove to start a day.

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The Raven That Refused to Sing

Posted in Influences, Music, Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , , , , , on February 19, 2013| 6 Comments »

Steven Wilson- The Raven That Refused to SingMy friend Scott Allen from the Cleveland area sent me a link to a video the other day.  It was an animation of a song from Steven Wilson, a British progressive rock musician who is the lead singer for Porcupine Tree.  The song is titled The Raven That Refused to Sing and Scott said that he felt reminded by it of my Exiles/Outlaw series, both in tone and imagery.

It’s a dark and sad storyline that runs through the video as an old man deals with the grief of loss and memory.  But I could definitely see the parallels that Scott hadGC Myers- Followed observed , especially in certain scenes.  For example, the scene where the old man sits in his bed in front of the windows  ( shown above) instantly reminded me of my characters as they peer out their own windows with that same haunted look.  Perhaps their fear is much like this old man’s grievous fears.

The video was made by British animators Jess Cope and Simon Cartwright who have a real knack for incorporating this type of dark and mysterious subject matter in their works.  Their The Astronomer’s Sun is a much celebrated short in the same poignant vein. It’s definitely worth a look, as is this video.  Thanks, Scott.

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Water/ Eric Burdon

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on February 7, 2013| 1 Comment »

Eric Burdon- 'Til Your River Runs DryGrowing up,  I was always kind of fascinated by Eric Burdon, then lead singer for the Animals, the British rock band who always seemed just in the shadow of the Beatles and the Stones.  But they were different than the other bands of that early British Invasion.  They seemed rougher, more closely connected to American blues.  Their songs were not mere love ditties.  They were angrier, more defiant and fatalistic.

And it was all captured in the face of Eric Burdon.  He was not a pretty boy, not the smiling cute one that even moms found charming.  He was sleepy eyed with  pock marked skin and an almost surly demeanor that never broke into a toothy smile.  I might be mistaken, but I think he even had a broken tooth.   But he sang those songs that still resonate today–House of the Rising Sun, Boom Boom, Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, Don’t Bring Me Down, Sky Pilot,  We Gotta Get Out of this Place.  

It’s my life and I’ll do what I want…

He has had a long career, starting the band War, best known for Spill the Wine, Cisco Kid and Low Rider.  Today. he lives in the desert of Southern California and, at age 71, has a new CD, ‘Til Your River Runs Dry,  out on the market.  I am including a song from it today, Water, that deals with the ever growing problem with maintaining the availability of  safe and potable water now and in the future.   Water is that thing that we all need– more than oil, more than gas, more than any precious metals.  Water is the cause of the current battle over hydro-fracking and might be the thing that nations battle over  in the future.  Give a listen…

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A Little NRBQ

Posted in Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on December 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

NRBQ drawing for The SimpsonsI don’t think I’ve ever featured any music from NRBQ on this blog which is surprising because they are always rock solid.  Consistency is a trait I really appreciate and NRBQ has been just that for over 46 years now, which seems like a crazy amount of time for a group that has went kind of under the radar of the pop charts for most of that time but has built a cult following that counts some of the biggest names in music as fans.  They were even on TV as the house band on The Simpsons for a couple of seasons ( see Matt Groening’s drawing of the band above.)  They are known as musician’s musicians with a real sense of humor and a huge playlist that enables them to pretty much play anything.  I don’t know if they still do this but they used to have a milk crate with question marks painted on it that leader Terry Adams would stand on to take requests from the audience.

Founded in 1966, the lineup for NRBQ, an acronym for New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, has changed a bit in the last decade or two but Terry Adams stills pushes them forward despite his own battles with throat cancer.  Adams, if you didn’t know, is the blonde mop-haired pianist who seems to have a Dorian Gray thing working for him.  He looks pretty much the same as he did when I first came across them back in the 70’s.

Here’s a song from the original members of the band as they perform I Got a Rocket in My Pocket, the old 50’s rockabilly song from Jimmie Lloyd.  This is from around 1980 and is a good example of the band and their sound.  It’s also a good beat to carry you through what most likely will be a hectic weekend for most of you as you prepare for the holidays.

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Souvenirs

Posted in Video, tagged , , , , on November 25, 2012| 1 Comment »

I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving over the last couple of days, trying to think of things that I’m thankful for and I began to realize there are no actual things on the list.  There are people and moments but no things.  And I guess that’s the way it should be.  But it made me wonder about what particular things  do have meaning for me.   What would I take if I had to grab but a few things and flee, say like the recent storm victims or the people in the areas where the wildfires bear down on them?

The actual loss of my house and studio might be difficult but they too an be replaced.  Outside of these structures, the list is still pretty thin.  A few photos, a few notes and letters and perhaps a painting or two.   A handful of books but they can also be replaced.  But no other things that I feel would leave a void in my life if I suddenly were to be without them.  No jewelry or family heirlooms. No memory jugs like the one shown above.   No priceless artifacts that I sought for years to find.  Very little, actually.

I sit here in my studio and look around at a few of the paintings that I hold on to and think that I would hate to lose them but it comes to me that they also represent moments and emotions for me.  Inner things that I hold already.  They actually are souvenirs of past moments,  like   family photos.  I’ve said before that seeing a gallery full of my work is sometimes awkward at first because it feels like I’m looking at my family photos on the walls for all the world to see.  And that’s not always the best thing.

Interestingly, I find this lack of things very liberating.  And that is something for which I am thankful.

Here’s a fitting  song, Souvenirs,  that is sung by here by John Prine and Steve Goodman, who wrote it.  Goodman also wrote The City of New Orleans , recorded most famously by Arlo Guthrie.  Most people have little knowledge of Goodman’s songwriting since he died in 1984 at the age of 36 due to leukemia.   There is another song  here by Goodman after  Souvenirs that shows more of his talents.

And I’m thankful for that, as well.

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