A Musing Artful Meanders

Uncommon Views, Photos by Pete Myers

nobody@vox.com(Liza Myers) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:35:45 -0300

Please join us at the opening Liza Myers Gallery 22 Center St. Brandon Vermont

The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
- Aldo Leopold

We're about to have a fabulous event at the gallery.

    The first-ever exhibition of photography by JP (Pete) Myers, renowned environmental scientist and highly published photographer. Pete will be at the opening from 5-7 on February 29th.
    Myers' photographs of the natural world have been published in such highly respected journals as Smithsonian Magazine, Audubon Magazine and Natural History. Birds, insects, flowers and dewdrops all shimmer with life. Through his camera lens we have an insightful, exquisite and intimate view of nature.

I think Aldo Leopold would see his work as a celebration of "all the parts."
    His bio is as stunning as his photos.
Here are just a few tidbits:
    Pete is founder, CEO and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences which publishes EnvironmentalHealthNews.org DailyClimate.org and OurStolenFuture.org. In 1996 he co-authored Our Stolen Future, a book that helped revolutionize the science of environmental health.
    Pete's photos will be available at the gallery on an on-going basis, but to meet the artist, join us on Feb 29!
    I have to admit I am inflicted with acute lens-envy when I see the amazing photos that Pete produces. Lens-envy and an overwhelming appreciation of the complexity and beauty of the biosphere.
    I also must add that Pete is one of my four amazing scientist brothers.
    In my sibling group there are four PhD's and two women. : )
    The women are artists... myself with a pigment and a brush or clay, my sister with magnificent gardens. All of my brothers take great photos, many of which can be seen at the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity website, which was initiated by my eldest brother Phil Myers, long ago when the web was young. There you can find photos by Phil, Pete and Roger Myers.

They also celebrate "all the parts."

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Size does make a difference...

nobody@vox.com(Liza Myers) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:43:44 -0300

Marsh Nest acrylic, 30" x 40"

I hope if dogs take over the the world

and they choose a king,
they don't just go by size

because I bet there are some Chihuahuas
with some good ideas.
-Deep thoughts by Jack Handy

Sometimes it is seems just right to be ridiculous.
When I see this painting on the web it is teeny. There isn't the sense of mystery that you get when you see it 30" x 40", and you can't see the shadows on the eggs... I'd like to do it 5' x 8', the way I see a nest when I come upon its tangled grasses in a marsh. Huge, intricate and full of the future.

It is scary how much time I can spend on the web sites and blogging.
Time to get back to my easel.

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Experimentation & Epiphany

nobody@vox.com(Liza Myers) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:21:40 -0300

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep.
- Scott Adams

quotation from http://www.artquotes.net/

I may be in the middle of a mistake right now, but I am fascinated by the process. One never knows until some time in the future whether one's time is judiciously spent. O'Keeffe threw away heaps of canvases, those that she deemed unworthy or unsuccessful.
I've been pouring and scraping and spattering paints which sounds completely wild, but it's actually very deliberate and intentional. The question is now what to do with these luscious, sensuous and dynamic surfaces.
They're piling up.

Heart Nest II acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40" finally finished

For now they are spread around the studio staring at me... many small secrets. The muse isn't talking. I just have to keep the faith that "way will open," a Quaker expression from my childhood that has proved true to me in my own non-dogmatic fashion.
If one allows the time for the answer to emerge it usually does, based on many factors- experience, training, logic, doggedness, hard work. It can be an active process, or an epiphany.
I love the Merriam Webster definition of epiphany: (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure

However, being buried and surrounded by incomplete projects can be overwhelming and stultifying. Ideas flow much more quickly than I am able to test them.
I have a practical, urgent need to FINISH things.
One thing at a time as much as possible, with the reward of experimentation as a tantalizing carrot.
Here's one that I finally finished. It is also an experiment... to put the nest on pulsing color.
Completion is my word for the year.

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