Liza Myers' Blog

Gopalan Contemporary Art

2009-11-08T13:39:30Z

Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance.

It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours.

Orison Swett Marden

I'm still waiting for the success part, but as each step is completed, I choose to mark it as a step on the way.
It's been yet another long haul getting the work done and delivered to the exhibition. Teaching five classes, designing new curricula, arranging new courses for spring summer and fall has been very demanding. I am grateful for the support of friends, family and Castleton College in making this exhibit possible.

Gliding across the heartland of America, a LONG ride across country 938 miles each way to deliver work to Gopalan Contemporary in Terre Haute, Indiana has been a reward. The show was very well received with much positive response at the opening.
Terre Haute is full of art! Museums, galleries, public art in surprising and wonderful places. Visiting the college of St. Mary of the Woods was illuminating. Founded by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin an Catholic American saint who educated young women in the early 19th century. So astonishing to imagine the difficulties she and her sister nuns overcame to

Shell Chapel

bring education to girls in the wilderness.
At one point she was called back to France, a journey which involved stage coaches, ferries, and a perilous journey across the Atlantic. When a storm threatened to sink the ship she prayed to St. Anne and promised to build a chapel for her in Terre Haute if she lived to return. The resulting chapel is encrusted with shells that form images, and decorative colors. It is dear, artful, original and unique.
What fun to go there!

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Past, Present, Future

2009-10-08T15:15:50Z

Liza, Ernest Pittman

It was so lovely to have a visit with Ernest Pittman, who was driving up to Vermont for a workshop in Waterbury. We met at my show in Castleton, at his request and had a fine dinner at the Blue Cat Bistro. Good conversation, catching up on the last 20 years of our lives: what we're doing, where the kids are and what they're doing. So interesting!.
It's remarkable how circles of influence and connection intersect and separate over time. To reconnect is such a nice validation.

The show is about to come down. Walking into the gallery for the last six weeks had been so pleasant. I was just handed a copy of the movie that film students shot of my gallery talk. Haven't had a chance to look at it yet. If there's anything worth posting, I'll try to figure out how.

A disappointment was that there was no review of the show. Two articles, but no review. You'd think I'd know at this point in my career that the artist needs to do follow up on press releases. Dogged perseverance. It is by no means enough to just make the art, even though it seems it should be. Reading In Full Bloom, it's obvious that O'Keefe and Stieglitz were persistant and broad reaching in their PR outreach.

Seven Days 9-09small

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Art, art I want you.

2009-10-02T11:04:45Z

Kidz Aartz Summer Studio program in my studio in BRandon Vermont

Working joyfully with clay in Kidz Aartz

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

- Marcel Proust

I just received a great Youtube connection: inspiration and innocence, set to music, a poem about how important the arts are to all of us. A sweet, original, validating musical video about art: Tanya Davis' song Art by Andrea Dorfman.

Afterschool aartz program

To watch it click here: Enjoy!

A great way to start the day.
It was sent to me by Brian Treece in Portland, Oregon via his Twitter account @PDXCulture.

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Cyber connectivity and Inspiration in the Art World

2009-10-01T00:33:07Z

Self-expression must pass

Eternal Return by Joseph Raffael

into communication for its fulfillment.

Pearl Buck

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, texting, cell phones, Skype, hoaxes, cyber art... new technology surrounds us with tools, options, decisions and distractions.
The barrage is constant.
The only control available is in your head.
Choosing inspiration is a good start.
I have always found serenity, energy and clarity in the works of Joseph Raffael.
Enjoy a visual feast and respite and then:
Go to the studio and MAKE ART!

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Moonlight is Sculpture

2009-09-25T22:46:02Z

Nathanial Hawthorne

A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere -Frank Stella

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.- Michelangelo

Moonlight is sculpture. -Nathanial Hawthorne.

What a thrilling series of quotations!
I've been working on a series of small, clay wall sculptures that I'm sure Hawthorne would disapprove of! It was interesting to read of his prolific creativity beginning in early adolescence. His life was one of privilege and opportunity, but he used it well, despite his judgmental, puritanical tones. Interesting that he added the W to Hawthorne to change his name so as to not be associated with a grandfather who was a judge at the Salem Witch trials, but then later expressed such puritanical condemnation in the Scarlet Letter. He later wrote: "I have not lived, but only dreamed about living."

Moon Dancer IV Clay wall sculpture

Small Moonscape Golden Sky

Meanwhile, back in the studio, I've mostly not been in the studio. The past two weeks have been spent teaching, organizing to teach this semester, next semester, summer and fall 2010. I'm pretty booked! But now that is mostly organized and I can get back to work with color, clay and canvas.
I particularly like Hawthorne's quote. It speaks to my most recent clay wall pieces, currently hanging in the show.
The moon is ever present.

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O'Keeffe, Dove, the Clark

2009-09-11T20:12:53Z

Joseph Mallord William Turner

It's already been several weeks since our wild ride down the back bone of the Taconic Mountains to Williamstown MA, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to see: Circles of Influence, O'Keeffe and Dove.

It was wonderful to see old friends by O'Keeffe such as
The Lawrence Tree painted in 1929.

O'Keeffe tree DH Lawrence ranch

When the Wadsworth Atheneum acquired the painting in 1981, O’Keeffe commented that, “The painting was done so it could be hung with any end up.” The painting is presently hung in keeping with the artist’s strong early preference, which she stated on numerous occasions, instructing that the tree should “stand on its head.”
The painting is in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum

At the Clark they had hung it with the trunk on top. Very fun.
The show addressed the interaction between the two artists. Very interesting to see how their work was correlated and how they respectfully fed off of each other's imagery. Initially O'Keeffe, the younger of the two, responded to Dove's development of abstraction, but as her work rapidly matured Dove's imagery obviously begins to respond to hers.
All very interesting.

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Dreams of nakedness

2009-08-30T14:33:15Z

Canyon Flower

Last night I dreamed I was sitting on the lawn of the college where I'm teaching, reading a book, with no shirt on. I was completely comfortable half naked on the lawn, quietly reading an artist's bio-probably De Kooning. Upon awakening, the simplicity of the metaphor became obvious- having my show on the walls of the gallery is much like exposing my vulnerable body to the world.

Diva of the Gesture 30" x 31" ceramic

For better or worse, it's on the wall: my beliefs, goals, aesthetics, choices, abilities, values: my reality.

Fragile Dawn

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Adjacent Realities

2009-08-26T14:29:12Z

Becalmed, Rivernest, Champlain Dawn

Long is the road from conception to completion.

-Moliere

You must submit to supreme suffering
in order to discover the completion of joy.
-John Calvin

I must admit I never thought I would be quoting John Calvin! But I can relate to this quote- "Normal" people don't understand the foolish obsession of the artist- to forgo social invitations, let the dishes pile up in the sink, neglect the niceties of life. (like cooking) Supreme suffering would, of course, be an exaggeration.

It's been far too long since I allowed myself time to blog. I have been on a long, intense journey this year, finally culminating in the show "Adjacent Realities" that now hangs in the Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College. The final exhibition is very different than I had initially visualized it, but still I feel as if I met the goal.
It is a huge space,100' x 35' at least. I was worried about filling it with work that would be beautiful, compelling and intriguing, and of course technically adept. All I can say is that it's been a good challenge, and I'm still reeling from the intensity of meeting it. Especially while trying to maintain all the other parts of my life, including teaching some wonderful students this summer, and working on a new website
"Becalmed" was an particularly difficult challenge. To get the reflections to work on the imaginary ripples took so many hours that I am amazed that I persevered. Which synapse in the brain keeps reconnecting again and again, doggedly trying a different approach to the same problem? One day I stood at the easel for 13 hours getting it just right. Then I realized I had muted the color too much and lost the drama. The energy was gone. So I painted it out and started again.
A salvation in this process was in reading the book de Kooning by Stevens and Swan, the first book of Alyson Stanfield's Twitter-based art book club. Though I find his Women to be troubling images, his work ethic and commitment to art were epic.
During my grueling, obsessive work on "Becalmed" I allowed myself to find refuge in clay sketches. It's another

Moon Dancer II

language entirely: much more spontaneous and intuitive. Both the medium of clay, and this image of the dancing girl reaching for the moon have been with me since childhood.
In the show there are 33 pieces, 23 of which were finished in 2008 or 9. Eight sculpture, 10 clay wall pieces, and the rest is acrylic on canvas.
Time to get back to work.

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Listening to my muse

2009-07-26T01:33:03Z

River Nest FInal

”When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.”

River nest, almost but not quite.

Henry J. Kaiser

I'm hearing that voice loud and clear. I thought it was finished, but it kept calling to me, telling me that it needed more movement and interest in the lower left. Color differences in the two images are only due to lighting. The colors are pretty much as in the final.

Last week mornings were spent painting with several fine art students. We drew with charcoal and pencil and then painted in acrylic.

Plein air painting in Vermont

Our soggy weather finally gave us a break letting us go out into the Vermont landscape to paint. Acrylic, loaded with a retarding agent, worked perfectly for plein air painting. On our last day we had a model in class for drawing and a small figure study in acrylic.

That was a ton of fun!

Back to the easel!

Figure studies in Liza's studio.

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Art Transforms and Empowers

2009-07-11T13:15:14Z

Lin installing the YDDC Aztec Calendar Mural in the Pera Building in Santa Fe New Mexico

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation."

--Pearl S. Buck

Sometimes, however, circumstance leads the young to attempt the impossible in terrible ways- through violence and crime. Strangely, this powerful mural is the result of just such forceful, youthful energy, both good and bad.
The Albuquerque Youth Diagnostic and Detention Center is a teaching facility for very troubled young men and women. They have committed a serious crime, and are on the brink of lengthy incarceration. YDDC is a stepping stone. They are evaluated and given educational challenges and training, They have a chance to learn new skills with which to re-enter the world.
Lin Putnam-Johnson, my friend of many years has been an art educator at YDDC for more than a decade. Over the years she has helped countless youth find inspiration, self esteem and motivation through their artistic abilities. Indeed, many are very talented but have never had the opportunity or tools to learn basic studio skills, much less the encouragement and guidance to follow through on an artistic project.
A great gift Lin gives them is validation and connection to their heritage, as evidenced by this vibrant mural, now installed in the Pera Building in Santa Fe. It was designed and created entirely by students from YDCC, with the guidance of Lin. One of the students who worked intensely on the mural is now going to art school, emerging from the weight of socio-economic pressures to enter into society in a positive way. It's a long road, but he's taken many steps already.
A powerful example of art as a transformative power.

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