Page from a mixed media book illustrating re-sequenced excerpts of various poems by T.S. Eliot.
From “Portrait of a Lady”:
“Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who hold it in your hands”;
…
“You let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see.”
I’ve been thinking of looking into the The Gowanus Studio Space. Could be a good chance to do some more printmaking.
Walking down Third Avenue in Brooklyn after brunch at Bar Tano, I spotted her:
I’d seen her before. I’m not 100% certain, but I believe I snapped these in Chinatown in Manhattan:
So who is this Matt Siren?
Here are three recent paintings, completed since the beginning of the year. Well, at least I think they’re complete. They feel complete but they are also still in that lingering phase, and they all need to be titled.
The first painting below currently has the working title of Collaborator. Previously it was called Captive (2). I’m not completely sold on either title yet. I think I need to get a better photo of it, but I’m very happy with the outcome of this painting. (Note 04-14-2008: new photo taken, the title is growing on me.)
The second painting is another in the series of St. Sebastian themed works. It has the working title of Deluged, but that’s not really working for me. Other titles under consideration include The Lonely Age, Darling Whore, and The Summing Up. Those are derived from chapter titles in the collaged table of contents from the book The Homosexual Generation. Another chapter from this ridiculous diatribe is called “The Wave of the Future,” which probably informed the addition of the wave shape at the bottom of he painting, as well as the current (non)working title.
Finally we have another Sebastian painting. This one is currently just Untitled. Someday the right title will fall into place.
File this under better late than never… I thought I would list a few artists whose work I found intriguing during the last Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour open studios back in October of 2007.
This guy’s work is pretty amazing:
“Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination…”
