2008.10.19: October 19, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Solomon Islands: Art: Painting: Disabilities: Daily Press: Sesow's searing art exhibited for all the world to see

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Solomon Islands: Special Report: Artist and Solomon Islands RPCV Matt Sesow: 2008.10.19: October 19, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Solomon Islands: Art: Painting: Disabilities: Daily Press: Sesow's searing art exhibited for all the world to see

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Sesow's searing art exhibited for all the world to see

Sesow's searing art exhibited for all the world to see

Matt Sesow was just 8 years old when he learned about the cruelty of chance and the pain of being permanently disfigured. Playing in a field near his Nebraska home, he was struck by the propeller of a small plane attempting to land at an adjacent airstrip. Though doctors succeeded in re-attaching his severed left arm, he ultimately lost his left — and dominant — hand. Nearly two decades passed before Sesow — then a software engineer based in Washington, D.C. — began sifting through this traumatic experience by taking up painting. Two more years went by before the self-taught artist displayed his labors in public for the first time, selling 14 works on the sidewalks of Georgetown. Sesow started painting full-time in 2000, producing images of such biting, frantic, slashing impact that they led to exhibits at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C. and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. He also struck a chord with such influential contemporary folk art collectors as Baron and Ellin Gordon of Williamsburg. Artist Matt Sesow served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Solomon Islands.

Sesow's searing art exhibited for all the world to see

Sesow's searing art exhibited for all the world to see

Mark St. John Erickson | At a Glance

October 19, 2008

Caption: Mefloquin by Matt Sesow.

[Excerpt]

Matt Sesow was just 8 years old when he learned about the cruelty of chance and the pain of being permanently disfigured.

Playing in a field near his Nebraska home, he was struck by the propeller of a small plane attempting to land at an adjacent airstrip. Though doctors succeeded in re-attaching his severed left arm, he ultimately lost his left — and dominant — hand.

Nearly two decades passed before Sesow — then a software engineer based in Washington, D.C. — began sifting through this traumatic experience by taking up painting. Two more years went by before the self-taught artist displayed his labors in public for the first time, selling 14 works on the sidewalks of Georgetown.

Sesow started painting full-time in 2000, producing images of such biting, frantic, slashing impact that they led to exhibits at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C. and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. He also struck a chord with such influential contemporary folk art collectors as Baron and Ellin Gordon of Williamsburg.

Two of Sesow's searing yet unexpectedly complex paintings can now be seen at the Gordon Galleries of Old Dominion University, which became home to much of the couple's nationally known collection in August 2007. For all their intensity, however, these insightful explorations of the human psyche represent just the opening shot in a new exhibit of more than 50 works called "Uncommon Power: The Eye of the Self-Taught Artist."

Organized by curator Ramona Austin — and drawn entirely from the Gordon's collection — the show is only the second in the 2,500-square-foot gallery since it opened. But it's far more structured and instructive than the inaugural exhibit as a survey of self-taught art.

It also demonstrates time and again that these homely if often wildly inspired talents can be the equal of any academically trained artist — and perhaps connect with ordinary viewers more strongly because of the way they embrace the whims, worries and wounds of everyday life.

Sesow's gripping vision of two addiction-addled inmates in "Out of Detox," for example, doesn't shrink from expressing the manic, self-destructive existence led by its subjects. They look fundamentally disturbed — and Sesow underscores their beleaguered conditions with his thrashing brush strokes and the unnatural blues, reds and greens he chooses for the color of their eyes, tongues and skins.

What singles this picture out even more is the evocative gesture of shared pain and companionship with which these strung-out souls hold each other. Even in their besieged state, they still manage to connect with one another — and stir feelings of a shared humanity with viewers.




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Headlines: October, 2008; RPCV Matt Sesow (Solomon Islands); Figures; Peace Corps Solomon Islands; Directory of Solomon Islands RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Solomon Islands RPCVs; Art; Painting; Disabilities





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Story Source: Daily Press

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Solomon Islands; Art; Painting; Disabilities

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