Brutarian Magazine Interview

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7/6/26, 6:41 AM

https://www.sesow.com/brutarian.htm

www.Sesow.com (Contemporary Brutarian Art)

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116126,6:41 AM

www-Sesow.com (Contemporary Brutarian Art)

“A picture . . .” semi-fa-

mous French philosopher,

Gilles Deleuze, once was

heard = to. mus

lugubriously, “all you can

do is see it.” Nebraska

born, former Peace Corps

worker, Matt Sesow, can

empathize. His compas-

sionate but wildly expres

sionistic paintings are all

about that which is more

than picture. Composi

tions, perhaps is the better

term, compositions com-

posed and designed as an

escape from the visible.

Taking the viewer to a

place he or she may not

wish to go as here one will

find the most exalted flights of morbidity, the most
extravagant caprices of uncontrolled anger, the
most savage contempt for the language of art.

Matt is a true Brutarian, a self-taught painter who,
despite having his work extensively shown and
written about, has little interest in becoming part
of the art network. Sesow appears unconcerned
with communicating in the accepted tropes of the
professional; he defers to no recognized code, nor
to the rules of any recognized idiom. “Crude!”

work and we thought
he'd like to share his
thoughts on art, the cre~
ative process and the full
catastrophe philistines
euphemistically refer to
as “life.”

Brutarian: Asa young-
ster you didn’t diddle
with paint and brush,
what gave birth to the
sudden enthusiasm for
crowding canvasses?

Sesow: My wife. She’
very pretty and you un-
derstand, don’t you, that
when you fall for some-
one, initially at least,

you'll do almost anything? Well, Carol, my wife
had a friend Gina who was a painter and Gina
would paint with her, so to make points I said I
‘was a painter too and just began to paint with them.
T began by tearing out pictures from newspapers
and trying to copy on a piece of paper some of the
photos that interested me,

Brutarian: So you flat out lied to your future wife.

Sesow: Well, yeah, I said to myself, “Here’s my

BEYOND RAW:
THE VISIONARY ART
OF MATT SESOW

“Unfinished!” “Aberrant!” the boulevardier may
jeer, but it may well be that Matt’s approach re-
sults in a creative range beyond the normal com-
pass of our responses . . .Perhaps not, neverthe-
less, Mr. Sesow has created a fascinating body of
18

bntps:/ www sesow.com/brutarian htm

big chance,” and so I began to draw. Part of it too
was an effort on both our parts to save money. We
asked ourselves, “How can we entertain ourselves,
and save money at the same time?” Still, I tried
really hard to impress her and worked hard at

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6:41 AM

getting better. I also told Carol I was a poet too
and that was easier initially because Thad the tools:
pen and paper. But still, she never questioned my
abilities or claim that I was an artist. And by our
third date I was watching Carol and her friend Gina,
painting at the kitchen tabl

and painting in earn

Brutarian: So you weren't going to art books and
looking at or for particular works or styles ..

Sesow: No, I was watching my two gal friend:
and clipping photos from newspapers and going
from there . ..and using whatever materials were
on hand. Fortunately, since Gina was an artist, there
‘was paint and brushes. But both Gina and Carol
would work very slowly; I, on the other hand,
‘would have ten pictures done by the end of the
night. Well, by early morning, anyway. Even to-
day, I think my best work is that which is done
quickly.

Brutarian: You enjoy working quickly so is all

of this instinctive? Does conscious thought ev

enter into the composition?

Sesow: No, it’s all very conscious but it’s like
dreaming while awake; 1
follow the pattern of the
dream. Although, with
every single painting I do
Ltry to go into the process

ha story or, at the very
least, an idea. 1 sit down
with a blank canvas and I
think of a classical or a
bad situation - well, some-
times a happy occurrence,
but rarely - and try to put
it down. Then I let my
subconscious take over.

Brutarian: Your pre-
ferred medium?

Sesow: Oil on cardboard.
Tike a hard surface be

cause it doesn’t give; it fights back. Tove oil. The
smell, the texture, the danger of it. Some of my
more successful paintings though, are in acrylic. 1
don’t know why but since I’m so unfamiliar with
schools of art and method and medium that things
sometimes work despite my lack of knowledge.

Brutarian: There seems to be more than an un-
dercurrent of hostility in your work?

batps:!/www.sesow.convorutarian. htm

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lout as a human being, I have to use painting to
control my, well, it’s not anger exactly, but a way
to channel anti-social feelings.

Brutarian: Your paintings appear to be somewhat
influenced by the work of Paul Klee and Otto Dix.

ISesow: Fascinating, isn’t it as Tknow so very little
fabout painters and painting. T'm familiar with Sue
ICoe and that’s about it.

Brutarian: But you're being somewhat disingenu-
lous aren't you? You know Rembrandt and
Michelangelo, you know their work?

20

temporary Brutarian Att)

Sesow: Of course Tknow the
names but ask me to pick a
Rembrandt from the
Michelangelos and I couldn't
doit

Brutarian: Do youconsider
yourself an Art Brut practi-
tioner or rather, a “raw” art-
ist because you certainly fit
the criteria

‘Sesow: Idon’t know what's
the criteria?

Brutarian: Well, first ofall
you're an outsider, you're not
working within the estab-
lished network of galleries
and agents and journals,
etc...
esow: That's for sure.
Brutarian:
this should have been num-
ber one, you have little or no
training in the traditional
sense and three: the te
niques one associates with
effective painting
ow: Whatever that may

Two or maybe

Brutarian: . .. you disdain or have lit
in emulating or learning.

Sesow: Like that painting in the corner, there; I
used the other end of the brush simply because it
felt right. I suppose too, I could use other colors
but I just use what I want to at the time.

Brutarian: Your press kit calls what you do, your
style, “thrash.

Sesow: I grew up with thrash music. I love the
‘energy of it and that’s what I try to generate in my

batps:/www.sesow.comvrutarian. htm

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paintings. I listen to it when I paint. Huske
music that seeks to exercise all your senses. The
Pixies really work for me although I'm not sure
whether that qualifies as thrash.

Brutarian: Recent interviews find you enthused
over a newfound ability to effectively transfer
what's in your head to the canvas. So what's in
that teaming brain of yours?

‘Sesow: Life experiences. Ican talk about particu-
lar paintings but asking what's in the head, that’s
difficult. Perhaps what I meant by “

that I feel now

that I'm using

color and line and

form to more ef-

fectively express

myself

Brutarian: As
one outside the
mainstream are
you worried about
becoming too
popular and be-
cause of this try
ing to repeat or
conform to that

which brings yo

‘om (Contemporary Brutarian Ar)

‘Sesow: No, I'm not worried about that. What
T'd like to do is reach people like myself with
what I do or have done, inspiring, encoura,
ing those people to paint, Some critics call it
trauma art because [lost half my arm asa child
iman accident with an airplane but I'm not sure
T'duuse that term. Still, the 1oss ofthe limb has
helped define me and if seeing me inspires oth-
rs to paint that’s fine. A lot of people want to
pigeonhole it but aside from the first year or
so when much of what I did dealt with that
topic or that pain I really wouldn't character-
ize what Ido as the art of the disabled. There's
other things to deal with aren’t there? Inti
macy, politics ... use the pain of my loss to

help with other themes, loss of a loved one, dis

covering your girlfriend sleeping with someone else
but I wouldn’t say that accident defines my work.

Much of what I do is the result too of an enormous,

lack of self-confidence; I try and I try and then I

give up and then . . . the painting’s done. Every

painting's a failure in acertain sense. Just one af-

terthe other and it drains the hell out of me. Yet I

find myself using my lack of ability to bring out

the intensity and the power I'd like to think I pos-

ees

btps:/wow ses

ww gonn/brutarian htm

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