Press archive · 2006

Article in MSDC magazine

"Art of War"
November 2006

Text of the original page

Sesow in MSDC magazine, 2006

Sesow in MSDC magazine

FALL 2006 edition

"Art of War"

2006

2 images from the original page · click to enlarge

Article in MSDC magazine, 2006: image 02 from the original sesow.com press page — msdc1.jpg

Searchable text of the clippings

Machine-read (OCR) from the scans above on October 11, 2026. Spelling and line breaks may be wrong; check against the image before quoting.

Image 02 msdc1.jpg view scan

Modern

the studio apartment on the sixth floor of an

| old building in the middle of D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood looks like an overused

canvas. Red, yellow, blue and black slashes of acrylic and oil paint cover the main wall above artist Matt Sesow’s table-relics from hours, sometimes days, spent creating works on canvases that rest against its surface.

The floor below is covered with scuff marks and black paint.

And on the far wall, above his computer and in front of a window that overlooks D.C. highrises, is a print of Sesow’s “Collateral Damage,” a five-foot-long commentary on the war in Iraq.

In the foreground is a startled onlooker, behind him are dismembered hands, carrying swords. Amputees stand in the stark red background with hundreds of coffins below them. The coffins are draped with Iraqi flags.

Sesow doesn’t paint about war, he said, to be popular. He intention is to start a dialogue.

“There’snot much about war being done because war isn’t popular,” Sesow said sitting in his studio apartment on a Wednesday afternoon. “I’m not afraid to put it out there. I’m not trying to be popular.”

“Damage” was one of dozens of Sesow paintings exhibited at D.C.’s Studio One Eight in 2003. He was among three artists (Dana Ellyn and James Coleman also exhibited war-related pieces) included in the show, one of the city’s few about the current conflict,

Since 2003, Sesow, 39, has painted hundreds of works about Iraq.

‘The war paintings, like all of his works, feature amputees, a condition to which Sesow can relate (he lost his left hand in a plane accident when he was

The work gives Sesow a political, editorial and personal voice.

He created “Shock above right, after reading a July 2 Washington Post articleabout bombings at a Baghdad market. “No Way Out,” left, a mixed-media work on

War

Images

chipboard, depicts a struggle some might say epitomizes the political climate of indecision in Iraq.

Sesow is a self-described news hound. He reads several printand online newspapers daily and watches the BBC and Middle Eastern news networks. Hot-button

issues are inspiration for his work,

The former IBM computer programer, and “self- teaching” artist, began painting full time about 10 years ago. He left the computer industry in search of a more intellectually and artistically challenging life.

“I wasn’t sure this was something I could do in the beginning,” Sesow said. “Everyone has 15 good paintings in them. The key is to keep going past that and challenge yourself.”

‘Works like “Damage” he said, make the risk of leaving a steady job worth it.

“It goes beyond the headlines,” Sesow said,

Source and citation

Original page: http://www.sesow.com/msdc.htm (sesow.com)
Saved copy of the original page: zoomable page images
Internet Archive: all captures of the original address
Listed on press.sesow.com under “2006: Interviews, Postcards, and other Press”

Cite as: “Article in MSDC magazine.” Matt Sesow press archive, 2006. history.sesow.com/press/2006-article-in-msdc-magazine.html. Accessed [date].

Clippings and photographs are kept here so the record survives if the original pages go offline. Copyright in each article stays with its publisher and author; corrections and permission requests to sesow@sesow.com.

Saved copies — every page, full text

The original page as it was saved, every page as an image you can zoom.

Every outside source cited on this page, kept here as page images you can zoom and as complete, searchable text — so nothing depends on a link that may disappear. Use your browser’s Find (Ctrl/Cmd+F) to search all of it.

Saved copy · 3 pages

PDF

Click a page to open it — scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move, arrow keys for the next page.

The full text of this page is printed above, under “Text of the original page”, with the machine-read text of its clippings.

Full text

Text taken from the saved copy (where a page was only an image, it was machine-read and may contain errors — check against the page image before quoting). Copyright remains with the original publisher; kept for the historical record.

7/6/26, 6:57 AM

Sesow in MSDC magazine, 2006

this page:

Sesow in MSDC magazine
FALL 2006 edition
"Art of War"
2006

http://www.sesow.com/msdc.htm

1/3

116126, 6:57 AM

Modern

he studio apartment on the sixth floor of an
| old building in the middle of D.C.’s Adams

Morgan neighborhood looks like an overused
canvas. Red, yellow, blue and black slashes of acrylic
and oil paint cover the main wall above artist Matt
Sesow’s table-relics from hours, sometimes days, spent
creating works on canvases that rest against its surface.

The floor below is covered with scuff marks and
black paint.

And on the far wall, above his computer and in
front of a window that overlooks D.C. highrises, is a print
of Sesow’s “Collateral Damage,” a five-foot-long
commentary on the war in Iraq.

In the foreground is a startled onlooker, behind
him are dismembered hands, carrying swords. Amputees
stand in the stark red background with hundreds of
coffins below them. The coffins are draped with Iraqi
flags.

Sesow doesn’t paint about war, he said, to be
popular. He intention is to start a dialogue.

“There’s not much about war being done because
war isn’t popular,” Sesow said sitting in his studio
apartment on a Wednesday afternoon. “I’m not afraid to
put it out there. I’m not trying to be popular.”

“Damage” was one of dozens of Sesow paintings
exhibited at D.C.’s Studio One Eight in 2003. He was
among three artists (Dana Ellyn and James Coleman also
exhibited war-related pieces) included in the show, one of
the city’s few about the current conflict.

Since 2003, Sesow, 39, has painted hundreds of
works about Iraq.

‘The war paintings, like all of his works, feature
amputees, a condition to which Sesow can relate (he lost
his left hand ina plane
accident when he was
8).

The work
gives Sesow a
political, editorial and
personal voice.

He created “Shock
and Awe, 2006,”
above right, after
reading a July 2
Washington Post
article about bombings
at a Baghdad market.
“No Way Out,” left, a
mixed-media work on

batp:/www.sesow.com/msde htm

Sesow in MSC magazine, 2006

War

Images

chipboard, depicts a struggle some might say epitomizes
the political climate of indecision in Iraq.

Sesow is a self-described news hound. He reads
several print and online newspapers daily and watches the
BBC and Middle Eastern news networks. Hot-button

issues are inspiration for his work.

‘The former IBM computer programer, and “self-
teaching” artist, began painting full time about 10 years
ago. He left the computer industry in search of a more
intellectually and artistically challenging life.

“J wasn’t sure this was something I could do in
the beginning,” Sesow said. “Everyone has 15 good
paintings in them. The key is to keep going past that and
challenge yourself.”

Works like “Damage” he said, make the risk of
leaving a steady job worth it.

“Tt goes beyond the headlines,” Sesow said.

[page 2 machine-read (OCR) from the image]

7/6/26, 6:57 AM

Sesow in MSDC magazine, 2006

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PAINTINGS...

http://www.sesow.com/msdc.htm

3/3