MATTHEW SOLOMON
June 21, 1966 – February 21, 2021
The Mildred Complex(ity) / 37b Main Street / Narrowsburg / NY 12764
June 10 through July 18
Reception / Friday June 18 / 5pm - 8pm
"One morning this past summer, I caught a glimpse of a turtle in my pond. I thought, 'I have the perfect glaze;' I looked at some Hiroshige drawings and started working. The myth of the world being a series of turtles standing on each other's backs came to mind, and my Ukiyo-e turtle became a motif for a Delft-inspired tulipiere. Covered in opium poppies. Standing on dung beetles.
As the days passed, I found myself thinking of Khmer temples, lost in the jungle. Ancient things. Decayed, erotic, and lush. I noticed a design of subtle, broken symmetry was guiding my placement of buds, stems, and leaves. The work became a fractal. I could only see the colors in my head. Heat and chemistry did the rest. In the end, while the piece is still about turtle shells, tulipieres, Khmer ruins, and fractals, it's ultimately about something else. About the nature of nature. About wholes being greater than the sum of their parts. My intent is not to copy something but to capture its essence. To create something that seems timeless and natural. That evokes mystery and wonder. Like a flower. As if it were grown not made."
"...I studied art for much of my life; The High School of Art and Design (Drawing); The School of Visual Arts (Film); The Appalachian Center for Crafts (Wood, Clay, Metal & Glass); Alfred University (B.F.A. Glass, 1991). I learned how to make things but had no idea what to make. I graduated from law school in 1997 and became a trial lawyer in New York City.
One day, while working in the garden to relieve stress, I was struck by the sublime beauty of growing things—the satisfaction of dirt under your fingernails. Suddenly, I knew what to make. In 2003 I quit my job and moved to Upstate New York. Built a studio and bought a kiln. I've never looked back."
Image / Turtles All The Way Down: An Apocryphal Fractal 2018 / 8 x 8 x 27 inches / Photographers, Pernille and Thomas Loof