Odysseus and Report on Business Mag

I was fortunate enough in December to be commissioned to create two images for Report On Business Magazine out of Toronto.  The article is about investing and how our human instincts can sometimes lead us to make poor decisions.

In this first image our businessman ties himself down to his investments even though there’s an oncoming storm in the background. Much like Odysseus ties himself to the mast of his ship as they sail past the sirens our businessman has tied himself up to prevent himself from panicking and running away when he’s in the thick of the storm.

In the second image we see our businessman beat and torn but still alive and still holding on to his investments.

The moral?  Don’t sell your stocks just because it’s looking bad out there!    Oh, and go ahead and apply this symbolism to anything: friendship, relationships, careers, etc.

I'm still working on that book...

...that one I've been talking about a lot.  It's possible that life just doesn't give you enough time to complete all the projects you start.  It's possible that I've already shot the entire thing but haven't had enough time to put into the insane amount of hours it's going to cost to edit this thing together.  It's possible I think about it every day wishing I could hole up and devote an undisturbed month to it and complete it.  It will happen.  I think the time is coming.  

At least for Chapter 1.  

Soon...

Paige and the Thousand

Ryan Kittleman

Steer the Stars

The Sea, the Sea

Here's a new addition to my personal portfolio - one cold morning, a very willing, dedicated, and humble friend, and half a day of retouching.

I think I've tried to explain my conceptual process in the past but sometimes I can feel a bit defensive about it.  In some ways I feel like it's a bit backwards because I don't always have the true meaning of the work figured out before I make it and then I get down, thinking that, as an artist, the work doesn't mean as much if you didn't have a clear intent when making it.  Truth is I almost never understand it until it's finished.  Generally, I only come to understand the work after it's been created.   

Some of the stuff I do is just fun, just image making for the sake of it, but then there are images that are really personal and important to me.  Really from the beginning they all start from the same place - it's only through the process of making the stuff that I figure out if it's any good, how much it means to me, and what it is I'm doing.       

The man in this shot, the awesome bay area theatrical artist Nathaniel "Natty" Justiniano, had a lot to say  about what he saw in this image.  I love that the image takes on new forms in different peoples minds.   So much of the intrigue is in the viewers own narrative that I'm often hesitant to explain what the image means to me.   I don't want to ruin the impression of an image with words because if the viewer can create their own narrative, filling in the blanks with their own story, then the work really becomes alive and personal.  That's why I think my best work is the work that doesn't have a statement, but asks a question.   That being said only read the bottom three sentences if you want to because I tell you what it is I see when I look at this image.

*Spoiler Alert!*

To me, when I look at this image I see myself.  I see my fear of the unknown, my fear of change, my fear of death.  By making this picture I think I'm living through the man in it because he's a lot braver than me. 

-Matt

Max Burke

Max Burke is a good friend of mine.  He is a freelance writer living and working in Brooklyn.  His work has appeared in Altered Zones and Prefix Magazine among others.  Max has lived in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Los Angeles. Follow his twitter here: twitter.com/maxburke