My good friend, Dorien Nielson, shared this with me the other day.  

Although her dark times are much blacker than mine,

just a shade darker than midnight,  

I am glad that I am not the only one who can experience the beauty that chases the light away

 and makes you anticipate its return some day.

"To go into the dark with a light...is to know the light.

To KNOW the dark, go dark.

Go without sight, and find that the dark too, 

blooms and sings,  and is traveled by

dark feet and dark wings."

~Wendell Berry

From Motion to Stillness @ Zhou B Art Center in Chicago

FROM MOTION TO STILLNESS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013 - MARCH 10, 2013
Opening: Friday, February 15, 2013 7pm - 10pm

From Motion to Stillness is an exhibition and a publication seeking to explore aspects of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude, reflection and calmness as a human experience. Despite living in a fast-paced and rapidly changing world, From Motion to Stillness invites the viewer and the reader alike to pause for a moment and experience stillness as interpreted by some of today's most exciting contemporary artists and poets.

From Motion to Stillness takes place in a gallery setting, print and digital formats. The exhibition is co-curated by Sergio Gomez of Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center (www.zbcenter.org) and Didi Menendez of PoetsArtists Magazine (www.poetsandartists.com)

RAD-ical

quartet #3 (session 4 in progress)

Mathew Samuel - Kutztown, PA

Samuel w a Lincolnic + Chin Curtain,

Samuel w a G Michaels,

Samuel w a Trident - Fu Manchu + Extended Chin Tuft,

Samuel alla Fidel,

36” x 36” ea.

Oil on Canvas

(session 3)

(session 2)

The new RAD quartet painted for the Motion to Stillness exhibition (opening Feb 15th - info below) is complete. I am posting each session of the Mathew Samuel quartet one per day. ENJOY!

  

The Zhou B Art Center in collaboration with PoetsArtists Magazine present February 15 to March 10, 2013:

From Motion to Stillness is an exhibition and a publication seeking to explore aspects of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude, reflection and calmness as a human experience. Despite living in a fast-paced and rapidly changing world, From Motion to Stillness invites the viewer and the reader alike to pause for a moment and experience stillness as interpreted by some of today's most exciting contemporary artists and poets.

From Motion to Stillness takes place in a gallery setting, print and digital formats. The exhibition is co-curated by Sergio Gomez of Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center (www.zbcenter.org) and Didi Menendez of PoetsArtists Magazine (www.poetsandartists.com). — with Mathew Samuel.

RAD-ical Mathew Samuel Quartet 3rd session (in progress)

RAD-ical

quartet #3 (session 3 in progress)

Mathew Samuel - Kutztown, PA

Samuel w a Lincolnic + Chin Curtain,

Samuel w a G Michaels,

Samuel w a Trident - Fu Manchu + Extended Chin Tuft,

Samuel alla Fidel,

36” x 36” ea.

Oil on Canvas

(session 2 in progress)

The new RAD quartet painted for the Motion to Stillness exhibition (opening Feb 15th - info below) is complete. I am posting each session of the Mathew Samuel quartet one per day. ENJOY!

  

The Zhou B Art Center in collaboration with PoetsArtists Magazine present February 15 to March 10, 2013:

From Motion to Stillness is an exhibition and a publication seeking to explore aspects of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude, reflection and calmness as a human experience. Despite living in a fast-paced and rapidly changing world, From Motion to Stillness invites the viewer and the reader alike to pause for a moment and experience stillness as interpreted by some of today's most exciting contemporary artists and poets.

From Motion to Stillness takes place in a gallery setting, print and digital formats. The exhibition is co-curated by Sergio Gomez of Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center (www.zbcenter.org) and Didi Menendez of PoetsArtists Magazine (www.poetsandartists.com). — with Mathew Samuel.

RAD-ical - Mathew Samuel Quartet

The new RAD quartet painted for the Motion to Stillness exhibition (opening Feb 15th - info below) is complete. I am posting each session of the Mathew Samuel quartet one per day. ENJOY!

RAD-ical

quartet #3 (session 2 in progress)

"@"Mathew Samuel - Kutztown, PA

Samuel w a Lincolnic + Chin Curtain,

Samuel w a G Michaels,

Samuel w a Trident - Fu Manchu + Extended Chin Tuft,

Samuel alla Fidel,

36” x 36” ea.

Oil on Canvas

The Zhou B Art Center in collaboration with PoetsArtists Magazine present February 15 to March 10, 2013:

From Motion to Stillness is an exhibition and a publication seeking to explore aspects of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude, reflection and calmness as a human experience. Despite living in a fast-paced and rapidly changing world, From Motion to Stillness invites the viewer and the reader alike to pause for a moment and experience stillness as interpreted by some of today's most exciting contemporary artists and poets.

From Motion to Stillness takes place in a gallery setting, print and digital formats. The exhibition is co-curated by Sergio Gomez of Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center (www.zbcenter.org) and Didi Menendez of PoetsArtists Magazine (www.poetsandartists.com). — with Mathew Samuel.

confucius + chocolate

“By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest;
Third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
- Confucius

“I try to reflect on what I observe and what I experience. This way I get to take a big ole bite of the bitter-sweet.

Reflection like chocolate is an anti-oxidant.

If I can’t take a bite of the dark stuff…then I can at least take a breath and turn inward.” 

- Confucius + MIC

Luis Gonzalez-Palma

Gustavo

I got to meet Luis Gonzalez-Palma this week. He gave a lecture at AIB. A beautiful mind...a romantic...and a visual poet. 

My favorite quote...
"It takes work to give yourself freedom" 
and 
"What isn't there is often more interesting" 

It was such a privilege to meet him.

I have long thought that what is more important in my work is not what I create...it is what people walk away with. The art/object serves a greater purpose when it is shared with the public and when the public brings meaning to it and takes it away to the recesses of their own existence.

MO series

grid #4

DO YOU HAVE A MOHAWK? Let me paint you.

Punk hawk (colored or dyed), 12" high Liberty spikes, deathhawk, psychobilly or quiff, frohawk, chelsea hawk, dreadhawk, lazy hawk, fanhawk, rayhawk, warhawk, shark fin, V-Cut, reverse mohawk, nohawk, hawkmo, fauxhawk, eurohawk, ponyhawk, curly hawk, beavertails, dread-hawks, emo-hawks, twin fins, etc.. WHATEVER YOUR STYLE...if you ROCK IT...I WANT IT! 

Email me to participate.
Matthew Ivan Cherry

I started this series having just cut my hair into a mohawk as a way to identify with my two sons; one who had left home for college and one just about to. It was in defiance of my having to let them go; my little rebellion of becoming an empty nester, however slow the process. I connected this transitional phase of my sons growing up and declaring their manhood or adulthood or their independence to a moment in my childhood when my older brother died in a car accident at the age of 19 (I was 15). 5 days before his death, he cut his hair in a mohawk style which completely shocked my parents and the small town where we lived in northeastern Arizona. The shock of his "extreme" hairstyle now seems a ridiculous and casual preface to the shock of his death we experienced just a few days later…a kind of "pre-echo". ”Remember when Kevin cut his hair in a Mohawk”…is now always followed by the silent recognition of his violent death just a few days later. They are forever synonymous in my recollection. I have seldom given his haircut much thought since then until recently when my sons cut their hair in the form of a mohawk. Now I see his face everywhere nearly 30 years later in the occasional face of someone sportin' a mohawk on the streets...a reminder of him or lack thereof in my immediate presence. Its arresting to see an unfamiliar face become recognizable and familiar and intimate though foreign. Its startling how time bends...and pain and joy re-surfaces and wraps the past toward the immediate present. Its surreal how a memory can place you back into a location though miles away.

Spread the word. You may not have one...but I bet you know someone who does. Re-post on your sites and direct people my way. Thanks!

Angie from UK

MO series

24" x 24"

Oil on Canvas

Giulio from Italy

MO series

24" x 24"

 Oi on Canvas

Maddie from Lancaster, PA

MO series

24" x 24"

Oil on Canvas

Ramon from South End

MO series

24" x 24"

Oil on Canvas

Raul from Venezuela

MO series

24" x 24"

Oil on Canvas

Matthew Ivan Cherry

Quandary: Nick in a Batman T-Shirt

joeSCHMO-SUPERhero series

48" x 48"

Oil on Canvas

NATE from Lancaster, PA - RAD series

Matthew Ivan Cherry 

NATE from Lancaster, PA - RAD series

Nate w Full Beard alla Grigori Rasputin

2012

Oil on Canvas

36" x 36"

Matthew Ivan Cherry 

NATE from Lancaster, PA - RAD series

GRID

2012

Oil on Canvas

36" x 36" ea

Matthew Ivan Cherry 

NATE from Lancaster, PA - RAD series

Nate w Flared Mutton, Stache and Soul

2012

Oil on Canvas

36" x 36"

Matthew Ivan Cherry 

NATE from Lancaster, PA - RAD series

Nate w Mutton Chops, Stache & Soul

2012

Oil on Canvas

36" x 36"

Matthew Ivan Cherry 

NATE from Lancaster, PA - RAD series

Nate w Extended Hogan and a li'l Soul

2012

Oil on Canvas

36" x 36"

RAD

DUDES...how cool are you with your hipster do, your mutton chops, your fu manchu? Do you ROCK a BEARD? Do you grow a GOAT...or sport a lil SOUL? Will you let me document you in 4 different styles? Let me paint you and add you to my series. Now thats cool! 

Email me for more info.

Matthew Ivan Cherry

The act of modifying one’s face to meet a standard of appropriateness by shaving is not so different than other forms of body modification...it is just one that majority has adopted as professional, aesthetically pleasing and/or appropriate. Throughout history men with facial hair have been ascribed attributes with polar opposite distinctions; on one hand being wise, virile, masculine, holy and on the other; wild, untamed, dirty, of ill repute, or a part of a sub-culture and/or radical intent. It is the very notion of what is defined as being “radical” that intrigues me. On one side you have men in radically conservative and/or religious cultures such as; Amish, Mennonite, Hassidic Judaism, Islamic and Muslim followers, and Sikhs who grow beards as signs of holiness and reverence. On the opposite side of the spectrum you have men in in subculture contexts like; bikers, hipsters, rockers, hippies, bears, tree huggers, people of the streets and even academics. Whether conservative or liberal, both sit on opposite sides of of males representing the “mainstream” e.g. from doctors to lawyers or bankers to Mormon Missionaries. The Corporate America “clean” cut look has been adopted as what is becoming, professional, and aesthetically appropriate. For this reason I have become intrigued by those who sport a beard for my series RAD (short for radical).If you are a dude and are wearing a beard and are willing to modify or document the growth from a clean shaven face to full growth...or if you change the style and are willing to document it for me...please email me to contribute to the project and I will add your face to my RAD series.All you brothers out there...I need a minimum of 4-8 versions of beards per dude. Pics need to be taken in a mugshot (no smiles/emotions) pose...frontal with no variance and need to be consistent with all four-8 styles or versions of facial hair. Just look at these paintings for a reference. These can be head shots...or full chest and head shots if you have tattoos or piercings.They will hang in groupings of 4 per subject."LEND ME YOUR bEARds…show me your RADical"

http://matthewivancherry.com/section/315362_RAD.html