My latest NFT from the collection "A Play on Light", available at NFT Showroom.
There is a watermark imprinted upon reality, at every scale throughout the universe. An eddy in your mug of coffee, a spiraling galaxy, an electron’s decaying orbit.
We dip our paddle into the swirling waters, trying to determine our path in this life, and in doing so we too create spirals in our wake.
Add this piece to your collection: https://nftshowroom.com/mattbrown.art/gallery/mattbrown.art_a-play-on-light_poyll-sluggee
Resolution: 8000 x 3667 px
Tools: GNU Image Manipulation Program
Edition size: 10
"Poyll Sluggee"
A blackbird sings and it sounds like water given flight. It’s evening and spring rain passed by earlier in the day, and somehow you can still hear it. You can hear it in the quality of the bird’s song. In the way that the sound bounces around the drying walls and the nooks and crannies of houses and yards piled up around one another. Wet stacks, shiny flagstones, ferns and potted plants and weeds, stretching out and holding onto droplets, like diamonds. Precious rain.
You can hear it. The song has splintered into a thousand fragments and washes over surfaces of brick and leaf. It reflects and ripples and cascades through the crack in the window, a still-wet echo.
I wish I could paint it.
The blackbird’s throat warbles like a brook but punches the air with the force of a heavyweight. And the backlash of that punch spills out through the lower half of town - to the harbour, to the castle - atom by atom until it smashes against a wall or an eardrum.
Each atom passes on the bird’s song to the next, in a glorious procession of quantum whispers. And each atom knows exactly what to do. Each atom, a world in its own right, relays the message as it’s jostled back and forth. Uncountable worlds.
How is there any order in the tumult? How can I unpick the blackbird’s song from my daughter’s laughter? The world seems a frenzy of chaotic particles, fizzing, bursting, spinning, wheeling. Look closely enough and there no borders. No edges. There is no line where I end and the world begins. Everything extends over everything else. And yet...
Yet, amongst all this, I know I am distinct from the sea around me - a separate entity, with sentience and will - and then I see two forms before me that are more dear to me than my own life - my daughters, sitting next to me. And then finally, there is the song of the blackbird.
It sometimes feels like I live out at sea, and the surface of the world around me churns and flexes with impossible complexity. And yet, perhaps arrogantly, I dip my paddle into the water, thinking that I can navigate my way in the world. Choose my heading, in some small way.
And I create spirals in my wake.
People drift with me for a time, and they are close to me. We are a loose shoal of rafts heading into weather. Sometimes, they fall away until they disappear over the horizon. And when I cannot make out their forms anymore I am deeply saddened. But my daughters sit next to me. And the blackbird sings. And I am happy.
And there are spirals in my wake.
About me
I’m a Manx artist, living on the Isle of Man – a beautiful island in the Irish Sea.
I’ve been creating art for many years. My work can be found hanging on walls in Manhattan, Tokyo, London, Abu Dhabi, Madrid and even at sea on a US Navy warship!
You can see more of my work at my site.
The title of my pieces are written in Manx Gaelic – the language of my island.
Take five
Take five minutes out of your day to stop and reflect. Art is like a portal, it can transport your mind away from the relentless stress of everyday life and give you the space to experience something profound.
I invite you to stop everything- everything – just for five minutes. Stare at some art (and I mean really stare), and open up your mind to feeling and thinking whatever floats to the surface.
I’m always surprised at how powerful this can be. Finding art that really resonates with you, that speaks to you, is one of the most profound things a human mind can experience. It can lead to insights about yourself, life, and existence in general.
Go on, try it! And if you like, you can let me know what you experience.
Get in touch
Art is all about communication and I’d love to hear your thoughts on my work, or art in general – why not head over to Twitter and drop my a line? Or leave a comment below.