Look Who's Coming: Matt Sesow

AT A GLANCE

KNOWN FOR | Emotionally raw, self-taught painting influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon.

BUT PAINTING TO LIVE OPERA? | Sesow will paint onstage and in the lobby during the Opera Company of North Carolina's production of "Don Giovanni" this week.

Sesow spoke with staff writer Ellen Sung from his home in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Q - How did this painting-and-opera project come about?

A - The person who contacted me is Robert Galbraith, the director of the opera company. He had met me at a street festival up here in Washington, D.C., about three years ago. He told me he bought eight pieces from me that day.

Q - Eight?

A - One of the things I pride myself on is my prices are really low. He probably bought some of my smaller pieces, which are from $20 to $60. I also do a project every year called "31 Days of July." I take the cover of the Washington Post each day and get inspired by the news; I start a new canvas every day. Bob had bought one of those from me, too, online last year.

He contacted me three months ago seeing if I would be interested in the project. I actually had a solo show in Raleigh, N.C., last year at Rebus Works, so I guess that reintroduced him to my works.

When he contacted me, I was thrilled. The idea of me painting in front of an audience while there's an opera being performed is fascinating. I'm so excited about it.

Q - How did you become known as an "outsider artist"?

A - When I started painting in '94, I was working at IBM as a computer programmer. I was hit by an airplane when I was 8 which removed my dominant left hand. Thanks to a supportive family and everything I lived a pretty normal high school life. I played football, ran track, did all the varsity sports.

To me [the disability] wasn't a big deal. But once I started painting in 1994 as a hobby or almost as a joke, the disability was the first thing to come out, these really strong emotions. My colors and my lines were very bright and strong and powerful.

When I started to try to show my work in 1995, a woman ... I think she bought 14 of my pieces at a show in Georgetown. It turns out that she was an outsider art dealer, or folk art dealer. Because of my disability and because I like to paint raw, my style is very reminiscent of that folk art or outsider art style.

There was a lot of excitement: There was this kid and he got hit by a plane and his work looks like this! And I was going to IBM wearing a suit and tie.

My prices were really high. My friends really couldn't afford my work. It became very stressful just to be a painter. I didn't want to paint anymore.

In 2001, I was working in a dot-com and they went belly-up. I decided that day I was going to try to be a painter full-time. I fired my agent and I just started doing all of it myself, all of my marketing, approaching galleries and selling my work online. I would complete a painting and post it on the Internet so people could see things basically while they were wet.

Q - It sounds like you're saying you don't consider yourself an outsider artist.

A - No, no, I don't. To me it seems that outsider art is a term invented by people who will profit from it. It's like a label to validate high prices. I'm a person who has shown in museums, is in permanent collections -- and I'm alive. You can deal directly with me.

I just consider myself an expressionist.

[With outsider art] it's almost like you have to live in your trauma. To me, art is a healing mechanism. It's almost expected of me to paint a severed hand or an airplane crashing into me.

When we get told what we are by people who are going to make a profit, that's a problem. I think most people who buy my art now don't even know what outsider art is and don't care. To me, that's so satisfying.

Q - Painting is usually such a solitary pursuit. Do you think the audiences at the opera will be a distraction?

A - No. I'm actually worried that I might be a distraction!

I'm a pretty expressive person with my painting. I'm going to be this one-handed guy up there probably with paint all over me more than on the canvas. And I'm a pretty tall guy. So I'll try my best not to be disruptive.

Q - Are you inspired by the story of Don Giovanni?

A - I really haven't seen a live performance. I do have the movie ... but it's a movie. I want to be inspired by what Bob does. The music of Mozart, that will inspire me and that has inspired me. The use of music while painting is very key to my style.

DETAILS

WHAT Opera Company of North Carolina's "Don Giovanni" with Matt Sesow painting onstage.

WHEN 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday.

WHERE Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress Energy Center, Raleigh.

COST $20-$75.

CONTACT 783-0098, www.operanc.com; 834-4000, www.ticket master.com.

INFORMATION www.sesow.com