About Chris
Baltimore City
Chris Siron was born in Washington D.C. at Doctor's Hospital on Eye Street, N.W. His educational experience includes the Painting and Printmaking curriculum in the Fine Arts Department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. He also completed courses in animation at the Children's Museum in Washington D.C., and photography at The Corcoran School of the Arts. He is particularly enthusiastic about collage and multi-media. In addition to practice in the visual arts, Chris has been… more
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Window designs for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center to prevent bird collisions.
These are window designs for the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center to prevent bird collisions. The final appearance on the windows are translucent from inside the building.
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Mammals, Water Creatures, and Tree LeavesThree bird-friendly window designs for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Mammals, Water Creatures, and Tree Leaves. Photo Courtesy Lindsay Jacks
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MammalsBird-friendly window design for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Mammals. Photo Courtesy Lynne Parks
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Water CreaturesBird-friendly window design for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Water Creatures. Photo Courtesy Lynne Parks
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Tree LeavesBird-friendly window design for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Tree Leaves. Photo Courtesy Lynne Parks
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Tree Leaves original studyBird-friendly window design for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Tree Leaves.
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Water Creatures original studyBird-friendly window design for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Water Creatures.
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Mammals original study, before completionBird-friendly window design for Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Mammals.
Uncanny Remnant
Paper collages made from copies of nineteenth century engravings for a solo exhibit at the Arts Club of Washington entitled "Uncanny Remnant: the Collage of Chris Siron".
Art History Reconstruction
Projected slide images of paintings in the public domain, onto organic material.
Self-Portrait Photos
In these photos, I am investigating the confusion of simultaneous subject-object integration. While making self-portraits one becomes the viewer and the viewed. Some of my self-portraits are achieved by leaving the shutter open for long exposure, with the resultant blur occuring in the image. In the case of digital photography, I employ the timer setting as well as a long exposure. These methods of self-portraiture have an inherent quality of spontaneity that is dependant on the imprecise composition. I have a tendency to favor improvisation and serendipity. I like this aspect of the process, but I also like the challenge of having to remember what is in the frame and having to partially imagine where I am in the composition that I cannot see objectively. It is accepted that the camera is an extension of the human eye. I am evidentally challenging this notion by having that extension see what it is an extension of. This becomes a loop. Seemingly, my eyes are behind and in front of the camera simultaneously. It is also like a game to try to sit perfectly still, when I attempt a conventional portrait of myself. I am reminded of the methods of early photographers where the sitters had to stay in the same position for long periods of time due to slow exposures.
Vestigial Improvisations
These images are from an ongoing dialogue of conscious and subconscious transformations, sometimes resulting with a smidgen of whimsy and gloom simultaneously. I feel they lend themselves to storytelling at this juncture, and would like to create animations based on some of these current collages. This could result in tying them together in a narrative sequence. The source materials that I use for my collages are primarily reproductions of nineteenth century engravings. Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell are the two artists whose collages have held considerable appeal for me and their work has greatly influenced my sensibilities. Of the various artistic mediums that I have explored throughout the years, collage has been the most abiding. I am attracted to its recyclable nature. Eliminating the original context of the engravings allows me to present dream-like juxtapositions. Certain motifs have developed in my work and the resulting effects of their contrasting elements falls into the realm of psychological realism, a term used by the film director Carl Dreyer. What one perceives may be real, in a relative sense. A recurrence of subjects such as birds, anatomical features, and musical instruments has more to do with the psychological conditions that I am compelled to convey than simple compositional devices. However, I have a tendency to glean over much imagery during the process and as a result, I include components that harmonize with the motifs into a visual balance.
I excise the images utilizing an X-Acto knife with a #11 blade. I usually make an attempt to cut out a thin component such as an insect's leg. Alternatively, I blend in adjacent edges or draw an occasional line with a pen. I adhere my images with a glue stick and a brayer.
The collage process allows me to disclose private archetypes and manifest my personal mythology. Strange interludes, chimerical reveries, and the flitting images of the hypnoidal state constitute these hallucinatory tableaux.
I excise the images utilizing an X-Acto knife with a #11 blade. I usually make an attempt to cut out a thin component such as an insect's leg. Alternatively, I blend in adjacent edges or draw an occasional line with a pen. I adhere my images with a glue stick and a brayer.
The collage process allows me to disclose private archetypes and manifest my personal mythology. Strange interludes, chimerical reveries, and the flitting images of the hypnoidal state constitute these hallucinatory tableaux.