Chris Siron

About the Artist

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 V.C.U. 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 interested in music and sound and has been a member of improvisational bands including The Spanish Apes and Flash Gordon's Ape. He has made several cut-out and stop-motion animations.  His collages and photographs have been published in Throttle, C.O.R.E., and Pannus Index. Currently, Chris works at the National Gallery of Art bookshop and lives in Baltimore, MD. His work in 2015 included an animation titled Nocturnal Voyage addressing bird deaths due to building collisions. In 2016 he designed three windows to prevent bird collisions at The Patuxant Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, MD. in 2017 participated in the "Birdland and the Anthropocene" exhibit at The Peale Center in Baltimore, MD.

Artist's Statement

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. The source materials that I use for my collages are primarily reproductions of nineteenth century engravings.  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 coined by the Danish film director Carl Theodor Dreyer.  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, often endeavoring to make the illusion of light of the separate elements as compatible as possible.    I excise the images utilizing an X-Acto knife with a #11 blade.  While often cutting simple images I will also make an attempt to cut out a thin component such as an insect's leg. I may be working with a cut-out so small as to need a pair of tweezers to orient the piece. Alternatively, I blend in adjacent edges or draw an occasional line with a pen. I adhere my images with a glue stick, and shielding the work with a blank sheet of paper, use a brayer for smoothing. The collage process allows me to disclose private archetypes and manifest my personal mythology. I also produce art using mixed media and found objects.