My Life as a Painter

My Life as a Painter, Matthew Sweeney's twelfth collection, features a wild mix of birds and animals, including lizards, snakes, rats, camels, donkeys, feral cats, dogs, and owls. The canvas is transhuman, where boundaries between human and non-human can't be fixed, dreams turn into torments, secrets stay hidden, strange communiques remain unclear, and the natural weirdness of Donegal verges on the surreal. There are poems about art, artists, filmmaking, religion, warfare, migration, and displacement, as well as oblique perspectives on everything from Michigan's Mullett Lake and Iceland's geysers to rope-ladders, tin-mines, a giant blue cabbage, and an old thrown-out Christmas tree.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 26 April 2018
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Matthew Sweeney's palette in his twelfth collection, "My Life as a Painter," is a captivating blend of birds and animals, including lizards, snakes, rats, camels, donkeys, feral cats, dogs, and owls. Among these diverse creatures, one dog possesses the ability to transmit telepathic requests for his desired food, while a parrot serves as an ambassador for the bird world. Sweeney's artistic canvas explores the transhuman realm, where boundaries between human and non-human become blurred, dreams turn into torments, secrets remain hidden, strange communiques remain unclear, and the natural weirdness of his native Donegal veers into the surreal. Within these poetic landscapes, Sweeney delves into themes of art, artists, and filmmaking, offering insightful portraits of himself and the challenges of writing poetry. Additionally, his poems offer oblique perspectives on religion, warfare, migration, and displacement, as well as embarking on imaginative explorations of various subjects, ranging from Michigan's Mullett Lake and Iceland's geysers to rope-ladders, tin-mines, a giant blue cabbage, and an old thrown-out Christmas tree.

Weight: 134g
Dimension: 220 x 143 x 6 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781780374147