Spotlight Artists
Matt Dalton and Molly Boggs
Rockland High School is full of talented students. Images has decided to showcase some of our school's exceptional artists and writers. For our first Spotlight Artist zine, we're recognizing Matt Dalton and Molly Boggs. We thank them for submitting to images and widening our perspectives!
|patricide and other stupid metaphors|
by molly boggs
i know my own blood tastes like insomnia and trying to forget (remember) but i’ve never
cracked open my bones to see everything i am made of
and isn’t that funny (terrifying)
because i am worried that maybe i won’t like what i find
or i might cut myself on the jagged edges of my ribs
but lately i feel like throwing myself against a wall
just to go searching in the pieces of me
and last night i had a dream (revelation)
of all the tree branches i’ve ever seen
and how many of them i was too small to reach
and when i woke up
i started wishing that mother had sung me a lullaby before i had grown too bitter (restless)
and ever since that night i have been scratching histories into my knuckles to remind myself what could happen
if i start feeling too happy
and i have been pulling at the loose strings on the sleeves of my sweater but now i am wondering (hoping) if that was the only thing that was keeping me together
and lately it has been hard not to think about dying (running) because i have done it so many times before
and lately it feels like everyone around me knows something i don’t but i’ve been told
that’s what it’s like to grow up (fall apart)
and yesterday i think i met an angel called redemption
but she told me she didn’t believe in god
and isn’t that funny
because it sort of feels like swallowing your own teeth
and what i mean to say is maybe i’m nothing but (i’m sorry i’m sorry) and trying to drink all the saltwater in the ocean
and wouldn’t that be funny because
yesterday i tried to rip out my own heart and i barely felt a thing
and what i’m trying to say is i’m sorry and maybe/maybe/maybe (not) i’m made of more than stale starlight and shavings of my father’s heart
but i’ve been meaning to ask
/is there anything that tastes better (easier) than falling off the edge of a cliff?/
[ode to september]
by molly boggs
when you ripped yourself open
all i could see was cherry pits and your bones trying to scrub themselves clean
and a cave where your lungs were supposed to be where i could see whispers of cigarette smoke and something metallic
some days i swear there are mountains underneath your eyelids
and a quiet song under your tongue but
you told me long ago that the best kept secrets don’t hide in the dark
that they devour sunlight and open palms and grow through the cracks in pavement like the kind of dandelions that disappear after you make a wish
i think september only comes once august feels too empty to keep breathing
she comes with barbed wire stuck in her teeth
and blackbirds in her rib cage
and melancholy woven into her hair
there is something protective in her sadness
it drips from the wounds in her knees and makes puddles in the grass next to your feet
today
all i can see in your eyes are apologies and questions but i do not keep absolution in my pockets or the soles of my boots
and you can’t go looking for answers in september
september is for waxing poetic over the blood under your fingernails and picking holes in styrofoam cups and laying on the ground and staring at the sky and hoping it gets dark a little bit earlier than it did yesterday
girlhood
by molly boggs
[these walls are cardboard cases, we are glass bottles. we play make believe behind linen curtains, find magic in non-existence, call each other by any names but our own]
we wear the same cotton dress in two different colors and take off our shoes to feel the world press against the bottoms of our feet
we went blueberry picking almost a decade ago
but if i asked you, you’d swear it was only last summer, crushing fruit in each others pockets, staining our bodies purple, we strip these branches clean as if we already know something is missing
(i tell you one night over the hum of the air conditioner how sometimes this nostalgia creeps in through our front window, smelling of wet grass and cinnamon sugar toast and sometimes i can’t breathe and sometimes i am suffocating
i still don’t know if you didn’t hear me because you didn’t want to or because you had already fallen asleep)
[yesterday we were mermaids in ripped stockings and plastic barrettes. tonight i want to wake you because it is not morning yet, we are still scraped from tree climbing and i want desperately to tell you another story]
nothing but
by molly boggs
sometimes i think i am chasing ghosts&empty pockets
but i think you already know the story
we are both born of smoke&bruises and pushing too far
destruction is in the hollow parts of us but the difference is if i cut into you i might find liquid gold (and that isn’t even the sad part)
you’re all sharp wrist bones and chewed fingernails but somehow you wear yourself like a greek tragedy (and how i wish that was a metaphor) but i’ve seen you go searching for yourself in broken glass and call the pieces stuck in your skin a mosaic
the prettiest thing you’ve ever told me is that one day they will rip out my tongue and i’ll have to keep fighting with just my teeth and knuckles (and oh how the world would swallow me whole)
the first time you saw me bleed you were wearing a lavender sweater and i told you we are nothing but dust and shattered hands, i feel like somebody else’s shadow i feel like nothing but scratches and whispers and pieces
we are just unfinished
we are unwritten; we are collections of almost
we are nothing but finite; but words on paper
you told me just wait
(if you paint yourself silver you’ll look like a star from one million miles away)
|the poems i found in your bloodied knuckles|
by molly boggs
1.
the last whisper before i fall asleep:
these bodies aren’t our own
they say
this blood is borrowed, we are chipping our teeth on each others flesh splintering our bones into
dirt&denial
2.
give me a lace dress and iron lungs
give me a mouthful of bullets and a pretty knife
tell me
bloodsport/bloodsport
just bury me somewhere i can find again
3.
i’ve never met a soul so gold
until i saw the city skylines carved into your breastbone
paintings between your shoulder blades
draw me a temple for a dying god
[build me something permanent]
4.
bible verses and bruises on the softest parts of you
remember what it felt like to wrap rosary beads around each others throats picking at scabs in church pews
(hold your breath/the sky is falling)
5.
i can smell gunpowder tucked into your rib cage when you wrap twine around your waist, scratch hymns into your wrists
i smell hypocrisy on your breath when you tell me to go
(to this day i still believe icarus wanted to burn)
6.
some day i will find you again
breaking wishbones in hands too afraid to make fists
begging every god you never believed in to give your soul a name that fits
Interviews
To give a more thorough understanding of our spotlight artists, we had some Images Staff interview them about their inspirations and opinions. The first interview is Lara Glennon (Q) interviewing Molly Boggs (A), our writing spotlight for this zine. The second is a Jacob Nunn (Q) interviewing Matt Dalton (A), our artist spotlight for this zine.
Q: How did you become interested in poetry?
A: I think my interest in poetry began when I was little and I would read those Shell Silverstein poetry books with the goofy titles. Later on in middle school I really got into listening to slam poetry and spoken word for a while and I think it just kind of evolved from there.
Q: What inspires and motivates you to write?
A: Honestly this is gonna sound so pretentious but sometimes I just have this visceral need to write. Like I’ll get stuck on an idea or a feeling and I have to put it somewhere where it will be tangible. I write about things I feel, think, and observe.
Q: Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve written?
A: I feel like any writer or artist is hypercritical of their own work, so I want to say no, I hate them all. But I am partial to a poem I wrote called “patricide and other stupid metaphors” because it’s a work that is so deeply personal and it’s the most honest thing I’ve ever written so I’m very proud of it.
Q: Do you have a favorite from another poet or author?
A: I don’t have any specific favorites, but lately I’ve been reading some Sylvia Plath. To be honest, I really really like a lot of the modern work circulating the internet because some stuff really pushes the boundaries of what can be considered poetry, and I find that really cool.
Q: What’s your favorite part about writing?
A: my favorite part about writing is putting what’s in my head into a form somebody else can see. Like, I’ll have this abstract mess in my mind and it’s really gratifying to put it into words and see it come to fruition.
Q: Do you have a favorite topic to write about?
A: Often times when I’m writing, I’m not writing about a specific topic. I think poetry is something that is so emotion saturated. it’s very heavily based on feeling, so i write about how I’m feeling then take it from there. I think the best works of art and writing should come from personal experiences.
Jacob Nunn interviewing Matt Dalton:
I had the pleasure of conducting an interview over the phone with young Rockland artist Matt Dalton. Not only are we aware of his wacky and sometimes thought provoking style, we were eager to have him as our Images Artist Spotlight for his repeated display of unrelenting humor at the helm of his hands. Here are the young artists thoughts on modern art to music:
Q: Do you consider yourself an artist?
A: I do consider myself an artist. I feel like art has just been a hobby of mine forever and I enjoy doing it.
Q: What is your inspiration for your art?
A: My inspiration is usually whatever pops into my head at any given moment. Or maybe something that I was talking to people about that day.
Q: Does politics/society influence your art?
A: I am quite influenced by society and politics. Sometimes I have an opinion and I dare a picture depicting that.”
Q: When did you start your “art career”?
A: I’ve been doodling for as long as I can remember. I feel like throughout my whole school life I’ve always been “that kid that draws a lot”.
Q: Do you produce any other forms of art?
A: I’ve been playing the guitar for about 2 and a half years now and I absolutely love it.
Q: How do you feel about your superlative?
A: It’s a superlative 18 years in the making.
Q: If you had to pick 3-5 people/groups you look up to, whom would they be?
A: Groups like Radiohead, Green Day, and The Killers have all been my favorites throughout my life and they are also people I look up to.
Q: What’s your opinion on art and the fans/followers of traditional “art”?
A: Modern art is a bunch of trash. You pour paint on a canvas and it goes for 1.8billion dollars.
Q: Do you have friends that are artistic, if so who?
A: Mark Sprague is almost as good as me. Not quite. But he is definitely a talented kid.
Q: Is art important?
A: Art has been used as a way for humans to express feelings and views for as long as we have existed. Without art the world would just really suck.”
Naturally, we asked Matt some follow up questions about his artistic integrity and all that comes with it:
Q: What is modern art?
A: I’m not doing number 1.
Q: Since you’re a junior musician, are you in a band/would you start a band?
A: Sadly no I am not in a band but if anyone wants to start one hml.
Q: Are any of your family artists of any kind (musician/artist/etc)?
A: My father went to school for art and he always had a natural talent for music and sketches.
Q: Does art strictly stay as physical? Or can things like language or singing be an art?
A: Art is whatever you want art to be. Art has no definite form.
Q: Do you see a career in your art?
A: Not sure”
Q: What was competing for Mr. Rockland like
A: It was really cool to share something I like to do with other people.
Matt has an uncanny ability to answer from a definite standpoint rather than a wishy-washy narcissistic, avant-garde artist’s point of view, albeit angst being the driving force of high school artists everywhere. Thank you to Matt Dalton for letting us steal some time from him for a riveting interview, truly important for the future Wikipedia someday.