As a kid, summers in western NY seemed to go by much too quickly. My brothers and I spent a lot of time at a swimming pool that was near our house. The most dreaded thing we would hear was the lifeguard call out “Adult Swim!” At that point a flock of fleshy, lentigo-peppered octogenarians would give the kids the evil eye until we abandoned the pool. I can still conjure up images of one surly individual in a textured floral rubber swim cap that could’ve been the model for any number of Dr. Seuss’s more twisted interpretations of the human form. After an eternity we would finally hear the call “Kids Swim” and we’d explode back into the pool. For some reason the pool always had a funny smell about it when we got back. Perhaps it was a mixture of Ben Gay, Coppertone, Denture grip and Preperation H??? I’ll never know.
So, what does all this have to do with a drawing of a jumping spider? Honestly there is a point in here somewhere. Well, my brothers and I would usually leave the pool area during adult swim, grab a snack and hang out together. When we were done with our obligatory towel fights, we’d nurse our wounds sitting on a stone wall nearby. For some reason that stone wall had tons of jumping spiders on it. My earliest memories of jumpers were from that location. There were several varieties. Some were smallish and blended almost perfectly with the grey lichens and stones. Others were patterned in bold black, white and gray. We’d often get treated to seeing spectacular big black jumping spiders with orange on their backs like the one in the drawing. Later, I found out that these amazingly acrobatic creatures had an appropriately cool name, the “Daring Jumping Spider.” Time went by pretty quickly watching those spiders. Something good came from our forced exile during Adult Swims after all!
Ann tommasino
Dear Matt, love the work, wish I had kept the original you left in our apartment of the penguins playing guitars all those years ago!, don’t know if you remember me and my husband, but we moved into the apartment on 5th street in Olean after you moved out. I am an anesthetist that worked with your Dad at St. Francis….that’s all just old to jar your memory of who I am.
New…I have a daughter who is at Virginia Commonwealth Univ studying art. I was showing her some work by another Olean native named Donald Malick, very famous for his work on wildlife and birds, especially. Then I remembered you and thought I’d try and see what direction your art took. I must say, very nice Matt. The world of art is endless and it’s neat to see how your work evolved from the penguins and guitars ( it was a mobile).
Anyway, congrats on a career well done. I know your Father must be so proud. I haven’t seen him a about 5 years…gotta go home for the Italian Festival to find him and say hello.
Congratulations on a beautiful talent. Sincerely, Ann Sassone Tommasino
Matt
Hi Ann!
I do remember you! That apartment on 5th street was a great place. Hold on to that mobile. I’m sure it will be worth thousands someday… Ha! I made that in my basement when I was in High School. At one time there also one with cartoon fish on it. I think that disappeared when I was in college. I did a lot of cartooning back then in addition to the regular drawing and paintings.
I didn’t know that Malick was an Olean Native. You daughter might be interested in Meg (FIsh) Saligman who was from Olean as well. http://www.megsaligman.com she is a muralist. Most of the paying work that I do is medical illustration, but I’ll always be drawing and painting the natural world as well. What sort of art is your daughter studying at VCU? Best of luck to her! I’ll tell my dad you dropped me a line when I talk to him tomorrow!
All the best,
Matt