RAINBOW

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

A rainbow. There's no better sentiment to bring in the new year. To your health!

SUNSET

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

In the spirit of not being the Doom who stole Christmas, I present this holiday-friendly, politically neutral photograph I shot in December 1999.

STUCK MARKET

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

This is what I think about the stock market. The whole thing is contrived, and it [Wall St.] Fs up the country, the economy, and the world. This sculpture was illegally dropped off in Manhattan 21 years ago beneath a Christmas tree on Broad St. Read the wiki page here.

MOURNING DOVE

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

This is a mourning dove. I used to think it was a morning dove, like, early in the morning. But they spell it like mourning? Their call is hard to explain, but that's probably where it got its name. I shot this on a 1991 December morning.

LION

My friend Frank opened the Village Squire, a high fashion men's clothing store in Greenwich Village, whose success led to the opening of two new stores. His clientele ranged from the Japanese to Diana Ross to pimps. After 20 years he retired to the Hamptons in the late 70s and here are his cats...

From Mats

Sun & Moon Daily Witnessed the Slaughter From the Get-Go

Click image for larger view | From Mats

In this painting I just went into it blindly, filling up the space until the story unfolded and led me to the proper conclusion: The red is the evil pressing in on mankind, and through eons of slaughter, the sun and the moon always remain as witnesses.

PLAYBOY CENTERFOLD

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

One day I walked into my son's room and he'd hung all these centerfolds up. My wife and I were ok with this, we figured it's better than posters of football or baseball players. The funny thing about it was the fact that a prepubescent kid had plastered his walls with naked women while sleeping on Superman sheets.

INJURY REPORT

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Some guy on the Colts just got laid out in a game and they took him off on a stretcher. There was no movement coming from him, he was just laying there. If they want to eliminate head-to-head contact in the game of football, one ESPN commentator suggested removing the face masks. So these are NFL injury reports that I cut out and placed around the mat...injury reports they run every week in the newspaper in our little, peaceful country. Out of 500,000 football injuries in the U.S., 30,000 require surgery. How much do you think that costs?

MONUMENTAL

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

I did this mat 20 years ago from a photo shot in 1988. This homeless man had a pink umbrella and he was hiding his face under it, I think because he was ashamed. He could have been a GI because he had a duffle bag that were commonly used by soldiers. I'm pretty sure because I know duffle bags. Anyway, as I passed this guy the photo aligned itself and I pulled the trigger. I feel I need to remind people there are people still living in the streets, even in the capital of the richest country in the world.

PRIME TIME

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

The people in the graves there, this is their prime time. I've always had a morbid fascination with cemeteries and have photographed many of them over the years. My outlook may be a bit on the dark side, but after all, my name is Doom.

TERMINAL BAR: SPOTTED in MADRID

Click picture for larger view | From MY NAME IS DOOM

The Terminal Bar's 41st street facade is the backdrop in one of David Wojnarowicz's 42 photographs that comprise the Arthur Rimbaud in New York series, shot from 1978-1979. Wojnarowicz apparently posed people in various locations while wearing a cut-out face of Arthur Rimbaud. Thanks to the keen eye of Rie Yamamoto who spotted this while visiting the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain.

STORIES

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

TERMINAL BAR UK EXHIBITION

From July 31st to August 7th, approximately 700 of my black and white portraits were exhibited in a Birmingham warehouse space in conjunction with the Jazz Festival. Here  are some shots of the install:

To see more shots, visit http://trove.org.uk/exhibitions/july-2010-sheldon-nadelman-the-terminal-bar/

GRAND CANYON

Click picture | From Mats

In the futuristic year of 2000, My wife and I took a mini van tour from Las Vegas to get this photo op. I usually don't over-shoot, but in this instance I took 12 shots. When I used the cut-out dots from the same photo for the concentric rings on the mat, the layering created an abstract panoramic effect.

ROSE

Click image for larger view | From Mats

To my wife Rita: Happy 41st anniversary!
Ok, my son forget to post this yesterday on the actual anniversary but I don't know how to use a telephone, so I couldn't remind him.

LADYBUGS

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

When I'm sitting around and don't feel like getting revved up with a political piece, I do something simple and easy like this which I finished on my birthday in 2007. Every spring we get ladybugs in the upstairs bathroom. I think they hang out under the jacuzzi. Ladybugs are so perfect looking and when you look at their shape, you can't imagine how they can fly.

FULL HOUSE

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

The Yankees played the Red Sox that day and won 4-1. It was a full house so I used the playing cards motif to complete the pun. This was the old stadium...you can tell because there's the old courthouse in the background. We were seated behind 1st base. For all four of us the seats cost $800. Lunch was $80 and all I had was a frankfurter.

FANTASSY

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

This shot was taken in the BVIs in 1997 during one of my sailing trips. We were on the beach on our way to get the dinghy and I see this girl wearing a thong, she's got a nice body so I take the shot. A year later I revisited the photo and the thought of creating the lips, broken hearts, and stars motif nicely complemented the pun writ large.

Porters, Bouncers, and Bartenders

BEES

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Goodness gracious I don't even remember doing this one...it's been 13 years and I've been a busy bee.

SLICK WORLD

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

There are 30,000 capped wells in the ocean right now and they don't even know where half of them are. That's not good. This represents our earth surrounded by a layer of oil which will choke out the green space. Here lies Slick World.

FRUIT SALAD AND BODY BAGS

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

The military have all of these ribbon bars on their chest indicating that they, the company, or battalion were in a combat situation somewhere in some country, campaign, or war. This is sometimes called "fruit salad".  We're still sending bodies home. Soldiers are still getting killed every day, it never ends. I had to make a statement so I painted my own version of fruit salad except I added the black fields to represent body bags. Fruit Salad is such a pretty name for something that represents death.

FATHER NO FARTHER

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

I shot this with a telephoto lens from behind the bar (Terminal Bar) looking out the side window. The guy drinking worked at the bar as a bouncer. He was a wino named Kojak. The other guy was 86ed because he was a troublemaker. I never let him in the bar.  Same with that woman...she was a pain in the ass. If these people are out on the streets drinking wine, I guarantee there were parental shortcomings along the line.

SPIRAL STAIRCASE

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

This is a 6th floor walkup in Paris that was my 64th birthday present. My wife rented this five hundred some odd year old historic landmark with no fire escape. Our first shlep up we were shown how to unlock the apartment door because the last couple couldn't figure it out. That night we had to call the landlady because we got locked in.

CHILD'S PLAY

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

I shot this photo of the Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial during a visit to see my eldest son at American University in Washington DC. I set up to take the picture when this woman rolled up, dressed in red, white and blue. A year later I was inspired to do the mat using the Jacks (or really the Jerks) as the leaders, led by the king and queen who are ultimately led by the Joker. Next to the Joker is a Fetus which is what the leaders are destroying.

BULLSHIT

Click picture for a larger view | From Mats

It's a sad story. Viet Nam 60,000 military deaths. Korea 50,000. You want the Civil War? 600,000, that's more than the WWII. Duty, honor, country, yeah that's what generals say. The soldier has no choice. All these wars are fought over money, borders, or religion, aka bullshit.

UNISPHERE

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

In 1999 my wife and I went to visit my mother at a nursing home in Queens. Afterwards we stopped in Flushing Meadows so I could shoot the Unisphere. In the late 60s, my wife and I went to the Singer Bowl (before the Tennis Stadium was built) and saw The Doors and The Who perform. I was always intrigued by the Unisphere which was built for the 1964/1965 World's Fair and represented global interdependence. This is also called The House of Cards, as most people know what that could mean in relation to the world.

YANKEE STADIUM

Click picture for a larger view | From Mats

In the 70s my family and I shlepped to the Bronx to see the Yankees. I took this shot because I liked the way the two kids were silhouetted with the stadium in the background. Once again I used playing cards to decorate the mat, but this time using only the diamonds. The seams of the baseball were taken from a pattern I found at the art store. On the outside corners I placed asterisks because of the constant publicity about the baseball players who were taking steroids and the debates as to whether an asterisk should be placed next to the players in the record book indicating their performance may have been unfairly enhanced. In my opinion, I don't really care. They didn't do it for Roger Marist who broke Babe Ruth's record in 162 games where Ruth did it in 154.

SILVER MOON

Click image for a larger view | From Mats

This is the night time version of Sunset. The sail goes in the other direction here. There's no meaning to it…just putting down a lot paint. The sound of the wind going through the rigging is a nice memory...but the only way I'd return there would be by ferry (from Puerto Rico to Tortola)...I can't deal with that plane ride.

SUNSET

Click image for larger view | From Mats

I was inspired to paint this picture after touring the British Virgin Islands on Captain Sanfillipo's 50 ft. sailboat. Sailing is hard work. Painting is easier. This was all done by applying paint with a tiny, metal spatula. Using two primitive shapes (1 circle +  3 triangles) and 1 line, the design is as minimal as it gets.

WELCOME HOME

Click picture picture for larger view | From Mats Alcohol. That's where it belongs. In the toilet.

COSMOS AND A SICK PLANET

For a larger view click on the picture | From Mats

You got the sun and you got the moon and in between you have the earth. When the red cross is around, there's sickness, there's disaster. I started this before my heart attack happened at the end of November. I sat shiva for myself and after a few months I finished it on my birthday.

CHAINED

Click image for larger view | From Mats

The image in the middle was taken from a diagram of how slaves were packed into ships. The rings are like chains made of money, alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling. We're slaves to all of these vices like a chain around your neck. One of those rings on the right hand side is cut out from a racing form that contains a horse by the name of "Slave Auction". Another one on the bottom right is named "TV Broadcast". Got the picture?

OBAMA

Click image for larger view | From Mats

They say Obama is a black president. I say Obama is a black and white president. I painted this shortly after he was elected the 44th president of the United States.

PIECE PEACE

For larger view click image  | From Mats

Somebody told me these were fruit flies. Here they are getting a piece, and there's peace. I guess the X's and O's represent hugs and kisses. I don't know, it's been so long it's like another person did it.

WAR RAW

For a larger view click on the picture | From Mats

This a photo I took at West Point in the summer of 1988. The anonymous boy is leaning on the back of an old cannon. It's the "civilized" adults who start the wars and the children who end up suffering.

Slaves' Tombstones

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

The people in charge over there in Egypt figured it took 20 years to build these pyramids. How do you get volunteers to shlep 2,000 pound stones everyday for 20 years? They must have been slaves. One of the great wonders of the world, I don't think the people in charge of antiquities are going to endorse the slave theory because of public relations.
The sky and the pyramids have two coats of paint. To apply the paint, I use a painting knife (that's what I call it), it has a serrated edge, and I just scrape it on until the direction is right.

WEED

Click on image for larger view | From Mats

These were all my rolling paper wrappers. I still have a whole box-full left. Only now am I loyal to a brand. Back then, whatever it was, it was. The photo is of some stuff I grew over 25 years ago. I never tried growing again because it was a pain in the ass. Besides, I got my picture. You can say I'm a weed enthusiast. I quit smoking cigarettes in 1970 and I quit drinking in 1977, so weed is my martini.

SOUL SOLE SEOUL

Click on picture for larger view | From Mats

This photograph was taken in the Terminal Bar. We had a food concession within the bar...literally opposite where I served drinks. So you have SOUL to represent the man in the picture, SOLE because of his shoes, SOLE because they served fried fish, and SEOUL for the capitol of South Korea, because it was Korean owned at the time.

GRAPE RAPE APE

Click on picture for larger view | From Mats

Grape represents wine or alcohol, which has raped the public since the beginning of time, and ape represents man. If you're drinking, you won't have a leg to stand on. The man in the picture is a wino, and his prosthetic leg is leaning against the newstand. that's what happens when you drink the wine. See the cop there? He didn't know what to do. I remember I shot that on a saturday from inside the Terminal Bar.

FREEDOM of SCREECH

Click on picture for larger image | From Mats Television brainwashes your f****ing head: Coca-Cola is good for your heart. Eat at McDonald's if you want to eat like an Olympian. The president's wife is on a campaign to fight obesity in America. Good luck.

LOST VEGAS

Click picture for a larger view |  From Mats

New York New York, Las Vegas. It's a roller coaster ride. Where else can you find that crap? I took this photo in August 1999. I was traveling with my wife Rita for one of her annual WEVA conventions. The mat contains about 750 pasted circles cut from playing cards. I saved playing cards for years. I never knew why. Friends would bring me decks from Atlantic City.

Welcome

Hello poor soul, my name is Doom.

I'm an extreme luddite, fixed in my ways, toiling amongst photographs, paint, paper, and glue in the basement of my modest house in beautiful New Jersey. Over the years I've been able to create a vast collection of art, mostly photographs matted and decorated with an accompanying message. I've reached the point where I no longer have room on my walls to hang my pictures, so why not hang them on the internet? It's the perfect place to spread my vitriol and general disdain for humankind. Hopefully, if I figure out how to work this blog site, I'll be able to start hanging my pictures here on a regular basis.

If I could hang pictures on the ceiling I would