C2 Gallery Welcomes New Artists

Artists Nick Cordone and Alexis Silk recently had their artwork on display at the in Patchogue.

Nick Cordone, of Southold, is a painter and a former Patchogue-Medford art teacher. He describes his current artwork as paintings that depict applying human conditions to fish or animals such as jealousy, gossiping or daydreaming.

“I’ve always leaned towards that surreal side of thinking, that subliminal sort of seduction, my mind was always wondering in that direction, different directions," Cordone said. "It’s a bit of surrealism. As a child, I studied the work of Rene Magritte, the Belgian surrealist. So a lot of this is connected to surrealism, and then photo-realism as well. Surrealism has always been the crux of what I do."

Cordone generally works on two to three paintings at a time.

“As I’m actually painting, I’m thinking about other sketches, other ideas all the time," he said. "Then I’ll just stop painting and jump out and start doing some other sketches, then go back to the painting."

Glass artist and sculptor Alexis Silk, of Chicago, creates free-form, hot-sculpted blown glass pieces that depict the human form.

“I don’t use any molds at all, it’s literally shaped free-form by pushing and pulling directly in the glass while it’s molten at 2,000 degrees with metal tools," she explained.  "So I’m shaping it by pushing out from the inside with tools that I’ve created as well as carving into the exterior with other metal tools. I’m constantly reheating the glass, it always has to be around 2,000 degrees while I’m sculpting it. I only have about one minute to sculpt before I need to heat for an equal amount of time, till the piece is done. There’s no stopping, no breaks."

The artwork, which was on display through Thursday, is conceptually based on her ideas of society and human nature.

“Everything really originates with a core idea and that’s where I create the aesthetics from - from the communication of that idea," Silk said. I use society as my influence for all of my work. My work is very commentary on society, how people perceive and treat each other and how we perceive and treat ourselves and our inner relationship with industry and nature.

"And how that sort of all meshes, so each piece is a reference to societal issues that I want to address."