Natalie Kassirer

I Felt A Funeral In My Brain

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

- Emily Dickenson

Cygnus

This piece was created for the "Constellations" show at Gristle Tattoo And Art Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. It tells the story of Leda, a young woman seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan. This union led to the birth of Castor and Pollux, the Gemini constellation, as well as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. This piece is a meditation on deception in human relationships, and the grotesqueness of the acceptance of predation against women.
8"x10", 9"x12" framed. $300. Email for inquiry.

Abyss Feeder

"Throw roses into the abyss and say: 'here is my thanks to the monster that didn't succeed in swallowing me alive"

-Friedrich Nietzsche

This piece attempts to personify my personal battle against cyclical bouts of depression, and the feeling of having fought something truly ugly and powerful and won from deep within it.

Parlor Sessions Poster

Poster design for Signature Sounds Recording Studios' Parlor Room venue in Northampton, winter music series "Parlor Sessions."

Steambreather

Based on the song by the same name by the band Mastodon, and also the story of the Oracle of Delphi, high priestess of the Temple Of Apollo in Ancient Greece. She was supposedly a virgin sequestered in a cave in the mountains, and would inhale fumes from natural vents in the rock that would allow her to speak with Apollo and give prophecies.