The Fish, at Home
Each of these is an original Sesow fish, photographed where its collector chose to live with it — over the fireplace, above the bed, in the hallway light. Click any image to see it full size.
Gominolas para los Patos
“Candy for the Ducks” — a collection of poems by the Spanish writer Hugo Izarra, and the very first title in a charity publishing line run by SBQ Solidario. Authors donated their texts; every sale funded humanitarian causes. Sesow’s fish was chosen to illustrate it.
Critics tied Izarra’s hard, unflinching verse to the lineage of Bukowski and the desolate light of Hopper — a fitting home for a Sesow fish, all teeth and crown and defiance.
The Fish That Fed Families
The same charity that published the book — SBQ Solidario — used its proceeds to build and deliver carritos: small food carts given to families in Alto Trujillo, one of the poorest districts of Peru, where roughly seventy percent of residents are under twenty-five and many live without running water or electricity. On July 3, 2011, the group carried its third cart up to Cerro Cabras. The art on the page and the cart on the hillside were part of the same act of giving.
Worn for Life
Some collectors hang the fish. One carried it further — having a Sesow fish, with its signature triangular fins and spiral eye, tattooed permanently onto the forearm. Of all the ways a painting can be loved, wearing it on your body may be the most complete.
The fish is one of several Sesow subjects to take on a life beyond the canvas — alongside the dog, the bull, and others, each with its own following. Pages for those themes will follow.
