Category: Personal

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blog Personal

New Jersey Roots


I recently joined the parish of St. Casimir in the Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey. My grandfather and namesake was a Polish immigrant who raised his family in this area of North Jersey. He died before I was born and only left me his name. My whole life I have felt a longing to get closer to him.

St. Casimir has services in Polish and English. My artist name, Magiczyn, means magic in Polish – it only makes sense to try to learn more Polish. The building is a beautiful cathedral with several impressive paintings and sculptures. When Mass begins, one of the paintings behind the altar lowers with an electrical roller to reveal a painting of a golden Madonna. 

I have not talked to my father, Tim Szal, for several years. He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, and living here is another way I can connect with him without any communication. I still practice Transcendental Meditation, which was instilled in me from a young age as the most important thing to receive support from nature and an edge over other non-meditators. 

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blog Geopolitics Personal

War Orphan Foundation

All the war orphans in the refugee camps in Warsaw from the Ukrainian War present a heart-wrenching crisis. Many war orphans have lost their parents and extended family members. Yet, I realized if there were a foundation that could sponsor their tuition costs at a boarding school, they would be able to get an education and be taken care of by the school staff at whatever boarding school.

These camps have limited resources for medical and educational services for the orphans…

Some special planning would need to be made for the holidays, yet the foundation could help these orphans in their darkest hour and create a brighter future for these poor children who have no one else to care for them. The best strategy for funding this project would be to acquire several million dollars and invest in rental properties or other investment real estate projects that can generate monthly revenue to cover tuition costs and the cost of supporting a small staff. The staff would organize the particulars for the kids with the schools and other logistics, such as summer camps and healthcare.

These children have lost everything and need our help…

The program could even provide a small Christmas or winter holiday present each year until they reach college age. At that point, college scholarships and other aid could be provided, along with partnering with other foundations to help facilitate obtaining higher education.

So many people have lost their homes and apartments from Kyiv to Eastern Ukraine
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JCK Mechanic Personal

The Kia Cowboy

I started my new position as a mechanic at Jersey City Kia in the first week of May of this year. It has been such a great experience, yet I did not want to write about it on the blog until I completed my first six weeks. I love test-driving our new K5 (which replaced the Optima) model. I plan on buying an old KIA to bring back to life, similar to my Nissan Versa (which also started as a project car).

Kia is a strikingly different brand from GMC. GMC vehicles are designed with future repair work in mind as a priority. Yet, KIA is much more focused on luxury, and the vehicles are designed to be repaired by a professional and not a customer. I am super excited to learn more about swapping engines and transmissions with proper training from the manufacturer, not just ad hoc training from a more senior mechanic. KIA also has some very nice hybrid and fully electric vehicles, which are the way of the future, so learning to service and maintain these engines is critical.

I have been so tired from work, hanging out with my new friends and drawing/painting the beautiful historic buildings in the NYC area that I have been slow-playing work on the Arrackeen Nights project. I have been fine-tuning the candy analogies and references to Dune with all the characters and making some interesting new backdrops (my specialty) of desert buildings in ruins.

Desert Temple Backdrop for Episode 2

Stay tuned for more updates. I will release “Arrackeen Nights” on YouTube instead of Instagram this time, like “The Flying Dutchess.”

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blog europa Personal

An Easter Miracle – the 1st Ceasefire since the War began

I was so happy that Volo and Vladimir agreed to a ceasefire for the Easter holiday. I pray this is a sign my idea for an independent Crimean Republic with part of Eastern Ukraine that is a Russian protectorate has been considered. I emailed a video of the idea with a map to the Russian Federation Embassy in Washington last week. I also want to thank our Texan Secretary of State – Marco Rubio – for all his work in the “Struggle for Eastern Europe.”

Joyeuses Pâques

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Personal Pratt Queens

Ace of Queens

After traveling around Vermont and Cape Cod, I returned to New York City and signed a lease on an apartment in Queens. I also found that Xi Jinping, Waylon Jennings and my son Roman all have the same birthday – June 15th, the zodiac of Gemini. So, Roman and I have started learning Chinese. Chinese is very similar to Kanji in Japanese; for example, the Kanji and Hanzi for water are both 水. This 水 symbol is also on the dials on the Japanese Submarines in one of my favorite Burt Lancaster movies, Run Silent Run Deep.

I have been talking to several card store owners in New York City about selling my deck of cards. Instead of calling the deck “The American Game” – I may switch the name to “Emblem Cards”. I was sad to leave Capitaland, yet I needed some space from my family. My New York family members have all been so disruptive to my graphic design work and my car mechanic/Art Conservation practice that a few hours of space as become preferable. I pray will be good for all of us. I have missed living in NYC, yet the city has changed a lot from when I lived here in 2010 and 2011. I liked living near my mother, yet Upstate New York makes one yearn for the city. I lasted about a year in Schenectady.

I have been missing my pet bunny rabbit, Mugs Bunny. Easter was always our special day. Yet, I found a famous rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons in Manhattan, which took some of the pain away from our seperation. Stay tuned to the blog for more Queens and New York City updates. Ciao!

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ARMY Art/Design Capitaland Personal presidential_portraits

General Washington

I have finally completed my first of the Presidential Portrait series. After about six weeks of working on a painting, I begin to worry that I have over-done it and thus ruined the painting. I had a drawing teacher at Pratt who used to tell us to stop at 96% and leave a touch for the viewer to fill in with their imagination. If someone works a piece of art even past the threshold of 101%, it destroys that remarkable quality.

detail of the cherries – hands and an object are a common way to add a personal vibe to a portrait

It is so nice to have so many resources to study to try to learn about a person who you are trying to paint in a way that captures more than just a physical description of the person. It is essential to capture the “essence” of a person, and I thought the story of young Washington admitting he cropped down the cherry tree to his father would be interesting. The cherries also have a sexual reference that speaks to our nation’s birth in blood and war through Washington’s deeds.

My uncle, John Szal, was a captain in the Marine Corps. and he asks me not to join the Marines. I thought joining the Army would be a perfect solution as a loophole to get around this. I can enlist at a higher rank with ASE tests and hopefully work on vehicles and/or helicopters. However, several things might disqualify me or limit my options in the military from my past. Also, in the Army, you do not get to pick what you do and are obliged to follow your orders, so I could do graphic design again.

He who lives by the pen shall die by the pen – no force of arms can resist my ink…

Capitaland has a policy of letting people leave for military service. Yet, I do not expect them to have a job waiting for me in four years, so I will be leaving Capitaland. I will miss my new manager, Brian Hansbury, and his dog Bandit (my favorite part of Capitaland). I will no longer be around to receive any commission from someone purchasing a car, so no more pressure on anyone to buy a vehicle to help me.

Brian Hansbury of Capitaland
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Capitaland Personal The American Game

Back with Brissette

After several stressful weeks dealing with my court cases in Texas, I have been able to smooth things over with my lawyer, Miles Brissette. I wrote some things about Miles when I was frustrated with the court, yet he is an excellent lawyer and I would recommend him to anyone.

I ordered a new batch of my cards, which will be for sale again on my website on the Ides of March (3/15). I have been busy with my GMC training, so I have not yet been able to finish my George Washington portrait. I plan to finish by next week so I can start working on John Adams’ portrait earnestly.

New Suit of Clubs
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ADTPR Personal

Back to Texas for a court battle…

After a year of lousy treatment on probation, I have decided to return to Texas to take the charges from the case with Timothy Szal to trial. I will take a bus to Texas at the end of the month. It is clear now that I need to clear up these criminal charges in Texas if I want to get a decent job or decent treatment anywhere. I have taken a leave of absence from Adirondack Tire until this matter is resolved. Larry O’Shea, Sean O’Shea and Eric Steele have been unbelievably supportive during this difficult time.

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blog Personal Professional The American Game The American Game Deck

New Job @ Adirondack Tire and some deck revisions

I was blessed to start a new job at the corporate headquarters of Adirondack Tire a few weeks ago. I am so happy to get to work on cars and do graphic design, combining two of my unique skill sets. I worked at Warren Tire for almost a year and never met the owner. I worked at Adirondack Tire for one day and met the owner plus his son.

I only have my son Roman visit during the summers, so seeing Sean and Larry together makes working for them a pleasure. It is so nice to see the owner preparing his son for his future role in a direct fashion. I gave everyone at corporate unique decks of the American Game for Christmas.

Roman and I (Summer 2024) at the MOMA in NYC

However, I have gazed at the cards on the wall for a few weeks now and have decided to make some minor changes. The Los Angeles card that might evoke a connection with the Los Angeles Chargers is changing completely. A few other cards will have minor edits, and I will update the master portfolio page. If you would like to exchange your deck for the updated version, please email me at mattszal@gmail.com, and I will gladly send you an additional deck for no extra charge. Thanks to everyone who has supported my work and family by purchasing a deck. God Bless you. I used the cards to do a reading for my cousin Ryan on Christmas Eve. We discussed the upcoming book that I am writing to accompany the deck.

My cousin Ryan (the famous architect) and I

This book shall be in the fashion of The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Waite.

This is one of the tentative new versions of the LA card #2