Nelson Saiers 101: A Walk Through The Brilliant Artist's 10 Best Works

N. S.: The piece "Icarus Strangled" focuses on a derivative called the "strangle" and the importance of protecting your wings. It's really the height of hubris to not protect your wings if you manage a complex derivative portfolio; and events like 2008 could be devastating.

Now, a strangle actually protects your wings, if you're a long one. A good metaphor for not protecting your wings comes from the Greek mythological figure, Icarus, who flew too close to the sun; and doing so, his wings fell off, leading him to fall into the Mediterranean Sea. Now if you look at the foreground, you'll see blue and green paint that's abstractly painted that appears to be....That gives an ocean-type feel that hints at the Mediterranean Sea. And behind it you'll see a payout graph, which [is] a payout graph for a strangle. The equation in the foreground are called "Greeks," and they also are measured risk. But they may not be so relevant to a wing event; so overreliance on those could be devastating.

Finally, given the solar aspects of Icarus's story, I actually exposed this painting to ten years of sunlight by putting it into a UV oven.

[Photo courtesy of Nelson Saiers]