A reader asks Matt whether he ever paints landscapes.

Matt responds:

There is a Spanish art critic, Arnau Puig, who believes all my paintings are landscapes.  Personally, I can’t see it, but he knows a lot more than I do when it comes to the interpretation of art, so either he’s wrong or I’m demented.  I’m afraid he’s right, and I just can’t see what I’m doing.

But I never sit down and consciously say “I’m now going to do a landscape.”  Then again, I rarely sit down and say I’m going to do anything.  I just let the spirit take over and manifest itself, and it becomes whatever it is:  sometimes recognizable, sometimes completely hidden.

I also believe that things that are recognizable in this universe are completely puzzling in the alternate universe, and vice versa.

Painting a traditional landscape is a talent:  to be able to take what you’re looking at, bring it through the filter of yourself, mix the colors, find exactly the right time of day, the lighting, the reaction of the birds and animals that are in the scenes, how they would probably be looking at that time—3:31 in the afternoon in April of 1863...

It takes a great insight into the world to observe and interpret nature as the great landscape painters do and to capture the contentment and tranquility of nature (unless the birds are fighting with one another!).  It is a talent that takes years to train yourself to do.

That is not my mission.  I’m more like the screaming crow.  Do we put it in a cage, do we build a scarecrow, do we teach it to talk, do we turn it into licorice and eat it?

I believe that artists, consciously or subconsciously, gravitate toward that which they secretly long for or most love.  I try to make my art reflect peace, tolerance, understanding, hope, and love.  I may be delusional and kidding myself.  Maybe it’s really just homemade bread and Irish stew!

But I’m happy in my simplistic realization that I am a committee of one and an audience of one, presenting my ideas to whoever wants to look at them, and let them make whatever they will out of it.

If somebody thinks it’s a landscape, so be it.  It is what it is.

Do I paint landscapes?  I’m probably the last one to ask!

Matt

P.S., Always keep in mind my favorite quote:  “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”