Art & Life with Matthew Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Smith.

Matthew, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I grew up in Endwell, NY, which is a suburb of Binghamton, NY. I come from a family of 6, my mom, my dad, my older brother and sister, and my twin brother (he is an artist too). Technically speaking, my twin is older than me by eleven minutes, making me the youngest in the family. We are a rare type of twin, known as mirror identical. This means that looking at us is like looking in a mirror, I am right handed he is left. When we were young, we would get a cavity on the same tooth, just the opposite side. I was a shy kid, but very inquisitive. My mom said I always asked a lot of questions, even at a young age, I questioned everything.

I have been creating art for as long as I can remember. When we were really young, my brother and I would draw dinosaurs. Our other early influences would include Super Mario Bros., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, Disney, Saturday morning cartoons, etc. I would always be drawing these characters. Along with creating art, I really loved LEGOs as a kid, especially the pirate and castle ones. So I was always creating. I had an active imagination as a child; I pondered everything. When I was young, I was a lucid dreamer; I was able to dream about whatever I wanted to. So I could put myself into the worlds of my favorite cartoons and video games and be a part of these stories, and I escaped often. I saw “Alien” as a kid when it was on TV, that thing haunted my dreams for many years. The alien and ghost episodes of Unsolved Mysteries messed me up too, but I loved watching them. In fact, I did not like outer space for a very long time, damn aliens, and their creepy experiments.

Probably my earliest painting influence was Bob Ross. I used to be fascinated by his show as a kid. What a wonderful resource to have as a kid growing up and being transported to those worlds he created. It was very inspiring. Now that his shows are on Netflix, I will put them on while I paint sometimes. As someone who loves teaching and inspiring his students, it would be a dream to have my own Bob Ross type of art show someday. During high school, my favorite painter was Claude Monet. I also played a lot of video games. I was into anime, which was nowhere near as big as it is now in the U.S. The Simpsons was one of my favorite tv shows, so I used to draw a lot of Homer Simpson, along with anime characters, I was always drawing and painting. When I was getting ready to go to college, I originally wanted to be an animator. My biggest dream as a kid was to create my own anime shows/movies and have a theme park, just like Disney. I used to dream very big, now that I look back on it.

I got my degree in illustration and a minor in animation and art history. My college education wasn’t great. I felt like I wasn’t learning or progressing skills wise in my illustration classes, even after four years of college, I was still a pretty poor draftsman. My animation classes were more enjoyable, as I felt like I was learning skills that I could use for a job. After college, my brother and I wanted to get into the video game industry and knew we needed to work on developing our foundational art skills, so we moved to Southern California.

About six months after we first arrived, we started to take classes at Watts Atelier, a traditional figure drawing and painting school in San Diego. About a year or so later, my brother landed an internship at a game studio in San Diego which later led him moving to LA for a job. I stayed in San Diego. I have been apart of Watts Atelier for thirteen years now, and I have been teaching there for seven years and currently still teach there. Shortly after attending Watts, I got my first professional illustration work. I was creating a lot of vampire art, the scary kind, not the sparkly kind, for an RPG company. Later, I started working for an apparel company, called Remetee, which was apart of Affliction. I was creating hand-drawn skull designs to be used for high-end t-shirts. I enjoyed working with them a lot. I have created plenty of dark art over the years. Now, I create pet portraits, paint for myself, and take on commissioned work. One of my favorite hobbies is baking and cooking. It is relaxing and another form of creativity and a way to express yourself and to share it with others, which I enjoy doing. I bake a lot for my students. Sometimes I think my cookies are better than my paintings.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
In my work, I look to create to emotional depth, mood, and personality. I have been told many times that my people and pet portraits are very soulful and have a lot of life in them. I love drawing portraits, similar to the pets when I capture the person I am drawing, and when they finally get to see it, their face says it all. It’s one thing to learn how to draw, which is hard enough; it’s another to capture someone as a drawing and make them feel special when they see it.

The experimental figure paintings I have been working on dealing more with the darker side of emotions, such as anxiety and depression, etc., that we all face. These are much more personal and based on things I have gone through. These paintings are rough ideas of things I want to work on later down the road. Even my more recent fantasy pieces, my mermaid paintings are a reflection of this as well. One of them inspired by a personal experience I had with someone, the hurtful thing she did to me and the guilt she felt later. I want to create a series of paintings that goes through these tough emotions and what they can do to us, and then ultimately how we conquer them.

In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
The word “artist” has become such a broad term, and what we call “art” these days is very broad is as well. I think the biggest issue that artists face, especially young aspiring artists, is art education. Art education in this country is pretty poor when it comes to foundational art. The college and university systems lack proper foundational drawing courses and instructors, and this type of training is hugely important to any art career. I have taught plenty of post-college students that were very disappointed with their education because of the lack of proper training. Which, I understand because my college education lacked this training as well. Regardless of what your art goal is, everyone should have a strong foundation, even if your goal changes, at least you have developed those skills to transition into another creative field. If your goal is to get good at representational drawing and painting, basically to paint like John Singer Sargent or Norman Rockwell or any other Old Masters, I would recommend looking for small academic art schools and ateliers.

Another challenge an artist has to learn to face is how much time is needed to dedicate to your development. One isn’t going to be good right away. On top of that, this is very difficult, and you have to be willing to not just dedicate yourself, but willing to sacrifice. Like I said, it isn’t always easy. It is important to learn to navigate the ups and downs. Not every drawing and painting will be perfect. It’s learning to do thousands of bad ones before you get a good one. Artists tend to be very sheltered about their work too. It is very personal to them. They can’t and don’t want to take criticism. I think it’s important to learn to take criticism head-on, even if you don’t want to hear it. A lot of people think the soul of the artist is in the finished artwork, I am not saying it isn’t, but the journey and growth that few rarely see or experience, to me, is one of the most soulful parts of being an artist.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I have been getting into the gallery scene more and have been doing shows, but the best place to see my work is on Instagram, @mattdrawsstuff. I post frequently, so it is always being updated with pieces that I am working on and studies that I post as well. The best way to support me is to contact me directly, matt@mattksmith.com. If you see something, you like or would like to commission me for a piece of art. I do have an INPRNT page as well, www.inprnt.com/gallery/mattdrawsstuff/.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mattksmith.com
• Email: matt@mattksmith.com
• Instagram: @mattdrawsstuff
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MattDrawsStuffArt

Image Credit:
Irina Alexandrova

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