Meet Matthew Bruce

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

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Speaking as someone who enjoys interviews and talking to people about their creative journeys – I don’t find mine particularly interesting. In high school, I started making videos regularly with close friends & posting them online. Cameras have always surrounded me since I was a baby – so making videos, taking photos, it was just a part of me growing up.

Initially, when I was in high school, I dreamed of becoming a street artist—someone like Barry McGee or Thomas Campbell. I studied 2D, traditional animation all four years of high school & started tagging the sewers of my hometown with my poorly painted cartoons. I honestly thought I was going to graduate high school & then just pursue my art career, open a gallery one day (etc).

But I ended up going to the local community college because I had no true path or motivation at the time & I was studying fine art. I hated it. And it took me a while to realize why I hated it. I love doodling & drawing & painting ugly faces & cartoons when the inspiration strikes, but feeling forced to study landscapes & human anatomy truly deflated my ambitions. I realized that making art, my career would kill the joy I had for it. So I switched majors to Communications (the one people pick when they have no idea what the fuck they’re going to do with their lives).

But by doing that – I discovered my love for documentaries and photography. I transferred schools to a university & studied Broadcast Journalism & loved it. That’s what ultimately put me on my path of creating small documentaries & doing photography.

Please tell us about your art.  We’d love to hear more about the documentaries.
In the broad sense, I just create small documentaries about artists that inspire me. I have interviewed artists like Kikkujo, Punimelt, Omniboi, Glass Beach, DJ Flapjack & many more. My goal is not to expose these artists to a new audience because let’s be real here, I don’t have an audience, but the goal is to simply capture them. Capture the creative process, their personality & their moment. I think about how in 10 or 20 years, these artists may or may not still be creating, and even if they are, their work may look completely different but with my documentaries, I’m capturing who they are as creators right now. That’s what brings me joy. I also experiment with photography and visual edits, but largely I’m focused on creating these documentaries.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
I don’t think I can speak to this. I have trouble viewing myself as an artist. I feel like something that we all have trouble with today is navigating our largely digitally driven world while still trying to make human connections with one another. If you want success today, you have to have an online presence – you have to be logged on. But by being so tied to everything at all times – it is easy to get lost in all the traffic and endlessly scrolling feeds.

Sometimes it is easy just to value your art by how many likes it gets on Instagram or twitter. We like to think it doesn’t matter, but if I post a video or photo & it gets over 100 likes, I feel so good. It’s embarrassing how good I feel. My brain has been trained to hold those likes in such a high value.

But often I feel like artists who post their work, things they have spent hours or weeks on, and it’ll get a few likes but then the same artists will just simply post a selfie, or something non-art related and that will gain more traction. We all know its just because everyone can relate to a selfie or a picture of food, but not everyone can relate to a painting or a piece of music. But still – you can’t help but feel a little sad about it.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can see my work on my twitter, Instagram or YouTube channel. That is where everything lives. I also have a website on Cargo Collective that has my work archived. In terms of support, just watch my stuff. I like to think it is not about viewership, but knowing people are watching your work is incredibly full-filling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brucems.cargo.site/
• Email: matthewbrucems@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_brucems/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/_brucems

Image Credit:
Matthew Bruce

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