Cloth Collages
These collages are created on a fabric ground. My interest in textiles are the genesis of this series. I salvaged vintage napkins for this group and use stiffening and collage techniques to create layered compositions. The cut or ripped shapes are derived from processed papers. Papers that have a sense of history, photographic or text, printed, colored in some way often worn and weathered. The compositions use shapes and designs that relay my interest in creating depth in my work, achieved by overlaying lightweight paper and fabrics. Imagery is often covered partially obscured to create a suggestion of something once there.
Colored Tiles
These works are collage on panel. The backgrounds are inspired by distressed photographic references of images that I am particularly drawn to. The rectangles offer the viewer a series of pure colors arranged in a grid like format. The rectangles are bright and shiny in contrast to the background but retain a thoughtful color relationship.
Cut Ups
These collages on panels incorporate 3 surfaces that create a conversation between them. The background is distorted photography that has the appearance of being discolored and washed out. In contrast are the rectangles of saturated colors. Upon those are the very specific cut images from many sources that give the suggestion of an object, often cut into to reveal interesting shapes. This union of and arrangement of unrelated forms creates the melody of the piece.
Hidden Figures
This is a series inspired by my love of African Art. The figures are paired in each piece creating a dialogue between the patterned forms. The abstracted figures are layered with foliage like imagery. Some of the works are on canvas and some on paper. They are paintings combined with collage.
Laced Series
This collections of artwork could be seen as constructions as they are literally laced together with colored waxed linen. Holes have been punched into cut collages that have been pieced together with the intention of creating exciting color and pattern combinations. The laced construction method offers the viewer an understanding of the labor intensive process. Much of the color and pattern inspiration I derived from African textiles. I have always been inspired by African imagery, especially textiles. After 3 visits to Africa, the intense colored and patterned textiles in combination with the dry rustic landscape has always been an image I have tried to express in my work.
Matt Collage Series
This series has been created with many layers of vintage, found, dyed and printed papers, book pages and lightweight fabrics. The materials are important because they constitute the construction of the pieces. The concept is in another direction of working on the surface of a canvas or paper. In this case the surface is the result of the layered pieces. The pieces can be perceived as a whole giving one perspective up close revealing imagery and text and a sense of history as well as offering the viewer something entirely different from afar.
October Painting Series
This series consists of works on paper that I made in October 2022 while I was in residence at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. It was a beautiful time of year and of course I was inspired by the foliage and the leaf color transformation in particular. These drawings/paintings are layered color pencil and paint and there are many layers . These pieces are nature-landscape inspired and the colors create a contrast of vivid pigment with the frosted effect of the paint that is reminiscent of fog in early mornings with the vivid changing colors of the trees.