BIOGRAPHY

Matt spent his high school years here in Carbondale, which is also when he became enthralled with ceramics. He went on to study Ceramics, Painting and Drawing at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and then returned to the Roaring Fork Valley and was the director of the Woody Creek Ceramics Studio, a non profit with COMPASS and the Community School. After nearly five years teaching wheel throwing and sculpture to ages from Kindergarten through adult, Matt became a teacher at the Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork, where he taught many subjects including arts, woodwork, stone carving, and more academic classes as well. He spent the last three years delving into furniture design with his father, a long time furniture maker and woodcarver. Matt has continued to weave ceramic work into his practice and has done some mixed media projects with wood and clay as well.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I was introduced to ceramics in high school in a beginning wheel throwing class.  I still have a strong memory of the first time I saw the instructor throw a pot, and how it visceral my internal response was.  The closest description I felt did justice to the experience of that moment was that I was seeing a magic trick,  I knew immediately that I wanted to be able to do that.  That was the beginning of what has now been a more than thirty year relationship with clay.  There have been times when ceramics has been more on the periphery, or taken a backseat to other life pursuits and art forms, but I have never left it entirely.  

When I started college, ceramics classes were popular for upper class men and quite difficult to get into.  Because of this, I ended up studying a lot of other art forms such as painting, welding, furniture design, art history.  The life drawing studies of nude models during this time  eventually found their way into my functional pottery and sculpture, and the fine sgraffito work was a direct result of working in Intaglio and trying to get some of the same affect on the surfaces of my pots.  One of my sculpture professors was also an established painter, and he was the first to encourage me to use the surfaces of my pottery as canvases.  

Now I find my work moving in other directions (although still working in some sgraffito) and looking at more bold surface treatments.  I have found that I really like contrasting rough and smooth surfaces with one another, and I have enjoyed the challenge of finding the balance between rough, organic textures and refined, elegant aspects.