Explain your process from start to finish. I am a people watcher. My process starts by observing people, scanning the streets and crowds and web and surfing social media. I am intrigued by the endless variation of the human form and face that nature provides us…how unique everyone is on an aesthetic/formal level and as individual personalities with such different identities yet universally shared similarities. The process of scanning (in an almost schizophrenic way) continues as I begin to layer paint first with turpe’d washes, then with thicker impastos, sometimes in glazes and then disregarding fat over lean prescriptions back into washes and layers dripping with medium. I transcribe my responses of what I observe through colors and mark- making which result in a pile of thoughts & impulses; the sheer accumulation transforms into a representation of that which I am painting. They are thoughts made manifest, considered responses expressing what I see and what I don't.


What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you? Susanna Coffey once told me that “the mundane and banal is what is truly gritty. It’s not two people fucking…”its two people in their underwear making a peanut butter sandwich.”


Since my MFA days, I have found that domesticity, specifically the repetition of life, the daily routine, and the continual cycle of rituals provide deep and profound epiphanies that feed my soul.


What medium do you work in, and what attracts you to it? Oils almost entirely. Oils are super sexy.


They make my eyes moisten. They make my glands salivate.


They can suspend color in a way that other mediums do not and hold them there in a humid vapor. They feel thick and sugary like frosting…like warm butter…warm, colorful, sugary butter. They remain fluid and wet and maneuverable allowing me more time to layer and work into a painting… thereby providing me residency for my minds eye. They hold a mark and retain memory.


I will work in any medium that drips…but oils add sticky friction to the mix…this I like a LOT! www.poetsandartists.com


Matthew Cherry


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