Matt has always been an artist, but when he was considering studying art in college, he was urged to study something he could use to “make a living”. He was told, “You can always create art as a hobby.” So, Matt took a 41 year detour to be an electrical engineer and work on computer design for a major computer company.
Matt did make every effort to draw and paint when he could, and took art classes from various places, but who has time for hobbies with a family, a job, and other life activities? Doodling during boring meetings doesn’t count count as art, does it?
In 2016 Matt’s engineering career ended when he collided with a pickup truck while riding a bicycle. A brain injury made it impossible to continue being an engineer, so he turned to his first love of creating art.
Since then Matt has been drawing and painting. After losing his Butte County, California art studio in the Camp Fire in 2018, he found the perfect place to paint in Placerville. He has dabbled in a lot of areas. Mostly watercolor paintings and ink drawings or a mix of the two. He created a series of paintings of children with rare disorders. He has also created a significant body of work sharing his experience with a brain injury. More recently, he has been focusing on creating portraits of trees.
After another fall and brain injury, a benign brain tumor (a meningioma) was discovered. It was surgically removed and followed up with daily radiation treatments for six and a half weeks. He kept a daily journal of art and writing during radiation treatments, which he compiled into a book, Radiation Road. This led to an opportunity to have a "solo" art exhibit which he invited several other brain injury survivors to contribute to, called Brain Reconnected. Brain Reconnected, the book is Matt's second self published book.
Matt has ideas for several more books of his art and writings.
