We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Damien Mathis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Damien thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

It’s amazing how life brings you around to your purpose. Coming into painting and accepting it because I needed to see how important it was for mental health, and I seen that because of my service with the Marine Corps

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I end up studying Arts when I got out of the Marine Corps Infantry. I have always been creative, always carried a notepad everywhere. I started just drawing what I could throughout my early life. In college, I met a professor by the name of Dwight Smith. He told me time and time again I was a painter but I never gave it thought. Soon I picked up on the emotional understanding of what color meant and the rest was meant for me to show others. I started learning with still life projects and painting from realism to learning how to painting portraits. In that time I wrote quit a bit of papers lol. I then noticed alot of what I was studying was either missing or old and gritty.

So I came of with a idea at the time to paint all of these important people I came across in a way that they will all be connected in history. I have been painting important figures ever since.

On the other hand I learned and understood color to the point I could teach and direct it to persuade the viewers emotions. So I started teaching painting as a therapy that reflects the joys of your colorful accomplishments.

I’m around now, that I have people of all backgrounds how collect my work. Everywhere I have traveled I sold atleast something. From the Halrem Fine Arts Show in New York, to Art Basel Miami in Florida. So many different cities in between. And I have gotten to me some of the same people I have either painted and painted their families and loved ones.

I want people to know how important seeing and feeling with your eyes do for your thinking health. I want them never to think coloring is for your younger self. When. We still should be taking care of our inner child.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn, was that. Even if you think you figured out who someone is, doesn’t mean you know what that can and will do for you. In my journey it’s been the people who come around you quietly a d bless you with opportunities you never would of imagined. At a show in New York. I talked to a wonderful lady of the course of 3 days…the first day we talked a bit but I think she was trying to get a feel of who I was and how I was in art…how passionate I was. We matched each other’s interests and she ended up becoming one of my biggest art collectors a d introduced me to people I would have never met if it wasn’t for her talking me up to her friends and circle of art collectors…I have been giving so much that money can’t buy. Doors opened up that didn’t require a key, but a word of trust.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Society ca. Incorporate the flow of money into a asset like art within the community. For example, Detroit built most of its infrastructure around the moment of art in the younger generation. Molding them to do something positive for generation connections and cash flow. I’ve seen the upper parts of the community like judges and government, all the way on down and every occupation in between supporting Arts everywhere ,everyday and in everyday. Throughout the year

Contact Info:

• Website: Dmathisphere.com
• Instagram: Dmathisphere
• Facebook: Dmathisphere Gallery LLC
• Linkedin: Damien Mathis

Image Credits
Portraits of Samella Lewis and Aaron Douglas in picture uploaded