We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Stanners recently and have shared our conversation below.
Matthew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
The story of a leap into faith. February 2021, Austin Texas was hit with an anomalous ice storm. For five days the ground was covered in over two inches of ice, water mains burst and electricity was out for 90% of the city. I had expected to spend the week as I normally do, working remotely from home for the development company that brought me to Austin after graduating from Wharton. Instead, I spent five days in the dark, without heat or electric. No water except what was in my Brita Filter already and no food except for what was in my cupboards… some trail mix and a bag of clementine oranges. Under a headlamp I read Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and played guitar. I looked at the seven paintings I had made over the previous year under gray light and over dwindling rations. For five days my mind became silent from the involuntary fast and surprise sequestration. Then it became clarity. It was time to take a big risk… but one I had been silently preparing for awhile.
The capital of Texas and all its modern infrastructure was brought to its knees for a week. The security of contemporary technology was rendered ineffective. However, neighbors brought each other food and water; they checked-in on their community of proximal inhabitants. Technology, infrastructure and a sense of security would not stave off the natural power of great, unexpected catastrophe. It was the social bond and a stewardship for strangers that built the necessary resilience and fitness. This, I thought, was a resource broadly lacking. One the world desperately needed more of and one I felt I could supply through my creative work. As every painting I ever made communicated a very simple idea… that I am here with you and you are here with me. Over this course of this week in the cold and the dark, I saw what it looks like to engage in curious discovery without the need to service pride. I saw humility and bravery in order to take great leaps of self-growth by respectfully and openly engaging with the other. I could make the world a warmer and brighter place to live for individuals and thrive as an interdependent living system.
I called my boss the next week to disclose that I was taking a turn at attempting the impossible. I was to become a painter and contribute to my community by spreading hope and wonder – to unlock empathy and agency through visual stimulus. I was to think everyday like a painter, paint everyday like an artist, and believe in myself like a gambler with nothing to lose.
I only half-knew that I was taking a long bet against the devil, but I went all-in anyway. It may not look like it yet… and for maybe no other reason than naiveté and a penchant for daydreaming… but we took the house and haven’t looked back.
Matthew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My passion for Fine Art came as a surprise. Inspired by two exhibitions at Tate Modern, I made a gradual shift from seeking purpose as a financier to a professional creative. Mark Rothko and Alberto Giacometti taught me the psychological power of primal color and sensitive form. I have set out as a professional abstract artist to leverage the language of surreal and abstract-expressionist artists to communicate the process of discovery.
Human beings need new information to stay healthy. We need to learn and grow through discovery, but curiosity is hard. It requires a humility to believe that you need more than what is being presented to you. It requires a subsequent bravery to believe that you are capable and worthy of seeking. It requires the strength to persist on a journey filled with obstacles seemingly too great to conquer. And finally, It requires faith to relentlessly try anyway. But when what is new is found and confronted, it is recreation and transformation. It is spectacular rejuvenation and reincarnation.
In any passion or casual interest you have, being curious in discovery is paramount to fulfillment. I offer a visual catalyst for this dynamic of self-learning, ego-erosion, and other-integrating. I am so excited and so proud to offer something that has brought so much light into my life… in the hopes that these paintings may help another brave the casual hopelessness and the doldrums of life.
I offer commissions, podcast sessions and intimate studio visits to engage with potential clients or fellow creatives looking for inspiration. We enter into open and honest discussion about our personal lives while using the artwork as a catalyst. It is a dialogue I offer in-person and over the phone… but it is also a dialogue one may have with themselves and their community, facilitated by a piece hanging in their home. I offer artwork from my website and instagram, as well as solo show presentations in SanFrancisco, New York, and Austin.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is to be able to engage with the world from a creative perspective. It becomes a job without an off-switch. The world becomes filled with inspiration the more one looks for it. Colors and forms come alive while one’s perception changes. Individuals and systems appear filled with wonder. Seeking what is spectacular and interesting in the natural and social world around us is not a skill that is developed in many professions. As a creative, I find it is my job to bring attention and focus to the details that hold salvation. The overlooked elements of potential that hide just beneath our noses. I love being able to engage with the world in this way. Have conversations about what makes people hopeful. Hold those who are despairing and lifting them up. I feel like I have some spectacular secret that can only be communicated through visual riddles and intimate settings. Curating these environments on a canvas and naturally is deeply rewarding.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think that society broadly does value creative work. However, under a capitalist system, there is an embedded growth obligation. Money needs to make money and investments need to be recouped in full plus interest. I think this is a difficult system for artists to engage with and try to build a sustainable practice. Residency programs offer support in a unique way that falls outside this traditional structure, but the residency environment is extremely saturated with prospective artists and few programs. In my view, society could work towards expanding and getting more capable individuals to sponsor casual artist residencies across the world. In order to facilitate collaboration, exposure, and provide some financial security in an extremely insecure profession. It can be as easy as sponsoring an artist to stay in your guest-house or vacaction-home for a few weeks to a month on a meager stipend. It is something extremely valuable to the artist and creative community as well as an exciting and unique opportunity for any individual to become engaged in contemporary creative movements at the ground level. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mattstanners.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewcstanners/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-stanners-9a414a114/