We were lucky to catch up with Matisse Ibarra recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matisse, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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.

I started out with Graffiti art because my older sister was a tagger and i blew my mind at a young aged the people can form letters they way they did and do now, but over time i grew out of it and took up calligraphy and painting, and i get bored fast, so i always find new ways to express or stretch what i know and apply them to new mediums, like photography and graphic design, or music.

i dont know if i would of want to seed up the learn process honestly, i think everything has its time and place and nothing good ever comes out of rushing, but i can only speak for myself, but working under pressure i can say ive learned new things when i already thought i had it down.

i think being self aware, eager and curious to learn something new is definitely essential skills and self doubt works too.

Time is the biggest obstacle till this day, you never have enough of it like the knowledge you wish you knew.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Graffiti art started it all at the age 6 and i would check out Can Control Magazine that would be my bibles growing up, and i would mimic some of my favorite pieces to get familiar with the process, but try to get in the mind of that artist and see what they saw, and then i would eventually branch away from that and do my own thing. The Youtube happened and i came across a calligrapher named Luca Barcelona and thats when i shifted away from Graffiti art and in to the finer side of typography. While learn that, i did work for bands mainly (even the ones ive played in) because there is a demand for it and i would listen to the music i got and get sent and try to find something that fits what the bands trying to grow as musically and help them solidify it, because from what i learned about it is that most people dont know what they want and sometimes you gotta to lay them on the couch and open them up, and thats not just with album art, but also tattoos ive done and personal commisions, so you have to go in know you may or may not have to talk someone in or out of and idea, and the best way is finding out what type of demographic it will draw or that they want to cater to. They you have ones that say, “Just do YOUR thing” and most of times thats all we want to hear haha.

I have to say im proud of everything i have produced absorbed along the way, and the people i have worked with, that i never thought would come with what it. I’ve done work for musicians such as Ikey Owens, Deantoni Parks, Chicano Batman, Rudy De Anda, Spirit Mother, Mourn, Gone, etc. and even a team deck for L.E. Skateboards thats to Nick.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

i try not to repeat myself as much or allow the creative process to get stagnate. Getting comfortable starts to make myself stare out window and wish i could be doing things different creatively, and i just rather know when to stop and just do it before letting that happen and over time i notice that my styles have changed so much that it makes me laugh that i even had a thought like that, but i dont regret any of them, thats part of human growth, just like feeling different emotions before you call it night. We’re all consistently Inconsistent and thats ok.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

i maybe an attempt at it and the hype was bullshit. It doesnt beat getting your hand physically dirty, you can’t screen shot that feeling.

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