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

Hi Matt, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve always enjoyed making things in a lot of different ways but I had never really thought about following any creative pursuit professionally when I was younger. In high school I was doing a lot of airbrushing and screen printing of my own clothes along with a lot of drawing and painting mostly of words mostly attempting a sort of graffiti style. People in my school started to approach me with little projects and would pay me to make a drawing or airbrush something for them. That was the first time I experienced someone being excited about what I was making and wanting to pay me for it. It made me realize I could pursue and make money at this thing that I love so I started putting myself out there, pursuing opportunities, and zeroing in on how I really wanted to be working and presenting myself as an artist.

Matt, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I live and work in Gardiner, Maine. I mostly make non representational paintings that emphasize line, form, and color. I’m inspired by things like language, change, broken objects, scribbles, patterns, music, fashion, figure, and nature to name a few. I constantly observe and absorb all this visual and emotional information that surrounds us allowing it to crash and jumble together in my mind. Then I process and pull out bits and pieces to build a composition in my paintings. I want the work to evoke different ideas without referencing one specific idea and to for it to be viewed subjectively. I try to always be making quick drawings, more so when I’m away from the studio. Whether it’s just line compositions or an object of figure it helps me constantly develop my personal visual language. I’ve been developing this way that I create for about thirteen years. I feel incredibly fortunate that I’ve had a lot of opportunities because of it and my work has traveled and been placed in private collections around the world.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s hard to think of just one. Spending time with other artists and sharing ideas, perspectives, struggles, and triumphs is so inspiring and rewarding. I like to surround myself with other people’s artwork and through trades I’ve been able to acquire work from a lot of different artists I admire. But I think the most rewarding aspect for me specifically is the endless possibilities of the way that I work. It allows me to find inspiration in everything and I’m constantly excited to get to work.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’m excited to continue to pursue the way that I feel compelled to create. I’ve learned so much about myself and it offers so much space for thinking about ideas like what I’m drawn to and why. I want to continue diving into myself and to look at and learn about as many things as I can which allows continual transformation in my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: mattdemersart.com
• Instagram: mattdemers_again

Image Credits
The main image for the feature needs to be credited to Nicole Wolf Photography.