A reader wonders to what extent an artist creates with the viewer in mind; or simply creates to fulfill his or her own vision, irrespective of how the viewer will experience it.
Matt responds:
As we know, most things are hidden. Perceptions are reality to most people, and reality is in many cases too horrible to even contemplate for many people.
Therefore, things that are not examined are put on the shelf. It’s part of the human condition and how we get by in life.
How a painting is perceived cannot even be contemplated by me as a painter. It would be like throwing a stone into the ocean and then wondering how far the ripples will go.If I’m in San Francisco, is it going to touch Japan? When I sneeze, does that change the atmosphere all over the world? Does it actually help melt the snow on Mount Everest, so that the water will come down and change the atmosphere?
These are questions of mammoth implications. What we do, and our place within the universe, is very, very important place.
How can we as painters perceive anything, is really a daunting question, because even if we’re a hundred years old, we’ve only experienced the tip of a pin that is sticking out of the crown of the Statue of Liberty... We can’t start proclaiming how much we know, because we know so little.
What we are doing as artists is taking our limited abilities, stretching them as far as we possibly can within a geographic area we call our body—and an unlimited area we call our spirit, mind, and soul—mixing it with some sort of substance, and presenting it to ourselves to make some sense of what the universe is about.
How other people perceive it is similar to how the ants perceive us, or the elephants perceive us.
We have no idea how our art is perceived, and even though other people looking at the art are supposedly rational human beings, I think it’s impossible to ascertain what they can see in our images.
The exciting part to me is if they even give a damn about it, or a passing look or a passing thought... and have I, as an artist, stimulated some inquiry into the spirit, mind, and body of another part of our species, to explore something that I believe might be important or unimportant?
Just the possibility of that is important in the world that I live in in my mind.
I am constantly driven to make art. Do I care how it’s perceived? Absolutely not.
Do I make the best I possibly can? Absolutely yes.
Do I always achieve what I’m trying to do? Absolutely not.
Do I keep trying? Absolutely yes.
That is my strength and my curse.
Matt