About

Matt Carlson found his love of drawing while studying Mechanical Engineering at The College of New Jersey. With a fresh pack of pencils, Matt sought out to recreate album art and band logos with a leg sleeve in mind that never transpired. The first piece was the Kona Town album by Pepper. It came out alright and Matt thought hey I enjoy this. Losing credits through transferring colleges, he ended up taking a drawing course there. It was a weekly six hour course that focused on drawing from what you saw. In that course, he mostly practiced with charcoal and india ink. Matt felt that aspects of the course such as critiques and prompts that pushed himself out of his comfort zone were very helpful. There was even a 9’x4’ final that gave him the confidence to work larger.

 

Moving back to Long Beach Island, NJ after college Matt continued to create. After appreciating a friend’s wood burning skills he tried his hand and failed. He still appreciated the look of art on wood, so Matt began to paint on wood rounds with live edges. This translated into a successful operation ran out of Etsy during the pandemic. He was able to create frequently and evolve as an artist through commissions, gifts, and paintings for himself. 

 

Matt has continuously tried to evolve as an artist, whether it be digital work, painting on wood or canvas, drawing with colored pencils or charcoal. His latest creative endeavor has been photography. He picked up a point and shoot camera in order to get off his phone and explore more. It has been a breath of fresh air and a new way to create for him. Matt hopes to continue to merge and collaborate between his paintings and his photos.

 

Matt loves to be active at the beach or mountains, golf, attend live shows, shoot pool or go to a sporting event. All of these aspects and nature heavily influence his art. Matt takes in as much influence and inspiration from other artists and friends along the way. He feels it is a beautiful thing to learn from other creatives and connect. His main goal is to create and share his work with others, but he views collecting art as equally important.

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While spending most of his life in New Jersey by the shore, Matt was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and sees Philadelphia as his second home. The last couple years in Philadelphia taught Matt a strong sense of community and seems like a great place for his art to grow. He currently splits his time between the city and the beach and will plan to do more markets in both locations!

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Please reach out if interested in working with Matt!