A reader asks Matt whether he thinks of the colors of the four seasons when he mixes his paints.

Matt responds:

Mother Nature is one of my best teachers.  I believe it is part of our genetic makeup, and what I call our soul.

I love to observe it all around us, the creations of nature:  the rushing brook, the crumbling wall, the mold on the rock, the little clumps of flowers, the changing of the leaves, the flying of the butterflies, and all things that prance, slither, and stampede around.

It is fascinating to watch the interaction of one species with another:  the track marks, the cloud of dust...

Mother Nature is showing us that everything is the same but everything is different.  Even though I might be green, I might really be brown or black.  Maybe if I’m hating something, I’m hating myself, or maybe I just don’t understand what the hell I’m doing.

I believe the greatest teacher of acceptance is the earth itself.  Rain and the water it brings can nourish us and keep us alive or drown us.  We can swim in it, sink in it, we can use it to make our soups and flush our toilets.  It’s always the same but we always use it in a different way.  It’s always our friend, even when we think it’s our enemy.

So yes, I believe that all of those things are absolutely part of who I am, and who I am as an artist, and why I am, and what I am.