A reader asks Matt whether he has always been interested in world peace, or whether this is only a development that has taken place since he became a painter.
Matt responds:
I have to say no, I haven’t always been interested in world peace. I grew into it after leaving my business life, which was all-consuming. When you deal with the deepest emotion of people who are coping with the death of someone they love, it can really and truly be all-consuming. I didn’t know about Woodstock or get into the peace-activist movement at the time, so I can’t truthfully say that I was a person concerned with peace all my life.
It was more of a gradual awakening to the question: What kind of a world are we leaving behind? What have we left as our heritage? How can I personally do something to better this planet?
I believe that my awareness came about because of the thousands of hours I spend by myself painting and talking to the spirits that I see around me. Probably people will think that’s crazy. Maybe I’m only talking to myself and should be institutionalized, but it just seemed to me after many conversations with myself about man’s inhumanity to man, I was really appalled by the actions of the human species and convinced that we have to contain oursleves, get ourselves under control, or risk the complete destruction of this earth.
I was watching a nature program on television about the little animals that run around, 10 inches high—chipmunks, prairie dogs—they attack each other, they attack the young of one tribe or another... They’re doing what we do. Is this the way we’re genetically marked? The difference is that the animals do it out of instinct, and we should know better. This is the kind of crazy thought that goes through my head while I’m in my studio, painting out my frustrations, thoughts, and dreams.
So while I can’t put on the hat of a lifelong activist, I will die as an activist, so better late than never. Awhile ago I adopted the mantra “Peace tolerance understanding hope and love.” That particular mantra came to me over a fairly long period of time. It was a case of one thing leading to another to another to another, and everything finally leading to love. Love is a very complicated thing. If we can’t love ourselves first, then we can’t love anybody else. That comes to acceptance: Accept that you’re a complete and utter idiot and asshole. Now what? Do you want to change that? So change is important: Hope. I hope I can change. And tolderance. What it is? It’s what people give you when you’re acting like a fool. Understanding is saying, “I understand, but I don’t believe what you’re saying, because your belief system is different.”
When it finally comes down to it, to me the overall umbrella is love. If you don’t have love, you don’t have anything. That’s what the major religions are talking about: loving one another, bringing love to the world. That is the hidden message of the universe. How do we come to love? It’s easy to love someone you have a close relationship with, but how do we love someone we have no hope of understanding, no knowledge of what they’re talking about, and are in complete disagreement with what they believe? How can we love them? How do we get there? Do we have to get there?
I say yes, we do. I probably came to that conclusion when I started thinking about how we’re destroying each other, now with the capability to use the ultimate weapon, and that there are people with backward thought who would use that weapon to destroy the whole world. Now that we have gotten to that point, we better start thinking about how we can love each other.
Why would an undertaker/painter think about that? Who knows, and who cares? If we all thought about peace, then the destruction of the world wouldn’t be an issue. So if we all do start thinking about it, then the whole world will change, there’s no doubt about it. I use art to try to make it happen; somebody else can use carpentry, plumbing, selling newspapers, driving a taxi, whatever. We all have to think about what we can do, and then do it.
Matt