A reader asks Matt to explain the significance of his incorporation of the American Indian as a motif in his figurative paintings.

Matt responds:

To me, the Native American, or American Indian, is a symbol of the longing for mankind to be kind to our environment, our people, and our ideals, and to worship the things that are good to us:  the sun, the water, the earth.

I believe that our longing also exemplifies our inconsistency in practicing what we preach.

We say we would love to be like the Indian, but if that means giving up air conditioning, automobiles, and hot running water, and to not cut down trees to put up more homes, then I guess we’re not really thinking like an Indian after all, we’re thinking bullshit and fooling ourselves.

I am an Irish American lover of Native American culture, and what the American Indian stands for in the fantasies of a Westerner, and not the reality of all the cruelties that have been imposed on indiginous peoples throughout the world.

It seems like the mission of people who come into native socieites, is to dress them up in Western garments, send them to schools, and if they can’t change them to their religion, they kill them or put them on reservations.

We love to dream and think like Indians, but when it comes to doing and acting like Indians, we are very inconsistent.

But I do consider myself a closet American Indian, and I still hope for a better world.

Matt