A reader asks Matt if he recalls the best thing and the worst thing ever said or written about his art.

Matt responds:

The best thing ever said about my art was that it changed someone’s life.  That it gave someone the courage to have a second act—to have the philosophy that this is a new beginning and an exploration.  That my art gave them a whole other attitude about how we should look at change to make a negative into a positive.

It’s the attitude I always call Little Orphan Annie:  “The sun’ll come out tomorrow.”

The worst thing:  “It’s redundant.”  “It’s contrived.”  “It has no life.”

I’ve been blessed to be criticized by some of the most widely read art critics in the United States and beyond.

The first time I was reviewed by a big critic was on the radio, nearly 30 years ago, when the most important art critic in Chicago spent about 17 minutes telling me how bad my art was.  His radio reviews were aired throughout many of the stations in the Midwest.

At the end he said something along the lines of, “Mr. Lamb, go on a trip, go to museums, look at some true art, and maybe it’ll show you something other than the drivel that you create...  Better yet, stick with being an undertaker.”

He did me the greatest favor in the world, because it motivated me.  It made me say, “I’ll show you, you little shit!”

I recorded that review and played it over and over again in my studio for years.  That was my way of turning a negative into a positive.

I’m sure he didn’t mean to motivate me.  I think he would have been much happier if I had driven my hearse into the sunset, “Woe is me,” throwing my paints into the ocean, crying:  “Never more, never more!”

So that’s probably why I don’t listen too much to what other people say.  Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

Matt