A reader wonders whether people will stop buying art in these depressed economic times, and asks Matt whether he has cut his production to anticipate reduced demand for art.

Matt responds:

My production philosophy is:  More is great, more more is better, and more more MORE is best!

I always feel that my ability to actually perform as an artist—to move my arms and legs and have the mental capacity to know what I’m doing—is a gift.  I feel it would be presumptuous and stingy on my part to deprive myself of this blessing that I believe that God or the universe gave me, to smear different materials together, to be part of the process of making art.

Therefore, whether the buying public ever buys it, I really don’t give a damn.  I am compelled by an inner force to keep making, changing, moving...  To try to get me to stop would be like trying to make a steam engine stop—you keep throwing in the water and the heat, and it just keeps going along.

As long as I know what I’m doing, I’m oblivious to what goes on in the economic world the minute I go into my studio.  I give the financial markets some attention as a hobby, along with politics and other interests I have.  But none of them affects my driving force.

I absolutely and positively believe that art can change the world and that art is the universal language.  There are billions of people in the world, so probably, my unannounced dream is that before I die, for everybody to own a Lamb.  If that’s the case, I’ll have to live to be 9,800 years old and spend the whole day, every day, slinging paint at anything that stands still long enough.

So the answer to your question is:  I don’t know if the economy affects whether people are buying art.  I do know it doesn’t affect me making it.  And as long as I’m not cursed with Alzheimer’s, I’ll keep making art, with the help of God and four aspirins for my arthritis.

Matt