A reader asks Matt which of his studios around the world he enjoys painting in the most.

Matt responds:

I am a wanderer, so I am destined to wander through the world.  As I do, I find myself having a subliminal feeling about the spirits of a place.

For many years I went to the spots where the great masters painted.  I sat where they sat.  I remember going to the cave near Horta, Spain, where Picasso conceived many of his important ideas for developing Cubism.  I went to the old haunts of Van Gogh around Arles, France.  I made pilgrimages to Miro’s great spots.

At all of these, I could either feel the spirit of the place or not feel anything.

When I establish a studio, I always have to spend some time sitting, meditating, and letting my spirit wander around while my body sits there thinking it’s alive, even though it’s really my spirit that is the “alive” part at that time.  If a place doesn’t bring me to a consensus between the material world and the spiritual world, I don’t work there.

Consequently, in my old age, I am always completely at ease wherever I go to interact with my materials in the process that we call art.  When I go to my different homes and studios, I’m always greeted by the people who live there with great warmth.  The animals greet me, too, and although they can’t speak in our language, they always say “Welcome home.”

In my own psyche I am always home.  My established home is wherever I am.  My spirit never leaves.  Parts of it stay where my studio is; other parts journey with me and grow.

I’m never the same when I come back to a studio after having been away.  I’ve learned and changed and done things.  It’s never redundant; it’s always an add-on.

The world may look on this as confusion, inconsistency, and bullshit.  I look on it as growth—and the very essence of my life.

Matt