Painting The City | Five Questions With Artist and Gallery Owner Matt Miller

Fayetteville artist Matt Miller opened an art gallery recently on the city square.

Something earnest, unforced and accessible emerges when you talk to Fayetteville artist Matt Miller. His enthusiasm is contagious.

It’s not naivety that comes across from the 25-year-old former rugby player from Jonesboro, but an embrace of life’s creative possibilities.

He won’t hesitate to say he wants murals all over Fayetteville, visible signs of the community’s creative vitality. His energy feels youthful, dedicated and possible.

Already, he’s opened up the city’s newest art gallery, Matt Mill Studio at 21 E. Block St. in downtown Fayetteville.

Miller can be persuasive when he argues his gallery will succeed because a struggling economy is the time when people need art most.

He’s been able to support himself as an artist for years doing mostly acrylic work on canvas. He turned a three-month nest egg earned installing computers into a three-year career as a professional artist.

He does this by making art people want to buy and customizing his work for customers on commission.

You should stop by and see his gallery on the city square soon.

[Disclosure: Matt Miller is a volunteer in the Creative Economy Action Group, a group I also volunteer with.]

Why would you open an art gallery in the middle of a recession?

Art is not about the restrictive worries of what if’s, but about the freedom of the How to’s.

Recession in my mind is just a reason to step back as a whole and re-adjust to what is really important in the world.

"Miles Davis" from Miller's Legend Series.

I believe when the world is distracted with life’s circumstances, this is when we need art the most. It is therapeutic, inspirational, and an escape if you will. I hope that when people come into the gallery & view works of art, it will, for that moment, free them of their anxiety, open their minds to something outside their conditioned responses, and free their imagination. You exist only in what you do.

Dramatic change in society is, and always has been, a catalyst for inspiration, and if we all listened to everything the news told us to, nothing would ever get started or completed, because of fear.

I choose to live in the world of intuition and creativity. If the community likes my work, then the gallery will thrive.

But I will always create art.

What kind of gallery is it? Will there be other artists or just yourself?

My space is primarily a functioning studio where I create my art. But I have many paintings on display in the gallery and will be holding special events related to the arts.

As of now, my work is the only art on display, but eventually I will be holding events for other local, regional, and eventually international artists.

I want my studio gallery to be an experience, not a place; A location for the community to come be creative and find inspiration.

"The One"

Tell me about your work. What themes reoccur?

As far as subject matter, my work is very eclectic. But I do have one element that seems to reoccur. It is the mark of the textured spiral. The spiral acts as the DNA within my work. It connects all my paintings like the Golden Ratio connects everything in nature. It represents the golden ratio and acts as a constant reminder to live spherically; to never let the past be your present, nor the present be your end.

What’s your background as an artist?

I am a self-taught artist with formal training only as a child. I have evolved much since then, but still allow child-like enthusiasm to inspire me.

I have always had a curiosity for life, art, and all things around me. Creating art is the only thing that ever seemed to have purpose and meaning or at least brought me closer to one. I have no formal training, but teach myself through the creative process and experience.

I have been working as a professional Visual Artist for the past three years, but have been an artist my entire life. I graduated from University of Arkansas in 2007 with a finance degree and minor in marketing, but intuition led me down an unexpected path.

I have worked on commissions for art collectors across the nation, as well as held numerous solo exhibitions. At the end of summer, I will be combining with Studio b of Alys Beach for a show in Miami. This coming fall, I will be preparing for a solo show in San Francisco. I am very excited to see where this artistic journey will lead!

One word – murals?

5:30 Coffee

MURALS?

Where to start. I am a member of the Creative Economy, which is part of the Fayetteville Forward Initiative that Mayor [Lioneld] Jordan created.

Within the Creative Economy, ee have sub committees with various focuses, and the subcommittee I am in charge of is Murals.

So, the Plan: Basically, my energy will be geared toward the creation of the murals as well as raising funds to finance all the projects.

The first mural project I will be donating my time and financing the project myself.

Hopefully this will create enough interest and backing to find supporters. It will be outside of the new Whole Earth Café, who will be purchasing the wood for the project, on the corner of College [Ave.] and Center St. There will also be opportunity for other artists to create murals once funds are raised and the appropriate documentation is filled out.

NOW, WHY MURALS. Because they’re AWESOME!

Fayetteville has such a cool and artistic culture, that I think it should be expressed with the largest canvases around, the city walls.

We will cover all the aesthetic hazards in Fayetteville, starting with the core door walls right off of college, welcoming all visitors and locals to the nucleus of Fayetteville’s art and cultural, the city square. We will then branch out to other areas in the city to help enrich environments energy and aesthetics.

One location that I have had my eye on for about five years is the 10 story Co-op building on Martin Luther King Dr. That will be a hefty project, but I am stoked about the possibility.

Public art is a tool to add to the personality of a community, while also encouraging creative expression and discussion. It will not only beautify the city, but it will bring pedestrian traffic to these other wise overlooked spaces. Many of the public art projects are an opportunity for the community to be a part of the construction of the pieces, thus creating truly “public” art.

Christopher Spencer

Christopher Spencer, 36, is the publisher and owner of Ozarks Unbound and the food news site, The Fayetteville Food File. He is the chair of the Fayetteville Creative Economy Action Group and the social media chair of the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He's also the founder of WordCamp Fayetteville. You can always contact him at cspencer@ozarksunbound.com

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1 Comment

• Dr Ned says:

  July 15, 2010 at 11:36 am

  Boy… are You Studly or not???

  NOT….

  Ha…gotcha…

  call me

  Ned

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