B. 1977
Matthew J Larson
Matthew John Larson earned his BFA from the University of Utah in 2007, and his MFA from the Utah State University in 2011. He studied drawing at the Florence Academy of Art in Goteburg, Sweden.
He was born in Page, Arizona. He was raised in Orange County, in Southern California until the age of 18. Much of his time was spent surfing and creating art. He has lived in Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Fance, Sweden, and now resides in Utah. Larson is married with four children.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his work as a painter.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The salient element of art is self-truth. I recall the excitement and energy that went into art as a small child and youth. I didn't have lessons or learn to draw books. I just knew I loved it. Like most little kids I loved drawing faces and people. I would lie on my bedroom floor, listen to music, and just draw for hours. Later, I was educated in a traditional style and approach to art. I spent long hours of rigorous drawing, intricate perspective study, and perplexing color studies. As I came to draw and model the form with proficiency I became aware, drawing and painting well is not the end, but the means to expressing what I want to say.
Here is my self-truth for my art: I create work that is evocative, dealing with emotion in a subtle way, with a process that is genuine to me. I am not as interested in the formal aspects of my art as I am in the process. If my work is evocative in any way then I have been successful.
My recent work is a series of head paintings. I use the process, scale, color, and subject as tools to evoke an interaction. The scale is greatly enlarged and the gaze is subtle. The palette is restrained while the paint is rich and dynamic. The process is energetic and thoughtful, it is a dance, placing marks on the canvas and responding.
What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say. Ralph Waldo Emmerson
