ARTIST UPDATE
#1788 Early Light in Studio 4-26-21
MATT CHINIAN PROSAIC REALISM Interview by H. Candee I think of you as a relentless and very focused artist. You work deeply at translating what you see onto the canvas. Has your thirst for painting accelerated over the past year? Matt: Hi Harryet, thanks for giving me this opportunity, and thanks for the show of confidence right out the door! I guess I am relentless and focused, although I’m also a scatter-brain slacker and I’m not painting right now, so I’m slacking. I’ve been on this path for a long time, and the times I haven’t been, I’ve wondered, “what the hell’s wrong with you?” So things are in a constant change, but I couldn’t say that I’ve accelerated, I think I have actually gone into a lower gear, that my work has gotten more introspective and I’m more contemplative, I want to make better paintings, not necessarily more paintings. Are you taking your painting on site work to new destinations? I sense you like to capture locations that are somewhat isolated, where life exists unbothered and unoccupied. Matt: Trying to do anything new feels futile sometimes, who said “there is nothing new under the sun” was it G*d or do I have that attribution wrong? I’ve recently co-opted the term “Prosaic realism” to define much of what I do. The tenant of which, is making nothing into the subject, on
the surface I depict common places, the mundane, the overlooked by most, even myself and I embraced the random as a way of finding a subject. This does not require world travel to find, I really should be able to find it right in my hometown, or even right at home. Being freed of having to take place seriously, I can turn it into an opportunity to paint for paint’s sake, it can be an arrangement, an expression in paint application, and I can set up tension between the subject and the means of depicting that subject, and let them duke it out. What gratifying results do you find when a painting is finished? How do you tell if what you have made works for you or not? Matt: I’m never gratified, and if I feel gratified I’d be mistaken. And “finished” is really more like “done”. I spend a lot of time looking at work I bring back to the studio, thinking “what works, what doesn’t, what can I do better, and why”. Painting is a verb, and the paint flows like a river.
Then there is the tedious side of being an artist. The self-promoting of one’s fine art. There is endless art to be seen and buying art can often be a daunting experience. In some ways we have to have some luck. How do you educate your audience on your work and what you do? Matt: Sure! There are hours and hours of prep, I make the panels and I wear out brushes, I clean my pallet. Then there is marketing. I started to work with a web marketer, a coach, really. He’s guided me in getting a sales website, a newsletter, and a Facebook Art page. He’s also encouraged me to go live on social media and to make videos and put them on my Youtube channel, all in order to “get myself out there” I’m talking about the paintings like I’m having a gallery talk. It has been a little daunting, I’ve been an introvert my whole life, so it’s a lot. But it’s also thrilling, once I start talking I never know what I’m going to say, sometimes it’s brilliant, sometimes idiocy, but it’s definitely out there.
During the painting process, Matt, can you describe some of your feelings that take over? Matt: Paint is dope. The highs, the lows, the withdrawal. It’s an addiction.
Tell us something about your art making that we would not typically know unless you mentioned it. Matt: I embrace ritual. I have a routine, I check
40 • DECEMBER | JANAURY 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND
