Metal Teepee • Studio Visit with Michael Matheson
By Caitlin O’Hara
If Michael Matheson has any limits, he has not met them yet.
Fueled by an insatiable desire to create, Matheson seems to have no idle mode, and certainly no off switch. He recently welded a hibachi grill prototype, slipcast a vase, sewed canvas into banners, and painted a sign for a local business. And he calls that Tuesday.
But when it comes to making art, the Renaissance man is narrowing his scope.
“I think over time a professional artist learns what is the real driving force behind what he or she makes and why he or she makes it,” Matheson says. “At that point, a lot of editing happens, and you focus on your core interest. For me, my core interest is black ink and watercolor, graphic content, and my conversation with history and patina.”
Michael Matheson, Disconnected, Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper, 2018.
Matheson is currently concentrating on watercolor (“I find that the development of layers of color creating depths really pulls me into the process”); woodblock carving (“For its visceral qualities—my ability to sit with a piece and remove material with my hands really allows me to create art with more physicality”); and intaglio printmaking (“Its complexity and structure forces my style to adapt to its better nature”).
A four-foot black & white watercolor displays thorned thistles with supple buds whose petals open to reveal a delicate scallop pattern as leaves fall around them. A six-foot-tall woodblock print on Egyptian muslin had to be pressed by a steam roller. It reveals a surprising level of detail in the varying linework of a bountiful bouquet in a vase. A small etching of an exquisitely-rendered horse stares at you with enough realism to make you reach out to touch it.
With an oeuvre that is deceptively approachable, Matheson commonly creates images of botanicals, Western iconography and traditional tattoo flash, building from a love for classical paintings, early Native American drawings and Americana. He often patinas his pieces, adding complexity while paradoxically managing to make them feel fresh.
LEFT: Michael Matheson, Together,Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper, 2017. RIGHT: Michael Matheson, Vase and Thistles, Woodblock on paper with oil based ink, 2015.
Throughout his sizable output, he balances tensions between the masculine and feminine; academic and outsider; natural and urban; historic and contemporary; minimal and expressive; playful and grounded. He has an affinity for using accessible materials, even reaching for his coffee cup when he needs to add a stain here or there. When working, he is fast, fluid, decisive—pulling his Windsor Newton series 7 brush or pushing Swiss-made wood chisels with a steady hand and a confidence that whatever happens, it will be right.
“Over the past 20 years of working at art and learning most mediums and materials, I have honed my practice to where it is immediate and accessible. I have created a vast visual library, so I always have an idea or direction available to me, and I don’t get hung up on having the perfect brushes, the perfect studio.”
Matheson’s drive to create surpasses any hindrances to his process. This mindset has led him to amass an impressive rolodex of observations, occupations and experiences, which he embraces with a rare verve, funneling that energy directly into his art.
LEFT: Michael Matheson, Solidarity, Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper, 2018. RIGHT: Michael Matheson, Past Transgressions, Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper, 2017.
He has traveled the U.S. a number of times, and he has lived in cities from west to east and north to south. He worked for Doug Aitken in the mid-2000s, running his painting studio. “I produced his watercolors. The paintings were built on a complex grid; it was very repetitive, precise work. That gave me a specific respect for watercolor that I carry with me. In my work today, I’m creating something totally my own, but which came out of that practice.”
After returning home to Santa Barbara several years ago, he began curating Dune Coffee Roasters’ gallery spaces and hosting art nights at Municipal Winery. He provides art direction and execution for interiors such as Highland Park Bowl in L.A. He manages the metal shop and maker space in the UCSB Art Department. And he creates what he calls “lo-fi” art and merchandise to sell at local art markets.
Again, call it Tuesday.
Michael Mathson, Thistles Together, Watercolor on Arches watercolor paper, 2017.
To see more works by Michael Matheson, follow @metalteepee or stop by Dune Coffee Roasters at 528 Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara, dunecoffee.com.
