Matt Bodett
After teaching printmaking for Boise State University, where he received his MFA, Matt moved to Chicago where he has been active in the artistic community. His artwork discusses many struggles facing the contemporary world, while maintaing a focus on healing. See more of his work at mattbodett.com
TEACHER FEATURE: a Q & A with Matt Bodett
How long have you been at CPC?
I started at the CPC as an instructor around 5 years ago.
Why do you make art?
Art seems to be how I understand and how I can communicate to the world.
How does teaching and printmaking play a part in your studio practice?
Teaching printmaking has offered new ways of problem solving, of thinking about the same problem from new avenues. This constant questioning and rearranging is central to my own studio practice.
What other media do you enjoy working in?
I also work with drawing, painting, sculpture, video, sound, poetry, and performance.
Cool stuff coming up? Give 3 important links to media, websites, or interviews. (See above)
I am currently producing a series of three performance based works, which will debut this fall at High Concept Labs in the Mana Contemporary Chicago building. The three works will focus on the lived experience of a major mental illness, and how healing can occur alongside eliminating stigma.
I am funding this project through community support and crowdfunding, which has focused me on creating a network of people focused on changing the perceptions of mental health.
To support the production or read more about it you can visit here:
https://3arts.org/projects/we-are-we-are/
More about me and the artwork I have created can be seen here:
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2018/08/03/artist-understand-schizophrenia/
What book are you reading currently?
I am currently reading the biography of Baroness Else Von Freytag Loringhoven by Irene Gammel, This Little Art by Kate Briggs, There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce by Morgan Parker, and The Mountain and Waters Sutra by Dogen – translated by Shohaku Okumura
What is your favorite non-art distraction?
Trying to learn to take care of bonsai trees
Who are 3 artists (dead or alive) that inspire you?
Cy Twombly, Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven, and Sergei Parajanov
Who is your favorite printmaker?
Rick Bartow
What was the last gift you gave someone?
A drawing
Check out links to other TEACHER FEATURE interviews with CPC faculty HERE