interview with shandra matson

Since the damaging event in which she was forbidden to draw on the walls in the family home anymore, Shandra has been ignoring the real world and making phantasmagorical creatures frolic on canvases.  Now, in her first-ever public art show, she hopes to open doors into her funny little mind, and establish a firm foundation to her blossoming art career.  Influences include beer bottles, babbling brooks, moon shadows, and furry things.

Shandra will be the first of many artists to hang in the new wallfarmers space in downtown Courtenay.  Her show, Goodbye Forest is a farewell of sorts as she is moving to Montreal to attend art school.

Here's a quick little interview we threw together...

Where did you grow up and how were you introduced to art?

I grew up in the groves and gravel of Courtenay, BC.  I was encouraged to tell fortunes and climb cliffs, but I found my real calling when my mom got me a wall to draw on as a preschooler.  Since then, I’ve been having “who-can-draw-the-ugliest-thing” contests to keep my pens inked.

What types of environment cultured your love of art?

Home life has always been colorful.

Did you go to art school?

I’m going this January after much dithering.  I’ve changed my mind several thousand times, but I’ve decided to go to Montreal for my studies.   Maybe.

Tell me about the characters you paint? How are they connected to your personal life?  

My characters are usually what I think I should look like.  I paint a lot of animals – I see less of them, contrary to humans, so their form, the way they move, it’s much more intriguing to me. 

What’s your general medium?

I like unprimed canvases and slabs of wood, and I use whatever I have handy – tea, acrylic, markers, India ink…  I like it when people wonder what I used on a canvas.  My blackbooks are often filled with scribbling upon crumpled napkins and leaves.

Did you have a favorite story as a child that influenced your art at all?

I always liked the one about the kid and that moral they learned. 

Tell me about the commission work you’ve done.

I’ve done a lot of portraits of people as animals they resemble.  Street-art-type canvases and doodles on small kitchen appliances as well.

Musical influences?

Lots of weird bands from the Oregon area.  Bands who have made me feel better about my fiddle lessons throughout the years.  Old crackly blues and Hawaiian ukulele.  The soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

5 years from now? 10 years from now?

Living in a train car.  Or old and washed up. 

What are your thoughts on the zombie apocalypse?

I figure I’ll be ok as long as I have a solid shovel – shovels are so darn useful.  And some beer. 

What’s your favorite beer?

Guinness.

What’s up with this show, bro?

This show is my first.  That says a lot.   I’d like to think that this show is the kickoff to a career that is vast and hilarious and has something to do with art.   

Creep her work and trippings on flickr and myspace.