Matthew Curry Interview

by Davin Risk

MR: What’s the history of the work you are doing now? You've got nods to graffiti writing and to design; so how have those things come together in your painting?

MC: Primarily, they are just two disciplines that I have studied and practiced. The graffiiti aspect of my work now isn’t so much about writing one specific name or doing letters - I’m more focused on the layering that occurs when years and years of writing or posters etc are going up on the surface - you see these little windows popping thru from the previous husk and it all becomes much more abstract and unfocused messaging. I apply my interest in that layering to my paintings, by letting my works sit around and then I’ll hit it up randomnly and eventually begin to try and bring it all together - and I guess that’s where the design comes in-trying to make some sense out of it in composition and mark making.

MR: I see a lot of references to elements (fire, air, water) in your painting. Is there an evolution of this for you?

MC: I think so. I just try to keep the subject matter simple - I still need some sort of easily legible icon in a drawing or painting. I don’t think my work is strong enough to be devoid of it so, I use these simple elements because they have been drawn foever - so there’s more room for abstraction and simplicityand that I also take a great deal of inspiration from landscape painting, Edo, mythology and graphics.

MR: Another reoccuring image in your work is the dragon or serpant which is sometimes only visible as a grouping of scales. Is there a narrative that you see connecting your work? Some sort of mythology?

MC: I was doing a lot of myth-based drawings and the dragon theme was something that I kind of just resigned myself to work out - kind of like a homework assignment for myself. In the beginning it was very representational and more illustrative, but as time went on I had to push it and I began pulling out bits and pieces of the form and the overall shape. The long winding body has proved to be a great tool for putting together compositions and the scales have just evolved into becoming their own thing, their own mark.It’s to the point where I could put down a few scales and a single line on some paper and my brain would fill in the rest. I have done a lot of dragon stuff. The narrative I guess would be the overall process - kind of like following the different mutations of this one single dragon.

MR: In the second slideshow, we’re showing the process of a single painting. Can you talk about your typical process? How spontaneous is it for you?

MC: It fluctuates. I would say this painting in particular is maybe 50/50. There’s always this middle period where I’m just laboring over something and then in the end I end up just covering it or doing something else to obliterate it.

MR: You also work as a designer/illustrator producing artwork digitally. Do you see those processes as separate from your painting or is there a lot of overlap for you?

MC: There’s definitley some overlap - Just the other night I was painting and I didnt like the mark I just made and my brain immediately registered “command z.” But I am far more articulate in my digital work - trying to make things look spontaneous when you have such complete control is hard to do.

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Matthew Curry is a Washington DC-based illurtrator, designer, and painter. For more of his work, visit http://www.ninjacruise.com