About the Artist

ABOUT

The son of immigrants, in his early childhood Mati grew up in Chicago, where his parents had several artist friends who would encourage his youthful passion for art. In the 7th grade he created his masterpiece to date, a beautiful whitetail deer. Many were impressed with the created image, except for one thing. “Why Mati did you color the deer green?” asked classmates and teachers with a snicker. He would learn several years later he was profoundly colorblind, red, green, and brown. For most of the next 40 years he set aside any youthful artist ambitions to pursue art with a fear of the color green… or red or brown. “I see colors, but they don’t necessarily translate to what other see.” Over the next 40 years there was a constant recognition of images he wanted to create, yet a dismissal of creating them in fear of creating the colors and images he saw and others might not.

In 2016, while living on Washington Island Wisconsin, an artist neighbor and close friend encouraged him to try making art again. With some sense of trepidation, he used blue, black and white pastels for his first pieces. Soon he slowly reached out with other colors and for the next year experimented with pastels, watercolors and acrylics. “It is interesting how to learn to dance with the different mediums. Sometimes they step on your toes, other times they take you on a trip.” Over the last year he has gravitated towards acrylics, ironically for their vivid presentation of colors including green. His inspiration comes from a mixture of what he conceptionally sees inside himself when he sees the world outside himself. “I have finally made peace with the color green”, he says with a smile. Mati lives in Northern Wisconsin.

Bio

Artist’s Statement