We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Ballou a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Matthew, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
During my graduate studies at Indiana University I encountered a way of thinking that not only resonated with my instincts but also changed my perspective on teaching. It was a view promoted by my main professor, Barry Gealt. He advocated a quality called “generosity of spirit,” and he talked about it in two primary ways.
First, he saw it as consciously extending goodwill toward other artists. This meant acknowledging that when an artist is active in the studio, spending time with ideas and words and images, they deserve true consideration and an assumption that they’re not just trying to deceive a gullible audience. People who really dedicate years of their life to artmaking aren’t doing it just to craft a lame inside joke. They’re doing it because they love it, believe in it, and have made huge sacrifices to make it a part of their lives. Barry claimed that sacrifice deserves both respect and the generosity of believing the best about anyone willing to make it.
Secondly, Barry expressed his notion of generosity of spirit as a networking principle. Not as a crass, dog-eat-dog use of people just to get ahead of the competition, nor as quid pro quo. To Barry, generosity of spirit meant taking initiative to actively create opportunities for others and, in so doing, create a culture of opportunity for oneself. This went beyond doing something nice just to get something nice in return. It was a lifestyle choice meant to create a reciprocal community of support and encouragement. With enough people giving and receiving beyond the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” paradigm, a sea change in the human equation could take place. Grace would abound. Generosity of spirit was Barry’s version of “pay it forward”.
My personal understanding of Barry’s generosity of spirit rests on a rhetorical question found in many traditions of faith and philosophy: what do we have that we haven’t received? The answer is obvious. We’ve received everything – life, breath, language, mental capacity, etc. – and could have done nothing to obtain it all.
Realizing this creates a perspective of deep gratitude and hopefulness in me, which in turn causes me to seek the best for others, hold them up, show compassion, and live with joy in what I do. Why? Because I know that I am not what I am because I “deserve” it, but rather because I have received the great treasures of existence and consciousness and the fundamental dignity of being human. Knowing this inspires me to make the best use of myself, my time, and my work.
In light of these things I recognize the essential value and significance of others. We contain, we embody, so much that we cannot manufacture for ourselves. We give because we have received a gracious gift. This is a generous grace that uplifts me as I pursue it: extending goodness and honor to others without considering their “worthiness.” Purposely working to be thoughtful, honest, loving, and considerate to everyone, regardless of what they can or can’t do for me. Therefore I must strive to recognize, value, and uphold the dignity of people around me through true appreciation and good will. I fail at this all the time – I am so easily swayed into favoritism or laziness – but it’s what I strive for in my interactions.
I have adapted these notions into a philosophy of teaching that is centered on facilitation, encouragement, and tact. I extend this generosity of spirit toward my students, assuming that they – despite their missteps – want to pursue their education earnestly with diligence and passion. I attempt to become an advocate for my students, seeking to serve them as they adventure in learning. I try to foster a culture of support and exhortation in my classes. I see my role not as a dominating presenter of facts but rather as a fellow pioneer who has tread a few bends further down the road. In all of this I seek to encourage my students, building their skill and resilience not by alienating force but by generous fellowship.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Throughout 2023 and into 2024 I felt that the two previous series of works I’d been engaged with – WHENEVERwhen and An Ensign for Miyoko Ito – were integrating and becoming something slightly different. Therefore, I’ve decided to update/restructure a statement that amalgamates some of the things I was working through in those past works, but which aims toward some new vistas. See below.
For many years, my painting, drawing, and printmaking have oscillated between symbolism-heavy representational imagery and formal explorations in the tradition of 20th century abstraction. This seemingly broad swing of subject and purpose in my work is directly related to my conviction that the core visual dynamics of either mode are, essentially, the same. I often tell my students that I’ve been making the same picture for my entire artistic life.
Sometimes I have felt led to apply those underlying compositional forces to the service of representational imagery, and other times I have felt the need to strip away everything but color, material, and surface. When I pursue abstraction, the resulting work is a foray into perceptual and physical experience. Thus, even though the works do not depict discernible objects, they are still – to me – realist in the sense that they focus on observational and haptic (sense of touch) phenomena.
Over the last five years, several bodies of work have developed out of these pursuits. I deploy an array of formal strategies that accumulate over time and leave a record within the work. These strategies are diverse; they might function in terms of simultaneity of form – for example, an area may appear to manifest as both light and solid structure – or display a counterintuitive sense of weight and balance. I have also incorporated a significant amount of collage, relief cutting, carving, and digital prototyping into my working methods.
I continue to be inspired by the work and ideas of artists such as Miyoko Ito, Marcelo Bonevardi, Richard Diebenkorn, and Vincent Fecteau among many others. Additionally, my research into Eastern and Western mandala forms, as well as direct experience with ongoing generations of digital and physical tools, inform my methods.
In my most recent works, I seek out the compacted and the overdrawn; the enclosed and the layered; the transformed and the solidified. I look for shapes, colors, and spaces that go far beyond a simple tension between figuration and abstraction, trying instead to suggest a layered arena of observational and haptic information.
Miyoko Ito (Japanese-American, 1918-1983) – whose work has been a key influence on me over the last 25 years – was able to activate subtle surfaces with the illusion of space and an evocative sense of palpability. This is what I’m investigating: the experience of perception apart from particular, representational depiction. In my exploration, questions arise: Does flat form appear to move away from my angle of view? Will color resolve into both static surface and suggested movement? Can space and color align to reinforce both static structure and an expression of time? Might the poetics of silent, unmoving images actually produce phenomena akin to those found in dreams, memories, ecstatic sensations, and atemporal musings?
What is the value in this work? I believe it stimulates reflection about our instincts and perceptions. Our senses are neither complete nor altogether reliable. Instead, they manifest representations that are useful – or rather have been useful in the past.
More information:
https://www.mattballou.com
https://www.instagram.com/eikonktizo/
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge most helpful to my journey in art and education:
Resilience (or “grit”) – being willing to practice the long game of life. Resilience is the practical application of consistent determination over time. Refusing to be mentally or emotionally defeated by temporary set-backs or difficult situations. Emotional and physical stability, as much as these are within my power. “Your mental health is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.” – Marcus Parks.
Radical acceptance – being able to be honest about what is going on, recognizing what the necessary actions open to me are, and pursuing basic self-care (exercise, sleep, relaxation, moderation) always.
Awareness of context – paying attention to where I am as an artist, educator, parent, partner, community member, and friend. Paying attention to the intersecting meanings and implications of the world around me, as much as is possible.
Advice for others earlier in their own similar journey:
Self-define success. Spend time thinking about what it means for you. Refine that definition over time. To me, getting to have my work hang on the same wall as my heroes – to show with them and give talks with them or about them – is the recognition I care most about. Things like having art critic and historian Dore Ashton include my work in an exhibition, or having a two person show with Tim Lowly, or curating an exhibition with Anne Harris and Catherine Kehoe in it; these things are a real measure of success to me.
Learn how to communicate. Be ready to communicate. Get fluent with the way average person encounters art. Find multiple strategies for communicating art ideas – for 5-year-olds, for non-art people, for curators and writers and administrators. Be an art advocate for non-experts (there are far more of them than there are experts).
Value experiences over products. Recognition is a product. Success is a product. Be self-aware of what you’re doing and really participate in the experience of thinking about and making art. Ultimately that reflective, examined life will give you more than endlessly hoping for accolades. Value the attempt! Consistent effort, not one-off events, will lead you forward.
Keep good records! Document your work! Have both readily available! These things alone will get you further than anything else. Being ready is the best prerequisite to recognition. I have had numerous opportunities extended to me because when the call or email came, I was able to respond with quality materials quickly.
Think about the potential that failure comes along with. Have a short memory when the failures hurt. Most of what is going on in art making is serendipitous failure; that is, mistakes that can be used. While working we make attempts and find out that our failures help us to discover something beyond mere intention.
Learn to practice generosity of spirit. Many, many of my greatest opportunities have come directly through people I helped or encouraged or just had positive contact with in the past.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
The biggest growth area has been in my physical health. As a heart attack survivor who also experienced a chronic lung condition for several years, I’ve been keenly interested in maintaining good activity levels for a long time, and I generally work out at least 30 minutes each day. I also walk quite a lot, especially on my longer teaching days, usually covering 5 miles over the course of a day. This year (2024), I was able to make some alterations via medication and sleep that have resulted in my exercise being more effective and my ability to control my eating (portion size, timing), and that’s resulted in losing almost exactly 70 pounds in the last 10 months. This has included cutting out alcohol most of the time and practicing intermittent fasting. Overall I’m feeling pretty good and more mentally clear than in a long time. The sleep component is especially helpful, as I’m finally getting more than 6 hours each night consistently. All of this has increased my effectiveness in teaching and in the studio, not to mention fun times with my family. It’s been an amazing year.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mattballou.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eikonktizo/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MrMatthewBallou
Image Credits
Ballou photo credits:
Ballou – Self-portrait (gray scale), Self-portrait with Heart Model
M. Kanaan – Professor Ballou Teaching
F. Keith Montgomery – Ballou Painting
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
