Of course, it was Matthew's intention to use the more disturbing painting to draw the viewer's eye to the wall. "I meant the painting to be disturbing," Matthews tells the science grad student.
Although he is still experimenting with different styles, the artist says for the time being he will continue to work with squares. "Looking at the designs, I get new ideas. I have books full of sketches. I just have to find the time to put them on canvas and the space to hang them," he says.
Although their derivation is not always obvious, Matthews has titles for most of the nonrepresentatioal works he does. "Some people don't see the titles in the works but they are there. The titles like the works themselves are variations on a theme. Another canvas immediately visible in the stockroom is a 36x36 inch work of muted blue, green, red and jet black. Housed in the square pattern are 16 fish. Some of the squares are divided into triangles, circles serve as eyes. The simple shapes form a complex pattern. One must look carefully for all the fish.
"I have a thing about fish," says Matthews. The title of the work is "Diez y Seis Peces"--Spanish for "16 Fish." Hanging nearby are two paintings that use the same shapes but different colors and combinations. They are "Juroppiki no Sakana I and II," which means "16 Fish" in Japanese.
Paintings to Play With
One of the special qualities about Matthews' paintings is that they can be hung in a variety of ways; upside down, sideways, and askew. One work hung as a diamond, the other a square. Even as he was showing the paintings, Matthews fiddled with their positions, rehanging both as squares. "See, it is a whole different picture," he says. "You get tired of paintings. With these you can hang them new ways to get new pictures. You can't do that with landscapes," Matthews, a collector himself, says.
Not all the paintings sell well, nor have they brought Matthews lasting fame, but that doesn't deter him. "It doesn't matter to me. I don't understand why some people like to say how much they pay for art. I buy what I like. I'll hang anything, I don't care if it goes with the couch. I buy it because I like to look at it, not as an investment," he says.
The Science Center stockroom has attracted student artists and scholars interested in Matthews' work. "We talk about art theory, art history, things like that. Once," he recalls, "a geology professor brought his class down to see my work when they were studying crystal structures."
When he's not selling notebooks and printer ribbons, Matthews is painting or taking courses. "I don't sleep much, I get up before five every day, so I have to keep busy. If you don't keep busy you just die," Matthews says. Besides art courses at the Boston Art Institute, the Cambridge Art Association, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, he has taken courses in art history, anthropology and language at the Harvard Extension School. In his spare time he got an associates degree in business from Newbury Junior College.
More than taking courses, working, and even boxing, Matthews loves to travel. "If I had the money I'd spend the rest of my life traveling around the world meeting people," he says. As an amateur boxer in the Navy, he boxed from Guam to Japan fighting American, Japanese and Korean service men. Besides the All-Navy featherweight title, this tour gave Matthews has a special interest in the Far East, particularly China and Japan. He plans to take a trip to China in 1988. Matthews has gathered a list of more than 30 people to contact in China, most of whom he met because of his Science Center artwork.
Although he likes the exposure that the Science Center "gallery" provides, a major reason he brings work in is that he has no room for it at home. "I think it was Picasso," he says with a smile, "who bought chateaus to put his work in, when he filled one up he'd buy another. I don't have that kind of money, so I put my work here."
One of Matthews's favorite paintings is a Jackson Pollack painting he did in the late '60s. This painting, "Landscape with Woman" was chosen in the 1970 Da Vinci Open ArtCompetition to hang in the New York InternationalArt Show. The work now hangs in his home andalthough he often takes it with him to shows, hesays he never really intends to sell it.
Besides hanging his work in the stockroom, forthe past few years Matthews has had a show eachspring in Ticknor Lounge. During the summer monthshe travels with open air art shows. "I do at leasta dozen shows a season," the Dorchester residentadds. Responsibilities to his wife and two sonshave kept Matthews a full-time employee of theUniversity. "My family comes first. If it werejust me I'd be all over the world, but I have tosupport them, they come first," the Dorchesterresident says.
Matthews plans to paint for the rest of hislife. When his sons become independent, he may tryto show his work for a living. "I don't push mywork," he says, nor does he have an agent becausethe price increase of having an agent makes arttoo expensive for most people to afford, he says.
"I guess I'll have to go the gallery routeeventually. I probably could sell more that way.