Interview with Matthew Edwards

   Hello Matthew Edwards! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Please start by telling us something about yourself and your background. What made you become an artist? It was the result of turning a hobby into something more. I had done various jobs which I frankly hated, so I thought it was about time that I did something that I enjoyed. I have always had a real need to create things and if that is semi-naked women then so be it!

Q: Do you remember your first design?
A: I have always sketched, the first artwork that I can remember creating was a commission to draw my school building, must have been about 9 at the time. Sitting in a little plastic chair on my own in a big empty playground for days on end. Not a lot has changed really. I’m still sitting around on my own, just drawing, though not in a playground (that would be weird).

Q: Do you have any favorite artists that inspired your style?
A: I’m not sure that I really have a style, I think that it changes and evolves depending on the project. My design background has influenced me, I am not desperate to fill my images with clutter. I appreciate space. Someone like the late Nick Dewar was definitely someone who I looked up to. His work was simple yet strong. He didn’t really do backgrounds either. Sometimes the overall design has more power and impact without the unnecessary distractions. The subject stands out more.

Q: Seems like you really like the punk-rock music style. 
A: I love the attitude and personality of punk. I can definitely relate to the genre, I have had a mohawk hairstyle myself and it’s a great experience walking down the street and people cross the road avoiding you! Total outsider, society just doesn’t understand you. I listen to all kinds of music, I’m looking forward to the new Scars on Broadway album when it finally arrives, but generally my tastes are pretty open. Under ‘E’ on my iPod I have Edward Elgar, Eminem, Elvis, Emilie Autumn, Ennio Morricone, Evanescence and Evergrey. Pretty mixed bag! Maybe that’s the ultimate music taste test, ask someone what they have under ‘E’ on their iPod...

Q: Few words on creativity?
A: Being productive, inquisitive, tenacious, open-minded, thoughtful, unafraid, unapologetic. I wouldn’t consider myself balanced in any way, shape or form though! I think creativity thrives the closer to insanity you get. Sometimes it helps to throw logic out of the window.


Q: Can you relate with some of your characters?
A: I think most of my work centers around people because they are the most fascinating subject. I would like to think that the personality of the character comes through. I kinda feel like I know the women in my art, or have grown to know them in some strange way. I hope people can relate to them too. Their secret is to enjoy life, which is beautifully simple but not necessarily easy. I can definitely relate to that.

Q: How do you feel about the popular media? Would you change something?
A: The internet is both helpful and distracting, a massive time-sink if you allow it to be. What would I change? Reality TV. That’s overwhelming. Any celebrity that has ever been on a judging panel and been deliberately nasty just for effect, should be put in a rocket and fired into the sun. Now if they televised that I’d watch...with popcorn and beer.

Q: Do you feel powerful as a designer, having the opprtunity to "send" a message with your art?
A: Design is all about difference, so yes, especially concerning sexually-related art. Society has drilled it into us that the naked body is to be frowned upon and hidden away, yet so many artists have utilized the nude form from Picasso, Degas, Michelangelo, Dali through to Da Vinci, Rodin and Van Gogh. They all knew how beautiful it is, so why not celebrate that, rather than be uncomfortable about it? Nudity seems a bit sordid, which it shouldn’t be. Society tends to stick rigidly to the prudish past like an overly-nostalgic facehugger.


Q: Do you have a sketchbook, or it's all digital?
A: I have a lot of sketchbooks. They are pretty chaotic though, in no order whatsoever and often, at best, filled with nonsense, strange symbols and quotes from films, and at worst, swear words and scribbled body parts. Getting from a very vague idea to a fully formed one is the challenging part. But once that is done then it’s normally a case of getting on with slowly developing the artwork with a clear vision in mind. That is the intense concentration stage, where I probably bear more than a passing resemblance to Marty Feldman.

Q: Have you ever thought to change something about your style or maybe start working on something completely different?
A: I have a lot of interesting projects coming up, many of which are completely different to anything I have done before. I don't feel constrained into continuing to do the same thing again and again, yet that doesn’t mean I am leaving the punk pop-art alone, I am sure there will be some in the coming months.

Q: What keeps you motivated?
A: I like being productive. It would be a slow death otherwise. I feel a need to do something, I am quite restless really. I suppose what drives me is that, if I sit around all day doing nothing then I will achieve nothing. Maybe that is the trick, put the effort in. If all else fails there is always sucrose, caffeine and nicotine. The three amigos.

Q: Art could be a great influence on someone's personality. What is the best lesson that you learned from your journey?
A: Always carry a Moleskine. Mine are full of notes, ideas and general silliness. I wrote a whole apocalyptic zombie story for a magazine article on a train once in about half an hour. Would never have remembered half of it without writing it down. Plus they are always handy for sketching, the odd unsuspecting stranger picking their nose.

Q: Do you have any advice for the new artists?
A: Three ‘P’s. Patience, Perseverance and Pterodactyls. In other words take your time, keep going and use your imagination!

Q: Your plans?
A: I am currently taking part in an exhibition called Women: Fact & Fiction in Minnesota and I have just finished creating a new website featuring all my illustrative work from the past few years - www.matt-edwards.net Oh, and I have an online store too, it’s brand new and sells all manner of goodies and paper-based badass-ery (I think I made that word up). www.society6.com/morpheus