TrueLife - Matt Maes - When Visual Spells & Verbal Incantations Entwine

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Meet Matt, a Mythical Painter and Creative Educator unlocking the door to boundless creativity through Quantum Keyhole.  With a BA in Media Arts and Animation, Matt crafts enchanting experiences, seamlessly merging art and storytelling.  Each stroke of his brush invites you to rediscover the joy of your soul. Specializing in creating art for fellow myth and creativity enthusiasts, Matt’s work aims to foster profound, meaningful encounters with the reflections of oneself.  Step into the realm of bliss and let your imagination soar with Matt as your guide.linktr.ee/qkstudio One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Hears through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast. I hope everybody's having a beautiful day. I hope the sun is shining. I hope the birds are singing. I hope the wind is at your back.

I hope you're in the mood to really dig into what you think is creative. I hope you find yourself listening to this, creating wonder in your day, because I have a wonderful guest that's going to help you create and understand the world according to him. Matt Mayas, I hope I said that right. Did I say that right, Matt? Well, you're pretty close. Mays, yes. Mays.

Okay, so Matt Mays. Matt Mays. Well, hold, hold on. You know what's, you know, you don't. It's funny. I'll tell you, I've, you're not the only one. I've had my name pronounced like a million different ways, or it's spelled a million different ways like M-A-Y-S, M-A-M-A-I-Z, all that type of stuff. But when somebody looks at it, then, you know, they know how to pronounce it. But you basically, yeah, you basically pronounced it right, yeah.

I love it. It's interesting to think about the way in which we pronounce stuff, because it's some ways it speaks to the idea of creativity, I think. The way you use your word to describe something is very similar to the way in which you would draw something because you're doing the same thing kind of describing it. But here I go getting way out and left field before I even introduce you. So Matt, he likes to create, Matt creates new experiences by deepening the fusion between art and storytelling. He graduated with a BA in media arts and animation and received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Art Institute of Colorado. He plans to mythology. He plans to mythology and surrealism with a voracious appetite for creativity.

And you can kind of see his artwork in the background back there, but Matt, maybe you can give a little bit more background. What do you, like, what does you give us a little bit of a background on you, man? Absolutely. And thank you for that wonderful, wonderful introduction. And, man, I just love your energy. I just absolutely love your whole vibe, dude. So cool.

So cool. So for myself, I've been an artist since I was seven years old and I've just always loved storytelling in any way, shape, or form, including novels, video games, movies, just the magic of the narrative has really spoken to me in so many different ways. And I'll never forget this one day when I was about seven years old and I was playing this video game, which, I consider to be one of the greatest of all times, the Legend of Zelda, Aquarina of Time, right? Classic. So we were taking a break and we go upstairs to his attic and presents me with a pencil and paper.

I'd never drawn before. So this is completely new to me, right? And I have the cover of the Mario 64 game in my hand where Mario is flying, he has the flying cap, He has a castle behind him. And I attempted to emulate the linework on the cover. I tried to draw the linework on the cover, right? I just had this amazing, amazingly euphoric feeling that has just never left.

And that was really the day that I fell in love with creativity, with drawing, you know. So I drew all kinds of different things. Oh, my God. I filled sketchbook after sketchbook with Mario characters. you know, I just drew all kinds of different stuff, right? And I think when my parents really caught on, one day when we were in church, you know, I was like raised Christian, right? I was drawing the pastor and the background, the wall behind him,

and I was so hyper intent on drawing like the wood grains behind him, right? So I was going very, very detailed, right? And one thing I've learned over the years, I didn't quite realize this back then was that it's more the passion I had for that activity rather than my given bag of talent that I started out with, which we all have our innate ability we may start out with in any given activity. But I just absolutely loved it. You know, I just absolutely have always loved drawing. And that is what has propelled me throughout years, through 27 years, almost 28 years of art, right? So in that time, I've sought out all kinds of different techniques, you know, the know-how composition, things like that. Like I've learned all these different things along the way simply because of what I've loved in the first place.

so that's really where it's it's all sparked out of but there was the massive really massive pivotal moment for me only a handful of years ago really it's hard to believe that it's happened within this recent time but i watched the power of myth interviews with joseph campbell and bill lawyers when it was on netflix and this was the first time that i'd really heard joseph campbell speak at length. You know, I'd known who he is, that he is an expert in mythology, kind of, you know, had an understanding of who he was. I even took a class on the hero's journey before, and that was more of the Christopher Vogler model, right? And that's more of a literary framework, like how to, you know, as far as I understand of, how to write a compelling narrative, right? But as we know,

mythology goes much deeper than that. It goes much deeper than how to write a good story, right? Yeah. So I binged all the way through that series, all of those episodes. And that was such a powerful moment for me because it took these two things that I've always loved, art and storytelling. It made me realize this is what I'm put on this earth to do, is to take these worlds together and bring forth this world of myth through art.

And so that's what I've set out to do ever since. And in the midst of that series, I was creating what I now call the Edge of Myth series, which is a seven-part psychological and spiritual journey featuring different deities from different parts of the world. Right. So we have Eve from Genesis. We have Hercules, Davy Jones.

these more, you know, like sea tales, right? We know Davy Jones like Pirates of the Caribbean, that sort of thing. Freya, you know, Freya, of course, she's back there, right? We have Ganesh, Sigfried, and my version of the Bodhisattva in Buddhism, who is someone who is attained enlightenment, or someone who's been able to reach, like, you know, grasp something meaningful, grasp something of substance that can then help others. They're compelled to give back to others through compassion.

So you're going on this journey, if you're able to gain something, and then you bring it back into the world to the benefit of others, which I think is a real true mark of a hero, is someone who's able to do that, is to go even beyond themselves and do something that benefits people around them. I love it. One of my, I'm a huge fan of Joseph Campbell as well. And I love to bring up the hero's journey or even Nietzsche's camel to the child when I start

thinking about the way in which myths can be formulated and given to the people. And I think there's a wonderful, beautiful symmetry between someone who has the ability to create stories and pictures like you do. And for those people that are looking and watching, if you just look at the image behind Matt, You can catch a glimpse of some of the ways in which he interprets mythology and then paints you a picture. You can't see it right now because it's not close enough. But as you appear and get closer and closer to Matt's work, it draws you in because there's images within images within images, much like a mythology has a story within a story. So let's mind that a little bit.

How did you get there, Matt? Like when you start drawing, like what's going through your mind? Are you like, okay, this is the outer piece of the image, like the beginning of the hero's journey? Are you building a world when you do the frame of it? And then as you go into the smaller and smaller details, you're building out like the threshold guardian. Just give us what's going on when you're drawing, man? Well, it's a complex question, but I'll answer that as best as I can. Okay, thank you.

As far as, yeah, as far as the technical piece, I've always loved going into the detail. I've always loved being able to go into the tiny like dragon scales or things like that. That's just something that's always, you know, turn me on as an artist, right? But it took me a while to learn how to scale up, to learn how to draw very large. Like every one of the pieces in this series that Freya is a part of are on 36 by 48 inch canvas, right? So good, you know, good sizable canvas, right? canvas, right? Yeah. So that took me a while to get there. As far as when I start an individual piece, I'll always start with my curiosity. I'll always start with like researching. I want to know

as much as I can about this particular figure, why they're important, what they represent. I'll dig into different sources on the internet. I'll read books. I'll cross-analyze different sources, things like that, because what has often happened with symbolism is people can obfuscate the meaning. And they can intentionally confuse the meaning. They want it to mean this and it actually means this. you know so i'm i really want to do justice to the original meetings and when we're dealing with

mythology we're also dealing with different cultures as well so i have a really deep respect for honoring those different cultures through the artwork right so within that i play around as much as i can or as much as how to put it like through my individual lens right and this is the way that I like to think about it as an artist, you're not just channeling what is inside of you. You're channeling something that comes through you, right? So like the word, I keep coming back to the word genius and where the word genius actually comes from, right? It's this idea of spirits speaking ideas into you, and then you are the receptor of them and the vessel through which they come through right so if you think about it genius like genies come to or genesis right so

so we think about the very construction of the word is like an admission that you are not the source of it that you're the one that it comes that it comes through right and so you can be humble to that right so when you're open and when you uh when you can say you know i'm i'm vessel for the i'm the one that they come through right there's a great honor in that as well right so i want to be very curious very humble and very honoring to start off with do as much research as i can and i'll even be researching while i'm creating the piece right so but to but to the technical part what i actually do in terms of my artistic process i'll start with a sketch to say it could be on a piece of paper it could be a sketchbook or something like that and I'll get as much of the

defined details I think that I need to carry on and go through the piece I want to get as much of a clear idea as I can in the sketch which really that's the purpose of a sketch because it's not just a shitty drawing it's no the sketch is a study the sketch is a study for you to be able to then prepare for that final piece, ideally, right, if you're intending to make it into a final piece, which I often am because I'm very focused on building my collection. And I'm like, I hardly ever do something that's just kind of for fun.

But sometimes I do. Anyway, then I'll take that sketch and I'll say, what's the canvas that I want to apply this to? So say it's 24 by 36. And I'll divide that into a grid. So say, you know, three by four or something like that. So then I'll take that, divide the canvas into three by four, divide the sketch into three by four.

And then as I'm using that grid, I can then apply that to that canvas, right? I can say, I want this to be as much of a match, an effective match from the sketch onto the canvas as it can be. So then I do the very detailed sketch on canvas and then I get to applying the mediums which are the acrylic airbrush and paint pens. Oh my god, I have gone to really, really love that whole combination right there. Let me tell you, for those who are familiar with paint pens, it's like being able to draw

with paint. They're freaking awesome. It's like you can't you can't get clear line work on a physical piece than paint pens. You know, so they're just really, really awesome when I need to do some really, really clean lines. An airbrush is fantastic for creating a sense of softness and also highlights. So those are two things I've really been focusing on in my work recently is the like explosive pop of the highlights. And in realism, if you look around, if you just notice around you, artists are doing this all the time.

If you're observing around you and you, you know, you do still life type stuff. There's softness in the way that light and dark play with each other, you know. So you could think of, you know, I used to think of this took me a little while to wrap my head around. Like this thing is light and this thing is dark is not really a very good way to think. You want to think in an integrated way like the light starts over here and then it has a fall off. Right. It has a fall off.

Which create, you know, that's a gradient. So it goes from light to dark. Right. So it sounds simple and it sounds obvious, but that one took me a while to great. grasp and then it's actually applying that to artwork. It's a whole other deal. And patience, man, like, I will stick with that piece until it is finished. You know, there are a lot of artists who are like, you know, how do you know when, you know,

people ask me, when you, how do you know when a piece is finished or like, oh, a piece of art is never finished? Like, I'll get to the point where I can't conceive of another thing that I want to do on that piece of artwork because I look at it and I stay. in my mind it's done that's when I know you know and that could take sometimes 100 like longest I've taken on a piece I think is around 300 hours or so but yeah yeah so the way I like to think of it is however many hours I spend on that one individual piece the amount of time that it's going to exist like that afterwards is so much longer than that you know it might as well be

as quality of a piece as it can possibly be. We can talk about refining, optimizing, and getting better and faster and all those different things, but like, you know, do the damn thing justice. Do you feel that with every piece that you create, that you learn something new about yourself? Oh, yeah.

Can you give us an example? Give us an example of like one of you, what did you learn with and one of your favorite pieces that you've collected or you've created recently? Oh my God. Actually, I'll tell you about an experience that I had. Okay.

There's life changing and something that opened me up to, you know, that really, that really opened me up. And this, the whole creation of the Edge of Myth series really was a journey in and of itself, you know, not just creating the artwork itself, but also me expanding and me learning about myself. So, so I, this was during lockdown. This is during 2020, right, where we were all, you know, inside. And I thought to myself, well, I have all these different paintings that I'm going to finish. Like, I might as well get down to it, you know, might as well get down to, down to some work, right? And so that was my routine. Get up, paint, pain all day, pain all day, pain all day, you know.

And so I wanted to get a little. lot of progress on the remaining pieces which were Freya, Ganesh, Sigfried, and the Bodhisattva, right? So I did a bunch of work on them without necessarily finishing because this one thing I find works for me when I'm working on a series and I do enjoy working on series specifically is I like to volley my energy around. It keeps things fresh and it keeps me feeling productive and I'm constantly moving, constantly turning out new work, you know. So I got a bunch of progress on Freya, then Ganesh, then Siegfrieden. Then I got to the last piece, the Bodhisattah.

And I'll never forget, I had this vision. And I tell you, not like a hallucination, not like, you know, I've never had anything, well, haven't had like a, you know, like seeing things, you know, with waking, eyes, right? But I would have a mental vision, right? But I closed my eyes and I paid attention to it. I tell you, so each one of these pieces was a total mental, physical, spiritual, and psychological investment like I was all into every single one of them. Right. And so there's this one day that I saw this in my mind where I'm in this castle. We have, different things all these different creations around right we have two thrones and there's a young boy

who i perceived as my younger self my child self running around this castle screaming where is she and i just i felt that i felt that to i felt that shit in my bones right i felt that cry out in my bones right I felt this energy rushing through me. Like tears streaming down my face. Like I was having a deeply, deeply cathartic experience, right? Or deep, just, yeah. And it was like some, you know, Saul being knocked off his horse type thing,

like the light shining and you can't ignore it anymore, right? And so at that moment, it just became absolutely clear to me like like I have to I have to find whoever this is you know I have to find I have to find this person that's my quest you know and I could perceive that it wasn't out of loneliness but rather out of who's the person who belongs next to my soul you know who is the person who is fit to sit on that that seat next to mind right So I kept working, I kept creating the rest of the series. And I worked my way back from, it's funny, talking about going to the top of the mountain

and coming back down. That's pretty much what I did. You know, it pretty much went up to the top and worked back down to Freya, who ended up being the very last one, the final piece that was completed. And so I was working on my, I was working on my OKCupid profile and stuff at the time. right and and so I took the last five pieces that I needed to be scanned in to get scanned in and my father gave me a ride there that day he takes these pictures of me with all these different pieces in front of the print shop right so I'm like I'm working at these I'm like that's pretty

it's pretty good you know it's pretty awesome so I picked one of those and I put it on my okay a Cupid profile and sure enough within like two days I was talking to Helena she might maybe she she may have sent me the first message I actually can't remember which one of us I think it was her and then the day after that we started texting and two days after that we went on our first date and away yeah Yeah. And the cherry on top happens to be that that date happens to be two days. Our wedding date is two days shy of our two-year anniversary of us going on our first date.

And I only realized just how quickly all that had happened because I write the birthday on the back of each piece. right like i you know i wrote down when each piece was completed i write down the day that it's finished and i looked on the back of the fraya piece right and i'm like oh my god that'll happen in less than a week after i finished the whole series so look at that and i say what else can you call that but miraculous, seriously. I mean, if you just listen to all the events that I just described to you, how do you explain that with normal logic and words? That is one of the greatest stories I've ever heard.

It's so beautiful to think about how you can begin creating this thing inside your mind and then translate it into this creative process of drawing something. and then you draw that very thing into your life. Like you literally drew that thing right into your life, man. It's mind-blowing to me, man. That's right. It is. It is.

It is. And, you know, Freya has been such a bond for us since we first met. And, you know, actually, for a while, Helena had the piece of artwork as her screenshot, or was it, the lock screen. on her phone. So I'd be talking to people about my artwork and she would be right there. She would have her phone. She'd be like, this is his artwork right here. It's showing everybody. You know, it's like. That's so amazing. Yeah. Praise be. Blessed be for you. Oh, my God. Do you think that more people, like, listening to the story, do you think that there's something to this idea of manifestation where

like if you begin not only pursuing. something, but wholeheartedly, if you have the courage to have that moment where you're like, I got a finder and you pour your creation into something, do you think you can, other people can use that same strategy or harness this energy to draw those things into their life? Yeah, absolutely. But I tell you, it took me quite a journey to get to that place because I've always been the type of person that if I couldn't concede, you know, and this is still a lot of, that I deal with is like the mind is a very powerful tool but it is not the

end all you know it's it's it's it's a very good tool for us to use but when we think that it seemed again it seems so obvious but if we think that the complexity and the vastness of the world is due to dumb itself down to our level of understanding right that's where we fall into trouble right yeah you know if we if we think the world is only as large as we can understand then you know that ironically we think mind is huge but that's very small mind thinking you know so it took me took my while the some knocks on the head to get to get to that point but but yeah i think people well a lot of people are very interested in manifest station and there are a lot of people who are practitioners of it but i think there are a lot of people

who don't quite understand what it means and there's a lot of language around it that people i think it gets confused you know and it becomes this word that kind of tossed around you know like oh look at this motherfucker manifesting woo you know you know but but but If we think of what it is simply is what is manifesting but trying to bring something about into your life. It's just a fancy word for trying to make something happen. So when we're talking about the energetic, we're talking about drawing the experience into you. And that's that sort of thing. There's a lot.

There's a lot to be said for that. There's a lot to be said for that because we're all trying to do that. You know, we're all, basically, we're all trying to make some stuff happen in our lives. Are we not? Right? One example I think is really great. If you have ever listened to this radio address, the strangest secret, it's called the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. And what he said was this, was that the, the,

idea that it's so strange that we that we don't have this idea that this is that this is lost to us that our minds can direct our futures the our minds can direct our course in life right and specifically one thing he says in this address that is incredibly powerful and has been repeated by well preceded rather by religious teachers and what, you know, wise people far before he has, is that what you believe you then become. You know, what you believe about, what you think about all day long, you then become, whether for good or for bad, you know. So, for example, for myself, I used to be painfully awkward, super shy, super depressed all the time.

I went through crippling depression when I was in high school. and for numerous years afterwards and I had no idea of my future, had no idea of who I wanted to be. I was barely hanging on to life, man. And art was really that lifeline for me to be able to have something to hold on to, something important to hold on to.

Like when I say art saved my life, art literally saved my life. You know, it literally saved my life from my depression, right? And so from that time, I've been able to go on and do things like this. You know, I've been able to go on and do things like, you know, interview with, interview with you. This is something my 18-year-old self would never want to do, right?

Would never want to do, right? Been able to create this amazing artwork. I was insistent on being a bachelor until I was like 31 years old. I'd you know my family's like what have you ever thought about it when are you gonna get what are you gonna I was like no no no no no no no I was like the great eggs no no no no no no no no no right so it took me a long long long long time to reach the point where actually the the story that I just shared with you that was that was the turning point that was the point where I was like I was I have to find this, like I was open to being a father.

Like I was open to getting married, open to marrying someone who I, frankly, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have gone for it before because I wasn't in that place. You know, it's extremely attractive. I mean, I love this woman. She's the one. Just the love of my life, you know. But I wasn't there yet beforehand, you know. And now I'm the stepfather of a 10-year-old son.

I've freaking adore that kid, you know. I love that child. And yeah, we just passed our one year mark for, we just celebrated our one year anniversary. I don't know if you can see my wedding ring there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I like that. It's a good one.

Do you guys see yourself as like with your background and art and the relationships and being able to draw this life around you right now. Do you see, what myth do you equate this to? Like, you've definitely moved into the world of myth making and stuff, but do you see the series that you have, that you're working with as a manifestation of your life? Like, you draw on this person into your world and this relationship. So how are you actively drawing the future for your life? And how does that look in the artwork that you're making today?

Oh, man. I love that question. Thank you. Thank you. I think you're the first person who's ever asked that question. I love, well, yeah, you know, like, yeah. Look, again, dude, love your whole vibe, man. I love your energy. So that's one thing I felt to mention for the Edge of Myth series. So each, in each one being based around different phases of the hero's journey, I also wrote out different parts of my life that I, I've experienced those different phases. Like those actually go, those actually go with the artwork, right? And honestly, I should implement that more and share that more with people. I think that would be a great point of connection. But that's something that we shared in this program that my wife and I created.

We call immersive art meditation. So we, so, and she came up with the idea, the name. I'd told her that I'm. seeking to create ways for artists to be able to present themselves, present their work and expose themselves to an audience in these exciting new ways. Literally one day she goes, what about immersive art meditation? And I'm like, what's that?

Or I am for short, right? Wow, beautiful. It's like, holy crap. And so, yeah. So what it is, in a nutshell, is their focused art experiences through the lens of guided meditation. So she is a shadow work practitioner. She's like she's licensed in shadow work. And so she knows how to create these visualizations that are relevant to each piece, relevant to the symbolism, the wisdom that are, you know, that are reflected in each of the

art pieces, right? So we'd have these sessions. We started off with the Edge of Myth series. We went through all seven pieces, right? And we had a good handful of regulars, too, people who'd come back for each session, you know? So we would have, also was called a journeyer journal, which you get to reflect on different phases of the hero's journey, reflected through the artwork that go with your own life, you know. And yeah, different questions for you to be able to reflect.

you know breaking into groups and you know we had a whole we have a whole integrated thing we were hold these sessions just right out of our living room upstairs you know um and that was a really great great opportunity for me to be able to share the storytelling and share um really the thing that's been remote most rewarding for me is being able to take something as admittedly esoteric to some people as myth and how people have these light bulb moments like oh my god that's i've had that happen in my own like oh that makes sense this is something that's going out in my life right now and be able to gain some clarity about it and the beauty of the journal as i see it is we're going to go through these phases throughout our lives right it's not just going to be a one-time thing so you can look

back on that journal and instead of it being a you know arbitrary random experience that you're going through you can be able what did I write down about this last time I went through this phase what can I gain from that that I can then bring into this experience and have really a better time integrating what's happening with me right now you know so yeah something we're incredibly passionate about immersive art meditation and always seeking to expand it always seeking to you know bring in bring in new people um So as far as the future, I'm heavily, heavily invested in spreading the message of art and creativity and self-awareness through mythic art throughout the world. So I've done so much artwork.

I feel like I've got so much of my business structure in place and good. And, you know, really all I'm seeking to do right now is expand. And all I'm seeking to do is expand to new people, bring new people in. And yeah, I've even made the artwork available in different forms, right? So you see the tapestry back here, got tapestries, t-shirts, hoodies, greeting cards, prints. I've got an illustrated book, Israea, Aztec priestess. I'm very, very proud of that. And it's just one of bronze medal.

I'm very happy with that. Thank you. Thank you. And, yeah. Oh, stickers. Oh, my God. Just got some rad new stickers. Some rad new Freya stickers. I'm very excited about that. Let me jump in right here and ask you this. So when I think about I am or immersive art meditation, that's mind-blowing to me. And there's so much in what you just said about your partner having the ability to do shadow work. And, you know, when I'm looking at a lot of your artwork, I notice that you've got. with like this black and gray motif we've already talked about perspectives a little bit like i see this incredible like weaving of a tapestry between shadow work between perspective between meditation besides expanding like like can you help me draw all that together like like joseph campbell myth making shadows carl young perspective black and gray like why why black and gray like what is it about black and gray that seems to be something that draws

you in well just one part this intentional and one part that's unintentional I'll tell you the intentional part first was okay my my original plan starting with the with the edge of myth series was to make and I think I'm still gonna do this you know but to do the gray scale versions and then reprint those on the same size canvas and then paint those in color so that way I would have the grayscale version original and also a painted version a physical painted version i think that's just a really really cool thing right yeah so that's the unintentional or that was the intentional part was was that whole process the unintentional part is that they get this sort of this

timeless look and i really love that yeah no you can look at them and and i mean i would at It's hard for me to imagine them original otherwise because they're so characteristic in what they are. You know, like I wouldn't, I don't look at them and go like, oh, I wish that was in color. You know, I wish that those colors. Like I look at them like, no, that's exactly how I want it. You know, it's exactly how it should be. And actually, I'll tell you, my very dear friend August, has grown so, it's just grown so much in his, his relationship with Frith, as you would say, in Norse with Freya.

Your frith is your relationship with Freya, right? So he has this, I keep pointing over the wrong shoulder, excuse me, this tapestry hung up on his, on his ceiling. They sent me this video one time when it was on his wall, where he had these multicolored lights sort of slowly strobing over that piece. You know, so you have these reds, these purples, these, you know, I just put out a sizzle reel on my Instagram. You can go check it out. It has that video in there.

I'm really proud of that, by the way. But it has that video. That wouldn't have been possible if that image were in color. right because her being gray scale you're able to do really cool things like that you're able to do really cool things like project your own colors and things like and i tell you like like people love people love some frayette like really really do you know it's funny i've had this experience where i'll show the whole series like i'll line up the whole series and and people instantly gravitate towards Freya,

which is so cool because, so she represents, so I mentioned earlier that they each represent different chakra points as well. So she is the heart, right? So she is the heart. And I think it's really interesting that people have such a love for her, her representing the heart, they really gravitate towards her.

So in that way, I feel I've, I've really hit the mark in a really meaningful way. But to get to your question about how it all comes together, I've just always been such a curious person. I've always been very interested in how things work, how, you know, things that I'm interested in. Like how, you know, philosophy was to have always been things that have fascinated me. I've just always genuinely been interested in.

So one reason, massive reason why I love mythology is because it's a container for all of these different aspects of the universe, all these different aspects of how we understand ourselves as humans. And it's really this amazing playground for me to be able to pour in all of my different fascinations into any given piece, right? So when I'm researching and when I'm really going deep

into a piece, they'll say, I want to represent different aspects of them that are like Lakshmi, right? Coins for sure, like she represents abundance, the coin, putting the coins in there, and she represents abundance in many different forms, right? The divine feminine. We actually, so my wife and I just, just, did a prayer to Lakshmi this morning.

She's, so she's really been going into the Hindu traditions in this yoga teacher training that she's doing, right? And they do a lot of stuff with the Hindu deities. So we did a Lakshmi chant this morning. And yeah, so she represents that giving, that outpouring. And so I'll think about, again, this being open to all different connections, all different ways that may be connected to those core ideas, you know, to those core, the core idea of

like abundance and even some word by like with my Lakshmi piece, I have one stream of coins going outward and then one coming inward, right? Because if you think about the word currency, it's like a stream, like a current. It flows in and out. You know, you have money coming into your life and going out of your life, right? It doesn't just always say, you know, stay still, right? Like, you know, right? It's not a pool of money. It's a current.

It's a current, right? But and, and what's the, you know, this is saying in like financial circles, whatever money gets bored, you know, likes to move around. If you don't keep it moving, then it's going to leave. Well, that sort of thing, but that's a whole lot of kind of worms. But anyway, but that's why I love curiosity. And the more I look around, the more that, you know, I do what artists do, and I'm looking around the world around me and saying what sticks out,

what can I pay attention to, what's there that I notice, I can observe, that I can then pour that knowledge and wisdom into the artwork. Right. Because if anything, I want it to be irrelevant. I mean, like, it better be, it better be relevant, you know? Yeah. So it's all at the same time, there's a lot, I mean, there's so much space for self-expression. There's so much space for, you know, my own fascinations, my own, the way I like to think of it is, it's like the ideas choose you as an artist to come through.

I love that. Yeah, like artists, like, like, you know, you can say you have passion or a passion. passion has you, creativity has you to come through. So there's plenty of space for that. But really, another lesson I've had to learn is it's not all about me. The artwork is not all about me. And especially if I want to create artwork that connects with other people besides just myself, then it should be something that's, you know, deep and relevant in universe.

and something that other people besides myself can connect to, right? Because in that way, they can be a mirror for people that really connect. Like the fact that you can look at it, man, it lights me up. The fact that you can look at the artwork and see all these different things and have them stand out to you and knowing that I put that stuff there and you can then, you know, receive that signal and it means to you. And there's a dynamism there. that's real.

To me, that is, that is, that's as real as it gets, you know. Do you feel like people are getting to consume, I guess the wrong word. Do you feel as if,

when you give life to something, be it a symbol, a piece of art, that you also allow someone else to partake in that life? Like you kind of give them a little bit of your life when they see it and they can recognize that symbol in you, right? Like, that's pretty damn beautiful, man.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. And actually, to speak to it, another deity, Prometheus. It was another one I, I love them. Here, highly, highly resonate with, you know, literally is the one who clutches the flame brings it down into the world. Let's think about it in how many different ways that's possible, right? And that's where I love how myth can interreave with real life, right? like let's just think about how many things are possible because we have fire okay yeah right like how many things are possible because we have heat you know but in the metaphorical metaphysical sense right so if you think of the the place the flame comes from that that ineffable source that place that we can't see with our physical pair of eyes right right so when you're a creator of some

sort, whether it's artists, I mean, whether it's a visual artist and musician or, you know, or you think in creative ways, right? And we all have the capacity for creativity. We just, we can just express it in different ways, right? But it's that reaching up into the place that only you can perceive, right? You have a vision of some kind or you have a sense. You have a thread that you're trying to pull down into the world, right? And so you're tugging at that thread and you're pulling at it and you, you know, and it, you know, there's the whole journey of bringing it down and it revealing itself to you, you being more in tune with what it, what it means, what it, you know,

and all the while, you're bringing it into a form that people besides you can experience. right so it's not just you seeing it in your own head all of a sudden it's a painting on a canvas it's a song that everyone else can hear right now instead of being a possibility it's a real thing that has been brought in and you've been able to be the person who's brought that experience about made it possible for others to to enjoy it you know and i think that is just an incredibly noble pursuit to do that. I think there's true nobility in

making something that others can also experience. And you also get to experience because guess what? I get to look at Freya too and I love her. I have the tapestry hung up in my meditation space at home. So I get to spend mornings with Freya every morning, you know?

First of all, that's a beautiful way to put it. Thank you. I've never heard it put like that. But, but I'm going to have to go back and revisit this idea of pulling something down and allowing that thing to be expressed through you. Like, that's beautiful, man. I, I really, I've never heard it put that way. In some ways, in some ways, I imagine you, your artwork of Freya, I imagine you looking through her eyes at all the people that see it. Like you're getting to look. Is that too crazy, man?

I kind of get out there sometimes. But like, I don't know. I think it's wonderful, man. Like, do you ever feel like you embody that? Like ever, like, ever what now? Do you ever feel like you embody the very, like when you leave that artwork, like, obviously when you leave that artwork, do you feel like you can kind of still see?

through. I don't know, man. I'm kind of getting out there. I'm going to between the mushrooms. Am I on the right track? So, my very, very dear friend Scott Mason who, by the way, you would if you haven't met Scott Mason, you would absolutely love. Hook me up. Let's talk to him. I would love to

talk to him. I would love to. I would love to. And he's a fellow, fellow octupon as well. He actually introduced me to Perry. He actually introduced me to Perry. So he was how I got brought in, right? But, But so he has introduced me to this idea is incredibly passionate about mythic avatars.

And so what that is, is it could be a mythic figure who you identify with very strongly, whether in your personality, your life circumstances, well, I think it actually goes deeper than life circumstances. It's, you know, who you personally identify with, right? And I think there could be one, too, because Freya. has really resonated with me powerfully in the feminine. And Prometheus, definitely Prometheus, definitely Prometheus has been for the masculine.

And also, I've really recently, I've really recently gone into identification with Odin from Norris. Okay. Had some very powerful Odin type experiences. Anyway, so that's what a myth avatar is right and so if you find that there is a specific figure you're like I've never thought about this person but you know I just I can't stop thinking about them or I you

know I figure you know a mythic figure you can't stop thinking about that might be something to go into what is it I see Merlin yeah Alicia's talking about Merlin that's that's that's the magician right yeah magician and the King Arthur There's some great mythology in there. Yeah. Oh, man, that's cool. Merlin. I actually have a Merlin piece.

That's amazing. I'll have to share that. Yeah. Yeah, Maryland. Oh, my guy. But this is where, man, I've had such a multi-winded road around mythology. And how much time we got? Like, we got, I know you said an hour.

Do you mind if I tell a story real quick? Yeah, man. And please, please. Okay. Okay. Amazing. So, you know, because I was, I was brought up Christian, right? Like I went to numerous different churches, things like that. And I always felt that oscillation between connection with God, the connection with, you know, with the leader, and also this sort of illness that went with being in the institution of church, which I found over time to be two different things. It's very important that those are two different things, right? Simulingly connected, but what I realized was that I couldn't remain in that. I couldn't remain in that feeling of disease, you know?

Yeah. And at the same time, there is so much psychology that can tie a person into thinking a certain way, right? And like I said, I've always relied on my mind. And this is where I had to think my, I felt like I had to think my way out. You know, I couldn't, if you have deeply set beliefs, if you think that you can just simply say, oh, I don't want these beliefs anymore and I'm going to walk this way. Good luck. Good luck.

Right. So what had to happen for me was I had to be able to, this. see evidence with my own eyes, right? And that's a pretty tall order if you're talking about being deep, deep in, you know, Christian culture. So there was this one day where I was watching this video. I found this video on YouTube.

This guy, because Pastor Ray Higgins, he's very into comment, Egypt and all that kind of different stuff. It's very fascinating whether you, you know, yeah, he has some very insightful things to say. You know, up to you if you're buying with his whole philosophy and all that kind of stuff. But I tell you, what I saw from the video I watched was, well, he went to, we did, he went to Egypt and he took pictures of all the different iconography. He took pictures of all their different symbols. And he came back and he said, hey, look at all this stuff. Like they have a Trinity just like in the Bible. They have all these things just like in the Bible. So me being able to look at that and see that with my own eyes. right I came to this intersection where it's like well it's all it's either all real or it's all bullshit you know and at that time I was just happy to to not have to believe what I thought

I had to believe anymore right so I was very heavily atheistic for a long long time you know and more than a little bit of an asshole about it which it's funny this might this might wrestle with jimmies of some atheists, but whatever. You know, like Christians can definitely be hardcore about trying to convert people and trying to bring them to faith or whatever. I think there are a lot of atheists who are equally fervorous about trying to deconstruct, you know. And I was definitely in that camp, you know. But what I found was that that that wasn't spiritually sustaining, you know. it wasn't something that like i knew like i knew that i knew that you have a thing called a soul or

spirit like it's just it's just always been inconceivable to me to think otherwise right so i was in this place of kind of walking through the desert for a long time right but um but i kept my mind open because the one trend was my quest for well what's the straight dope you know like what's really going here like what's what's actually true is the thing that's mattered most to me above any of the other smog and my asthma that gets in the way you know so I kept going along and I was paying attention to people who I could tell weren't like hardcore Christians, you know, talking about God. He said, this really fascinated me.

So I'm like, well, you're not like these people over here. You're not like nothing like, but you're, what? So it opened up the question in my mind, is it possible that these people might understand something that I might not understand? It'd be attuned to something that I'm not attuned to. So that cracked the door open just like 1%. So I'm like I just had that kind of asterisk like, okay, maybe. But I had to really be in that place where, again, I'm like, I really want to know.

Like I really want to know what's going on here, you know? Yeah. So I think when you reach that place, when you're in when you're in that place of, and a lot of people who have been through like a severe depression who've been through like traumatic life experiences, right? And you're just like, man, I don't know. I don't like I know that I don't know. I don't have the answers, but I want to know.

The thing that it's so interesting that the thing that people call. out for is I just want to know the truth. Like I just want to know the truth. Right. When you're in that place, I've experienced things happen. Yeah. When you're in that place, something will answer. And so that answer to me was during the duration of, I keep pointing over the wrong shoulder. God damn cameras are real. Can you tell them a bit eccentric? Anyway. So much of that revealing for me was creating this series. You know, was creating this series and symbolism weaving itself in that I know I didn't intentionally put there knowing that, you know, with any, knowing that it means what it means. So I'll use another example. the Ganesh piece.

So there's this festival in India. It's called Chartouthri. And it's all about Ganesh. And I researched this as I was creating that piece, right? You get different statues. You can put them in your car and your house and all these different types of things. And there's this really interesting ritual

where they'll take these gigantic. statues of Ganesh and dip him into the bay of Mumbai, right? They dip him into the sea and it's meant to symbolize his return home. That's sort of a thing. So I didn't know that before I depicted Ganesh sitting cross-legged in a body of water in the sea, right? So when I read that, when I read about this festival and I read about that ritual, I'm like, ritual. I'm like, holy shit. Like, I just put it there and it lined up with this completely different thing, this

completely related thing. I couldn't possibly have known that. That confounded my mind, confounded and opened it up in a positive way, in a way this wondrous, you know, opened me up to a new dimension of what my art can do, what, you know, what my art is able to bring forth in symbolism. And sort of round out the answer to your question. I simultaneously have regard for all these different cultures, all these different myths from different parts of the world. Right. And then there are the ones that I personally most identify with.

And I'm okay with those being two different things, you know, two sort of connected but but different things right and um yeah so my myself i've really been feeling called to my norse side recently right so so odin and and freya really been very connected with them and uh yeah that's fascinating and when i think back to back like when i actually found out that I'm part Norse. There's this one day where, you know, my mom was telling me that my aunt had this blood work and, you know, revealed this DNA. And I just, it's just like, oh, so you're, you know, so you're part Norwegian. And to her, I don't know if it was that huge of a deal, right? But she was like,

passing this along, you know, but to me, I'm like, you know, the land of the black coffee, the Vikings and then all these gods. And I was just like, electric play. excited, right? I felt like I was just like, oh, in the metal. And I was like, I was so jazzed at learning this. Like I learned a very deep and important part of myself. And I've just felt myself coming back back to that again and again and again, you know. And so now I'm much more conscious about it and much more intentional about honoring that different side of myself, you know, through the artwork, through meditation, through ritual, you know. So, so yeah, I'd invite people to that curiosity as well.

Like, you know, I'm so much a proponent of self-awareness through art or through, you know, your life in general, what really speaks to you, you know, what you're really passionate about. And, you know, the realm of mythology really is no different. you know, if you find that there are different figures that stand out to you, then, you know, look at yourself too, look at how you may have something in common with them. And yeah, I would encourage exploration of those things. I love it. It never ceases to amaze me the call to adventure. And we find it in all the stories around us. And if you start on some level,

just from talking to you today, and I know this in my own life, I think we parallel on so many levels, different and same, but when you start beginning to understand the call to adventure, you can't help but begin living it. The more you get drawn into the myth,

the more you become the main character and the myth, and I hope by listening, but by everybody listening today, I hope you understand that you can create the things you want in your life. You can literally, draw them into your life the way Matt has.

And I want to point everybody to the links below to go check out Matt, his studio, and the links down there. You should reach out to him and check out everything that he has at Quantum Keyhole Studio. And this idea of I am, like I can't, it just seems so perfect to me. But before I let you go, Matt, would you be so kind as to tell people where they can find you and if you have anything coming up and what you're excited about? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And again, George, thank you. Thank you so much. It's been a tremendous experience. I got you, man. Thank you.

So I'm local to Denver. Different place you can find me. My website, quantum keyhole studio.com. I also have a link tree that, I mean, that's best, that's really the best way to find everything. It's L-I-N-K-T-R-E. I think it's backslash. QK Studio or no, forward slash QK Studio, right? And before I go, I want to tell you about another project I'm very excited about. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mythic Monday. This is a collaboration that I've been undergoing with a very dear friend and fellow myth enthusiast, Scott Mason. What Myth Monday is, in a nutshell, is,

each week we pick a unique mythic figure and we feature them on the show. We dive into, this is on Instagram Live, we dive into the meaning within their story and I create a live sketch of that figure as, you know, as Scott is telling the story. Then at the end, we come together and we have a dialogue about it. And I tell you, we have really enjoyed a very enthusiastic audience of the duration of each episode we just completed episode 30 this past Monday and we talked about Sophia the Gnostic divine feminine deity Sophia and we've also started having guests too so that's to anyone who's listening George if you're interested in you need to be yeah and you want to be you know we're looking we're looking for guests and of course of course

I check all this with Scott. You know, we talk about these things. We coordinate all that, all that good stuff. And yeah, it's really, it's really something special, you know? Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Maybe Sisyphist for me. I feel like I've been pushing this boulder for way too long. You know what I mean?

Like my whole life, I was pushing. Yeah, let's do it, man. All right, my brother. I'm going to touch base with you. I'll link you up with Scott for sure. Yeah. Let's do it, man. It'll be fantastic.

Okay. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, hang on briefly afterwards. Matt, I want to talk to you briefly afterwards. But to all the people watching and listening today, thank you so much. I hope that you get to go down and check out the show notes, check out the artwork. But more than that, go back and listen to the stories and figure out how to draw the thing that you want most in your life into your life. That's all we got for today, ladies and gentlemen.

We have a wonderful day alone. Well, peace.