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Art medium(s): Ink. Usually 003 and 005 fineliner pens.

How do you describe your art? Weird? Weird sometimes in a cute way, but typically in a somewhere between fun and uncomfortable way.

Were you always interested in following a creative path? I always liked doing creative things, but not always having any kind of ambition behind it. I didn’t really take drawing “seriously” until maybe the end of 2020, early 2021. That’s probably the only real creative path I had tried to take in a decade or so. I played in a couple punk bands back in 2009-2010, had dreams of being a filmmaker for a while after high school, but I tend to fall out of things.

What does your “day-in-the-life” look like? Well, I work 12-hour shifts during the week, so that takes up most of my time. On the weekends I have my two kids and we play games, watch movies, do crafts, go on hikes, whatever we can find to pass the time. I honestly rarely find time to draw, at least on a regular basis. Sometimes it’s 5-10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, maybe an hour from time to time if I can and feel inspired. It’s really sporadic.

Where do you get your creative inspiration? Different places, (it) depends on what I’m wanting to do. The easiest way to say this is trying to look at things differently than others. Sometimes it’s thinking about what kinds of animals would be fun to blend together, sometimes it’s just thinking of an animal I want to draw and thinking about which of their attributes I want to exaggerate or change. Sometimes it happens without thinking about it, sometimes it happens after days of driving myself crazy. Sometimes I just want to see what an animal would look like with human hands.

Why do you love what you do? Originally I liked it as a way to clear my anxieties. It can bring on other kinds of anxieties, but most of the day-to-day life ones get put on hold when I focus on drawing. As I’ve grown, though, I think what I love best is that you know when you think of something funny in your head, and it’s just for you and you have no way of showing it to others and don’t know if anyone would think it was funny anyway? Well, now I get to share it—for better or worse.

One thing most people don’t know about being an artist, in your opinion: A lot. How much work goes into it. Maybe they understand you spent 30 hours on something, but they don’t really get what that really means. I also feel like a lot of people just think you’re born with some gift, some innate talent, and don’t see all the work we’ve put in to get us where we are. That, and how much we doubt ourselves. How much we get imposter syndrome, thinking we’re frauds and wasting our time.

Early bird or night owl? I wake up for work at 1:45 a.m… does that count as morning or night? I guess a very early bird, but not by choice.

Last movie you watched or book you read: I think my youngest watched Inside Out four times last weekend, so Inside Out!

Is the glass half full or half empty? Depends on which direction the contents are headed. If it is going down, it’s half empty, if you’re trying to fill it, it’s half full.

What makes you happiest: Oof… I wish I knew. I guess the correct answer is my kids and my partner, but if that’s too obvious, I suppose music and being in nature with a clear head.

Find Matthew on Instagram and Etsy @mattsanxiety