Matt Sewell

September 2nd, 2007

From an exciting new generation of British illustrators, Matt Sewell is on a creative crisis with his website (www.mattsewell.co.uk) under re-construction and his mind set on his forthcoming long break and trip to Australia. Still he was glad to chat with us for our monthly interview.

You come from a background in Graffiti or art in the streets of some for, so first of all when, where, how and why you started to do work in the streets?

Street work really started for me around 2000 or something, not really sure. Thats when I properly started painting walls in Brighton and just moved it occassionally to the streets, there was no plan or anything, just a natural evolution. I used to try and paint letters, they were rubbish. So one day I was scanning my outlines for something to paint when I saw a character I had done and thought just do that instead, so after a few times a really found my feet and just carried on painting characters. This was before the whole character “street art” thing was any kind of a big deal, it was just me doing my thing and wanting people to see my work. Painting walls in abandoned warehouses, skate parks and far out halls of fame is all good, but at the time I was hungry for people to see my work, get charmed by it and fall in love with it, so I started painting and pasting on the streets. It seemed to work.

And… have you stopped entirely nowadays?

Err kinda…it would be an out right lie to still say I do street stuff… there has been the occasional quiet hit but other things in life seem more important at the moment, everything in its right place and all that. I still paint walls though, I’ve actually just got back into painting letter pieces. I got completely bored with everything I do looking “Sewell”. My Graffiti bored me, cutting back and everything bored me… now its all about mulsh fills, simple outlines and psych.

You do work as an illustrator and I feel that fits very way your graphic style but how different is your commercial work to your
personal purely artistic work? How would you define the way your creative output steps on those two different ways?

I feel my commercial and personal work have become too interwined with each other. An oversaturation and need to make my art be my income has caused a confusion between the two…so I’m stepping away for a while.

In your work there’s a predominance of characters. Do you have a collection of them with their own personality that you use here and there or you come up with new ones for every new piece?

Nope, not really. Certain things have been used time after time, mainly just because I like the form and colours. Its that repetition thing also, trying to get it better and better.

Also, there are a lot of elements from nature in your work, many animals and landscapes. Could you elaborate on how’s your relationship with the urban and the natural and how that reflects on your work?

I grew up in the sticks, it was amazingly easy to get out to woods, fields and rivers. The family house was a derelict farmhouse for many years, with its own few field surrounded by council estates… that was my domain. So with that in mind i guess its only natural that my work features bucolic landscapes and british animals. I left when I was 18 and have lived in many cities all-over the UK, but I still hark for the countryside.

Your characters, the use of color, the overall impression your work gives is of a “cute” type of approach, somehow similar to the kind what Japanese like so much. Would you say that you are inspired by Japanese manga and illustration or is it a british kind of cute? Also, do you deliberately try to portray a happy, optimistic view of things with your work?

Yeah I can completely see how people see my work as cute manga, but the thing is I have barely even seen any manga films. I love Totoro and all the other Miyazaki films and that Japanese design/character interface. But I personally feel my work gives more of an impression of 60/70’s childrens illustrated books. That’s what my major inspiration was and still is, I dont think you can beat the era of European illustration. You had all these wacked out hippies finally getting paid and the output was for children, lucky us… The joys of being born in the 70’s. And yeah I do try and portray an optimist vibe through my work, especially the prints and canvases. I want people to be able to look at it get a spark, a little smile, get reminded of good times you know. I’ve tried to do dark, but it doesnt quite work. I do think though, that I have not expressed everything yet and am actually struggling at the moment. As I feel I wanna cover new ground but unable to with the work I have been producing for the last 10 years… So I am taking a break for a few years, stop doing illustration completely, packing my bags and heading off on an adventure to the other side of the world with my lovely girlfriend.

Not being an artist, every time I find an artist whose work I enjoy, I’m always intrigued on the creative process. In your case is it fast and wild and not rational at all, is it meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… I don’t know, tell me a little bit about it.

Its usually pretty quick, especailly with illustrations.. With bigger paintings it all depends how long I have got. Everything begins in the sketchbook, it is ALL about drawing. There is nothing better than getting paid for a week to paint a big wall, thats when I’m at my happiest. Taking time to make time.

About balance between your personal and commercial work, do clients usually ask you to do your “own thing” when contacting you because they know your personal work and that’s precisely what they are looking for? Does is depends from the client? Do you expect to someday feel as free to do whatever you feel, no matter if it’s a comissioned work or not? Do you think the challenge to create what the client needs also enriches your work and you enjoy the restrictions commercial work has for that reason?

It is very rare I get asked just to do my thing. But when it happens its ace, such as my work with Gravis. With my illustration, I get approached with almost complete ideas and I just have to cleaver my style into it. I guess that summons up the illustration industry completely for me, its not half as creative as people think. Commercial work seems to be the bug bear of most current day artists, it is such a shame to see so much dull, badly exacuted work getting commissioned. But man’s gotta eat and records aint gonna buy themselves.

What have you been working on recently?

My finger-picking, climbing mountains and getting some money together to travel.. Basically lots of non art things. But I have been combing Brighton beach for bits of wood to paint for a micro show at Toylife and doing artwork for my favourite stoner-pop band The Beep Seals.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

I’m involved with a small record label, Transparent Face. Doing artwork and other bits, next year should see a steady stream of releases. My new Gravis trainers and bags should be out soon too.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

Record an album. Make a film. Start a magazine. Fly a boat to the moon.

Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

art: http://www.oliverhibert.com/

music: http://www.voiceofthesevenwoods.com/

Entry Filed under: Artists