Matthew Blodgett   - "Evolution"               Smyrna Public Library      Nov-Dec 2017

While I am playing with shape, color, and texture in my work I am not only focusing on the formal elements but also working with symbols and developing a personal language. I have titled this show "Evolution" because that is a theme I have been exploring in this largely abstract work and also because this show represents artistic evolution for me on many different levels. 

Two things in particular attract me to working in an abstract format. One is that it allows me as an artist to get out of my "head" and free my own emotions and my own spirit to guide the work. What emerges is a surprise to me and teaches me about myself. The second is that viewers can allow their own emotions, thoughts, and impressions to interact with the work, and they take away messages, insights, growth or shifts in perspective that are uniquely theirs.  I believe strongly that that kind of mutual participation is what makes art important and relevant.

Many of the pieces here are mixed media. I have always incorporated collage elements into my work and have also been drawn recently to mono printing. Some of the pieces represent the working out of deep emotions on my part; some are dialogues or questions around concepts of materiality and spirituality; some are referential; others are primarily whimsy or play.  Always the work is an attempt to strike a balance between meaning - be it intellectual, emotional, or spiritual - and beauty, which is largely undefinable and transcendent..  

I'd love your feedback.

Matt Blodgett

October 2017