Matt Neckers
“In my twenty plus years of making art, I cannot think of a more productive creative experience than the weeks I spent at the Studio Center,” says Matt Neckers, a multimedia artist and local elementary school teacher whose residency was supported by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Matt is one of three local artists and writers this year to participate in Vermont Studio Center’s Learning in Art & Culture Teacher Fellowships Program which provides artistic revitalization opportunities for Vermont teachers and exposes their students to VSC’s international creative community through follow-up activities and campus visits.
Matt has been teaching at Hyde Park Elementary School for five years. As a full-time art teacher and parent of a two-year old son with another child on the way, he spends his days immersed in art without the time to pursue his own creative practice. During his summer residency at VSC, he was given the time, space and facilities to focus all of his energy on his art, dividing his time between the fully equipped sculpture shop and his private studio. “The key thing I took away from the residency was the importance of connecting what we teach in art class to the way professional artists create artwork,” Matt reflects.
Since his return to the classroom, Matt has done his utmost to provide his students with an authentic studio experience. He’s taught them to sketch their ideas, and to choose which of these to develop further in a variety of media. Just as language arts teachers have their students produce drafts, Matt says, he works with his students on series. The connection to Matt’s own artistic process is clear. He begins with an image and creates a series based on reinterpretations of the image through numerous mediums. “For instance, I might start with a painting, take a photo of the painting, alter the photo digitally, create an analog painting based on the digital image, and then incorporate elements from the painting into a mixed media sculpture. My finished product could be any or all of the steps along the way.” Matt’s work will be on view at VSC’s Red Mill Gallery June 5th through June 12th, 2010.
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