Artist Statement

In my printmaking, I apply ink to the actual body of the creature using traditional European or Japanese techniques. Nature provides the plate and I interpret by composing, inking, rubbing, and pulling a print. The final rendering resurrects the subject with color and movement, immortalizing its beauty and inviting the viewer, perhaps for the first time, to see and care for the natural world.

Botanical illustration goes back to the first century Greeks, where identifying different species of plants was crucial for medical purposes. By the second millennium, Leonardo DaVinci and others were printing botanical specimens for similar purposes.
Matthew is delighted to bring eastern and western traditions together by offering both fish and botanical prints.