HILLARY MATT
“I think to me creativity means having the courage to try things that feel right to you. When you’re making your work, or when you’re out in the world.”
Hillary Matt (b.1990 Peterborough/Nogojiwanong, ON) makes mixed media paintings with found textiles and materials. Her process for making her work has involved amateur archival investigation and an often meticulous reorganization of existing pop culture content by means of improvised tracing. Matt earned her BFA in sculpture/installation at OCAD University. She teaches classes at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery and currently works as the Outreach Coordinator for Women in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Matt currently lives and works in Guelph, Ontario with her partner, their 18-month old daughter, and 13-month old Bloodhound.
We had a chance to chat with Hillary to learn more about her thought process!
How do you usually start a work? Do you have a routine of getting cozy in the studio, do you flip/scroll through inspiration, do you start in a sketchbook or just go for it? Tell us what gets you going in the creative process!
“I gather ideas in my head, in a sketchbook, or saved on my desktop in the form of screenshots/ .jpegs for a while about things I am reading, watching, or listening to. There is usually a lyric or a phrase that I am thinking about, and I will go down many rabbit holes gathering images of things that relate to this phrase. By relate I mean make sense to me in a very idiosyncratic way. I start to build a kind of story up, and eventually it will get to a point where things come together and it feels like I have enough ‘stuff’ to make a work. I also keep a huge pile of scraps and cut-outs from making other work, it’s like a treasure chest where anything I pull out is like gold to me. Sometimes I dig in there for ideas.”
You work primarily in painting, drawing, and collage. Can you tell us about your choice of mediums? Why do these speak to you?
“When I was studying art in university I made a lot of videos. I made installations with video projections and large-scale photographs, and some 3D found objects, but mostly a lot of flat things. Videos are flat… photos are flat. I was also taking painting and drawing classes at school and secretly I really liked painting but for some reason I didn’t think it was ‘cool’ enough, to be totally honest. It just wasn’t what my peers in sculpture/installation–the discipline I was majoring in–were doing. Anyway, flat things have always felt really fertile and accessible to me. I am really into archives, and most things in archives are flat. With the work I have been making over the past 7 years, exploring flatness and all the metaphors that come with it have been a big part of what I think about.”
“For a few years I have been honing this process of painting on Manila paper with a palette knife. The fibers of the Manila paper mix with the oil paint and then they are pushed down with the palette knife. The end result is this super smooth, flat surface that is almost devoid of any clues that paint was involved. I cut out parts of the paintings on Manila paper and then build up the thickness with cardstock. The edges get really thick, and then I colour them with a China marker to really draw attention to their thickness. I think of this process as me quite literally asking myself and others ‘hey are these flat? Or are they now sculptural objects?’ Either way there are a bunch of implications.”
We’ve also seen you blend mediums before. What power do you think a piece can hold when mixing mediums?
“I’m not sure what power it holds. I can’t imagine being confined to one medium, it’s hard for me to understand why anyone would want to do that, unless it was some kind of test and like, that is the work, the test of being confined to a medium or process. Like Julia Dault’s work. I am not sure that I perceive all the ways in which I work to be in different mediums. Of course they are technically speaking, but I don’t think of them that way, I just work in the ways that feel good. I guess the power is that the ideas are conveyed how I feel they need to be conveyed.”
What is your interest in found materials?
“That is a great question. I think I should have been born a long time ago, and so maybe that’s why I am into using things that have some kind of past life. Working with new materials seems so challenging to me, challenging in that they seem lifeless and dull and that I would inherently be saying a lot about nothing if I used them. Like gessoed canvas, that is torture for me. I guess I use found materials as a way to propel the work; as inspiration.”
What is your biggest inspiration when making art?
“Hmm biggest inspiration… I am really inspired by other artist’s work. When I see and experience work that gets me thinking and questioning and feeling, I want to make my own work. Sometimes that is art, a lot of the time that is music. The only exhibition I have made it to in the past two years since having my daughter + the pandemic was a group show at The Art Gallery of Guelph. I got to see Bea Parsons’ work in person, as well as Bonnie Devine’s, who actually taught me in university. Bea Parsons’ work definitely inspires me to get in the studio, wherever that is these days. I am also inspired by my own experiences, sadness, and uncertainty… that is ripe terrain.”
Tell us about the new sewing project you have on the go! What are you making and thinking about?
“Ahhhh okay well I started designing and making clothes this past summer and I am working to get everything together to start a small brand. I am working a full-time job, so it’s taking a while, but the brand is called Hey Lou and it will be launching sometime in 2022. So far I have made a pattern for an adult dress, a pair of kids pants, and a bonnet. I’m thinking about how learning to sew can change your world! I’m also making some digital collages for my graphics, which I am so excited to be doing again.”
What are you most excited about for this new sewing project?
“I’m most excited to see everything come together, and see if people like what I’ve made. That’s kind of a lot of pressure, but I’ve gotten some good feedback so far. Either way, I figure if people aren’t that into it I’ll have a lot more clothes to wear and so will Vada, our daughter. And maybe my partner and our dog, if I get around to them.”
Do you have a favourite pattern or type of material that you work with when creating textile pieces?
“There is definitely some overlap with my art practice and the clothes I have been making as the clothes are made entirely from found fabrics. So thrift stores, yard sales, etc. are where I source my materials, which is where I have always gone to source materials to make my work. I’m really into plaid (tartan) and gingham patterns. Materials… So far real velvet has been the most magical textile I have gotten to work with. I think that’s because it feels like there is another life this material has already lived. In the case of the velvet I found, it was this rich ochre colour and so smooth, like our Bloodhound’s ears. I imagined this fabric witnessing some really fantastic parties, it reminded me of my grandparents’ basement; it took me somewhere else I guess. I used it in a couple of paintings, and made myself a hat.”
What does creativity mean to you?
“Oh geez, that’s also a very good question. I’ve never really thought about it but I think to me creativity means having the courage to try things that feel right to you. When you’re making your work, or when you’re out in the world. Things that might seem odd, or offbeat, or uncool, but that feel right to you. Trusting your gut when making your work, whatever that work might be.”
What is your advice to other artists who might be reading this?
“Ah! I think my advice would be the advice I have been giving to myself over the past couple of years, that there might be times when your art isn’t happening in the way you want it to happen, and that’s okay, and that doesn’t mean really anything in the grand scheme of you and your art. Or really it means whatever you make it mean. There is also this myth that I totally believed in that having a baby is just you and your life + your baby, like everything is the same except you have this little person with you. It has not been like that for me; it’s a million times harder and more complex than that. Sometimes it might be that you choose to sacrifice your art for a while while you make other things in your life happen, like a baby. Before I had my daughter, I was dying to find other artists my age whom I look up to saying that. I was looking for someone who shared my feelings publicly. I never did find anyone saying it, but I guess I am saying it now. In my experience, it’s better to drop off for a while, or maybe even altogether? You’ll still be an artist, even if no one is watching.”
What projects do you have coming up that you’d like to share?
“Of knotted table and crooked chair will be held in late 2022 at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community Cultural Centre in Oakville, Ontario. This small group exhibition will include work that ponders the ‘domestic surreal’, an idea poet Sylvia Plath explored in her writing, and an idea we have all now danced with extensively over the past two years of living in a pandemic. The exhibition will be organized by me and includes my work along with work by filmmaker Ashley Matt and artist Marie Louise Omme.”
“Hey Lou will be launching this year! www.heyloushop.ca “
If you like Hillary’s work and want to see more, visit her website!
Image List:
1. I wish I was a single girl again, 2019. 16″ x 20″, Oil paint on Manila paper and mixed media on store-bought canvas stretched on wooden frame
2. Untitled (time drum), 2019. 16″ x 20″, Oil paint on Manila paper and mixed media on found canvas stretched on wooden frame
3. Planet waves, 2018. 36″ x 48″, Oil paint on Manila paper, acrylic paint, beet juice, and glue on canvas strips stretched on wooden frame, beads
4. Century of progress, 2020. 16″ x 20″, Oil paint on Manila paper, hot glue, magazine images, and glue on found fabric stretched on wooden frame
5. Town and Country, 2019. 16″ x 20″, Oil paint on Manila paper and original catalog images on found fabric stretched on wooden frame
Keep an eye out on the community page of our website, where we’ll be adding information about our monthly featured artists and businesses who inspire us with what they are doing!
