Text by Joseph M. Schuster

Matthew Imperiale started as a theater major at the University of West Virginia, “but it turned out that I was too introverted to act.” Then he took a drawing course. “That was it. I found how I wanted to spend my life.” He left college before graduating because friends in the Big Apple told him about a large, inexpensive studio in Greenwich Village that was too good to pass up. “I had a few credits to go, but my art teachers urged me to go to New York, because, well, it was New York.” Years later, he went back and got his degree.



When Matthew begins a new piece, he works instinctively. “I don’t plan anything. I just jump in.” He began “System No. 2,” (a), with an old bookshelf, a piece of a painters’ palette, a finial from an antique lamp, and a window screen. “It just evolved into something like a mechanical device.”

“Stay true to the aspects of art that interest you personally,” Matthew says. “If you accept commissions, don’t accept any type of project that you don’t want to do, because those are the kinds of projects you’ll end up being asked to do again.” (b) Matthew often uses scraps of linoleum in his work. A remnant from a children’s playroom became the centerpiece of “Puss in Boots Geomyth.”

There’s Junk in the Trunk page 1 | 2
  Stumble It!
archive »