In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with wildlife artist and author Matt Patterson! Matt is a wildlife illustrator and artist that specializes in turtles and other wildlife. He’s illustrated five books, including three with author Sy Montgomery, The Book of Turtles, Of Time and Turtles, and The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle. In this episode, we’ll talk about everything from Matt’s adventures working with conservation organizations, the research that goes into his paintings, and the real-life turtles that inspire Matt’s work! We even talk a bit about the biggest threats to turtles and other creatures, and how you can help. If you want to check out Matt’s work, you can find him online at www.mpattersonart.com and on Instagram and Facebook (@StoneRidgeArtStudios) at www.instagram.com/stoneridgeartstudios and www.facebook.com/stoneridgeartstudios. Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. Creative Guts recently moved our newsletter to Substack, and you can find us at creativegutspod.substack.com. If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with wildlife artist and author Matt Patterson! Matt is a wildlife illustrator and artist that specializes in turtles and other wildlife. He’s illustrated five books, including three with author Sy Montgomery, The Book of Turtles, Of Time and Turtles, and The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle.
In this episode, we’ll talk about everything from Matt’s adventures working with conservation organizations, the research that goes into his paintings, and the real-life turtles that inspire Matt’s work! We even talk a bit about the biggest threats to turtles and other creatures, and how you can help.
If you want to check out Matt’s work, you can find him online at www.mpattersonart.com and on Instagram and Facebook (@StoneRidgeArtStudios) at www.instagram.com/stoneridgeartstudios and www.facebook.com/stoneridgeartstudios.
Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. Creative Guts recently moved our newsletter to Substack, and you can find us at creativegutspod.substack.com.
If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.
Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:00] LHL: I'm Laura Harper Lake.
[0:00:01] SW: And I'm Sarah Wrightsman.
[0:00:03] LHL & SW: And you're listening to Creative Guts.
[0:00:18] LHL: Hey, friends. Thanks for tuning in to Creative Guts.
[0:00:21] SW: On today's episode, we're talking with wildlife illustrator, artist, and author, Matt Patterson.
[0:00:27] LHL: Like a spiny soft shell turtle on the run. Let's jet into this episode of Creative Guts with Matt Patterson.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:38] SW: Hi, Matt. Welcome to Creative Guts.
[0:00:39] MP: Hi. Thanks. I'm happy to be here.
[0:00:41] SW: We're super excited to talk to you.
[0:00:42] LHL: Yeah. Thank you for coming on the show. This has been a long time in the making, I think.
[0:00:45] MP: Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
[0:00:46] SW: Yes. Yes. For our listeners that know nothing about you, will you introduce yourself and tell them just a little bit about you as a creative?
[0:00:54] MP: Well, all right. I am a wildlife illustrator artist. But even more specifically, turtle artist. And I do wildlife illustration, books. And I do a lot of turtle stuff, a lot of traveling for my work.
[0:01:05] SW: Super cool. So, when did you start creating? And maybe more specifically, why turtles? How did that happen?
[0:01:12] MP: Yeah. Okay, two questions. Oh, when did I start creating? I mean, I've loved to paint since I could speak. Probably before that. Same with animals. And my dad was a biology teacher. I grew up always getting introduced to different animals. And so I've just been doing that my whole life. My parents saved some of my earliest drawings. Dinosaurs, fish, and turtles. So I've been painting forever.
And why turtles? Why turtles? Well, because they're the best. Turtles, they're so cool. They've been around for over 240 million years. They live in deserts, ocean, rainforest, the northeast. They come in all these different colors and variety, and they're smart. I don't know. I've just always been fascinated with them.
[0:01:53] SW: I love that.
[0:01:53] LHL: And the first animals to orbit the moon were turtles.
[0:01:56] SW: What? Really?
[0:01:57] MP: Yeah. Two Russian tortoises.
[0:01:58] SW: Huh?
[0:01:59] MP: Yeah.
[0:01:59] LHL: Wow. Did they make it back okay?
[0:02:01] MP: They did make it back. Yeah.
[0:02:02] SW: Good follow-up question.
[0:02:03] MP: Yeah. Don't ask that.
[0:02:08] SW: Did you have a pet turtle?
[0:02:10] MP: Yes. I grew up with tons of animals. I had lizards, snakes, birds. I even had an alligator at one point. Turtles. I have a turtle now that I've had for 30 years. And I actually have 13 turtles and two snakes. And one of the snakes I've had for 30 years.
[0:02:25] LHL: Now this feels like a silly question. That's amazing.
[0:02:28] MP: Yeah.
[0:02:29] LHL: Do you have multiple rooms dedicated to these different critters?
[0:02:34] DH: I have a turtle room, as one does. Also, in the summer, they all go outside. They're all in for the winter. And I have a big snapping turtle who he's the subject of several books. And he lives in a pond in the summer, and then he comes in in the winter.
[0:02:51] LHL: Oh, that's amazing.
[0:02:53] SW: Do they all have names?
[0:02:54] MP: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:02:55] SW: Can you give us some of your best turtle names?
[0:02:57] MP: Well, the snapping turtle, his name is Firechief. He lived next to a fire pond. It's a long story. I can tell it to you. But yeah, he lived next to a fire pond, so he's called Firechief. Then I have Paulie, Eddie, Jimmy, Addie, Paloma, Ivan. Let's see. Pearl, Willa. I'm going to get them all. Cecilia. I might have missed some.
[0:03:20] SW: Just like that clip of Kris Jenner on a talk show having to name all her grandkids.
[0:03:25] MP: Yeah.
[0:03:25] SW: This is great. Forget art. Let's just talk about turtles.
[0:03:29] MP: Turtles. Yeah, they are works of art.
[0:03:32] SW: They are. Let's talk paintings first and then books. Does that sound like a good plan?
[0:03:38] LHL: Yes, I like that.
[0:03:38] MP: Sure.
[0:03:39] SW: You primarily work in acrylics, right?
[0:03:41] MP: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[0:03:41] SW: Will you talk a little bit about like mediums you've played with, but also your style? What I noticed when looking at – particularly, we'll talk paintings. That some of them are very photorealistic. There's a couple that I'm like, “That's a picture of a turtle. And you can't convince me otherwise.” Whereas some of them have more of like an illustrative sort of style or vibe. Will you talk about like why you make the decision to make when you're painting and how your styles evolved?
[0:04:04] MP: Yeah, I paint with acrylics. I always use a lot of the negative space. So, as you've probably seen, the background is either all white. Or in some night ones I've done, it's black.
[0:04:13] LHL: Yeah, I know. That's one of the first things that we were discussing actually was like why the choice to leave out the sky.
[0:04:20] SW: There's no sky.
[0:04:21] MP: Yeah. Yeah. I like to focus on the animal. I like it as a design element of the composition. And I spend a lot of time, too, researching my work and my subjects. So a lot of these turtles are turtles I've seen, or animals. I did a roseate spoonbill, which is a big, bright pink, beautiful bird. And it has this bald head kind of bluish and it has a big spoon bill, big beak. Kind of like a dinosaur. And it's like wildly pink. And so that painting, I did after I saw one in Florida. Yeah. So that's part of my design element. All the plants and stuff. I do a lot of research looking for all that.
[0:05:00] LHL: What brings you from one painting to the next? Where is your inspiration coming from? Are you doing the research first and then you're like, "Oh, I want to dive into this species, or go in this direction?" Or is something else kind of navigating that."
[0:05:11] MP: Yeah. Well, with the books, that steers the direction. And that's been taking up a lot of my time recently. But I've done traveling. I went to Madagascar, and I got to help survey critically endangered radiated tortoises in the spiny forest. Yeah. I lived in this little tiny tent in like really remote areas. I mean, the heat was like nothing I had ever experienced. The tent was more like a coffin.
It was so hot every night. I got to see these tortoises, and they're beautiful tortoises. They have these big dome shells, and they're called radiated tortoises because they have this sun radiating pattern on each segment. Yeah. And so after I went there, I took a ton of notes, photos. I did sketches. And I did a bunch of paintings based on that trip. I learned about them first. Yes.
[0:05:54] LHL: I really want to say a bad joke about sketching from life must be easy because they're slower.
[0:06:01] MP: They're not as slow as you think.
[0:06:02] LHL: I know.
[0:06:03] SW: Just still lifes.
[0:06:04] LHL: Like, "Hold that pose." "Oh, okay. Great. I'll be here for a while."
[0:06:07] MP: I'll be here for a few hours. There is a turtle, the spiny soft shell, that can sprint 15 miles per hour on land.
[0:06:14] SW: What?
[0:06:15] MP: Yeah.
[0:06:16] LHL: Oh my gosh. I need to look this up.
[0:06:17] MP: Look it up on YouTube. It's wild. They're flat. It look like a pancake and they just kind of slide. But they're fast.
[0:06:23] SW: You mentioned before we started recording that you went to UNH. Was your degree like conservation or relevant to turtles, or art?
[0:06:29] MP: No. It was art. I started out with wildlife biology in Maine for one year, but then I went to UNH for studio art. I actually didn't do very good at UNH. It really wasn't a good art school for me. I didn't get into fine art program twice. I had a teacher tell me not to pursue a career in art. Yeah. So, so all those people, all those students listening, don't get discouraged.
[0:06:51] SW: Yeah. Seriously.
[0:06:54] MP: Their styles is much – I found the department was like looser. If you've seen my work, it's really detailed and more realistic.
[0:07:00] SW: Yes. Yeah, very.
[0:07:01] MP: Yeah. And then I went to the Art Institute of Boston after that for illustration.
[0:07:06] LHL: And was that a better fit?
[0:07:07] MP: Yeah, definitely.
[0:07:10] LHL: Yeah. Excellent.
[0:07:11] MP: Yeah.
[0:07:12] LHL: So I'm assuming you obviously have tackled other subject matter in school and everything because of assignments and such. Is there other subject matter, figurative work, or abstract, or representational of non-turtles? Do you ever dabble in that anymore?
[0:07:29] MP: Wildlife is what I love doing. I mean, in school, I had to do different things, different figurative stuff. I've done murals, big murals before. Coming out of school, I worked as a product illustrator at one point right out of school. All digital.
[0:07:45] LHL: Oh, cool.
[0:07:45] MP: Yeah. I used to say I was like an elf because I would design Christmas gift boxes and bags. But animals the whole time at night when I get home.
[0:07:56] SW: This is totally blowing my mind. What does your workday look like now? You wake up and you're not like, "I'm going to paint a person." You're like, "I'm going to paint a turtle today."
[0:08:04] MP: Yeah. Well, I try to work regular hours, eight hours, at least, a day. I mean, I love painting. I mean, I want to do it. I'll wake up, I'll start painting, take a break, have lunch, keep painting, do a lot of dog walks and stuff during the day. And then if I am researching something, I try to get out whenever I can into the field and see things live and in person. That's part of the fun.
[0:08:30] SW: I love it. Yeah, absolutely. Well, it sounds like you created an incredibly fun and rewarding niche for yourself, and I'm kind of jealous.
[0:08:38] MP: Yeah. Not many of us turtle artists out there.
[0:08:39] LHL: Yeah. Great.
[0:08:41] MP: Yeah. David Carol, I guess.
[0:08:43] SW: And how many of like your inspiration, your muse turtles are like New Hampshire turtles versus turtles where you have to travel somewhere exotic or fun to go see?
[0:08:53] MP: Let's see here. There's 360-plus species of turtles in the world. But there's some really nice ones here in New Hampshire. Wood turtles, I love. But I've traveled all over. A few summers ago, I was in Belize in the rainforest, and I was trapping and tagging turtles as part of a long-term study. And I got to experience that. And in the rainforest, it was bright color, and the air was thick, and there were monkeys, and snakes, and ants everywhere. And I even took home parasites because I swallowed some water while in the river. But it was worth it. It was worth it for experiencing that and seeing –
[0:09:28] SW: Just a little occupational hazard.
[0:09:29] MP: Yeah. Yeah. And all the plants, too. I got a lot of really good reference.
[0:09:35] SW: That is so cool and so fun. It's like I'm just thinking about how I structure all of my vacations around like a hike that I want to do. And so your wife just must be used to you're structuring your trips around turtles.
[0:09:45] MP: Oh, yeah. She says I turn every trip into a turtle trip.
[0:09:50] LHL: Do you do any trips where there aren't turtles?
[0:09:53] MP: Well, there always are.
[0:09:56] SW: I'm not going there. There's no turtles.
[0:09:57] MP: Yeah. No, no. But I do paint other stuff, too.
[0:10:01] SW: I'm loving this. And you get invited to do these things where you're tagging turtles and like doing this sort of conservation work because of your turtle expertise.
[0:10:08] MP: Because of my work. Yeah. A while back, I started going to conferences, in herpetology conferences and different things like that, and Turtle Survival Alliance. And so I started meeting people and connecting with people. And so I've had some great opportunities to tag along on some of these trips.
[0:10:23] SW: It's so awesome.
[0:10:24] MP: Yeah. And it makes my work better, I think, when I get to see it. When it's an individual turtle, or bird, or whatever I'm painting.
[0:10:31] SW: Right. Gosh, that's so cool.
[0:10:33] MP: Yeah.
[0:10:34] SW: Yeah. Your website says that you are a signature member of Artists for Conservation. So, can you talk about that and other ways that you're sort of involved with the cause of saving turtles?
[0:10:43] MP: Yeah. Artists for Conservation is a group of artists around the world and use their art to promote conservation. And so I've done a lot of stuff where I've raised money for the Turtle Survival Alliance by selling paintings and donating paintings, or doing prints for them, things like that.
[0:11:01] LHL: Awesome.
[0:11:01] MP: Yeah. Yeah. And of course, my books, books I've illustrated.
[0:11:04] SW: Yeah. Right.
[0:11:05] LHL: Conservation. Yeah.
[0:11:06] SW: Right.
[0:11:07] LHL: Turtle Alliance. Is there one in New Hampshire or one that you're talking about that's New Hampshire Rescue?
[0:11:11] SW: I know what you're thinking.
[0:11:12] LHL: Because I give to them during –
[0:11:14] MP: Oh, okay. Yeah. The Turtles Survival Alliance works all around the world conserving turtles. And then there's New Hampshire Turtle Rescue, which is here in New Hampshire. Yeah.
[0:11:22] LHL: Yep. I get a little card from them that's got the little prints on it.
[0:11:25] SW: Yeah, they're based in Nottingham.
[0:11:25] MP: Yeah, I did a t-shirt design for them that they sold.
[0:11:27] LHL: Oh, cool.
[0:11:27] SW: Oh, that's cool. Of course, you would know them. Yes. They're based in Nottingham. That's great.
[0:11:32] MP: Yeah, I know most of the turtle crowd. As a fellow turtle nerd, I –
[0:11:35] LHL: I bet you do. Do you like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
[0:11:42] MP: I never have watched them. I never got into it. And they're from New Hampshire.
[0:11:45] LHL: They are from New Hampshire.
[0:11:47] MP: I know. Yeah.
[0:11:49] LHL: Oh, man.
[0:11:51] SW: That's really funny.
[0:11:52] MP: I know. People ask that a lot. I always feel bad. Yeah.
[0:11:55] LHL: Well, there's always time to get into it, I guess. But yeah. Well, those are turtles in the media, right? Let's talk about your illustrated books. Another form of media.
[0:12:06] SW: One or two of which are not turtle-related, right? There's the fish one and the other one.
[0:12:10] MP: Yeah. Fish one, and reptiles, and amphibians. Yeah. Northeast.
[0:12:12] SW: Right. There's probably some turtles in there.
[0:12:14] MP: There are, but there's also lizards, snakes, salamanders, and frogs.
[0:12:19] SW: Cool.
[0:12:19] MP: Yeah. So, the first book I did is a fish book, Freshwater Fish of the Northeast. I did that with my father, let's see, like 15 years ago now. And it was my first book. It was great doing it with them. We did a lot of fishing trips. And it has 61 species of fish, fish found in the Northeast. And it was just re-released a year ago. So, second printing.
[0:12:42] LHL: Very cool.
[0:12:43] SW: That's super sweet.
[0:12:44] MP: And my second book I did with a biologist named Albrecht, and he worked for the state of New York. He's retired now. That has 83 species or illustrations in it of different reptiles and amphibians.
[0:12:58] SW: Super cool.
[0:12:58] MP: Yeah. And those are my two early books. And then I've done three books with Sy Montgomery. Author Sy Montgomery. And we called our Turtle Trifecta. Because the first one that came out two years ago, The Book of Turtles. That celebrates turtles. It's a picture book. And some of the fastest turtle is in there. And these amazing abilities that turtles can climb. There's turtles with necks longer than their shells. There's a turtle with a glow-in-the-dark shell. It just has all these crazy things like that. We have extreme turtles. We have turtle celebrities like Lonesome George and Myrtle. Do you know Myrtle at the New England Aquarium?
[0:13:38] SW: No.
[0:13:39] MP: No. Yeah, you don't. You don't know her? She is the now 90-year-old, 550-lb green sea turtle. And I have a picture looking at her when I was four. She's been there since the 70s.
[0:13:50] SW: Oh, that's so cool. We went last summer. I have a three-year-old. We took him last summer. And in the New England Aquarium was different than I remember it. But we definitely saw a turtle. So, it must have been Myrtle, the turtle.
[0:14:02] MP: Was it just a turtle just spilling out of a shell? That's Myrtle.
[0:14:05] SW: Big giant turtle.
[0:14:06] LHL: That's so cool. How did you get into illustrating books? You're the turtle guy and folks are coming to you, or are you going to publishers or meeting the writers? How would that work –
[0:14:19] MP: Yeah. Well, when I first started out, and it's tough getting a book and getting into illustration. It's super competitive. So, I would just send out samples constantly to publishers and just send work of mine, and write letters and emails. I did a ton of emails. It was slow-going as it is. It's really tough to break in. I put together a proposal for the fish book, and University Press in New England took it. So, that's how I got that first book.
And I think that book got rejected by, I don't know, 20, 30 other publishers. Persistence. Yeah. And it's the same thing with The Snake and the Salamander: Reptiles and Amphibians. Same process. And then for these three books that we have, me and Sy, we met at an art festival about eight years ago. And she is well known. Do you know who she is at all? She's a New York Times bestseller. She's written 39 books, all animal books. And we lived a few towns apart. And I had emailed her. And then we instantly became friends and started doing all these animal things and turtle things together.
And then, soon, we were talking about doing books together. Harper Collins is our publisher and we did The Book of Turtles. Then we did Of Time and Turtles, which took about three years to live in research. And that's an adult book. I illustrated it. But it's not a picture book. Two color illustrations. I did the cover and then some pen and ink illustrations. And that was really fun.
Yeah. It's basically a chronicle of our turtle journey. And we worked with a turtle rescue like New Hampshire turtle, but it's in Mass. Turtle Rescue League. And they have a lot of injured turtles from cars, or confiscated turtles, or dog shoes. And so we worked with them. We helped injured turtles. We dug up eggs and incubated them. We released turtles. We worked with a nest protection group protecting nests of five different species, which is really cool. Three of which are endangered or threatened.
And we also visited the Turtle Survival Alliance's Survival Center. And they have turtles that are so rare that they're extinct in the wild. So, they have these assurance colonies, and they're protecting them and breeding them. And so, we got to see all that. And then we did a sea turtle rescue in Cape Cod in December for cold-stunned sea turtles, which was wild. And this is December in Massachusetts. You don't think of like reptiles.
And we actually had a big snowstorm the night before. But I told my wife Erin we had no power, and I said, "I have to go look for turtles." And I left her. That book is that whole experience, and that's our turtle story working with all those people. And then we have a new one, The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle that came out in September.
[0:17:12] LHL: Oh wow, that's so wonderful.
[0:17:14] LHL: And that's the one about Firechief, the snapping turtle.
[0:17:16] SW: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I love it.
[0:17:17] MP: Who is also the main star in Of Time and Turtles.
[0:17:21] LHL: Oh, nice.
[0:17:21] SW: Okay. It sounds like in all three of these cases, you had a relationship with the author before the book came to be.
[0:17:27] MP: Yeah.
[0:17:30] SW: And I was going to ask who the audience for the books are. It sounds like some of them are kids books, some of them are adult books. What about like The Snake and the Salamander?
[0:17:37] MP: Well, that one's kind of – I would call like almost like a coffee table guide. Okay. So, it's not a field guide that you'd be able to take out because it's a hard cover, but it has like a write up of each species and an illustration of them. So, you can like read through it. And there's interesting facts, not just the regular information.
And the same with the fish book. Yeah. And then The Book of Turtles. Adults really like it, too. But it's a picture book. And Of Time and Turtles is a non-fiction narrative. Yeah. And then the Firechief one, the new one is a picture book. It's about Firechief. Can I tell the story about him?
[0:18:09] SW: Absolutely.
[0:18:10] MP: Okay. Because you got to know – and he lives with me. Illustrating it was like really fun and easy because I saw him all the time. But his story is he's called because he lived next to a fire station. Every fall, he would cross – he lived in this heart-shaped pond. Every fall, he would cross the road to a different pond, a little bit deeper. The brumate, that's like hibernation for a turtle.
And one fall in 2018, I believe, he got hit by a car. Yeah. He's a big 42-lb snapping turtle, too. And the firemen saw this. And they loved him. They used to see him all the time. And these are people who run into the burning buildings to save you, right? But they were afraid of him because he's a snapping turtle. Yeah. And they called the Turtle Rescue League, and these two skinny ladies came out. One of them's blind. They found him in the water. They took him back and patched him up.
And so when me and Sy met him, it was two years after that. His back tail – he's a front tail. Yeah. His back legs and his tail were paralyzed because of this. But he was regaining use of it. And so we started doing physical therapy with him. And he regained some of the use. He's not releasable, but he couldn't stay in his little hospital tank. And we couldn't bring him back to that pond.
Me and my wife moved three years ago, and the first thing I did was I dug him his own pond in our backyard, where he can live and do wild turtle things and is safe. So, this story chronicles his life from when he hatches as an egg all the way until through his accident, through his rehab to today.
[0:19:45] LHL: Wow.
[0:19:45] MP: Yeah. And he's a snapping turtle, but he's very friendly. He's a wild turtle. And don't do this with other turtles, but we can scratch his head and his neck, and feed him by hand. That's the latest book. It just came out. And we've been on book tour most of September. Yeah.
[0:20:02] SW: Gosh, I love it. I love it.
[0:20:02] LHL: It must be so rewarding to participate in conservation efforts and to educate people and inspire people with these creatures that you love so much.
[0:20:12] MP: Yeah.
[0:20:13] LHL: It's like full circle.
[0:20:14] MP: Yeah. And that's what I use my art to try to spread conservation messages.
[0:20:18] SW: It's kind of like a dream job. If I asked my three-year-old, "What he wanted to do?" I could see him being like, "I want to be an artist who works with turtles."
[0:20:25] MP: Yeah.
[0:20:26] SW: Very realistic.
[0:20:27] MP: Well, right now, I'm illustrating a book. Not turtles. Caterpillars.
[0:20:32] SW: Oh, cool.
[0:20:33] LHL: That's amazing. Is that for adults or kids?
[0:20:37] MP: It's a picture book. The Book of Turtles, doing this with size – well, The Book of Turtles – this is The Book of Caterpillars. So, we're going to start a whole series of The Book of. And these are all animals that people know and can recognize, but they don't know them. They're full of amazing surprises.
[0:20:51] SW: Oh, this is so exciting.
[0:20:53] MP: Yeah, I'm learning all about caterpillars.
[0:20:55] LHL: Oh my gosh. This is a bit of a personal question, but is your wife a big fan of turtles?
[0:21:02] MP: She's got to be, right?
[0:21:03] SW: I mean, were you like, "This is a deal breaker if you're not on board?"
[0:21:06] MP: She's not like me. She does like them. She tolerates it. She's a speech and language pathologist.
[0:21:10] LHL: Oh, nice. Yeah, that's excellent.
[0:21:12] MP: Yeah. And when we first started dating, she thought the snake ahead was not going to last much longer. I've had it for 30 years.
[0:21:22] LHL: And she's all right with snakes?
[0:21:24] MP: Yeah. I mean, snakes are easy. They're quiet and they don't really –
[0:21:25] SW: Snakes are easy. Yeah. I used to have snakes. My husband does not tolerate snakes. That's a no. So now we're bunny people, which is fine. And bunnies are great. So Yeah.
[0:21:34] MP: They live a long time.
[0:21:36] SW: They do. They do. Not as long as turtles.
[0:21:38] MP: No. I know. Got to will them. Yeah.
[0:21:38] SW: Everyone I know – yeah. Right? Everyone I know who has a turtle is kind of like, "I've had this turtle for like 25 years." Because my kid wanted it, and I'm stuck with it until it dies. And so I know. Turtles just live so long.
[0:21:52] MP: They do. There's one, giant Aldabra tortoises. They can live over 200 years. One recently died. It was alive when George Washington was around. So they can live a long time.
[0:22:02] LHL: My gosh. How do they assess the age of one of those fellas?
[0:22:07] MP: Yeah. Well, it's hard to know exactly, right? But if it's in captivity, it's in a zoo, they can know exactly.
[0:22:11] SW: Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Interesting. It's got to be like – I'm sure everybody. Everybody should, if they don't, have some reference to their pet in their will, right? But turtles, you really have to will because they might outlive you.
[0:22:25] MP: Yeah. A lot of the turtles I have are rescues that I got while working on these books. And for that reason, some of the owners have died. And these turtles are super old.
[0:22:35] SW: Yeah. Oh my gosh.
[0:22:37] LHL: Yeah. That's amazing.
[0:22:39] SW: Okay.
[0:22:42] LHL: If you don't mind me asking, is this your full-time job? Do you have a day job, or is this –
[0:22:46] MP: This is it.
[0:22:46] LHL: This is it.
[0:22:48] MP: This is what I do.
[0:22:49] SW: That's what I'm saying. Are you jealous?
[0:22:50] MP: Yeah, full-time illustrator. I mean, I do a lot of –
[0:22:51] LHL: Yes, I am. No. I'm happy for you.
[0:22:55] MP: Yeah. Thank you. But I do illustration, but I also do a lot of shows, and paintings, and exhibit in museums and galleries and stuff.
[0:23:04] SW: Well, it looked like you were super-duper busy for the last few weeks going around talking about the book, right?
[0:23:10] MP: Yeah. Yeah, we were on a book tour. We were in Montana, Colorado, Maryland, West Virginia, all around the Northeast.
[0:23:18] SW: That's so awesome. A very serious turtle book tour. It's really serious.
[0:23:22] MP: Oh, yeah. It was very serious.
[0:23:24] SW: Does the publisher put that together?
[0:23:26] MP: Yeah.
[0:23:27] SW: And that must be really fun for you to get to like go around and talk to people about – yeah.
[0:23:30] MP: It was great talking to people. I love doing the talks. I love when we get a big audience. And people are so enthusiastic about this. And everyone has a turtle story. And it's great to see so many people come out. Yeah.
[0:23:41] LHL: Yeah. In some of the books – now, I'm sorry. I have not looked through all of your books. But in some of the books, do you have raw sketches? Your early phase sketches? Or are they mostly completed, finished works?
[0:23:52] MP: Finished work, yeah.
[0:23:54] LHL: Would you ever consider – do you save all your sketches and dot all the whole process? Because I feel like that would be almost like a field book that documents it all. I think that would be kind of fascinating –
[0:24:05] MP: I do say stuff. Yeah, I know. People are interested in seeing the process.
[0:24:08] LHL: I don't know. I could see it being a cool blog or its own book, that's sort of like the sketches.
[0:24:12] MP: Because a lot of work does go into doing a painting. At least my process beforehand.
[0:24:15] LHL: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Because you're researching, you're writing all these notes down. I would love to dive into your sketchbooks. I just feel like they'd be so cool to look at.
[0:24:26] MP: Yeah.
[0:24:26] SW: Yeah. Me, too. Yeah. Yeah.
[0:24:29] LHL: Especially because such a contrast to such high-level, high-detailed work. Research and sketching aside, I would say that the actual starting, the first brush on the canvas. How long do your pieces typically take? And I know that probably depends on size and creature.
[0:24:45] MP: My thumbnail sketches are awful. I mean, they make sense to me. But if someone looked at it, like, "What the hell is that?"
[0:24:53] LHL: Yep.
[0:24:54] SW: They're not seeing the vision.
[0:24:55] MP: Yes. But when I do it – I'll do a final drawing onto a vellum board, and then I'll start painting with acrylics on that. And I would say for True and Lucky Life of a Turtle, a full page spread, I'll probably spend about a week on that. Sometimes more, sometimes a little less. But around that. Yeah.
[0:25:15] LHL: Nice.
[0:25:16] MP: Full eight-plus days.
[0:25:18] LHL: Yeah.
[0:25:18] SW: Right. Yeah. Incredible. New Market this year had a turtle fest in the spring. Did you – were you –
[0:25:23] MP: They did? No, I didn't.
[0:25:25] SW: Okay. I was just wondering.
[0:25:26] MP: I didn't know that.
[0:25:27] LHL: They didn't call you?
[0:25:29] SW: I know. I'm kind of shocked. How many turtle people can there be in New Hampshire? I would think, of course, you would know about it. I forget when it was. I went. And there was lots of talks about turtles and like kid activities. My kid liked it. We're into turtles now. I think it was hosted by the New Hampshire Turtle Rescue.
[0:25:47] MP: Oh, okay.
[0:25:48] SW: Anyways. Next time if there's a Turtle Fest in my town, I will make sure you're there.
[0:25:54] MP: Yeah.
[0:25:56] SW: I really want to talk about the sculptures. The birds are awesome. I really, really, really love the moths. They're so beautiful. Can you talk about the process? Where did the idea come from? And then how do you get there?
[0:26:08] MP: Okay. Just to describe these, these are paper sculptures, realistic. The body is made out of a plaster base. So, I started by doing these wood and bird sculptures, and I think they look really cool, but they're really hard to move and display because they hang on a wall. They hang off a wall. And then I've been researching about moths, giant silk moths, and I decided to start doing some of those.
And so, I carved out of clay, a little body. And then I made a mold. I have a bunch of different species I've done. But then I cast that mold in plaster. And then I cut out the wings and I cover the body in these little strips of paper. Really tedious for hair, because moths are kind of furry. And then I paint them super realistic. And there's leaves that are – those leaves in each display are the host plant of that species, which is what that caterpillar eats. And they hang on the wall, and they're little.
Actually, I love doing them. I haven't done any in a few years. But they're a lot of fun to do. I actually went to Mothapalooza a while back with a whole bunch of these. It's a moth conference with a bunch of moth nerds there. I mean, they would be like up until two in the morning shining lights on these white sheets to see what would come in. And so I went to that and sold a whole bunch of them there. But yeah, I've done a bunch of those.
[0:27:32] SW: Are they all in private people's homes, or are there any on display somewhere where I could go see them?
[0:27:38] MP: They're all in private collections right now. But I'm going to do more.
[0:27:41] SW: Okay, good. Okay, good. I think I need to see it in real life. I'm looking at the picture and I'm like, "I just need to see it." They're so beautiful.
[0:27:48] LHL: Yeah. You have one in your hand.
[0:27:50] MP: Yeah. Gives us some scale, right?
[0:27:50] LHL: Yeah, exactly. Like, "Are these big or tiny?' And like that's pretty substantial.
[0:27:54] MP: Yeah, they're life-size of what they are.
[0:27:57] LHL: Wow. That's gorgeous. Is there a medium you haven't tried yet that you dream to do someday as far as a concise focus on wildlife?
[0:28:08] MP: I really love acrylic painting. So that's really like what I want to do. I have an idea for some really cool sculptures, plaster.
[0:28:15] LHL: Nice.
[0:28:16] SW: Cool. Very cool.
[0:28:17] LHL: Incredible.
[0:28:18] SW: I know. It's really amazing. Is there anything that you sort of wish that people understood better about being an artist, or maybe specifically like being a turtle artist?
[0:28:28] MP: Well, being a wildlife artist, a lot of research goes into it. And like there's a lot that goes in each illustration. And I try to show them as individuals, because they are. Each bird has its own personality. Same with turtles. Just like our dogs, or cats, or us. There's a lot that goes into each illustration.
[0:28:49] SW: Has a turtle expert, somebody like a biologist, ever seen your work and then been like, "Oh, that's not quite right." Or given you any feedback on the turtles? I'm thinking a non-art.
[0:28:58] MP: Yeah. No, I work with a lot of biologists and herpetologists on these. They're pretty accurate. Yeah. Well, I do – for The Book of Turtles, I sent all the drawings and the illustrations out to make sure – have them looked over.
[0:29:13] SW: Oh, that's super interesting to make sure that they were true to the animal.
[0:29:16] MP: Yeah. Yep.
[0:29:17] SW: That's very cool.
[0:29:18] LHL: I love that.
[0:29:19] SW: I know. It's really –
[0:29:19] MP: Yeah. And same with The Snake and the Salamander. Make sure all the – that's kind of a guide. Everything had to be super accurate. Right amount of –
[0:29:29] SW: It's interesting in a way because it means that you don't really get artistic license. You can't fuss with them and do something totally different with them and have them still be true to like the real turtle.
[0:29:40] MP: Yeah. I mean, I can do the composition. I can do the colors and everything. But yeah, I want to make sure they're accurate.
[0:29:45] SW: They're accurate. That's very cool.
[0:29:46] LHL: Have you ever seen One Lane Studios Art? Becca Lane out of Dover.
[0:29:50] SW: Oh, like a collab would be so cool.
[0:29:52] LHL: Well, I don't know about that, but –
[0:29:53] MP: The name is really familiar.
[0:29:55] LHL: Yeah, she's been on the podcast. And she does hyperrealistic wild critters, animals. She does dogs and cats, too. They're not quite just wildlife. But they're hyperrealistic. However, there are elements of ties, and hats, and other cute things in there and everything. But I think she has a turtle or a tortoise.
[0:30:13] SW: Let's look.
[0:30:14] LHL: I think. Anyways, I don't know why that came into my mind, but –
[0:30:18] MP: Check it out. Yeah.
[0:30:18] LHL: – I think her work is really cool. You might get a kick out of it. But I do love that you focus your work on not only the accuracy and everything, but just the personality of each turtle and like really having respect for that individual animal and the species as a whole. And I think that's so wonderful for education purposes, but also for having humans connect with animals more and to try to respect their part on this planet, too.
[0:30:44] MP: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a really important part of getting someone to be concerned or to care about conservation because turtles, I mean, they've been around for over 200 million years. But question is like, can they survive us? Because they're one of the most endangered groups of animals on the planet. Over 60% are threatened with extinction in the wild.
And so, introducing someone to Firechief through a book or an illustration connects with that individual animal and then you start to like that animal and then start to think about them as a whole, as a species.
[0:31:13] LHL: Right down the turtle hole.
[0:31:15] MP: Yeah.
[0:31:16] LHL: Instead of a rabbit hole.
[0:31:17] MP: It's a turtle hole. The cloaca, you mean.
[0:31:23] LHL: Things we never thought we'd say on the podcast.
[0:31:26] SW: That's definitely a brand new sentence. This is totally not an art question. What are the things that we can do to help protect turtles? What are the threats that we can address? Is it using paper straws, or is there's more to it than that?
[0:31:40] MP: The main things that are threatening turtles right now, and a lot of animals fall into this category, is habitat loss, illegal collecting, poaching in the wild, taking wild turtles out. Roads are a huge problem. Let's see. I mean, climate change is really bad for turtles. Because a lot of different species, their sex depends on temperature.
And so, yeah, a nest will – not every species of turtles, but a lot of them. So, the nest will – the eggs in the top will be like one or two degrees warmer than eggs in the bottom, and the warmer ones will be female. And so, if you just change it by one or two degrees, you'll get all female. So, that's a huge problem, too. But like crossing turtles. Helping turtles cross the road in the direction they're going is always a good thing. They know where they're going.
[0:32:26] LHL: It is scary, though. I've done it.
[0:32:27] MP: Well, it is scary for a snapping turtle.
[0:32:29] LHL: Yeah. Even just regular turtles, if you don't – you just don't touch them or you're not used to them. I'm always like, "I don't want to scare you. I'm trying to help." Because they're all of a sudden flying through the air to get to the other side of the road. It just feels so unnatural for them.
[0:32:42] MP: And big turtles can be definitely intimidating. And that's when they're aggressive is when they're out of water because they're just defensive, you know.
[0:32:48] SW: Yeah. That's actually one of my favorite things to do is stop in the road for wildlife, because then it makes me feel like I could get major hero complex out of it. And I'm like, "Everyone, stop. There's a turtle in the road."
[0:32:58] MP: Well, if it's laying eggs, and saving all those eggs.
[0:33:02] SW: Well, in this area, and I'm sure this is true everywhere in the state that there's so many rural places where turtles crossing the road is a thing. I grew up in Nottingham, and I lived near North River, and there was a crossing where there were a lot of turtles crossing the street there. And so I was like, "Help them along," and like block traffic, and like don't run over these turtles. Yeah.
[0:33:20] MP: There's a program in the Harris Center, which is a conservation group in Hancock, where I live. And they do salamander brigades. Have you heard of this?
[0:33:26] SW: No. What?
[0:33:28] MP: Yeah. In the spring, when the amphibian migrations are happening, when they're coming out of brumation and they're going to vernal pools, there's different sites, roads, where they're crossing, particularly busy. People go out with reflectors on at night and flashlights and then carry them across, and record all the salamanders. So we have data on how many are at the site. How many got crossed? It's really cool.
[0:33:52] LHL: That's so cool. It must be so confusing and jarring for the animal to be like, "What's happening?"
[0:33:57] MP: Well, some of them can live 25 years. Maybe after a few years, they expect it. You know, "Where's my staff?"
[0:34:04] LHL: These gentle giants are going to help me.
[0:34:06] SW: Where's that human?
[0:34:07] LHL: I'm ready.
[0:34:10] SW: That's great. I recently learned the thing about the sand temperature determining sex. I was reading a library book that I took out forever, and it was like one of the things I learned in this book. And I was like, "Whoa." Because it was really just the temperature of the sand is going to determine the sex for some of these turtles. And I'm like, "Climate change is going to have huge impacts on this turtle population. They're only going to be producing female turtles." I'm like, "That's wild."
[0:34:32] MP: Yeah. Some beaches are shrinking, and it's too hot. You get boiled eggs.
[0:34:39] LHL: Yeah. It's a lot of heavy stuff there. But it's great that you're doing something to try to help.
[0:34:45] MP: Yeah.
[0:34:46] SW: What are the things – sort of artist admin side, what are the things that you struggle with or challenges for you doing – you are doing this turtle thing that you love and painting that you love, wildlife. But you also had to do this running a small business thing. What are the challenges there for you?
[0:35:04] MP: I mean, there's stuff you have to do, like million emails, and QuickBooks and all that. Yeah, receipts and everything. All that stuff, I mean, I don't like doing. I hate doing.
[0:35:17] LHL: Yeah. Yeah. If you could outsource it, you would.
[0:35:20] MP: Yeah, I want to paint. I always want to paint.
[0:35:22] LHL: Yes, I understand that.
[0:35:24] MP: I mean, that's the kind of stuff.
[0:35:25] LHL: What is one piece of advice that you would give to artists who want to break into illustrating for books or getting involved in conservation?
[0:35:35] MP: Yeah. Well, persistence. Don't give up, definitely. You got to keep sending your work out there and keep practicing. Keep getting better. Keep working on it constantly. I'm always trying to get better. I hope I'm better now than I was last year. Constantly practice. Keep reaching out to people, follow up with them, send emails, send samples of your work, your website.
And for scientific illustrators, people want to do scientific illustration and in books, wildlife stuff like that, different conferences and meeting people was a really great thing for me. I met all these fish people and turtle people. And these are people who, some of them, need scientific illustration. You can make connections like that. You can get your foot in the door and start to build up a reputation and network like that. I would say that is really helpful.
[0:36:27] LHL: That's great.
[0:36:28] MP: Yeah.
[0:36:29] SW: Yeah. You know what I really like about that, too, is that I am really into the idea of organizations. Always using local artists when they can. And so a turtle-related organization or even something that's not turtle-specific, like the New England Aquarium, for example, could be like, "Oh. Hey, Matt. We're making brochures. Can you make us something?" And work with an actual local artist to make their sort of materials or collateral.
[0:36:52] MP: Yeah. Yeah, those are some things.
[0:36:56] LHL: That's awesome. I love that.
[0:36:57] SW: I love it.
[0:36:57] LHL: Yeah.
[0:36:58] SW: I'm very jealous. It makes me very happy.
[0:37:01] LHL: Any other bigger questions or is it rapid fire?
[0:37:03] SW: Time for rapid fire?
[0:37:04] LHL: Okay. Great. Yeah. So, what other artist has influenced you the most?
[0:37:10] MP: One artist who's – he's not too much older than me, but James Prosek. I really like him.
[0:37:16] SW: Do you have a favorite species of turtle?
[0:37:18] MP: Oh, I do. Wood turtle.
[0:37:22] LHL: That was a nice, quick answer.
[0:37:24] SW: I was like, "This is either going to be impossible, or he's going to have an answer wrapped already."
[0:37:29] LHL: Favorite color?
[0:37:30] MP: Blue.
[0:37:31] LHL: Oh. I was going to guess green.
[0:37:34] SW: Right? The color of turtles, obviously.
[0:37:34] MP: Yeah, blue.
[0:37:37] LHL: What's your favorite scent?
[0:37:39] MP: Lake water.
[0:37:41] LHL: That makes sense.
[0:37:41] SW: Yep. On brand.
[0:37:43] LHL: Favorite sound?
[0:37:44] MP: I like loons. They're very summery.
[0:37:50] LHL: What's your favorite texture to touch?
[0:37:52] MP: Probably reptile scales.
[0:37:54] SW: Yeah, I get that. Snakes feel great.
[0:37:57] MP: They do.
[0:37:58] SW: Yeah.
[0:37:58] LHL: This is going to be a really hard one for you, I think, because it sounds like you've been quite a lot of places. Most inspiring location you've traveled to.
[0:38:06] MP: Well, I'd say the Spiny Forest. Yeah. Because it's just like this wild place with these crazy plants. And everything is different in there, evolved, isolated. It's also really sad because 90% of it's gone. But seeing it is amazing. And the rainforest, too. I love it.
[0:38:23] SW: What's the last new thing you've learned?
[0:38:28] MP: Well, working on a caterpillar book, I learned that all butterflies are moths. Not all moths are butterflies.
[0:38:37] SW: Oh, interesting.
[0:38:38] LHL: I didn't know that.
[0:38:38] SW: Me either.
[0:38:39] MP: Butterflies fall into the category of moths.
[0:38:43] SW: Huh. Interesting.
[0:38:45] LHL: We've all learned something now.
[0:38:46] SW: Yes, we have.
[0:38:48] LHL: And this is our clincher question. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
[0:38:53] MP: Well, I want to give my younger self technique advice, right? Like, "Do it like this." And I also would say the more research and the more reference, good reference material you have and you're working with, the easier and the better your work will be.
[0:39:06] LHL: Excellent.
[0:39:08] SW: The best reference material. Real turtles.
[0:39:10] MP: Real turtles. So get turtles. No.
[0:39:15] SW: Thank you so much.
[0:39:16] MP: Yeah. Thank you.
[0:39:17] SW: This is a really, really, really great interview.
[0:39:18] LHL: I know. feel like I learned so much, and just I’m really inspired. And I love animals. So it's been a real pleasure.
[0:39:24] SW: Yeah.
[0:39:25] MP: Yeah. Well, this is fun. Thanks.
[0:39:26] LHL, SW & MP: Show us your creative guts.
[OUTRO]
[0:39:33] LHL: Another huge thank you to Matt for joining us on Creative Guts. What a cool dude.
[0:39:36] SW: I know. It was such a joyful episode, too, to talk about turtles and how this person is just living the literal dream of traveling, and meeting turtles, and doing conservation work, and painting turtles.
[0:39:48] LHL: He's following his passion. He's making a difference. He's educating folks. And giving literally homes to turtles. What a wonderful human being.
[0:39:57] SW: I asked if anyone had ever compared him to a mashup of Steve Irwin and Bob Ross, and he said no. Can you believe that?
[0:40:05] LHL: Well, it's happening here on Creative Guts. Because, yes, there was a certain magic that possessed in his exuberance. His eyes just lit up with excitement. He couldn't wait to tell us about Firechief and his story. There was just so much awe, and wonder, and happiness in his whole face.
[0:40:25] SW: Yeah. And I imagine, even if you have the coolest dream job ever, there are still moments that feel frustrating, or dull, or tedious, or whatever. But it must be nice to have this like inspiration to go back to where you're like, "Oh, I have a bunch of turtles, and I paint them." How awesome that is? Yeah.
[0:40:45] LHL: I know. And yeah, he kind of just was like, "I just want to get to the painting, to the good stuff." And I completely feel that. There's just some wonderful Zen in that.
[0:40:55] SW: Yeah. I love, too, he mentioned his dad being a biology teacher. And I was like, "Okay, cool. I love that. That totally makes sense." And them doing a fish book together, which is so cool. Yeah. You can tell that Matt really loves what he does, and it was such like – again, it was like a joyful episode talking about something that feels wonderful and also is important.
[0:41:14] LHL: Yes.
[0:41:15] SW: I'm glad I asked him the question toward the end about what can we do to protect turtles? Because he was right there. He's like, "Oh, I got this."
[0:41:22] LHL: I know. Yeah. It's really, really amazing. Matt, thank you again so much for being on the show. It truly was a pleasure to dive into your mind in the world of turtles and other creatures.
[0:41:31] SW: Yeah, we're super happy to have met you.
If you, listeners, want to learn more about Matt, his website is mpattersonart.com. You can find him on Facebook and Instagram. His handle is Stone Ridge Art Studios. As always, you can find those links and more in the episode description on our website, creativegutspodcast.com.
[0:41:50] LHL: You can find us, Creative Guts Podcast, on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. If you're not on social media and want to stay in the know about what we're doing, join our newsletter list. We're on Substack, and you can find the link to sign up on our website.
[0:42:04] SW: This episode is sponsored in part by the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. Thank you to our friends in Rochester for their support of the show.
[0:42:09] LHL: And a big sunny thank you to Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery for providing a space where Creative Guts can record.
[0:42:17] SW: If you love listening and you want to support Creative Guts, you can make a donation, leave us a review, interact with our content on social media, purchase some merch, whatever you're able to do, we appreciate you.
[0:42:26] LHL: Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Creative Guts.
[END]