Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Bodett.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always done art, whether it was poetry, visual art or music. Growing up, I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I grew up in Idaho and there wasn’t much to look at for examples of how to make an art career happen. Needless to say, I started college seeking to obtain a degree in Art Education and English. However, during the early part of my college years (in 2005), I became really sick and couldn’t sort out much of what was happening. Shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with a schizo-affective disorder and that diagnosis changed my life. I continued to attend college but failed many classes due to my struggles with paranoia and delusions. I began to use the acts of art to talk about my mental illness and realized that many people related and that even more people didn’t talk about their own struggles. Since then I have made work that explores mental illness, psychology, linguistics, and other related topics in an effort to reframe our discussion of mental illness.
After graduating from Boise State University with my MFA in 2011, I taught printmaking in the Boise area until 2013 when I decided to take my studio practice more seriously and moved to Chicago. Since being in Chicago, I have worked continuously to make a career as a studio artist more plausible. In 2015, I was nominated for a 3Arts award, while I didn’t receive the award 3Arts did offer me a residency with Bodies of Work specifically designed for artists with disabilities. Their mission to promote voices that are often on the periphery matched my efforts and the residency was a major accomplishment since moving to Chicago. I was able to work with various theater companies like Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens, as well as other major cultural institutions like The Poetry Foundation, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, and Gallery 400. All of the performances I completed were followed by a discussion concerning mental health. What it feels like. What help is available. Or simply sharing a personal story. Each of these moments is what made the project worth the time. Seeing a community of people sharing their lives and openly allowing a process of healing.
Aside from the performances, I also create visual art which is intended to approach the same questions from a different angle. The installations are designed to offer different insights into my own struggle with mental health. These works often take on elements that I am familiar with in different media, namely poetry and music.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Never. And, I hope it doesn’t get to be too smooth. It’s not that I want to hurt a lot, but I want to always find a struggle. I feel that if we find ourselves comfortable we aren’t allowing growth and challenging our potential. This type of struggle is different than the type of struggle that is exterior, like having art world professionals tell me not to talk about having a mental illness and refuse to work with me while I did so. But, I find that the struggles I have had most frequently in my life, struggles with my own idea of self (as it relates to schizophrenia), struggles with what I perceive as reality, struggles with language, etc… all of these allowed me a place to struggle with the type of questions I think everyone can benefit from asking. There are a lot of questions that reveal our weaknesses and unless we allow ourselves to hurt while finding those questions and struggle while finding those answers we cannot fully approach healing. It is an unfortunate consequence of our society that we try so desperately to avoid struggles. All that said, I wouldn’t take back anything I have had to go through. It is always hard, and I imagine there will be harder days to come, but the growth has been worth it all.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Matt Bodett story. Tell us more about the business.
As an artist, I hope that my work speaks for itself. I hope that my work acts as a place where both you as the reader and me as the maker can have a reciprocally enhancing experience. That is what I specialize in. I want you to feel the effects of your own mental illness (and don’t pretend you don’t have one) and how, as a community, we can uplift and become stronger in acknowledging and talking about what makes us vulnerable. I hope you have to confront yourself in my work and that is what I am proud of.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t really think luck has had anything to do with my career. Happenstance, maybe. Happenstance because chance is different than luck. It is chance that I happened to do a certain thing, but it is also years of preparation that allowed me to accept chance, or to create a framework for it to work within the direction of my career. I work hard, every day to make sure that when I meet the people who cross my path that mirror my intentions and ethics that I am prepared to collaborate with them to make a stronger community of people. I imagine that what many people perceive as luck is really a culmination of years of hard work and an openness to the fluid movings of the world around them. Except for lottery winners. That’s mostly luck.
Contact Info:
- Address: 410 S Michigan Ave Suite 420
Chicago, IL 60605 - Website: www.mattbodett.com
- Phone: 208-921-9351
- Email: matt@mattbodett.com
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