Matt Hays: Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Local multidisciplinary artist Matt Hays is in the midst of renaissance of sorts, or an excelled trajectory of his artistic journey. His recent projects include teaching and mentoring with The Art Base, completing the design for this year’s Strawberry Days, an installation at TRTC, a massive co-curated exhibition and mini tattoo convention with Carbondale Arts, an upcoming public art project with Town of Carbondale, all in addition to a busy career as a tattooer. With his diverse skill set and enthusiasm, he’s adopted the motto “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”. 

You're a multidisciplinary artist (and teacher/mentor) with several irons in the fire at the moment. Can you share about what you've got going on, and what to keep our eyes out for? 

I do tend to keep a lot of irons in the fire at any given time which is great because it keeps me from ever feeling like I’m stuck in the daily grind. I enjoy the variety and it keeps me on my toes. In the last month I finished teaching an eight week oil painting class at The Art Base in Basalt and also mentored a high school student through their Claudette Carter ARTmentors program. I also had a solo exhibition at Thunder River Theater Company, completed the poster/shirt design for this year’s Glenwood Springs Strawberry Days Festival and put together an amazing group exhibition and tattoo event, Visceral Alchemy, at The Launchpad with my good friend and co-curator, Sarah Overbeck from Carbondale Arts. All of that on top of a pretty busy tattoo schedule. Now that those projects are all finished I’m looking forward to the next set of projects. 

I recently started a new body of personal work that consists primarily of oil paintings. I’ll be participating in The Art Base’s 10x10 “Name Unseen” show which is really fun for me because for that show I like to dig into my bag of tricks and create something that most people wouldn’t recognize as mine. I’ll be teaching two oil painting classes at The Art Base starting October 1st as well as working on a large-scale public art project with the Town of Carbondale. And I’ll be keeping up with my tattoo schedule here in the Roaring Fork Valley as well as Mammoth American Tattoo in Denver. 

Can you share a project that had a particularly meaningful impact on the community, and what made it successful?

It’s hard to pick just one project that created a meaningful impact on the community. The first things that come to mind are teaching and mentoring. It’s very easy to see the impact I’ve had on my students because there’s tangible pieces of art that they’ve created by the end of it. I find a lot of joy in sharing my knowledge and skills to help people create something they’ve never done before. 

Another project that I think had a meaningful impact is the Visceral Alchemy show with Sarah. As mainstream as tattoos have become in recent years, there’s still a large part of the population that don’t consider tattoos as “art”. When in reality it’s one of the oldest art forms in the world. So it was really fun to bring this show to our community and showcase the wide range of artistic talent from all of the artists in the show. It’s on display at the Carbondale Arts gallery through July 3, check it out. The sense of community that I felt from all who attended the show as well as the artists involved was amazing. It was something I haven’t seen from a tattoo event in a long time. 10/10 would do it again!

And of course the public art project I’m working with the Town of Carbondale on is all about honoring the culture and heritage of the town and some of its most impactful community members, so that’s a great permanent installation project that’s full of meaning. 

Looking back on your career, how has your understanding of the artist's role in society evolved over time?

When I first started making art I just wanted to make cool stuff. As I’ve aged and matured, both in life and in my practice, I’ve come to realize that art can be something so much more than purely aesthetics. It can be a mirror to be held up to society or a way to express things we may not have an adequate vocabulary for.  It can be a clear window into the soul of an artist, or something to provoke deeper conversations. It can be a way to process complex thoughts and emotions or a way to tell a story.  It can bring people together who might not have found common ground otherwise. Art, whether you’re creating, collecting or just taking it in, is a journey. It’s much more than just something cool to look at. 

Many of your projects involve collaboration with different groups and organizations. What have these partnerships taught you about the role of art in building community?

Artistic collaboration with different groups and organizations is fairly new to me. It’s something that I’ve really only become involved in over the last three years and what I've been learning is that art, when practiced with community in mind, has the ability to strengthen, enrich and grow the community in a way that removes boundaries. It can unite people regardless of race, age, gender, orientation, etc. and bring them together under a common thread. When artists get together to create something, amazing things can happen for the community.