Meet Matt Cauthron | Artist / Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Cauthron and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

Risk is part of our development and the creative process. Whether its off-roading to a new spot that you are not fully confident about to capture a photograph in 100+ degree heat or treating materials in the studio in a new capacity, it all contributes to your work and making new connections. Sometimes you just have to drive that road or sacrifice a printed image to just see what happens. Trust the process. Maybe it works out or maybe it doesn’t and you learn that you do not need to go that direction again, but that uncertainty makes the journey that much more enjoyable when you discover something new.

I’ve never really made “pretty” art or photographs. It’s all just me traveling down that road, capturing something forgotten before it becomes more forgotten, or coming across an unusual object to bring to the studio to spark a later idea. Who knows what will happen. But, I try to work everyday, no matter how hot it gets here in the desert, to find unique ways to assemble images and objects and rethink ways that they may be framed. I suppose people who have purchased my work may find a similar connection to this as well.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I have always been interested in combining multiple elements to build new things. This all started as a little kid when my grandfather would give me a hammer, nails, and scrap wood to play with. It left a large imprint developmentally on how I deal with elements now and most of my life since then- whether that has been working to build and support arts programs within California or at home in the studio.

For the past 20 years or so I have been capturing images around the western U.S., dragging my family on road trips and off-roading to places most people probably won’t go. Places where time has forgotten what is still there or the desert is earning back.

Many people may just see my work as a bunch of old stuff and rust. What attracts me to shoot what I do is certainly a sense of place, but more about a sense of absence and composition with in the desert region and beyond. I choose to edit mostly in black white because there is still something traditional in me having originated from darkroom practices, but what I feel may set my work apart is what happens with the imagery after I print it or the details in which materials are treated. I definitely spend my time on the Mac editing files or managing my website, but what drives me is to build something from that print, found object, or weathered wood to further compliment the connection to place and presence.

I am sure many would agree that the world is inundated with photographers and global culture has flooded it with such wide-spread visual pollution that it seems almost absurd to call oneself a photographer these days if not surviving on a commercial level. It seems harder than ever to stand out just on the strength of your digital persistence in an ocean of everybody. If you view the breadth of what I make, you will see that it does not only include imagery and objects, but also non-imagery, texture, shape, and bits of color much like fragments in the desert landscape. From this, other intra-personal pieces along thematic patterns of faith, the absent, and the abstract tend to emerge.

Being a husband and father of 4 children has always come with the responsibility to provide for our family. With my wife and I working in education, it has always served up our bread and butter. We feel fortunate where those careers are now. For many years it was difficult to produce my own finished work, so I just kept shooting and submitted pieces here and there. As I look to retire from teaching full-time in the not so distant future, I have been focused on physical and creative well-being and have produced more the past several years than the previous 20 combined.

If I have any lessons learned or things that I try to communicate to my students in an underlying way, it is that we should all try our best to pursue and maintain our passions in some form and not let what others feel is best for us actually be what is best for us. I would also encourage everyone to get out and experience nature, to spend some time camping in the dirt, and drive down those roads that you might actually get stuck in or will totally be a waste of time because you just do not know what positive experiences you might encounter.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Before kicking-off on the road, I’d suggest grabbing a pint or two the evening before at Las Palmas Brewing in downtown Palm Springs and pick up a t-shirt or local swag next door at Windmill City’s Super #1. Both are locally owned and operated by two of my student alums. 

After loading up the truck with camping and camera gear the next morning, it would be time to grab an Eggs Benedict at Farm, then make way out of town to the Nude Bowl for the first photo stop. This place has a unique history in the local/So Cal music/skateboard scene, not to mention being the last remains of an old forgotten resort. From there, heading out to Landers for some more #DesertFunky photography and dropping into Joshua Tree N.P. via the Old Dale mining road to spend the next 24 hours or so #photosploring the outer parts of the park and away from the crowds. When ready, it would be time to head out through Cottonwood Springs with another photo stop at Desert Center before dropping down to the Salton Sea via Summit Road or swinging out further to 4wd along the historic Bradshaw Trail where goods were trucked in from the Colorado River. If time permits, a side-trip to an ancient water source and Native American rock art, or the Opal Hill Mine could be encouraged, but spending too much time near the Chuckawala prison would not be a good idea! As there is a ton of camping in this area, no decision where to flip the roof top tent has to be made until it needs to happen. Spending the day shooting around Bombay Beach, Salvation Mountain, and East Jesus is a must as well, but you might have to wait for the Instagrammers to get out of the way to get a clean shot of Leonard Knight’s giant birthday cake. 

We’d move on the next morning around the butt-side of the Salton Sea and into the vast Anza Borrego Desert State Park- one of my favorite spots for the past 20 years. Spending the night at Bow Willow campground gives access to killer moon rises and the far part of the park where you can continue photographing some more great landscapes near the Wind Caves, ancient Kumeyaay sites, and old railroad remains. After all that, it would definitely be time to make camp at Blair Valley. The next morning after fresh pressed coffee , some dirty eggs and shooting BB guns, I’d suggest taking a quick hike up to the Marshall South homestead.  Here you can imagine what it may have been like to live there on Ghost Mountain before the advent of HVAC, then make your way into “town” at Borrego Springs. It would be about time to refresh supplies, grab a burrito for lunch, and certainly stop in at the Borrego Arts Institute. Who knows, we might catch some of my work there depending on the time of year. After taking in the local arts and carne asada, it would be time to air down the tires and float around the arroyos in the badlands before a final camp at Arroyo Salado. The only shade here is what you carry, so… packing out early to gas up at the casino, and trek back to the Coachella Valley to dust off and upload shots before lunch would be recommended.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have been fortunate to have worked with several people in my 50+ years that supported me and provided an environment to keep going. Early on it was my Hungarian-born grandfather who gave me materials to just make something and my dad for instilling in me a love for camping. I also had a couple of strong teachers while studying art in college, but I always appreciated working with Norman Locks, our photography professor at U.C. Santa Cruz. He didn’t seem to mind the messes I dragged into critiques, my failure in learning to hand print color photographs, or burning and painting the emulsion of my black and white photo-murals. Ultimately though, it has been my wife who has put up with me for 20 years that has been my greatest enabler. Raising our children, teaching other people’s children, venturing out with us down the dusty roads of the southwestern states to capture an image (or not), and allowing me the time each day to stay creative and build weird stuff.

Website: https://www.mcauthron.art/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcauthronarts/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcauthron/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcauthronarts

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Image Credits
©Matt Cauthron