Of Wild Gods and Forest Lovers
Matthew Hildebrandt
May 2 - May 21
Opening Reception: Friday May 2, 5 - 7pm

Matthew Hildebrandt

These are paintings about life. About the spirit and sacredness of all things. These are paintings about us. About our connection to these beautiful wild places and the beautiful wild places inside us. These are paintings about the wilderness within. About love. And letting go.

Of Wild Gods and Forest Lovers is a collection of new artworks exploring the ideas of human connection. Our connection to each other, to nature, and to ourselves. They are a reforestation. A resurrection. A return to some vast and bewildering space inside of ourselves.

All of the paintings in this series were dreamed before painting them. Some I have been dreaming of for years. Others I have dreamed for the first time right before composing them. This process of pre-dreaming my paintings began many years ago. It was the key reason behind my departure from realism and working with models to paint in a stylized, freer, less inhibited fashion. This is how I dreamt it.

I have been a lover of art all my life and have fallen in love with the work of a wide variety of artists. I do not doubt that those moments of infatuation have influenced my work. But in truth, I have never really felt like I had much choice in what I painted. My process as an artist has been a continual letting go into something that I cannot name.  Some unwieldy joy. As though my art (and my joy) is its own beast, with its own breath and being. A wild god that I am simply bearing witness to.