Hidden Gems: Meet Matt Tomko of Matt Tomko Art

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Tomko.

Hi Matt, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up fascinated with animals and the outdoors in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Nature has always been a passion for me so I started drawing as a way to keep some small part of it with me. As a child, I used to catch (and release) birds and small animals for the same reason. I had this little boy’s need to literally hold on to nature any way that I could. Now that I am older, experience has taught me that possessing it is less important than letting nature possess you. My art is still a way for me to hold on to nature, but instead of giving me something to literally embrace, my paintings instead provide me with all of the feelings and memories elicited by them.

I studied art in my mid-teens under the direction of a wonderful teacher and fellow nature lover, Judith Keats, and experienced early successes in winning competitions and holding my first solo show at age sixteen. However, life took me in other directions for a long period afterward. In 1989, I received a BA in Mathematics from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and worked in various Engineering and Manufacturing Management roles for more than twenty years creating art only occasionally during that time. In 2005 I renewed a serious interest in art and once again studied under the direction of Judith Keats in Pennsylvania once again.

In pursuit of warmer winters, I moved to North Carolina near the picturesque Eno River in 2009 and since then I have pursued painting even more earnestly. Art became my profession as well as my passion and I have maintained a studio in the Golden Belt Arts Complex in Durham North Carolina for the last eleven years. My work has been extensively exhibited in juried, group, and solo exhibitions and is held in private collections both nationally and internationally. I am also very proud of the fact that I have had paintings featured in the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Calendar in the years 2019, 2020, 2021, and the upcoming 2022 calendar.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The roads I travels tend to be unpaved and often muddy, but they take me to destinations that are worth the rough travels. I mean that both literally and figuratively.

The early days of my art were as a kid with a passion for nature so those were certainly easy days. Even in my teens, art was a hobby without any pressure. When it came time to pursue an education, art was not an option. To be honest, it was not even a thought. Growing up in an area without much support for the arts, I did not consider art to be a viable career path for me. I would not consider that a struggle, just a fact of life. Pursuing my education in Mathematics and then climbing the corporate ladder left little time for drawing or painting, but I never completely lost touch with it. And, I do not regret the career path that I chose. That path eventually created some flexibility that enabled me to take the risks in starting my art career.

Once I did get started I was in my early forties, and my art career had plenty of challenges. I did not have a formal art education and it made me a bit self-conscious about competing with others that did.

More importantly, I had no idea what being a working artist entailed beyond creating art. But, just as I had done in my earlier career, I set to work in figuring it out. I took classes and met other Artists. I found many fellow Artists in Durham that were happy to share their knowledge with me. I tried things that had worked for them. The things that worked for me, I kept doing. Things that were not a fit, I dropped. There is so much work to earning a living as an artist. Being an excellent creator is the easiest part of it. Beyond that you need to excel at marketing, understand sales and merchandising, manage accounts payable and receivable, understand your costs, manage websites and social media, operate a studio, and the list goes on. For me that has been the biggest challenge. All of the business operations that need to happen in order for an artist to actually earn an income are the same as with any other small business, and owning a small business has never been an easy task.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I am a Nature, Wildlife, and Pet Portrait Artist. Specifically, I’m a painter and work in both oils and acrylics.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
The thing that worked for me in finding mentors and in networking was not taking refusals personally. And, that was a difficult thing for me to do. Not everyone is going to make the time to help you. People have their own struggles and you can’t possibly know what they are, so if someone isn’t able to help you then move on to the next person. You will eventually find people who can help.

My other advice is to feel the fear and do it anyway.

When I was just getting started in my new art career, I had an opportunity to share a studio in what I perceived to be the best place to create in Durham but I was nervous about spending the money. I emailed one of the artists working there at the time and asked if he would have lunch with me so I could pick his brain. It wasn’t easy for me to work up the courage to do it, but I did and he said yes. His generosity with his time and answers told me everything I needed to know and I’m still working at the Golden Belt Art Studios to this day…eleven years later.

Pricing:

• $285 12″x16″ Painting
• $480 16″x20″ Painting
• $650 18″x24″ Painting
• $1,080 24″x30″ Painting
• $1,800 30″x40″ Painting

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.MattTomkoArt.com
• Instagram: @MattTomko
• Facebook: Matt Tomko Art
• Twitter: @MattTomkoArt
• Youtube: MattTomkoArt

Image Credits
Matt Tomko