Matti Paints - Subjects Heather and Nate

The next canvas came as an incredible surprise to me, but one I was incredibly thankful for.
I was six when I first moved to North Bay in balmy summer of 1993 and the first boy my age I met was Nate. He liked dinosaurs. I liked dinosaurs. A friendship was born.

Pictured: Friendship

Nate was my best friend for many years. We went to school together, we hung out together. There were good times. There were bad times. But the world kept turning regardless and we both grew up. We went to different high schools and because of this our friendship after grade 8 almost evaporated. We didn't really keep contact with each other and we began to run in different circles. As a result we became the people we are today (as is so often the case). But because of this, I always felt that there was some kind of unfinished business that we never really got to get any kind of closure on. Sometimes a friendship just stagnates and after a while you just sort of... forget about it.

This was our fourth attempt at a picture.

Meeting Nathan and his sister Heather at the bar was a great opportunity for me, not just to add to my canvas collection, but to reconnect with them. These were the people I grew up with after all!
Heather has certainly changed a lot since I last saw her. She's quite ambitious and she's planning a rather amazing project that I think you all should check out HERE!

The painting process started in a similar way to the others. They each picked out their songs and colours and then we got down to work. Funny enough they each chose "Strange Days" by Matthew Good Band, which is an AMAZING song of course, but I can't help but wonder if they were commenting on something... Perhaps the strangeness of the coincidence that we were all in town. Perhaps it was just life in general. Whatever it was, it was pretty great.

The first time I sat in front of Nathan and began to paint I felt a well of emotion which hadn't happened before. Nathan is for all intents and purposes my oldest friend, and as a result the process was almost surreal. There were moments I felt that no time had passed, and there were moments where it seems like several eternities ago. The feeling of painting Heather was equally strange and surreal. Here was someone I grew up with but at this point I no almost nothing about her. Now, I feel like I've at least got to begin to reestablish a connection with these two who I was once so close with.

Now something that they might not realize right away, and perhaps I shouldn't mention it, but for the first time the picture we chose together as a group is not the picture I'm going with for the collection. I actually went and changed the picture to the second choice because it really shows off who they are. It shows their relationship to each other in a unique way, and it has a sense of fun that wasn't present in the other one. Does this make me a bad artist? Probably. But no one can argue the fantastic results!

I am currently looking for new canvases! To be a part of this project, click HERE to contact me.