Pat and Tracee Matthews, Arkansas Artists | Ep 112 | November 2, 2018
Arkansas born artist, Pat Matthews, began his career by painting landscapes of the woods and lakes of Arkansas that he visited as a hunter and fisherman. His ability to depict nature showing a range of hidden colors is often missed by the casual observer. He has an uncanny talent of rendering the physical world in two, three and four-point perspectives.
Matthews attended the University of Arizona Architectural School where he won the William Wilde Memorial Award as the top designer of his class. He graduated in 1987, received his architectural license and began his practice as a design architect. Although successful, Pat yearned to pursue his artistic endeavors.
In 2002, he had his first exhibition in Little Rock displaying 48 original oils. The show was a monumental success. Matthews packed his belongings and moved to Santa Fe. There, he found gallery representation and continued to paint.
Matthews was moved by the events of 9/11/01 to paint an American Flag on that fateful day. In fact, he painted it over a landscape he had just completed. He made 1,000 prints, sold most of them, and gave the entire proceeds, the original painting, and 343 signed, numbered prints to Battalion 9, the fire station which suffered the greatest loss of firefighter lives. Today Pat’s signature flag paintings represent celebration, hardship, overcoming hardship, and unshakable pride in the freedom and principles the flag represents. Pat’s flag paintings grace homes business, judge’s chambers, and governors’ collections around the country.
"For Tracee Gentry Matthews painting has always been a way of life. She has been creating art since childhood. After the birth of her daughter in the year 2000 and a Bachelor of Science degree, she became a full time artist. Tracee is very passionate about her work. Tracee’s paintings are energized-even pulsating.
Her paintings of city skylines and still-lifes have rapidly captured the favor of discriminating collectors across the United States. Whether it be a small painting, a large canvas or mural, you will find Tracee’s work perfectly complimenting the homes, offices and commercial buildings they are increasingly found in, whatever the setting, style or period. Tracee is able to capture the beauty of life in all of her works. Her style is unique and seems to captivate the viewer with all of the senses."
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EPISODE 112
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:08.8] CC: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling and conversational interviews, this weekly radio show offers listeners first-hand insight into starting and running a business, the ups and downs of risk-taking and the commonalities of successful people. Connect with Kerry through her candid, often funny and informative weekly blog where you'll read and can comment on life as a wife, mother, daughter and entrepreneur.
Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:43.6] KM: Thank you, Chris. Like Chris said, I’m Kerry McCoy and it’s time for me to get up in your business. Before we start, I want to introduce the people at the table. We have who you just heard from, Chris Cannon, my co-host. He’ll be managing the board and taking your calls today. He’s going to give out the phone number here in a little while, so say hello Chris.
[0:00:59.4] CC: Hello.
[0:01:00.4] KM: I just got to bust you out.
[0:01:01.8] CC: I know. I know.
[0:01:02.8] KM: He's leaving me. This is his next to the last week.
[0:01:05.2] CC: I'm sorry.
[0:01:06.2] KM: It's okay. I love it –
[0:01:07.1] CC: It's been fun.
[0:01:07.7] KM: Thank you. Right.
[0:01:08.5] CC: It’s been a blast.
[0:01:09.4] KM: You've got a great voice, but you got a great opportunity in another state and I'm happy for you. I'm always happy when people get to do things they love.
[0:01:14.9] CC: Thank you. Thank you.
[0:01:16.2] KM: Recording our show today to make a podcast available next week is our technician, Jayson Malik from Arise Studio in Conway, Arkansas. If right now you're sitting at your computer, you might want to watch us live on flagandbanner.com’s Facebook page. It's fun to see what goes on behind the scenes. At the breaks, it's real-time reality radio. Before the show today, we were showing Pat, my guest today's artworks. We have artists on today. We were showing artwork from my guest today, so it's a – and telling stories. It's always fun to log into the flagandbanner.com Facebook page.
If for some reason, you miss any part of this show, or want to hear it again, there's a way and Chris is going to tell you how.
[0:01:52.6] CC: You can listen to all UIYB past and present interviews by going to flagandbanner.com and then click on Radio Show. Also, you can join our e-mail list, or like us on Facebook. You'll get a reminder notification the day of the show with a sneak peak of that day's guests. All right, back to you Kerry.
[0:02:11.2] KM: I'm going to miss that voice. It’s good isn’t it? He’s good. This show Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy began as a platform for me, a small business owner and a guest, to pay forward our experiential knowledge in a conversational way. Originally, my team and I thought it would appeal to entrepreneurs and want to be entrepreneurs, but it seems to have a wider audience, because after all, who isn't inspired by everyday people's American-made stories?
To see people in their totality is humanizing. Don't we all thirst to connect and make sense of the overcomplicated world? On this show, we have the luxury of time to go deeper than a soundbite or a headline. It's no secret that successful people work hard, but other common traits found in many of my guests are the heart of a teacher, belief in a higher power and creativity, because business is creative.
My guests today are the epitome of creativity, husband-and-wife, artist extraordinaire, Tracee and Pat Matthews. Pat is an Arkansas-born artist and outdoorsman, a sensitive man who paints beautifully and a man's man who hunts fishes and peas in the wild. I couldn't resist that one. His youthful and first subjects were the landscapes of Arkansas's lakes and woods. Today, he is still moved by nature as he paints impressionistic barky tree landscapes, not just of Arkansas, but of Colorado, New Mexico and other sometimes, snowy mountain tops.
Pat is also known for his flag paintings that we showed on Facebook before the show, that were inspired on 9/11 by the horrific events of the twin tower bombing in New York City. It is the ultimate compliment to be copied and his flag painting style and theme has been copied by many, but there is only one Pat Matthews.
Pat's wife, Tracee Matthews of they just told me six years, although you've all been together 10, who I also have known forever, has been an incoming producing artist since 2000. You've probably seen her still-lifes of wine bottles and vines hanging or painted on the wall of one of your favorite restaurant, or businesses. Tracee will paint on anything, anywhere. Tracee's colorful cityscapes are deeply textured and a favorite of the greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce for showing off our city in an artistic way.
If you need to give a little love for Christmas, she makes the cutest and affordable little 4x4 and 6x6 inch heart paintings. Are you still making those, Tracee? Yeah, don't forget to talk in the mic, honey.
[0:04:57.5] TM: Incense.
[0:04:58.4] KM: There you go. Both of our artists today sell nationwide and have paintings hanging in the Arkansas governor's mansion. Together, this husband and wife team spend their days talking painting and living the life of accomplished artists.
It is a pleasure to welcome to the table husband-and-wife, artist extraordinaire and my longtime friends, Tracee and Pat Matthews.
[0:05:23.0] PM: Thank you for having us, Kerry.
[0:05:24.5] KM: I've been trying to get you for a while, but you all travel all the time.
[0:05:28.8] PM: We just got back from Colorado two days ago.
[0:05:31.4] KM: Painted more barky trees?
[0:05:33.7] PM: Well, I'm in a gallery out there in Beaver Creek and Tracee is hoping to be in a gallery in Vail. Vail and Beaver Creek are about 10 miles apart, but it's beautiful out there. There's snow on the mountains.
[0:05:45.0] KM: Already.
[0:05:45.7] PM: Yeah, already. I did a bunch of paintings while I'm there, because the reason why I like going out there first of all, the inspiration. Then second of all, my paintings are very thick and they take a month and a half to dry. I'd rather just get out there, get focused, paint thin paintings in a couple of weeks and just leave them all on the wall and like it when I come out there. Plus my clients, you've been out there with me.
[0:06:11.6] KM: Oh, I have.
[0:06:13.2] PM: Yeah. It's just a beautiful place to be right there underneath the Hyatt on the – in the ice rink area, the gallery. I mean, it's just –
[0:06:24.9] KM: People come from everywhere.
[0:06:25.7] PM: They do and it’s –
[0:06:26.2] KM: That’s international.
[0:06:27.4] PM: International. They come by, they say – and people will be – they'll be like, “You know, we've been looking at your work doing this for the last 10 years and we want one. We finally want one.” I do a lot of selling right off the easel out there.
[0:06:39.5] KM: Because you paint right in public.
[0:06:40.6] PM: Yeah, I paint right out in front.
[0:06:41.7] KM: Not very many people do that. All right, let's go back to your early life. I did not mention in the opening that you are a Matthews from the prominent North Little, Rock family that developed Lakewood, but you are.
[0:06:52.3] PM: Yes, I am.
[0:06:53.7] KM: You grew up roaming those woods where McCain mall meets I30.
[0:06:56.8] PM: Right.
[0:06:57.4] KM: Those were woods.
[0:06:58.4] PM: Yeah, they were. They were.
[0:07:00.0] KM: Tell us about that life and how it developed your love for landscapes.
[0:07:03.5] PM: Well, growing up, I feel very fortunate. My great grandfather and grandfather built the old mill. I came from a – great grandfather had a lot of vision and one of his visions was to pay for the education of all his great-grandchildren. I was able to go to college for free, which is the biggest gift I could have been given. My brother Mike went to Stanford. My sister Martha went to Georgetown. I went to University of Arizona. My brother Bill went to University of Montana.
That's probably the biggest gift. Then loving the lakes and fishing and all that stuff just – we grew up in the woods over there. I don't know how that leads to my painting career, but it did lead to my – the being so fortunate and being able to go to architecture school at the University of Arizona is what led to my painting career.
[0:08:02.9] KM: I don't know about that. Maybe because you love to paint and draw, that you ended up deciding picking architecture as your career. I don't know which one came first, the chicken or the egg.
[0:08:13.6] PM: Yeah, well I did love to paint and draw and I'd won several art contests.
[0:08:17.6] PM: In high school.
[0:08:18.2] KM: In high school, but I didn't want to be a starving artist. I never knew an artist that wasn't a starving artist. I figured I'd better get something serious, and it involved drawing, not necessarily painting. I went to University of Arizona. I got my degree. I moved back here to Arkansas and started my own little firm. I designed a house for a well-known artist here in Little Rock. His name is Barry Thomas.
[0:08:45.6] KM: Oh, yeah.
[0:08:46.7] PM: Yeah. Barry traded me out architecture plans for art lessons. I would paint at night and do architecture during the day. I did that for probably six, seven years. Finally, I called this life coach and I said, “How do I just paint? Because that's what I wanted to do.” She said, “It's real simple. You just quit architecture and paint.” I said, “Well, I've got six jobs.” I said, “I can't just quit architecture and paint.” She said, “Have you ever seen the movie The Matrix?” I said, “Yes.” The Matrix movies about living a life that's not real, but you think it is. These aliens have taken over, whatever. It’s a cool movie.
She goes, “You have created your own matrix and you can change it just as fast, okay?” I was like, “Really.” I was at my own little firm. I put her on hold, I said, “Would you hold for a second?” I called the Cromwell firm, I was working for them. I said, “Do you mind –” I was doing a job for them and I said, “Do you mind if I quit your job? I just want to paint.” They said, “Oh, no. We've got another kid in here, another guy. We're going to put him on it.”
Then I called this church I was working on and they were like, “Oh, no big deal. The contractors got –” I quit all six jobs in one night and nobody cared. Nobody cared at all. I had $4,000 in the bank and I just started painting. The very next day I walked in, I didn't turn my computer on. Just started painting. I scheduled a show up at local color gallery here in Little Rock. That first show, I sold all 48 paintings in one night.
[0:10:17.9] KM: No way. That’s a dream come true.
[0:10:20.9] PM: Then I was like, “Okay, this is it.” I mean, I got my biggest paycheck that I had ever gotten in my life. Then I had another show. It was a sold out 50 painting show, that was about four months later. I said, “This is it.” I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gotten a gallery there and lived there for nine years. Ended up getting into Aspen, Colorado. Now I'm in Beaver Creek. Then finally, I just said, “Well, I'm pretty set up here. I'm going to come back to Little Rock, Arkansas where I love it.” Because I have a place on Little Red River. I love the people here. I love Arkansas. I really do. I mean, I grew up here fishing, hunting. Now what I do, and my wife and I do, and Tracee got – when I met Tracee, I moved back here and met Tracee, she's a full-time artist.
[0:11:11.3] KM: We’ll find out what she does.
[0:11:14.0] PM: Yeah, but she was painting full-time too. Then she went out with me, used to travel with me to go to Santa Fe for shows and stuff. She got in a gallery in Santa Fe. Now we travel the country together and paint. It's so much better for me than architecture, because I'm not dealing with all these outside influences of, “Oh, the contractor didn't make it. Oh, it's way over budget. Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
If you don't like the painting, all my clients are now happy. Because in architecture, you have to hire an architect to get a commercial building permit. In an art, if you don't want to buy the painting, you don't have to buy it. The people that buy my work are like, “Hey, when you're coming through Dallas, come by and have dinner with us. Blah, blah, blah.” Everybody's happy. I mean, I'm not forcing you to pay the money for a painting.
[0:12:08.0] KM: That's a really interesting thought. I never thought of it like that.
[0:12:11.2] KM: Tracee, you were a full-time artist. I think it started in 2000 when you had your baby girl.
[0:12:16.6] TM: That’s right.
[0:12:19.4] KM: Yeah, we got to get her by the microphone.
[0:12:20.7] TM: Right here?
[0:12:22.0] KM: Yeah, there you go. Tracee is so tactile. She's leaning all the way over and touching her husband through the whole thing. She's having a hard time. Look, we should have put their microphones closer together.
[0:12:35.8] CC: Probably should have.
[0:12:39.1] KM: Tracee, you were painting. I started buying your paintings before I ever met you. I don't know why they speak to me, but they speak to a lot of people. Your paintings are on walls around town. Of course, you paint on canvas, but you paint everything. Tell me when you decided when you had Griffin and you decided you were going to – what were you doing? You went to college also.
[0:13:01.5] TM: I did. I started out as an art major, of course, way before I had Griffin. When I started college, I was an art major. Had a crossroads, coming to
[inaudible 0:13:13.4]. You have professor saying, “Oh, you'll never make it as an artist.” I even did some paintings, went outside to some people I very much respected in the art community and they said, “Oh, you're talented Tracee, but you will never make it as an artist.”
[0:13:31.8] KM: Why?
[0:13:33.5] TM: I don't know. I always believed in myself, but they just didn't think I had what it took. Instead of listening to my drive and passion that I've had since a little girl, I knew at seven I wanted to be a full-time artist. I switched gears, was at a crossroads, I changed my major to interior design, which actually is a lot like architecture. I mean, we did sets of plans and it wasn’t much decorating. It was I had to drop a full set of plans; electrical, reflected ceiling, new construction, demolition. An interior designer worked one-on-one with an architect.
When I graduated, I worked for Brenda Hogan, interior design all through college. I think, I worked for Brenda for about seven years. After I had my daughter, Griffin, I had already been painting. Even my friends didn't even know that I painted. It was a love of mine. It was just a little – it was full of me and inside of me, but it wasn't something I shared a long time ago. Until I went to college and started out as an art major.
After I had Griffin, I was a single mom and I started painting wine paintings. I was asked to be to be – to come into a restaurant, Bella Italia. I don't know if you remember Bella Italia. I thought, “Well, what subject matter am I going to paint?” “Well, Italian restaurants.” “Okay, I'll paint one.” That's how I got started painting wine. I loved those late 10:00, 10:30 phone calls from Bella Italia, “You sold a painting.”
Then switched gears as any artist, professional artist that does it for a living, you keep evolving as an artist. Maybe seven years ago, I started – I have a whole new color palette now, a whole new genre of painting cityscapes. I still paint wine and Santa Claus. I'm constantly moving and trying to keep learning my trade.
[0:15:54.5] KM: I can't imagine. I think this is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with husband-and-wife artist Tracee and Pat Matthews. We will hear what it's like to paint for a living some more. They're going to tell us where you can see Pat and paint live on stage, because he does like to paint live for free on November the 12th. We'll tell you where and how you can do that. Of course, tell you where both Tracee and Pat exhibit their works of art and where you can buy one of these cute little Santa Claus, or heart paintings for Christmas gift. We'll be back after the break.
[BREAK]
[0:16:28.0] PM: Over 40 years ago with only $400, Kerry McCoy founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. During the last four decades, the business has grown and changed, starting with door-to-door sales, then telemarketing, to mail order and catalog sales, and now a third of their sales come through the internet. This past year, Flag and Banner added another internet feature, live chatting.
Over time, Kerry’s business and leadership knowledge grew. As early as 2004, she began sharing this knowledge in her weekly blog. Then in 2009, she founded the nonprofit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom, and then in 2014, Brave Magazine was launched. Today, she has branched out into radio with this very production, podcast and live stream on Facebook.
Each week on this show, you'll hear candid conversations between her and her guests about real-world experiences on a variety of businesses and topics that we hope you'll find interesting and inspiring. If you'd like to ask Kerry a question, or share your story, send an e-mail to questions@upyourbusiness.org. That's questions@upyourbusiness.org, or send her a message on flagandbanner.com’s Facebook page.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:17:53.6] KM: All right, you're listening to Up In your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. I'm speaking today with Tracee and Pat Matthews; nationally successful oil painters that just happen to be married and live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Before the break, we talked about how Pat, how actually I know both these people for a long time. I knew them before they knew each other actually. I knew about Tracee before she knew Pat.
Then we talked about how they got started. Pat told his love of Arkansas and how he went to architecture school and then ended up back in Little Rock. Tracee talked about how she had also a life-changing experience when Griffin was born, her daughter, and she was a single mother she thought, “I have just got to paint.”
This passion to paint is a theme in both of y’all's life. One time Pat, you said this to me one time. I said, what’s it like – or I didn’t know what we were talking about. You were leaving to go pick up Tracee and you said – I said, “Pat, you've got paint on your clothes.” You said, “Yeah.” Tracee says – I said that to Tracee one time. I said, “Everything we own has paint on it.” Tracee said, “Yeah, ain't it great?”
[0:18:59.4] PM: She actually said, “Thank God for that.” It’s true.
[0:19:06.7] KM: That’s really wonderful.
[0:19:07.5] PM: She’s a lot messier than me though, I can tell you that.
[0:19:09.6] KM: Y'all's car is full of paint. Actually, you don’t have any paint on you, except for what you painted that you're wearing.
[0:19:15.0] TM: Look closely, Kerry.
[0:19:21.0] KM: If you had to do it over again, Tracee, what would you do different?
[0:19:24.3] TM: You mean as far as my career?
[0:19:26.1] KM: Starting out on your –
[0:19:26.8] TM: I would have finished with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art, rather than –
[0:19:35.3] KM: Changing to interior design?
[0:19:36.2] TM: Yes. Instead of Bachelor of Science degree, interior design.
[0:19:40.1] KM: Do you think it would have changed anything about your – the trajectory of your life, though?
[0:19:45.2] TM: Well. I mean, I think everything happens for a reason. I learned a lot in interior design that actually goes hand in hand with art, as far as drawing and perspective. Just knowledge of what goes in and to designing of a commercial establishment, or a residential establishment. No. I mean, art painting, they are period has – is just deep within myself and part of who I am and have been all of my life.
[0:20:18.6] KM: Yeah. You started 2002 going out on your own.
[0:20:22.0] TM: 2000.
[0:20:22.5] KM: I mean, 2000.
[0:20:23.0] TM: When Griffin was born.
[0:20:23.5] KM: I mean, 2000. You took the leap at 2000. Pat, you started in 2002, so she's got you –
[0:20:28.0] PM: She does.
[0:20:28.0] KM: Braver about two years. She's braver about two years.
[0:20:30.8] PM: I know.
[0:20:32.2] KM: You told everybody before the break that you left your architecture job and decided to –
[0:20:41.8] PM: Just paint.
[0:20:42.8] KM: Just paint. How did you get in a gallery right off the bat?
[0:20:46.3] PM: Well, it was interesting. When I quit – when that lady talked to me and I spoke earlier about the –
[0:20:54.1] KM: The life coach.
[0:20:55.3] PM: The life coach quitting all six jobs and then just decided to paint.
[0:20:59.0] KM: By six jobs, you don't mean six real jobs. You mean six architecture jobs.
[0:21:02.6] PM: Six architecture jobs in church. I don't know. I was doing a mini-storage. I was working on a huge other Church, just a couple of houses and whatnot. You always had to keep jobs going. Anyway, I was down getting one of my paint. I was painting at night and doing architecture during the day. Then one day, you even came over for dinner.
[0:21:25.0] KM: I bought four paintings right out of your bedroom.
[0:21:26.2] PM: You bought four paintings. I was like –
[0:21:28.2] KM: For cheap.
[0:21:30.0] PM: I know. Cheap. For me, that was great.
[0:21:33.8] KM: I mean, today there was – Oh, my gosh.
[0:21:35.5] PM: I mean, I did those when I was on Lake Ouachita just standing on the bank.
[0:21:40.0] KM: I look at those today and I look at your other stuff today and they're so – they're so – you'd evolved so much.
[0:21:49.5] PM: Well, at first when I first started painting – well, back to the question. what was the question?
[0:21:57.1] KM: You decided you were going to paint, and you had done a house for somebody who was called Barry Thomason, who’s a very successful local paint –
[0:22:04.7] PM: How did I get in that gallery?
[0:22:05.5] KM: How did you get in that gallery?
[0:22:06.9] PM: I was getting one of my paintings framed. A lady who was in with the group that was starting this local color gallery up in the heights, she just saw it and she said, “You know what? I love this. Do you paint professionally?” I said, “Well, I'm wanting to. I'm painting quite a bit now.” She said, “Would you come up and meet with everybody up there?” I went up and met and applied and got in that gallery. Then that's about the same time when I quit the jobs in architecture and just focused just on painting. It was in that little local color gallery that I did have my first show.
[0:22:43.2] KM: What it must be like to just have – you just walk around with a painting and people just start buying them from you.
[0:22:47.1] PM: Well, it's pretty –
[0:22:50.2] TM: It pays the bills and it’s wonderful.
[0:22:53.0] PM: It’s a compliment every time someone buys one of your paintings. Just today, I had the gallery in Beaver Creek call me and said, somebody wants to commission a big painting. I don't even know these people, but they saw my work and now they want a 40 by 72 of one similar to the one that they didn't get –
[0:23:13.1] KM: Describe your work for everybody, if they don't know it.
[0:23:15.1] PM: Well, Tracee and I paint a lot alike. We both use a lot of color. We both use a lot of paint. Tracee paints outside the lines and I paint inside the lines.
[0:23:26.0] KM: Why do you say that?
[0:23:27.5] PM: Because her paintings – CNC cityscapes and they're just wonderful. Because like, say Little Rock. If she's going to do Little Rock, she'll do the Arkansas River in the city skyline or whatever. Then she'll put the Clinton Library floating up in the upper left-hand corner, a bicyclist and some other things that are not where they should be. For me, I try to focus – I'm more realistic, I should say.
[0:23:54.5] PM: Yeah, impressionistic, but I try to keep it in perspective and where everything falls together. You asked her, Tracee the question, what would you do differently? I don't think I'd do anything differently, because the architecture degree and it was a tough school. Getting that and then working with clients, doing budgets, having to meet deadlines, all that prepared me for art. In a way, art and architecture are very similar.
If you can put together all these parameters of budget and the site, what the client likes, the time considerations and design a building that meets all those, that's generally what works. When you're painting, if you can take what the client likes, or what you like; composition, time, color. If you're going to have complementary colors or not, the way things darks tie together and lights tie together, perspective light source, all that – if all that works, then that painting is going to turn out really well.
[0:25:09.4] KM: Didn't Barry Thomason teach you to paint light?
[0:25:13.1] PM: Barry taught me a lot. I mean, he was – I always loved his paintings and that's why I just – I sought him out. I said, “Hey, man. I got to paint. I love what you do.” Not too many guys painted. We're about the same age.
[0:25:28.5] KM: You're both men's men.
[0:25:29.7] PM: Well, yeah. He's an outdoor guy, played for the Arkansas Razorbacks. This guy didn’t look like a painter.
[0:25:34.7] KM: Yeah, like you.
[0:25:35.5] PM: Yeah. He was like, “What do you do?” I said, “Well, I'm an architect.” He said, “Well, come on out to my farm. I need to design a house and redesign my house.” I said, “Well, cool.” He said, “Well, I'll just trade you out architecture plans for art lessons.” I said, “Great.” We got along great. Then he would call me and go, “Hey, man. I'm getting ready to go over to Europe for 10 days. I got this class and there's a bunch of people coming.” Mainly it was not young guys. More women, older women, or I don't know. I don't want to be stereotypical. A lot of young women, but Barry would say, “What we're going to do?” “We’re going to paint in South France for about a week.”
Then now take off. You now rent a car and drive through South France. Go through the coast of Spain, paint up the coast of Spain, end up in Paris. I got a place there and we can just paint and then we'll fly home from there.
[0:26:27.2] KM: Yeah, he need a partner.
[0:26:28.4] PM: Yeah.
[0:26:28.9] KM: Yeah.
[0:26:29.6] PM: I was like, “I’m in.”
[0:26:31.0] KM: Yeah, no kidding.
[0:26:33.1] PM: Anyway, that's how I got started.
[0:26:36.0] KM: You just put an easel on the back of your four-wheeler and go out.
[0:26:39.7] PM: Well, yeah. I have a four-wheeler that has an easel on the back. I have painted – when I go hunting, I get bored. I'll just jump off the – get behind the four-wheeler. You can hear deer coming.
[0:26:53.4] KM: You can?
[0:26:54.2] PM: Yeah, you can. I was in my stand hunting one day and I was like, “Dang, I forgot my brushes.” Okay. I was like, “What am I going to do?” I had all my paints in the back of the four-wheeler, I was like, “Hmm.” I pulled out my pocketknife, this happens to be one of them, okay?
[0:27:12.5] KM: Oh, yeah. There it is.
[0:27:15.6] PM: I was thinking, “I was going to cut a branch.” This is not rehearsed, by the way. I was always carrying one. I was going to cut a branch off and create a little pallet knife with it. Then I looked at this pocket knife right here and it has this edge on it. I thought, “Well, I could just use that edge and make a painting out of that.” Wipe it clean and then use it and wipe it clean.
Anyway, the paintings turned out really cool. Just small ones. I'm in my stand. I get back and I posted on Facebook with the knife laying next to it. Boom, sold. Somebody said, “I'll take it.” Put in there and I said, “I'll do another one.” I think I did three or four that weekend.
[0:27:55.9] KM: That weekend.
[0:27:57.0] PM: Then Brian Hendrix wrote a nice article. He's with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and he wrote about pocketknife paintings by Pat Matthews.
[0:28:03.7] KM: Oh.
[0:28:05.1] PM: Yeah.
[0:28:05.2] KM: You do them any more?
[0:28:06.5] PM: What's that?
[0:28:07.0] KM: You doing them any more?
[0:28:08.0] PM: You know what? I'd like to. I need to.
[0:28:10.3] KM: It’s deer season again.
[0:28:11.3] PM: Well, I know. There you go. I'll be there next weekend.
[0:28:15.1] KM: Can't the deer smell the paint?
[0:28:17.3] PM: Not really. I don't think so. I've never had a problem with that. I’ve been turkey hunting too and done this –
[0:28:22.6] KM: When’s the last time you killed something?
[0:28:25.2] TM: Last year, maybe.
[0:28:26.7] KM: She doesn’t know.
[0:28:30.2] TM: You went hunting right before Thanksgiving in Texas and did the same thing. I mean, he has turkeys hanging from the four-wheeler. His easel with paints paving –
[0:28:42.0] KM: Tracee, how you want to top that? Tell us about your painting. How are you going to top that you painted with a knife and flipped out a switchblade.
[0:28:50.7] PM: It’s not a switchblade.
[0:28:51.5] KM: Oh, I don’t know. Looks like want them in.
[0:28:53.3] PM: It’s assisted.
[0:28:56.1] KM: Oh, assisted. Okay, there is the term.
[0:28:57.8] TM: I'm better than he is, of course.
[0:29:00.3] KM: Oh, I love you. I love her.
[0:29:02.3] PM: She is. She is, believe me.
[0:29:05.3] TM: No, I am.
[0:29:05.7] KM: Where do you paint? You paint in the house. I've been in your painting room before. It's a mess.
[0:29:10.2] TM: Well oh, Yes, everything. I've always painted from home and that's what I wanted to do when I had Griffin. I was always home. When she slept, I painted. Which back in the day, it was wee morning hours that I painted. I've always painted at home and she just went to college this year. Pat and I opened a gallery a few years ago. I'm back and forth pretty much full-time at the gallery now painting. Well, I didn't want to paint at the gallery full-time while Griffin was her senior year at home.
[0:29:46.5] KM: Is it hard to get motivated when you're down at the gallery? It seems lonely.
[0:29:50.1] TM: Honestly, I like painting at home better. I love the gallery. I'm proud of the gallery.
[0:29:57.9] KM: Is it open all the time?
[0:29:59.9] TM: Not yet.
[0:30:01.4] KM: How do y'all do events down there? I've been to an event at the gallery before, but it was – I think it was commissioned event.
[0:30:07.0] TM: Usually, we have chairs in the heights cater it. It’s up to the client, what do you want? A certain amount of people and you can come down. We have a full kitchen.
[0:30:18.5] KM: Yeah, so you don't just open it up. You have a client that reserves it and commissions it. You open it up and they give you the guest list. I can't go on Facebook and look for an event day that you're going to open the gallery.
[0:30:30.8] TM: Okay, well they'll call us and we just set it up. You would just call us and say –
[0:30:37.0] KM: Mondays? Tuesdays? Can two, three –
[0:30:39.1] TM: Any day you want. I mean, anybody, any day you want. If you wanted to rent the gallery for a special event.
[0:30:47.8] KM: Can you have private tour though? Can someone come down and say, “I just want to come and see what you got?”
[0:30:50.7] TM: Of course. We're going to have open hours. We've already actually started that, Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 11:00 to 4:00. Sometimes 11:00 to 5:00.
[0:31:00.9] KM: You are?
[0:31:02.5] TM: We're about to make that in stone. It’s been hard as an artist.
[0:31:07.8] KM: Don’t know what your brand – You all travel constantly.
[0:31:10.3] PM: Yeah, we travel a lot. The thing is it's an open studio open by appointment any time.
[0:31:17.2] KM: Open by appointment.
[0:31:18.7] PM: Come on down. We're both painting there. Then we do travel a lot. We were just gone for 10 days. We hired somebody to work the gallery while we were gone. We’re doing the partners card thing down there this week.
[0:31:33.1] KM: Oh, that’s good to know.
[0:31:34.4] PM: Save 20% off anything in the store and off any of our prints. My wife, she has her own prints signed, limited edition prints. We both have our own online stores. You can shop on those. They're on our websites.
[0:31:50.6] KM: What is your website?
[0:31:52.0] PM: Patmatthewsart.com.
[0:31:54.8] TM: Artbytracee.
[0:31:56.3] KM: Tracee is with two Es.
[0:31:57.3] TM: Two Es .com.
[0:31:59.2] KM: T-R-A-C-E-E. You know. She’s an artist.
[0:32:02.1] PM: Well, she taught me all about getting on Facebook and doing this social media thing and it's huge.
[0:32:07.1] KM: Tracee is good at it.
[0:32:08.2] PM: She's good at it.
[0:32:09.2] TM: Well, I wanted to say something about Brenda Hogan. You had asked me about would I do something different? Brenda Hogan, when I worked for her in design all of those years, she taught me a lot about business and – I didn't know what a proposal was and a statement and an invoice and –
[0:32:27.2] KM: Purchase order.
[0:32:28.1] TM: Oh, purchase order. She taught me so much about business that – and marketing and just – Of course, it's a lot different than it was then. With social media and the internet and everything. For her, I mean, she taught me so much.
[0:32:45.1] KM: People should follow you. Y'all both post on Facebook. Tracee, what's your Facebook?
[0:32:50.5] TM: It's artbytracee.com.
[0:32:52.2] KM: Artbytracee.com. You’re on all the time. You're painting and posting stuff all the time. Pat, what’s your Facebook page?
[0:32:57.9] PM: I’m just under Pat Matthews, or Pat Matthews artist. I have a regular page and a professional page. It's so true as an artist, if you're not a marketer, you're not going to make it. I know that.
[0:33:12.6] KM: You’re both smart in business.
[0:33:14.7] PM: You have to market your work and you have to meet your deadlines. It's work. It is.
[0:33:21.6] KM: You do approach it like that.
[0:33:22.9] PM: Yeah. I mean, I teach some classes and –
[0:33:25.9] KM: You do? Where?
[0:33:26.4] PM: At my gallery. I'll do a group of two or three and then I'll do individual classes. It's interesting, the people that – it's like, when I learned, I've learned from several people over the years; Robert Moore, Barry Thomas, just a few of those. Robert’s up in Idaho. It's all about you paint a 100 paintings in a 100 days, okay? You're going to learn something. You can't just sit around in a coffee shop and smoke clove cigarettes and talk about painting, you know what I mean? That’s what a lot of artists do. Or what brush you're going to use, or whatever.
I mean, just get some paint and paint. She when she was first starting out, didn't have the money to buy canvases, so she’s painting on ceiling tiles with house paint and sold them. That's a painter.
[0:34:21.8] KM: That's a painter.
[0:34:22.9] PM: Yeah.
[0:34:24.7] TM: I couldn't afford it. I was a single mom with a baby, with Griffin, baby girl.
[0:34:29.6] PM: No support from dad.
[0:34:32.5] TM: Well, and so I didn't have the money. I started out on ceiling tiles with the least expensive paint you could buy. Finally one day, then I went to wood, which I think you have.
[0:34:43.7] KM: I do. I have wood.
[0:34:45.8] TM: Then finally one day, I was able to buy canvas and quality paints. It’s a blessing.
[0:34:54.5] KM: Paints are not cheap.
[0:34:55.8] PM: No, they’re not.
[0:34:56.6] KM: You all use a tube on a quarter of your page, both of y'all.
[0:35:00.6] TM: It’s a blessing.
[0:35:01.5] PM: I buy my paint in caulking tubes and just squirt it out in big –
[0:35:05.6] KM: In caulking tubes.
[0:35:06.6] PM: Yeah. My buddy told me, he goes – up in Idaho, Robert Moore, he said, “Would you want someone, a doctor working on you working on a cheap – with a cheap instrument and afraid to use it? To throw it away and use a clean one?” You know what I mean? He said, “You got to paint like you're a millionaire. You really do.”
It's funny, sometimes when I've taught classes, these people come in and they have these paints and they lay it out and they put one little bitty, looks like a bird dropping of each color. I'll just swoop that up with a half brush
[inaudible 0:35:43.1]. I'll grab their entire little tube of paint and just squeeze the whole thing out. That's your yellow, that's your orange, that's your red, that's your alizarin. Now paint the painting, you know what I mean? They’re like, “Oh.” It turns out better. It does.
[0:36:00.0] KM: It's free. I imagine it's free.
[0:36:02.1] PM: The texture, I mean –
[0:36:03.5] KM: You paint texture. You both paint texture.
[0:36:05.2] PM: We both do. She does the same thing. I mean, she just squirts it out like crazy.
[0:36:09.2] TM: I wish you could buy the caulking tubes for acrylic paint, but you can't. It’s just water-based.
[0:36:14.3] KM: Do y’all paint two different – you paint –
[0:36:15.9] PM: I’m in oils and she's in acrylics.
[0:36:17.6] KM: I didn't know anybody still really painted in oil oils.
[0:36:20.5] PM: Yeah, I do. I do. I like it. I like the medium. Acrylics are great. The colors on acrylics, I really love.
[0:36:28.1] KM: Are brighter, I think.
[0:36:29.4] PM: Mm-hmm. It's just oil – when you're painting outside, it doesn't dry quickly, so you can manipulate the painting, for me. I've just always learned that way, so I stayed there.
[0:36:42.9] KM: All right, let's take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to continue our conversation with husband-and-wife artist Tracee and Pat Matthews. We'll talk about – we've already talked about their style of painting. I want to tell y'all where you can see Pat paint. November the 12th, he's going to be painting at the Arkansas Art Center for – and it's a free and he – do you paint with two hands? Or is that your friend that paints with two hands?
[0:37:00.1] PM: I paint with two hands.
[0:37:01.5] KM: Yeah, he paints with two hands. It's really fun to watch him paint. It’s like,
[inaudible 0:37:04.5], like a maestro. He is going to be up there painting. I guess, it'll be auctioned off for a fundraiser, whatever you paint.
[0:37:11.3] PM: Right.
[0:37:11.9] KM: We're going to talk about that event, because it's a cool event. What's that guy's, Monday's name?
[0:37:16.7] PM: Rick Monday.
[0:37:17.6] KM: Rick Monday. We’ll talk about him. Don't give it away. Then what was I going to say, something else? Oh, well. I can't remember. First, I want to remind everybody we're broadcasting live every Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. central time on both KABF 88.3 FM, the voice of the people and flagandbanner.com’s Facebook page. That after one week of every shows airing, a podcast is made available on all popular listening sites and YouTube. Oh, I know what I want to say. I want to say we're also going to talk about that 911 event that you painted that flag painting for and what happened, because we told that on Facebook before the show, but we did not share it with our radio listeners. When we come back, you'll get the rest of the story.
[BREAK]
[0:37:58.1] CC: Flag and Banner is proud to underwrite Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. This weekly radio show and podcast offers listeners firsthand insight into starting and running a business, the ups and downs of risk-taking and the commonalities of successful people shared in a conversational interview with Kerry.
Along with this radio show, flagandbanner.com publishes a free bi-annual magazine called Brave. First published in October in 2014, this magazine features every day people’s real-life stories of bravery. Its goal, to inspire you to celebrate your own bravery and challenge you to recognize it in others.
The Department of Arkansas Heritage recognized Brave magazine’s documentation of American life and micro-fishes all additions for the Arkansas state archives. Free subscriptions and advertising opportunities are available at flagandbanner.com by selecting Magazine, where you can read previous stories and learn about advertising opportunities.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:38:59.8] KM: Thank you, Chris. I forgot to tell everybody that we were going to get the phone number out right when you came back, but we're going to give the phone number. You’re listening to Up In your Business with me, Kerr McCoy. I'm speaking today with Tracee and Pat Matthews, nationally successful oil and acrylic painters that just happen to be married and live in Little Rock, Arkansas and are living a romantic life. I'm just telling you.
If you've got a question, or you want to make a comment, you can call or go on flagandbanner.com’s Facebook page. If you want to call, write this number down and call.
[0:39:29.6] CC: 501-433-0088.
[0:39:33.5] KM: If you're shy, you can just creep on my weekly blog about life as a small business owner at flagandbanner.com, or as I said earlier, you can listen to any of our podcasts. Today's will be up by next week. I want to take this opportunity to give a big shout out and a thank you to Centennial Bank for partnering with the Friends of Dreamland Ballroom and sponsoring this year's dancing into dreamland, which is tonight.
[0:39:56.1] CC: It's here.
[0:39:57.9] KM: It’s madhouse over there, but it's going to be beautiful. It sold out – I think there's a few tickets left, but it's pretty much sold out. We've talked with Pat and Tracee about how they got started being artists. We've talked about their inspiration. We've talked about their style of painting. Now, I want to talk a little bit about this upcoming event. Tracee, are you going to the event?
[0:40:21.1] TM: I will be there.
[0:40:22.5] KM: You’re not painting.
[0:40:23.4] TM: I'm not participating. Pat.
[0:40:25.5] KM: Pat’s doing it. This upcoming event, it's a trip. It's MacArthur Museum in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas and it's going to be – and they're having Rick Monday as the presenter. He is the outfielder who played in the World Series championship game in 1981 for the Dodgers. He's coming to downtown Little Rock for fundraiser to benefit MacArthur Museum. The event is called Baseball and the American Flag. It's going to be at the Children's Theater of Arkansas Art Center and it's free.
[0:40:57.0] PM: Well actually, the presentation is free, but the initial 5:00 to 6:30 meeting with Rick Monday, it is going to be a $125 or a $150 a ticket. I'm not sure.
[0:41:10.8] KM: Well, good. Because I thought, “What kind of a fundraiser is going to be free?”
[0:41:13.6] PM: Yeah. We've also got some corporate sponsors already that have bought –
[0:41:17.7] KM: How did this event come about?
[0:41:19.4] PM: Well, as you know I've been known for painting the American flag.
[0:41:23.0] KM: You want to tell everybody how that started? You want to tell that first, or you want to tell Rick story first, which one? Let’s tell that American flag story first.
[0:41:28.9] PM: Okay. The night of 9/11, I went to buy an American flag. Everybody was sold out, including your store.
[0:41:36.1] KM: Arkansas Flag and Banner.
[0:41:37.6] PM: Right. That's where I went first, of course.
[0:41:39.8] KM: Thank you.
[0:41:42.0] PM: Anyway, everybody was sold out and of course, everybody was upset. I was pissed off. I was painting at home from downstairs studio. I painted my first American flag and it was very rough and thick paint and just – just heavy strokes. I showed it to people the next day and they were like, “Oh, my God. I love it.”
[0:42:03.2] KM: Weren't you planning another painting at the time?
[0:42:05.2] PM: Well, what had happened was I've been on a trip over to Spain and I had an unfinished canvas and I just decided to paint over that, okay? It gave it this 3D look, because I had paint over paint. I left some of that paint shining through or showing through. I ended up selling – ended up selling prints of it. I took the money and I flew to New York to Ladder Company 54, which is they lost 15 men. They lost the most men. I brought 343 prints, the money that I'd made and the original painting and presented it to them. They didn't really know what to do with anything, but the money. We still don't know where that original painting is, okay. Nobody –
[0:42:54.2] KM: They don't have it there?
[0:42:55.0] PM: No, no. Somebody has it somewhere. I would love to find it. Anyway, I got back and then one – the local news agencies did a little story on that. Then it took off. Now I have American flag paintings in every state. I have all sorts of country flags. I'm real well-known for it. I mean, the governor has one in his office here, the mayor does, mayor of North Little Rock, and some other – They're all around. I think you might even have one.
[0:43:29.6] KM: I do.
[0:43:30.9] PM: Just an niche that fell into. I've been able to do a lot of good with them. I've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities with them. The last one in Dallas went for close to $15,000 for Ronald McDonald House. I had one at the Ritz-Carlton in Beaver Creek, Colorado go for $30,000.
[0:43:54.8] KM: What?
[0:43:55.9] PM: Yeah.
[0:43:57.8] KM: You’re like – can I have that back please?
[0:44:01.2] PM: I can’t write that big chip, but I can paint the painting. This is what leads to this event coming up. Rick Monday is well-known for playing for the Dodgers. Back in 1976, there's some people that broke out on the field and they had an American flag. One of them spraying lighter fluid on it and the other one was trying to light it. This was during a game. Rick came by and grabbed that painting right out from underneath and right before they lit it on fire.
[0:44:28.2] KM: Flag. Grabbed the flag.
[0:44:28.9] PM: Grabbed that flag right before they lit it on fire. Well, that's known as one of the most 100 memorable moments in baseball history. Yeah. He also spent six years in the Marine Corps and he's from Arkansas. He's coming to town. On November 12th, I'm going to be doing a painting of that flag, which is tattered and older. Then I'm going to have him come by my gallery and I want him to put a couple strokes on it with me. He'll sign it and I'll sign it. Then we'll auction that painting off to benefit the Arkansas Military Museum here in Little Rock.
It's going to be a pretty cool event. Then afterwards, I'm not sure exactly, whoever buys the painting will be able to keep it. Their donations are a 100% tax-deductible. People do that all the time. I'm looking forward to that event.
[0:45:24.9] KM: You can come at 5 to 6:30 for a $125 to actually meet Rick Monday, this Arkansan. He was also a – yeah, he's most famous for saving the American flag. I thought we were going to call? No?
[0:45:40.8] CC: I glanced over, but I didn't see anything.
[0:45:43.3] KM: I'm just watching you out of the farm. I’m always watching you Chris. He's also played in a World Series. I didn't realize he was from Arkansas.
[0:45:53.3] PM: Yeah. I believe he's from Batesville. He's an iconic figure. Dr. Glenn Davis here in Little Rock has set this whole thing up. I was hoping he'd call in and talk about it. Anyway, it's not uncommon for Tracee and myself to be approached by different charities to paint.
[0:46:18.0] KM: Oh, he's calling. I think we've got a phone call. You're listening to Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. I'm speaking today with Pat and Tracee Matthews. Have you got a question for us?
[0:46:28.5] Caller: One comment about Rick Monday, the American flag.
[0:46:32.1] KM: Yes, come on.
[0:46:34.1] Caller: Let me tie in. This happened on his back, but a stepping part of resume, but 1976 he's planted the cuts, I believe. I feel this despite this video is on YouTube, we’re singing a protest between – went out the field, left field, but American flag around was set on fire. Rick find that, he chased them down and got the flag into a down. Did you know that?
[0:46:55.1] KM: Yeah, Pat just told us. You're not listening. You're not listening to the show.
[0:46:59.1] Caller: I’ll listen to it. All right.
[0:47:00.6] KM: No, no. Thanks for calling. Yeah, thanks. You got busted out. He's not listening. Did you all know that? Yeah, we know that. Yeah, I didn't know he's an Arkansan though.
[0:47:13.7] PM: Yeah. It's a unique deal.
[0:47:16.5] KM: Whose idea was it to put all this event together?
[0:47:19.2] PM: It was Dr. Glenn Davis, who's a friend of mine. He's quite a philanthropist himself. He is in big with cystic fibrosis last year. For the last several years, Tracee and I have always donated to that event here in Little Rock.
[0:47:36.5] KM: Do you all ever paint together for events?
[0:47:39.1] PM: Have we painted together?
[0:47:39.4] TM: We have. At the governor's mansion once.
[0:47:42.5] PM: Oh, yeah. We did at the governor’s mansion.
[0:47:44.0] KM: Because she doesn't like to paint out in public.
[0:47:45.3] PM: No, she does.
[0:47:46.8] TM: Oh, I love it.
[0:47:47.2] KM: Oh, you do?
[0:47:47.6] PM: She’s all over it. Yeah.
[0:47:49.3] TM: I've painted live at many, many events.
[0:47:51.5] KM: You paint anything. Pat pretty much just paints on canvases. You paint purses?
[0:47:58.4] TM: I sew them myself too.
[0:48:00.3] KM: You sew purses and paint purses. You've got great gift ideas for Christmas for everybody. I love the little – what size do you think those little paintings are, that –
[0:48:09.1] TM: Little 4 inch by 4 inch.
[0:48:10.6] KM: They’re 4x4s. I think I have one that maybe 6x6 and they’re hearts and they’re very vibrant. I love them. Then you do Santa Clauses?
[0:48:19.5] TM: Yes. Anything you want.
[0:48:21.2] PM: Another thing that's really cool that she's done is we have these coaster sets for a set of four coasters. It's very affordable. They're images of the paintings that we've done. I have the old mill in Arkansas. I've got some southern scenes of ducks flying.
[0:48:37.7] KM: That's full circle with you, but since your grandfather built the old mill and then you paint the old mill.
[0:48:42.0] PM: I love painting the old mill. I've done it quite a few times. Anyway, so the coasters are – the nice little gift items are good. If you're thinking about coming down – I mean, thinking about Christmas, don't forget about the Matthews Fine Art Gallery. We're down at 909 North Street, which is by Cantrell and Chester, or just look us up on Facebook.
[0:49:03.7] KM: Yeah, so they can Google up the – what's the name of the gallery again?
[0:49:06.8] PM: Matthews Fine Art Gallery.
[0:49:08.3] KM: We'll put a link there on the Flag and Banner website. People go to flagandbanner.com and click on this – click on this podcast. They can see the link there. Get the hours, because y'all do travel all the time.
[0:49:19.0] PM: Right. It's probably best to – our phone numbers, personal phone numbers and e-mails are on there, to just make up make an appointment to come see us. We try to stay open as much as possible. When you're heading out of town –
[0:49:34.1] KM: How do you balance inventory? How do you balance the part of your life that's about building inventory, and then the part of your life that's about selling your inventory? How do you balance all of that?
[0:49:47.9] TM: Well, we take it just one step at a time, in increments. You have to be a business person. It's the opposite side of the brain for me. I don't know if that answered your question.
[0:50:02.7] KM: She didn't want to talk about it if she didn't like it at all.
[0:50:05.2] TM: Well, I don't like the business part. I love the marketing part. To sit down and do the inventory and all that, it's I'll do it, but I just want to paint.
[0:50:16.1] PM: Well, the way I do it is I will travel to Beaver Creek, Colorado or Santa Fe, New Mexico and stay there for 10 days to two weeks and paint every day. Then I leave them. They're glad to see me leave, because everybody has paint all over them, the walls have paint all over them. There's no more room in my area for my paintings. You can't set them on the ground, because they're painted on top, bottom, edges.
[0:50:39.5] KM: Oh, they don't need to be framed.
[0:50:40.7] PM: No, no.
[0:50:41.8] KM: No more framing. That's out these days.
[0:50:44.0] PM: Well, you can frame them if you're here in Little Rock. If they're going to be sold to somebody in Chicago or something like that and shipped out there –
[0:50:50.8] KM: Better not to frame it.
[0:50:52.7] PM: I don't want to pick frames. People, they’ll say, “Hey, I love the painting, but I hate the frame.” Whatever. I just paint the edges of mine. In that way, I love it because gallery can't put them on the ground. They can't put them in a rack in the back. They will put them on the wall.
[0:51:04.9] KM: They have to hang them up.
[0:51:06.0] PM: Yeah. That's one way I get inventory to the galleries. Now, I've had a really – it's unblessed. I don't have a lot of inventory here. When I do, I typically have it shipped out. One thing that's been a real cool deal is this whole patmatthewsprints.com. I've gotten into this from Tracee, learning about the internet and all this, set up a website. I have some of my best paintings and limited edition prints, okay, that are much more affordable. Say they're one-tenth of the price of an original and they're super high-quality. They're on canvas.
[0:51:49.1] KM: Oh, I love it when you can print a digital print on canvas. They look so good.
[0:51:53.5] PM: Well, I'll tell you what, this guy who's doing it and I'll give a big shout out to George Chambers. He's in downtown Little Rock. He's the best in the country.
[0:52:00.8] KM: Really?
[0:52:01.4] PM: You actually have to walk up to these prints and touch them. People go, “I love that painting.” I'm like, “It's a print.” They'll go, “No way. It’s not.” They're 2 inches from it. I'm like, “Just touch it.”
[0:52:10.9] KM: It’s a print.
[0:52:11.3] TM: It’s fabulous.
[0:52:12.3] PM: Yeah, he’s fabulous. He does prints for Tracee and I. That's been cool, because if you can't keep up with inventory, then selling limited-edition prints is a nice way to pay the bills.
[0:52:25.2] KM: You also have picked up some architecture jobs lately. Sometimes people will just make it as just, you can't refuse it. It's irresistible. You're doing an interesting architecture job right now, aren't you?
[0:52:36.4] PM: I am. I don't know if I should talk about it. Well, I’ll tell you. Should I tell them that?
[0:52:43.3] TM: Of course, we should.
[0:52:46.3] PM: Okay. Anyway –
[0:52:46.5] KM: I love how the husband asks the wife. Can I do that?
[0:52:50.5] TM: I’ve taught him well.
[0:52:52.0] PM: Working with a collector who had – I designed her house on Lake Hamilton, or we designed her house in Lake Hamilton. She bought a bunch of my artwork and a huge painting of Tracee. She's a big fan of both of our work. Anyway, so she ended up buying the Hamilton house over in Hot Springs. I am remodeling the Hamilton house. It's a wonderful project. It's got the famous tunnel that Al Capone walked up through. It's really cool. It sits on four and a half acres. Now there's another project that's down below at the boathouse that I'm working on.
It's been fun, because I still paint and I'm – the architecture, I still am a licensed architect. I worked too hard to let it go. She just said, “You're going to do it.” I said, “No, I'm not going to do it.” She said, “You're going to do it.” I said, “No, I'm not going to do it.” She said, “You're doing it.” I said, “I’m doing it.”
[0:53:49.6] KM: Is it going to be open to the public?
[0:53:50.7] PM: No. This will be her private lake house.
[0:53:53.3] KM: She's going to have the Hamilton house as her private lake house.
[0:53:56.6] PM: Yes. It will also have Tracee – hopefully, it will have Tracee's work and my work hanging throughout it.
[0:54:05.3] TM: Well, and Patrick Cunningham is doing a mural in the tunnel.
[0:54:12.3] KM: Oh, awesome.
[0:54:13.0] TM: Oh, maybe I wasn't supposed to.
[0:54:14.1] KM: No, Patrick’s fine.
[0:54:14.5] TM: Talk about it. No, he’s fabulous.
[0:54:17.7] KM: He is fabulous. He moved to Hot Springs.
[0:54:19.4] PM: Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Anyway, I let the cat out of the bag on that.
[0:54:24.3] KM: Oh, it don’t matter.
[0:54:25.6] PM: This woman is really, really sweet. She's a friend and –
[0:54:29.9] KM: She’s going to have art throughout that whole house. She's got three of great artists. I had Patrick –
[0:54:35.5] PM: Patrick Cunningham is amazing.
[0:54:36.4] KM: He’s amazing.
[0:54:37.2] PM: I recommended that he'd be the guy to do it. Anyway, so that's winding down. Now we've got Christmas season coming up and we're going to be getting after it with painting and creating gifts.
[0:54:52.2] KM: Let's tell everybody before the show is over, because it's almost over. Let's tell everybody how they can get in touch with you again, Pat. Where do they call? What do they do?
[0:54:58.3] PM: Okay. If you just look up Pat Matthews Art on Google, okay? That'll lead you to my website, which has my phone number and my e-mail address. Patmatthewsart.com is my website. Then you can find my e-mail, my phone number right there. Please call me.
[0:55:15.0] KM: Do you all have it linked together? Do y'all share? Why don't you all link up?
[0:55:18.8] PM: Well, we do with the Matthews fine art gallery website, so look that up on Facebook. Then Tracee.
[0:55:27.7] TM: Matthews Fine Art Gallery is matthewsfineartgallery.com is the website. It's linked to the artists that we have in the gallery. We also have James Hayes and Polly Young. I'm missing somebody.
[0:55:42.2] PM: Michelle Renee.
[0:55:42.8] TM: Michelle Renee. Yes. Very good friend of mine. She's a fabulous abstract artist. We have her.
[0:55:58.2] KM: We're going to have all of this contact information on flagandbanner.com, plus we’ll go ahead and put some information on there about the event that'll be happening November the 12th at the Art Center. If you want to see a Rick Monday, you can do it. Who's my guest next week?
[0:56:11.2] CC: Well, we're going to replay the July 2017 interview of the Bruno Brothers from Bruno's Little Italy.
[0:56:17.5] KM: Can you believe I'm gone again? It's like every other week I've been gone or traveling. I'm just trying to be like the Matthews.
[0:56:21.8] CC: I guess so.
[0:56:22.7] KM: Just traveling all the time. The Bruno. The reason I decided to do the Bruno Brothers is because their interview – both of the brothers were on here and they are characters. They were just on the Food Channel. Did y'all see their spot on – they had an episode on the Food Channel. Guy Ferrari, Ferreri from diners drive-ins and dives. He came to Little Rock and cooked with the Bruno Brothers and I saw it last week. I thought, “You know, I'm going to rerun their episode, because they were really, really good.”
[0:56:51.5] PM: May I say something real quick?
[0:56:53.0] KM: Sure.
[0:56:53.7] PM: Okay, when I first met you, okay, you were thinking about buying the Arkansas Flag and Banner building at 800 West 9th Street, okay. It had a huge hole in the roof, where a fire had been there. You hired the Mel Berger firm, which I worked for to come over and look at it. We looked at it. We're like – my other architecture buddies were like, “This isn't going to happen. There's no way that's going to happen. This woman's crazy.”
You're a visionary. You really are. You said, “No, this is going to work.” We got back to the Mel Berger firm and we're sitting there. These guys are very serious and the one in charge is more concerned about codes and all this and that. You went over and sat on his lap, okay, gave him a big old kiss on the cheek.
[0:57:44.5] KM: Sold.
[0:57:46.1] PM: Okay, and said, “Gary, I know you can make this happen,” okay? His face turned beet red, okay. Well, that afternoon all he could talk about is, “Boy, that Kerry is one smart woman. We're going to get that thing done. It's going to happen.” You sold that – It was hilarious.
[0:58:03.0] KM: You can’t do that anymore.
[0:58:06.0] TM: It’s awesome.
[0:58:06.4] PM: There was nothing inappropriate about it. It was just funny, you just – if people don't know Kerry, they don't know how outgoing and how fun she is. Anyway, that was just a story and I wanted to thank you for having us on today.
[0:58:19.2] KM: You’re welcome.
[0:58:20.1] PM: You're so sweet.
[0:58:20.7] KM: You’re welcome.
[0:58:22.2] PM: Known you for a long time.
[0:58:23.2] KM: Long time. I've got a gift for y’all. Hold on, where is it? All right, since y'all travel all the time, I got you all the cooler to stick in the back of your car. Flagandbanner.com cooler.
[0:58:32.4] TM: Thank you.
[0:58:32.9] PM: Oh, thank you so much.
[0:58:33.9] KM: Put your sandwiches in there and put it on the back of the four-wheeler and off you go.
[0:58:38.0] PM: Oh, you are so sweet.
[0:58:39.5] KM: Yeah, thank you. That's really sweet. I love it that you told that story actually. I was trying not to interrupt. I wanted to interrupt the whole time.
[0:58:49.6] TM: I knew what was coming.
[0:58:51.0] KM: You did. I liked Tracee’s facial, “Oh, no.” To our listeners, I'd like to thank you for spending time with me. If you think this program has been about you, you're right, but it's also been for me. Thank you for letting me fulfill my destiny. My hope today is that you've heard, or learned something that's been inspiring or enlightening. That it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence or your life. I'm Kerry McCoy and I'll see you next time on Up In your Business. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:59:17.6] CC: You’ve been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. If you missed any part of the show, or want to learn more about UIYB, go to flagandbanner.com and click on “Radio Show.” Or subscribe to her weekly podcast wherever you like to listen. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week with links to resources you heard discussed on today’s show. Kerry’s goal, to help you live the American Dream.
