Artist of the month - Matt Dangler

Matt Dangler was born in 1984 and grew up on the Jersey shore. He graduated with a BA from Uarts in Philadelphia PA where he won multiple awards, but he settled back in NJ where he lives with is wife (who is expecting their first born) in their dream home “The little house on the lake in the woods”. For over a decade now Dangler has been working full time as an artist and his work has shown across the nation and the globe. His career first began in illustrating a couple children’s books, when he quickly realized that creating art for someone else’s vision did not satisfy him. Matt’s work has always come from deep within. A quite and meditative space that highlights his life and feeds his art in reflective illustrated narratives. Most of his oil paintings are surprisingly small for their detail. Often just a few inches wide and tall, but some of his work goes larger (like the painting I have highlighted here). Unlike like smaller paintings (which focus on a single creature portrait), his larger pieces focus on scenes of magic and mysticism that encompass fantastic landscapes and a wide variety of oddly familiar fauna that seem to have been conjured from the universe that Jim Henson exposed us all to. Matt has taken that inspiration of movies like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth and made something of his own out of it, with his very distinct vision. I have featured one of his larger oil paintings (36” x 24”) titled The Deep Dilemma which I love because it depicts some of my favorite subjects in his paintings all together - ghostly whips of smoke, living wax, an aquatic creature, and a puzzling lock and key scenario. Follow the brilliant work of Matt Dangler in the links below.


Website -
http://www.mattdangler.com

Instagram -
https://www.instagram.com/mattdangler

Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/MattDangler
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Twitter -
https://twitter.com/mattdangler