Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
My name is Matthew Rosenquist and I live in Los Angeles, California. I grew up the youngest of six outside of Washington DC. I am an artist and a carpenter and I make sculpture.

How do you describe your practice?
I have mingled my backgrounds in painting and woodworking into painted wood sculptures. The process from a brutal slab to a fully realized life-size human form involves a lot of exertion and evolution. I cut the wood with chainsaw, band saw, rasps, and chisels. Then I paint them with brushes and acrylic paint.

What catalyzed your interest in art? 
When I was a child my Dad would scribble on a sheet of paper and have my brother Tom (also an artist and a huge inspiration) and I make drawings from the scribbles.

What/who is influencing your work right now?
My son is nine and likes anime very much. We draw together at the kitchen table. I am influenced by the fun things I see him drawing and the goofy stuff I sketch.

Describe your current studio or workspace. (Please provide a photo of your studio if you have one)
My space is in a light industrial neighborhood called “Frogtown” next to the LA River. I have a shop with high ceilings that is set up as a sculpture studio but also as a woodshop so that I can take on different jobs.

What are the main motifs in your work?
In addition to my life size figures, I make cars and seventies vans and televisions and pieces that hang from the ceiling. I like to work on stuff that makes me laugh. Some of my figures are doing things with their phones and I guess I want to say something about how silly we all look with phones in our hands.

What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on?
This June I’ll have four pieces in a portrait show at a Gallery called L’Space in New York City.

What do you want a viewer to walk away with after seeing your work?
I want someone who sees my work in a gallery or my studio to laugh. I’m mining the memories of my youth that had significance to me in a funny way. An old television set or a bygone hairstyle or something we wore back in the day will, with luck, bridge a generation gap. An example of this happened at a recent show where my son’s friend Milo, was joyously laughing about a study I made for a future large scale piece called “Big Gulp Fountain”. The gist of the piece is a man drinking a Miller Lite and urinating in a plastic Big Gulp cup.

Favorite thing about where you live?
I’ve lived in a lot of places and Los Angeles is the best place I’ve lived so far. I love being able to see the atmospheric space surrounding the San Gabriel Mountains ten miles to the North of my home in Northeast Los Angeles.

What are you really excited about right now?
I’m excited about taking my son on a backpacking trip in the Southern Sierras in California and spending some time in upstate New York for my son’s summer vacation.

What have you been reading and/or listening to?
I’ve been listening to Moby Dick by Herman Melville in my car. I work on a lot of crossword puzzles. I like the practice and it keeps me off my phone!