High Artist Profile: Interview with 2017 2nd Place Winner Matthias Ramsey
Matthias Ramsey is a student at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna where he studies painting and biology. Strongly influenced by surrealism, Matthias gains inspiration from memories, history, literature and nature which he channels into free associations of daily life. High Art 2017 judges awarded his submission, “Riches & Realities” 2nd place in the Prints category.
How did you find out about High Art 2017?
A good friend, who also applied told me about it.
What made you want to submit an entry?
I submitted an entry because I am interested in the psychedelic and I have been working with similar aesthetics in the past years.
What was the inspiration for the work you submitted?
The worlds I create in my artworks are full of free associations of the real world around me. My creatures and landscapes are interpretations of my day to day experiences…While painting, I use symbols, characters and motives from these areas, combine them and try to create threads of narration. Then I try to weave and knot these threads together until an entangled and interconnected network appears that grows and covers the whole canvas and turns into a whole world. A world in which existence is not an individual affair and individuals can only be perceived as part of their entangled interconnectedness. I want to invite the viewer to see the world through a microscope and step into a microcosm.
What has been your personal experience with cannabis?
I smoke up once in a while. I have had the most beautiful experiences when I was in nature, when I could let my attention drift through the surrounding world.
How has cannabis enhanced or influenced your art?
Being high has been inspiring in the past, sometimes I am abuzz with ideas, but most of the time I can only draw the Inspiration from the memory of being high. For me painting requires a lot of concentration. I can’t paint when I am high, or at least not very well. But sometimes I can draw and doodle on paper und use the drawings later to recall memories and ideas I had earlier.
What are your favorite cannabis strains or products?
To be completely honest I don’t really know much about different strains or products. I’ve had Bhang in India, it’s a cannabis in form of a grey ball about the size of a marble. You can eat it or blend into in a Lassi. I have had mind blowing experiences with that but it can be hellishly strong.
Follow Matthias at: matramseyssketchbook.tumblr.com