Matt McParland (2020) – 29.7 cm x 21 cm – Alcohol markers on white paper
The reference material for this piece was an Instagram photo of Matt. As I scrolled through the 8 years worth of posts, this one stood out for me, as it sums up how I see him in the world.
He’s an MMA fighter, a father, a husband and a copywriter in profession, if you meet him you’ll see the hard outer shell but underneath he’s a very caring and compassionate guy. We worked together previously but hadn’t really been in touch that much, yet he reached out to me when my father died in 2020, empathising with my pain as he was adopted by his grandparents and lost his grandad a few years earlier.
These are the connections that I have lived for, not small talk or chit chat about nonsense, real deep connection about the things most dear and most personal to us. This drawing is my dedication to those deep connections, the deeper side beyond the façade that connects us all together.