Craig Matis
THE SONGBOOKS OF CRAIG MATIS
In its early days, my alternative rock band, Uzizi, incorporated its live performances with slide visuals of my artwork, long before there was YouTube and PowerPoint presentations. Being an artist, as well as a musician, designing what I coined as “songbooks” later became a format which seemed to be a natural extension of the band experience. In a gallery setting, the viewer is involved with the songbooks by looking at the images, all of which tell a story, while listening to the song via a smartphone app.
“Rocking Horse”, which addresses the subject of dementia, was designed as a songbook with 16 images. The songbook was inspired by the art of graphic novels, and my own family’s experience with this mental condition.