Matt Page has been called ‘a gifted Photoshopper’, a ‘Latter-day lampooner’, and ‘sheer genius’. He is an award winning graphic designer, illustrator, and humor writer based in Salt Lake City with a wife and three kids. His tastes run more Sheldon than Penny. He studied art and design at Salt Lake Community College and the University of Utah. For some reason, he maintained a successful blog called Axl Rose: Hungry Time Traveller that was featured at Spin.com.

Page was hired to design the book cover for The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks. Here are a few rejected design choices and the final design that was featured on The Daily Show with John Stewart. 

You seem to be doing a little bit of everything. I work for a crafting and scrapbooking company right now and I’m really enjoying it. Most of my time is spent illustrating cute things and I am learning a lot of techniques that I can incorporate into my personal work. As far as my personal work goes, I’ve been busy keeping work in some of the local galleries in Salt Lake and Provo and I am currently working on illustrating an ABC board book for kids that is zombie themed called B is for Brains: ABCs for the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s fun trying to keep the balance between creepy and cute but the hard part of it is working in the same style for so many illustrations in a row. I get restless and want to try out new stuff and switching things up. If I do another book after this one, I want to make it so the style can change from page to page, if that’s possible.

You’ve spoken about dealing with depression in the past (as have I). How did your art help to tame the black dog? I have suffered with Seasonal Affective Disorder for most of my adult life. But my S.A.D. is different than most because I experience it in the spring and summer months. In the fall of 2013, I started really pushing my art – getting into galleries and selling on line and at the local comic cons. Last year was the first year in a long time that I didn’t feel my depression hit me at all and this year so far has been the same. I think the success I’ve found and the fact that I have been constantly engaged in that side of my career has done a lot to keep the depression at bay. Of course I still haven’t found a solution to avoid the anxiety which makes it so hard to get to work most of the time.

Your genres tend to run the full spectrum. What gets you noticed? What is popular as prints? What is your favorite? My Mormon-themed art tends to get me the most attention and sells the best – especially the humorous stuff. I think people enjoy it as an inside joke because in order to get what is happening in the picture, you have to get both the Mormon reference and also the pop culture reference I have mixed it with. And it’s fun seeing the range of people who enjoy them: from active members who want to send the postcards to their missionary, to those who have left the church and want to send postcards to their mom because they know it will upset her – and everyone else within that spectrum. I love that work and I am very proud of it, but on the level of artistic fulfillment, nothing feels better than completing a painting and seeing it put in a frame. Unfortunately I don’t get to do that as much as I’d like – especially because of the anxiety I suffer from that most of the time makes it really hard to even get my paints out.

You have some great pieces poking fun at the Church. Why is satire important to our culture? Well I never feel like I am laughing at the Church – at least not in a mean spirited way. I take my faith seriously, but I guess I feel like I can love and respect something and still find humor in it. The attitude that everything surrounding our culture and history must be spoken of with reverence and in hushed tones is off-putting and feels very cultish to me. It’s my church and my culture and I reserve the right to laugh at myself. I’ve had plenty of experiences of people who get quite defensive when I make a humorous alteration to a ubiquitous Church painting or photo. I’ve been accused of blasphemy, as if the paintings themselves should be revered as sacred relics, but when they see that I am not attacking the church or criticizing their (our) faith, they tend to lighten up and appreciate what I am doing more. Last year my parody work was on display at BYU library in the Special Collections department as part of a display of Mormonism and pop culture – and that lent a little more credibility to my claim that I am not committing unforgivable sacrilege.

Where do you draw the line on your humor? I think everyone draws the line in a different place where they feel comfortable. I draw the line before anything that I feel is demeaning or mocking. I tend to not make any jokes or satire that could be seen as being disrespectful toward the Savior or His work. I am willing to laugh at a prophet’s beard or their human shortcomings, but I don’t laugh at their actual calling or mission. That is at least where I draw the line.

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Self-portrait of Page and his wife.

Alyssa Scott is an illustrator, animator, and landscape painter living in San Jose, California. She graduated from BYU with a degree in illustration and dabbles in many creative fields.

You have lived in Utah, New Hampshire, and now California. How does East Coast Mormon Art differ from West Coast? Hmm…that’s an interesting question. There are far fewer members of the Church on the East Coast, so I would say that the West Coast definitely has a larger and more established community. Most of the artists I can think of who center their work on religious themes live on the West Coast. But there are a lot of Mormon artists on the East Coast working in different industries. And I think the community is growing out there. I know the BYU alumni association in New England has started hosting an annual Mormon Art Show. Also, artists J Kirk Richards and Julia Blake transformed an old church in Massachusetts into a studio to host workshops and residencies. There are some great things happening out there.

You spent a few years working for J Kirk Richards. What did you learn about art as a career? I loved working with Kirk—he’s so insightful! I learned a lot about his painting process and other business tips, but the thing I learned from him that I think about the most actually has to do with faith. To have a career in art, you have to have faith. You have to have faith in yourself and faith that if you work your hardest, good things will happen for you. I know it takes time to build up momentum. It did with him, so you have to be patient through that. But I’ve seen the amount of projects he works on and the new ideas he tries, and that hard work always made me feel like if I worked hard too, things would fall into place.

You won a contest for your print of the Great Gatsby. Yes, Warner Bros had an art contest when the film “The Great Gatsby” was about to come out in 2013. They picked my piece and they flew me and my husband out to New York City to attend the premiere. It was the most surreal experience. We had to get all dressed up for the red carpet, and the director Baz Luhrmann came to meet us. He gave some great encouragement for pursuing a career in the arts. Sadly, I didn’t get to meet Leo.

 

Visit Alyssa Scott’s website.

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Peder Singleton wanted to create an elegant version of the Articles of Faith and the final result is his letterpress project, We Believe. He documented each step of the project including the actually printing of the letterpress. Singleton explains, “I wanted to emphasize the simple nature of the content by placing the large header at the top that boldly proclaims, We Believe, as it plays off of the number 13.” Singleton is a talented graphic designer based in Salt Lake City, Utah and he graduated from the University of Utah. He is currently the Art Director for Glasses.com.

The Articles of Faith are a beloved bill of rights for the Mormon culture—even though they were not originally intended as such. Written by Joseph Smith as part of a letter to newspaper editor John Wentworth they enumerate many of the basic tenants of Mormonism (sans the temple). These thirteen tenants are memorized by Mormon children around the world. According to my nine year-old, the going rate for reciting all 13 is a full-size Baby Ruth.

What is the time break-down on a letterpress project? My first Church print The Family took literally over a year to create from the time that I had the idea to final design. With a full-time job, kids, and triathlon training, there’s not a lot of extra time for side projects. But it was something that I really wanted to do, so I slowly started gathering research—visual inspiration, typography reference, symbolism, etc. It was also the one that I spent the most time deciding the visual style. Lots of pencil sketches. Lots of type exploration—both hand-drawn and digital. Lots of time in Illustrator, finessing lines. The only hassles I ever really experience are with shipping. It’s not very frequent, but sometimes a tube gets smashed or lost. But with shipping insurance and tracking, it’s not too big of a deal. I’m just bummed when people get a print that’s damaged and they have to wait for another one to get there.

What’s been the response to your We Believe Letterpress? It’s been great. Those who order it have given very positive feedback. It’s quite a bit more simple than The Living Christ, which has tons of symbolism and meaning designed into it. The point of the We Believe print is that it is simple. It’s about the basic beliefs of the Church, so I wanted the design to reflect that. The part that’s most fun about this one is when someone discovers the number 13 in the B.

How would you describe the Mormon art world today? It’s an interesting place today. For years, one or two large retailers pretty much offered the same, culturally homogenized products. With the ease of selling online now, so many artists and designers have been able to get their products out there. It’s refreshing seeing different artwork out there now. And it’s exciting to see that these independent makers can publish work completely on their own. People have told me that they’re excited to have a piece of art that they actually want to hang in their home. I think we’re more likely to see younger people now having more Church related art. We’re seeing a lot more art that people can identify with.

Purchase the Articles of Faith letterpress at Athenaeum Press.

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Visit Peder Singleton’s portfolio on Behance.