Creative Outlet Spotlight: Matthew Crow
Q: WE ALREADY KNOW MATTHEW AT WORK, BUT WHO IS MATTHEW OUTSIDE THE 9-5?
My wife, Courtney, and I got married this past year. We have two dogs named Milo and Vinny that mean the world to us, and we spend lots of time with them. We live a very busy life traveling back and forth between families as Courtney is from northwest Ohio and I am from southern Alabama. When we’re not on the road, I’m exploring creative outlets that keep me open-minded and engaged with endless potential of design, such as photography, drawing, woodworking, and programming.
Q: WHAT DO YOU ENJOY PHOTOGRAPHING/DRAWING?
I have always dreamed of being an outdoorsman who thrives off the land around me. This may explain my University of Colorado – Environmental Design education or my love for all things outdoors. When I was 14, I got lucky, and my parents and grandparents purchased a piece of land in west Tennessee that we turned into a tree farm. We have planted many trees on the property over the years and put countless hours of labor and care into the place. The farm provides a beautiful setting for other creative outlets to come to life, especially through photography. Spawning from my passion for the outdoors, comes a natural passion to capture some of the moments that I hold so special. The flutter of wings in the morning, the flicker of a tail, or the rise of the dew off the ground. It’s moments like these that cause me to have a camera in my hand. I have spent much of my life in the woods embracing everything that happens around me. I recently started to engage with these experiences through a different medium, by drawing with graphite on vellum. I hope that these photos/drawings show and express some of the excitement that I feel as I experience these things in person.
Q: AND YOU ALSO EXPERIMENT WITH 3D PRINTING AND PROTOTYPING?
On a completely different front of my creative side, I like to push to expand my knowledge in ways that go beyond. I tend to refer to these as my experiments. I have experience playing with 3D printers and programming Arduino’s. With this knowledge, I have created several different objects that are working to push the boundaries of how we as humans interact with space. The first experiment I’ll share is called “Root Reticulation”, which is where I 3D print a form and grow barley roots around that form to replicate it. This process takes some time and pushes the boundaries of how we can create forms and whether they can be created in more natural ways. The second experiment is called “Joystick Drawer.” Basically, I wanted to play with the different ways a drawer could be opened. The idea started with the use of sensors to open the drawer when you approach it, which derives from multiple experiments where I have used ultrasonic sensors to make a car that draws with a marker or a lamp that brightens as you approach it. I’ve enjoyed prototyping these experiments and testing how we can change our interaction with space.
Q: WHAT ABOUT YOUR INTEREST IN WOODWORKING? HOW DID YOU GET INTO THAT?
As a person who has spent most of my life outdoors, I became obsessed with wood and woodworking. I love working with the material and being able to accomplish things that my wife and I are looking for. When my wife and I were first dating, I hand carved an Ohio State clock for her out of wood and this began a new outlet for me. Since then, I refined my skills by creating our wedding sign and other projects.
