“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” ― Søren Kierkegaard “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” ― Harlan Ellison #Art confounds many of limited perception.

Everyone knows the internet was made for posting #cat pictures. It seems furry felines have been a staple for such a long time. Even days are dedicated to the custom. Well, now I am posting one. This is a watercolor I did when I was around 7 years old. Thanks, mom, for saving it. #MattFoley #artist

Art plays a profound role in human life, serving as a mirror to human experiences, a catalyst for intellectual growth, and a bridge between individuals and societies. It's not just decoration or entertainment—it's essential for emotional, mental, and broader cultural development. Art's our suchness.

The old vaquero had found a cool cave and set up his kind of housekeeping. The sum of a man's life, plus knife and rifle, bedroll and bowl, odds and ends. Was he poor? Not in his estimation. He had his freedom, one of the finest treasures of all. "Southwest Sombrero" - mixed media ― Matt Foley #art

#Art receptions are one of the few opportunities for humans to indulge in a sense of sophistication and glamour. Dress fine. Sip a bit of wine. Nibble some cheese. A time to look your best and be your smartest. Few other events rival one. Unlike most all else usually free to attend, too. #MattFoley

The first "moving pictures" were created by cave dwellers - long before cameras were invented. They painted on the walls, deep in darkened holes, and those images appeared to move in the flickering firelight. It must have been a very mystical experience when those pictures seemed to come alive. #art

Abstract thinking is considered a higher-order reasoning that allows one to contemplate intangible concepts not tied to concrete experiences which allows an individual to connect ideas, visualize various possibilities, and think critically about complex issues, an essential tool for problem-solving.

Matt Foley (artist) : "The giant will face 'significant consequences' over an incident involving outages linked to multiple issues defined as standard practice, and weren't escalated as expected. Bleary-eyed in the morning soon gives way to the anticipation of accentuated excitement." - mixed media.

"A mysterious maker of visual delights, an alchemical distillery of artistic extremes." Artist: #MattFoley Title: "The Shaman's Cloak" Media: acrylic on canvas Size: 36" w x 48" h = 91.44 x 121.92 cm Enlightenment is seeing a different caliber of reality with bold awareness and a magical intuition.

“I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell! They ’d banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!” ― Emily Dickinson My mother said I have a fear of fame. She's right. I hide.

“Every great #artist is a man who has freed himself. Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere. Sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.” ― Robert Henri

News headlines: Three students arrested after loaded handgun found inside backpack; Registered offender arrested on 23 counts of child sexual exploitation; Legislative leaders consider security changes in wake of increasing political violence; Downtown deemed safe following bomb threat I make #art.

Consider this the essence of my mind in motion ― a "photo" of the inside of my conceptual cranium; how my brain works; the way thoughts actually look if they could be captured somehow; a visual symphony of cognition, frozen in time; raw, untamed energy; an alchemical distillery. Matt art à la carte.

#MattFoley is an internationally recognized artist with a history of award-winning works across multiple media, sometimes described as a "modern mystic" or "visionary" who translates sensory stimuli into dynamic works, oft well-known for creating vibrant, abstract works of art. (nice makes me blush)

"I'm seeing some ______________..." "Well, I think I see a _____________..." "Huh, it reminds me of an ___________." Everyone brings their own stories to the encounter. A different kind of look into the mirror. The question is always, "What do you really see when you look deep." #MattFoley #artist

"Eve Wore Red Boots" #MattFoley : acrylic on canvas - 24" x 36" (award-winning painting) “It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, #Eve, and the serpent were taught the same language. Where did they get it?" ― Robert G. Ingersoll: lawyer, writer, and orator during the Golden Age of Free Thought

Recent headlines: 9 teens charged in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old; Brazen thieves armed with bear spray grab $2 million in luxury items in 90-second heist; Mosquito-borne dengue fever cases surge at popular US vacation destination #Art is my refuge. My mental salvation. Humans are so tiresome.

If it were possible to transform my #art from food for thought into nourishing calories for starving bodies, it is something I would do in a heartbeat. History well documents the plight of starving artists. It is a condition we, in the arts, know all too well and have great empathy for. #MattFoley

Thinking outside the box, being creatively thoughtful, this is the "nursery" for great ideas, for inventiveness, the basis for problem-solving. There is a reason why CEOs of major corporations consider creativity a top characteristic for hiring talent. Creativity is so important. Defining humanness.

Neuroaesthetics, the study of how #art interacts with the brain, provides further context for understanding the impact of Matt Foley's artwork. Research, such as that detailed in "Your Brain on Art: The Case for Neuroaesthetics", suggests that viewing abstract art can activate several brain regions.

The artist, Marcel Duchamp, once said, “The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act." #MattFoley and his creativity

Abstract art employs vibrant colors, dynamic shapes and expressive forms to convey complex concepts, abstract ideas or deep emotions, liberated from realistic portrayal. Abstract #art ignites the imagination, encourages subjective interpretation and prioritizes creative freedom over literal imagery.

“I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. And this is one: I'm going to tell it - but take care not to smile at any part of it.” ― Emily Brontë Dreamt

"Once a piece of #art is concluded and ejected into the world it changes with every single pair of eyes and becomes an endless object of transformation. The spectator makes it his or her own. Don't decontextualize it and call it truth-call it your #perspective." ― Laura Gentile, poet Art becomes.

“When the #artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding.” ― Robert Henri Art is for living minds.

"Art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” ― C.S. Lewis “Through #art alone are we able to emerge from ourselves, to know what another person sees of a universe which is not the same as our own." ― Marcel Proust Matt Foley: watermedia on paper

One way to change the world is to change the perception of it. News stories report discoveries: of fossil records from times long past, or various creatures deep in oceans and traveling atmospheric flows far above. Art is a way to portray the within, the stuff minds are made of, an essence of being.

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their #dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” ― T.E. Lawrence Accused of being a Daydreamer.

#Juneteenth "If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry." — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The blush of springsummer unfolds in colored memories as if flowered breezes waft through a wandering mind. ― Matt Foley "I suppose that flowers, when they’re through blooming, have some sort of awareness of some purpose having been served." ― Kurt Vonnegut: novelist, satirist, and graphic artist

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love." ― Mother Teresa #MattFoley: "Medicine Doll", acrylic on canvas My medicine

"There are mythic, mysterious aspects in each of us. Faces before our ancestors. Places we've known in dreams but never visited in flesh. The various constructs of which we are made: cells, vessels, organs and sinews. There can be a burning desire to interpret all of this. I have that." ― #MattFoley

A minor god, good food, shelter, dress; once, in the millions roaming the great grasslands that in even more ancient times was an inland ocean filled with various dinosaurs that swam and walked. Herds so large it took days for them to pass, as far as the eyes could see, rolling thunder when running.

Shamanism is a path of knowledge. Shamanism is a state of awareness. Shamanism is a form of universal spiritual practice. Shamanism is true, as opposed to false consciousness. Artmaking is one form. Art from a shaman. Title: "Secret Shaman" Artist: Matt Foley Media: acrylic on canvas Size: 24" x 30"

When I can infuse lives with creative contemplations during the existential travail in which we all endure, I feel my role as a #creative has met with some success. Thank you to all of you dear people for providing me a bit of your precious time and attention. May your lives be full of best moments.

“It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive...An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing.” ― Louise Bourgeois: a French-American #artist known for her large-scale #sculpture, installation #art, #paintings and prints. #MattFoley

Too much human expression is fueled by horror and heartbreak. Strife and suffering is the basis for much of tale-telling. Are people even capable of contemplating utopian visions anymore? Or has everyone turned into refugees fleeing nightmares of their own making? Victims of their morbid imaginings?

We all have thoughts. Thoughts are mental images, to most. I've never met anyone who has thoughts in text. A written thought. Maybe some do. But what do thoughts actually look like? From the outside. From an objective perspective. One of my thoughts on the matter. What are yours? If any. #MattFoley

Imagine life without art: bare walls, living in a featureless box, clothed in gray garb, every day a day with no zest, no excitement, no bold colors, with only a mundane mind in an existential nightmare of perpetual bland. This is life without artists, poets, musicians, actors. A very scary prospect

"In the face of a hostile climate - whether that hostility be political, aesthetic, or philosophic - the mind is driven to fabricate an extreme alternative, in the service of sanity. There is, in other words, a kind of desperate need for a Utopia." ― Dr. Richard Leslie: art historian Said about me.

Happy Mothers' Day! without mommies there'd be no me or we, the ongoing source of all aptly defined as humanity, from mortal flesh, the thread of eternity. “To describe my #mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” ― Maya Angelou

in the groove, like in a coral reef or riff in a jumpin' jazz session, all coolr colors that slide as exotically-hued fishies swimming through collective eyes, or a slot in a suggestive moment still in a state of psychological flux, but then, some things can be matt foley: "In The Groove" - acrylic

The rose is a rose, And was always a rose. But now the theory goes That the apple's a rose, And the pear is, and so's The plum, I suppose. The dear only knows What will next prove a rose. You, of course, are a rose But were always a rose. ― Robert Frost Bronze 23"h x 9"w x 8"d #MattFoley #sculpture

“Magic exists. Who can doubt it when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live.” ― Nora Roberts Art is part of the magic in our life.

"Few understand the power of thought. If a man goes into a cave, shuts himself in, and thinks one really great thought and dies, that thought will penetrate the walls of that cave, vibrate through #space and at last permeate the whole human race." ― Vivekananda Good vibrations. ― #MattFoley #artist

Humanity The world is oft quite cold and cruel. To be too sad makes one a fool. For a human heart's nature's crowning jewel, and the human mind, creation's golden rule. 'tis from humble mud we're made to be the Almighty's tool, or, perhaps just simply chosen from a vast genetic pool. ― #MattFoley

Creating a different kind of sacred space using art to do so. “Never wade through the pretty ripples of perpetually flowing rivers, until you have looked at their lovely waters, and prayed to them, and washed your hands in the pale enchanting water.” ― Hesiod: ancient Greek poet #MattFoley #artist

The SUGAR TYME Crabapple is an upright, oval, deciduous tree which typically grows 14-18' tall and to 12-15' wide and has a lovely perfume. A Pink Crabapple and a Redbud can be seen peeking through lower branches. I plant like an Impressionist. Spring is my thing. Part of the Pretty City Initiative.

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one #eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” ― Meister Eckhart: theologian, philosopher, mystic "For a visual artist, eyes are truly windows of the #soul, so that it may be expressed." ― #MattFoley

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.” ― Georgia O’Keeffe “It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive.” ― Louise Bourgeois #MattFoley : "An Artist's Studio View" - mixed media