Matthew Rapaylea

Matthew began to create shapes and objects that caught his imagination from everyday life. He broadened his work in his early 20s using bronze. Now he designs his work from different materials, structures and sizes that call to him. Like finding a form in a rock, Matthew finds a sculpture in the material and finds materials for a sculpture he envisions. His work range encompasses every part of life including the gorgeous, abstract, classical, realistic, whimsical, steam punk, serious, and fun to seriously fun. Matthew engages his desire to create larger than life representations of shapes and objects from everyday life including human, animal, earth, sky and even the universe, all of which draw the viewer into a like feeling. Matthew’s fascination with the human body and all its magnificent curves and differences enticed him to create real to novel, even abstract forms, in which viewers find beauty, sympathy, wonder, and an interest in knowing more. One series of work plays with the complexity of the hand. Another, the human face and its compound curves. While another series deals with a larger-than-life piece that represent observation instruments that play with the sun, moon and sky wonderfully. Another interacts with nature and its splendid diversity. Matthew’s series on the Indigenous Americans are bold, realistic and memorable through reading detailed depictions of Native Americans. He traverses cultures. His pieces are found at Cornerstone, Sonoma; I Street and Sunnyslope Drive, Petaluma and Bryan Dr. in Novato.