MHCC’s new painting instructor : Matteo Neivert

 

“I  know I’m odd. I don’t try to be nutty, but I think it’s good because it keeps people on their toes. It shows people it’s okay to be individual.”

Matteo Neivert, quoted above, is Mt. Hood’s newest full-time painting instructor. An artist who grew up in New York City, Neivert spent nearly the last 20 years living in New Orleans. He acquired a bachelor’s degree in fine art and design from Alfred University in 1995, and then his master’s in fine art from Tulane University, where he later taught.

Neivert has been exhibited all over the country, from New York and Louisiana to Florida, Arizona, California and Mississippi. How exactly he ended up at MHCC is an interesting story.

“I knew of Mt. Hood because my friend is from here,” he explained. He first came to Portland on a much-needed vacation last summer, a two-month stay. Remembering the college from his friend, he managed to fit in a visit to the Gresham campus during his vacation. He recalls thinking the campus was beautiful during the summer months.

Now, as a resident and full-time instructor, Neivert loves it here. “As a nature person, how can you not?” he said while describing the “orange, red and caterpillar green” color of the trees in our rainy autumn, which he finds similar to those of his hometown.

Neivert weaves a vivid picture of his time growing up in New York. His mother was a part-time art student herself, since as early as he can remember. She often would take him to her art classes when he was very young, where he would sit quietly and produce art of his own.

Not only was he obsessed with art, he was doing everything he could to absorb and learn more from it. And evidently it showed, as the teacher in his mother’s class would prove.

“I would look at the demonstrations of the teacher, and I remember this one, it was Matisse,” he said. “So I was in the corner gluing everything.” He described using scraps of materials the students in the class brought to him. “And she (the teacher) pulled mine up. I was about to cry – like I’m going to die, this woman hates me, I’m not even supposed to be here – and my mom is like, ‘Don’t make a sound.’

“And then she (the teacher) was like, ‘This is what I mean,’ ” holding up his work for the class to see.

Eventually, Neivert’s parents decided to send him to a local woman’s art class to channel his passion. She was Myril Adler, a local and well-known arts figure in New York who led classes on the side.

“She was this really domineering, but cool, funky art lady,” Neivert recalled, smiling. She was a painter, and her husband, a sculptor. “I went to their house and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to be here all the time.’ She was almost like a foster grandma,” he said.

Neivert studied under Adler until he was 12. That’s when his parents split, and they no longer had the means to pay for his instruction. He was frantic at the idea of not being able to attend her classes; when he told her, she offered him work instead.

“I would sharpen pencils, or I’d get paper ready,” he said. He now believes this is where his love for teaching began. “It was neat to see. It takes a lot of preparation to teach. Even when you have the worst teacher, you don’t realize how much” they work, he said. “It’s a lot of preparation. It’s like baking a cake; you don’t get to eat it, but you’re making it.”

Neivert continued to work for Adler. After he turned 14, she began paying him. He was her assistant, and he even began to help her teach.

He also credits his job at an Italian bakery during high school with contributing to his love for teaching. The act of making the baked goods, describing the process to customers and even taking them back to show them how the products were made, had an impact on him. He said making a cake is like art: The raw ingredients are just like the brush, the paint, and the canvas of a painting.

Just interviewing Neivert is an experience. Sitting in his office, surrounded by art from different periods in his life and listening to him describe those points in time is certainly surreal.

If would like to see his work, you can visit his website: matteoneivert.com.

Mt. Hood’s Visual Arts Gallery will feature his work in February, where he will be showing brand new work, as well as his previous art.