Makara Matthew

Background

Amy earned her BFA in Printmaking & Teacher Certification from Alfred University and later received her MIS in Photography & Digital Art from the VCU Off-Campus Graduate Program. She spent 31 years as an art teacher, first in her home state of New York and later in Northern Virginia. After retiring early from FCPS in 2022, Amy is thrilled to now focus on her passion as a working artist and to have a studio at the Workhouse.

Philosophy

Amy’s creative practice is a multidisciplinary approach that merges historical analog photography processes, digital technology, and traditional art mediums. While her work spans various genres—including travel, street, nature, and architectural photography—the recurring themes of memory and time consistently inform her art. Through an intuitive process, she determines how each image should be presented, selecting techniques that best convey the desired tone and choosing surfaces that complement the composition.

In addition to traditional photography using both film and digital methods, Amy explores a variety of experimental processes, including pinhole photography, Polaroid, cyanotype, solvent and gel medium transfers, and various mixed media techniques. Much of her work is a fusion of scanned photographs and paper-based artwork, which she refines in Photoshop. Once printed, she often incorporates traditional art materials to further develop the images until they feel complete.

A consistent thread in Amy’s work is the passage of time. While some pieces are framed, she prefers her work to exist as an object that interacts with time and the elements that influenced its creation.