Matisyahu has been the background music to MANY of my art sessions, road trips, and lets face it, everything I do. If I were to make a CD with the most influential music in my life, Matisyahu would be about 25% of that music. This is a man who overcame trial and tribulation to really alter who he would become and what he would accomplish. He has never been scared of who he was, where he was, or where he would go. As a very religious person myself, I look up to him for his courage in representing himself and his beliefs to everyone around him. He inspires me to be proud of who I am and what I believe.
I had the very unique experience of creating one of my totems for Matt and delivering it to him prior to his show at the Crystal Ballroom Thursday night. For this piece I wanted to create something that represented the flow of his life and a musician in general. I chose the Salmon because it starts in a remote simple freshwater river and works its way to the sea. The salmon will grow and learn as it evolves to the world around it. It learns to adapt, but does not physically change. In the end, the salmon will return to the very river or stream from which it came. The fish will work up stream and eventually procreate. Once it has accomplished this mission, it will die. The fish will travel the journey knowing that it must give back before passing on.
The life of a salmon parallels that of musicians in general, but in this case, the highlight really is to stay who you are. When you talk to Matisyahu it is easy to see that all though he has altered some of his beliefs, he has stayed true to himself. He is full of love, and compassion.
When I told him that if he ever gets tired of the painting, I would be happy to purchase it back, his face lit up and he responded, “No way, I love this. I am keeping it in my home forever.”
