I'm going to do a painting in an hour that will reveal all the techniques I’ve discovered over 40 years as a professional artist. During the demo, I'll be a sitting duck for any and every brilliant and brutal question about the amount of money and worst mistakes I’ve made during my challenging and fulfilling career illustrating for TIME, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Esquire & Mother Jones; photographing prisons, mental hospitals, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Belfast; delivering my photographs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and my films to the Sundance Film Festival; capturing portraits and directing music videos for U2, Tom Waits, Metallica, Lou Reed, Ice-T, David Byrne, and Joni Mitchell. After my demo, you’ll all sit your inspired asses down and do a painting as I offer my two cents to make sure you take full advantage of this fascinating and fun opportunity.

Matt introduces the biggest project of his 40-year journey through illustration, photography, and filmmaking: a quarter-century in the making, The Imagemaker’s Handbook is a five-volume, 2,000-page practical and philosophical exploration of life and work as a creative professional. An informational and inspirational resource for students, pros, and educators, The Imagemaker’s Handbook explores the evolution from achieving success to maintaining that success, and from surviving burnout to discovering creative rebirth; it shares the challenges and thrills of working with the best magazines, publishers, and musicians, and reveals the strategic tools and philosophical vision to accomplish a demanding, thrilling, and lucrative career that spans a lifetime of not only surviving, but thriving in the pursuit of making art to make a living. With 700,000 words of advice and adventure, it reflects a career that, even after five decades, continues to empower a professionally challenging and personally fulfilling path, still igniting the passion and purpose to discover new opportunities.