When Matthew was in 11th grade, his interest in art was sparked by a presentation about an artist given by one of his teachers. That event motivated him to spend 3 or 4 hours a week with art teacher Suzanne Brunner to prepare for the next year’s AP Studio Art course, which met approximately two hours each day and was taught by Bill Stephens. Bill, who Matthew half-jokingly refers to as his "Art Dad," was a major influence on him, and continues to be if his weekly calls to Matthew’s college dorm are any indication. Because Matthew’s parents weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of art school, Bill’s encouragement and enthusiasm helped pave the way for Matthew to pursue his dream.

Studio Art is not the only AP course Matthew took while at Webster High School, Webster, NY. In his junior year, he took U.S. History and English Language and in his senior year it was Studio Art plus Statistics, German, and English Literature. In fact, it was while doodling in his AP German class that he came up with the idea that would eventually be translated into the sculpture pictured here. For his AP Concentration, he had been exploring the correlation between masks and identity, and in an independent study, he was working with resident sculpture teacher Fritz May. On the side shown here, there is one larger mask; on the other side, there are three masks with arms emerging from the core to give the effect of one mask holding another holding another. As Matthew explains, "It represents how people have many layers of their identity, and how they often hide the truth -- even from themselves." He continues, "The sculpture is clay that has been sculpted, put through a bisque firing, then gessoed and oil painted to get the quasi-patina finish. It was done under the supervision of both Bill and Fritz."

Despite all of these AP and other accomplishments, there is one catch: Cooper does not accept AP credits. However, Matthew has no regrets and says he would not trade his AP experience, "I can do lit papers without blinking while my classmates are staying up all night to get them done." Given that he has 10 projects due each week, any time-savers are more than welcome. Besides, he needs time to work on one of his side projects: writing and illustrating a children’s book. For the future, Matthew is considering the pursuit of a Masters degree in teaching; ideally, he’d like to design his own house and live in upstate New York or in Vermont or Maine. Given how quickly he has become an accomplished artist, it all seems within the realm of possibility for Matthew Martin.