Monkey World artist brings his craft home

The monkeys sauntering around inside Matthew Porter's head have names like Johnny La Bamba, China Elvis and Babyface McCarver. They get inducted into the Church of Elvis, sing songs like "You Ain't Nothing But a Hot Dog" and get locked up in Sing Sing.

Fortunately (or not) for us, the monkey escapades are limited to pine board, on which Porter paints the Monkey World characters for posterity and our homes.

"It's all to entertain me, really," Porter said. "But I'm lucky it entertains others, too."

At the modest, 800-square-foot Capitol Hill apartment where he lives with wife Andrea, the artist sits cross-legged in a small bedroom-turned-studio on a paint-stained rug and uses a pen, acrylic paint and a hand-held sander to create his art.

Porter, 32, reduced the size of his canvases to accommodate a former, even smaller work space. The size fits comfortably on his lap as he works under the glare of a portable fluorescent light, cleaning his brushes in a Marmite jar filled with water. Kittens Maggie and Louie pounce and play around him.

Working at home can get messy, with the occasional mishap befalling figurines when he brings home long pine boards. A new sander helped him tame a sawdust problem.

He prefers the apartment, where he works alone during the day while Andrea, 31, manages their Capitol Hill business, Bluebottle Art Gallery and Store.

"It's been my life ambition to work at home," he said. "I love it. I don't mind not going out or seeing the outside world once a week."

Matthew contains his work to the studio, Andrea Porter said. And after eight years of marriage, she knows better than to go into his space and move things around.

Matthew's process for each painting is essentially the same. He draws the images on tracing paper (which he keeps for future paintings), then transfers them to 9-by-9-inch pine boards. The images are painted, sanded for texture to show the wood's grain, then finished with a veneer.

His monkey paintings are edgy yet lovable and include wide-eyed janitors, skateboarders and ventriloquists. A monkey's look — from hairstyles to mustaches to clothes — is important, Porter said as he painted a white long-sleeve shirt underneath a skateboarder's black skull T-shirt.

Porter, who was born in a village in East Sussex, England, is probably better known for his ABC painting series, which features cartoonish animals for each letter of the alphabet, like I for Iguana. He has published one children's book based on the series ("ABC," Simply Read Books, $8.95) and has a counting book with birds and blossoms coming out in March with the same publisher.

Porter's pieces cost $100 for an original and $20 for a print. Personalized monkeys and commissions from the ABC series are $120.

And monkeys are the future. A Monkey World calendar is slated for 2008, and his studio wall features Monkey World A to Zed, an unscheduled book that will include poems on each monkey's occupation, including detective, Eskimo and snake charmer.

Previous artwork also featured robots, dogs, fleas and ants, but Porter felt limited by those subjects and turned to monkeys.

"You can do so much with a monkey," said Porter. "They're so expressive, and they're so cute."

Porter hand-copies his monkey and alphabet series, which sell at Bluebottle and other stores around town. He and Andrea opened the gallery in December 2002 to give him a permanent place to show his work and to feature other local artists.

The Porters think of Bluebottle as a stepping-stone gallery, where artists often show solo for the first time.

"It's whatever we like," Andrea Porter said. "Our aesthetic comes down to pretty bright colors and a poppy feel."

After three years working on the gallery, they dropped side jobs and went full-time. Porter's publisher discovered him through the gallery, and his eventual dream is to be a children's book author and illustrator. Monkey World also would make a great television series, he said. On TV, his monkey scenarios could have free rein and a wider following, instead of playing to the current audience of one.

"I have big ambitions," Porter said. "You have to. Nobody's going to give it to you for free."

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com