Artist and Edward Little High School art teacher Matthew Peinado stands recently in the Atrium Art Gallery at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn Campus where his exhibit is currently on display. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Artist and Auburn teacher Matthew Peinado credits art with saving his life and helping him find his place in the world. With a new exhibit at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn Campus through Feb. 28, Peinado is on a mission to share that transformative power with his students at Edward Little High School, encouraging them to use art as a tool for healing, understanding and creativity.

LMatthew Peinado’s art show, Connections, is showing at the Atrium Art Gallery at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston Campus. Each painting is connected to other paintings with viewers invited to add their observations and connections to other pieces of work or their own lives. The show, which is free to attend, will be up until Feb. 28.  Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Peinado’s exhibit, “Connections,” showcases his evolution as a lifelong artist through decades of craftsmanship. He has dabbled in different types of artistic media, but “I always keep coming back to drawing and painting,” he said.

“I have been painting since high school. I have been drawing my whole life. My mom says I was one of those kids that always gravitated toward pencils and crayons very early on.”

After college, the New Mexico native came to Maine for love 25 years ago. “The running joke is that my wife kidnapped me and brought me here,” Peinado said.

“She said it only snows a couple of inches a few times a year. It’s not very humid,” Peinado continued. “Then when we moved here, she told me the truth. I had never seen a snowblower in my life.”

After 25 years in Maine and seven years of teaching at Edward Little, Peinado has found a home in Auburn. “Coming from New Mexico, it’s been quite a change,” Peinado reflected. “After 25 years, I can’t really call myself a newbie, but I always will be a person from away.”

As a teacher, Peinado believes in the healing power of art. It is part of his teaching philosophy. “What I tell the kids, very honestly, is that art has saved my life,” he said. “Art has been the grounding force for myself. I teach them that art is a powerful tool to heal wounds, to understand concepts, to just delve into thinking and being creative. I try my best to bestow that spirit onto them.”

Matthew Peinado’s exhibit, “Connections,” involves blue painter’s tape that symbolizes the connections the artist makes with the pieces. Exhibit goers are encouraged to make their own connections. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Art to analyze, confront and empower

“As a child, I often had too much on my mind. Many of my thoughts focused on my weaknesses, shortcomings, and other negative feelings,” Peinado reflected. “Art was my strength — it became a tool that allowed me to externalize these thoughts and process them.”

“Instead of letting emotions or ideas fester, I drew them, analyzed them, and confronted them. Sometimes, I even overcame them,” he continued. “Today, some of those thoughts still linger, but I always have my art.”

Edward Little High School art teacher Matthew Peinado gets help from his daughter Vivian, 14, connecting the artworks with blue painter’s tape for his exhibit at the Atrium Art Gallery at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn Campus. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

“In the classroom, I tell the kids that I have two philosophies — that everybody is creative in their own way and that creative skills can be taught,” Peinado said. “With those two things, I try to reach every single student so that they know that somewhere inside of them, there is an artist.”

Peinado’s work is rich in themes and figures, tapping into inspiration from history, natural landscapes and more. “Every five years I try to reinvent myself. The one thing I can’t remove is me. I’m always interested in the figure, so my work tends to revolve around figuration in some way, in some form,” he said.

“I have a huge fascination with the Mayan and the Aztecs’ history. That always seems to weave itself into my work,” Peinado said. “When you get into some of these very ideas and images, you find connections to other places like African and Asian art.”

Surrealism is what brings these elements together, he said. “It all weeds its way into my work and the glue that holds it all together is surrealism.”

Peinado’s artistic method begins with a big but flexible idea. “That big idea is usually fairly vague, but it predominantly starts with a question I have,” Peinado explained. “The question I have, I want to answer, but I don’t quite know how. There’s a lot of mental leaping in my head, a lot of mental calisthenics.”

“I do a lot of sketches, a lot of looking at history books and just filling my mind with a lot of stuff. And then eventually, I start to create order and ways to solve that question,” Peinado said. “Immediately when I start to do that, images start to appear. Then, I have to find some way to make those images make sense.”

Art teacher Matthew Peinado talks to his Edward Little High School art class recently about how to come up with a cohesive idea for their group art show. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

An interactive exhibit

That sense of openness and experimentation in the creative process works for Peinado’s students.

“I like that we get to do what we want to do artistically,” Lyra Raymond, a junior, said. “We can pretty much try anything and Mr. Peinado will be willing to help us get to the point where we can succeed in what we’re doing,” she added. “I like having that freedom.”

“We can make art freely. Even within the constraints of (assignments) he gives us, we can just do whatever we want,” said Nora Thompson, a senior.

The ideas grow as students in teacher Matthew Peinado’s Edward Little High School art class work together on a mind map to develop themes for their art show. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

“This art class helps me destress after a long day of school,” said Leah Boutwell.

“I see art impacting me forever and always because I simply choose to participate,” Leah’s sister Elizabeth Boutwell said. “I know so many people that do art. I’m friends with so many people here that are artists.”

Not unexpectedly, Peinado’s “Connections” exhibit is set to be interactive, with visitors encouraged to share what they see, what they think and what they wonder as they make their way through the artworks with the artist.

“I did not want to have an art show where I just put up my work,” Peinado said. “The goal is to have the audience share ideas they have of the work, not only with each other, but with the artist himself.”

“I have drawn blue tape lines from one painting to another. The painter’s tape is a visual representation of the connections the artist is making between pieces and the work itself,” Peinado noted. “The audience will be invited to add their own blue tape to paintings and record their discoveries.”

The exhibit runs through Feb. 28 at USM-LAC’s Atrium Gallery. Admission is free. The gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors can access the gallery through the main campus entrance at 51 Westminster St. in Lewiston. Parking is free.

Visitors view artist and art teacher Matthew Peinado’s work recently at the Atrium Art Gallery at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn Campus. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal