Matthew Laurence Knott doesn’t take himself too seriously. In high school, he was voted class clown. When he was given assignments, he would flip them over and start doodling on them almost immediately. But rest assured, he knows how to get shit done. His chaotic, Seussian worms and robots, and bright cartoon colors are popped out with the expediency of a warehouse manager – because that’s where he got his start.
“It was about 4 or 5 years ago, I was working for a headphone company. I was doing everything end to end – warehouse inventory, customer service, setting up events – and I was like, I’m doing all of this myself, why don’t I just have my own business?”
So he started treating his art like a business, and put it up for sale – at first on Craigslist, then Etsy, and then eventually with his own website. His first mural assignment landed him in a company’s office with a definite “fake-it-til-you-make-it” attitude.
“I remember starting to spray, and the whole office was getting nauseated hard,” he remembered, “they had to cut work early on Friday. The boss was really frustrated – he was like, ‘Hey, I know I hired you for a mural, but I didn’t know you were gonna gas the whole place like this.’”
But that piece gave him the confidence to continue going, and then companies like Lenovo and Armani started hitting him up. And with the release of our new Do Not Reply All, a hazy double dry-hopped double IPA, our partners at Art Share knew he would be the perfect artist to recommend. Knott took the concept of email etiquette and extrapolated out to other forms of communication – telephone wires, electrical poles, robots who are beset by inbox overflow. And of course, tubes – what the internet is made up of, after all.
It’s a tempest of technology, but the beer inside is the perfect antidote. With big tropical and pineapple notes, it promises to take you away from your noisy open-plan office for a brief mental vacation. Or it can be used as a not-so-subtle hint to Ted in Accounts Receivable to cool it on the cc’s. If you want to give it a try, stop by the Public House on February 15th to grab a 4-pack. But if you want to meet Matthew in person, make sure to check out our artist meet-and-greet on the 24th – he’ll be selling prints too, if you want a little art that doesn’t have a CRV on it.
Check out more of his work here or follow him @matthewlaurenceknott.
