For a young artist fighting to stay sober and dealing with a breakup after a six-year relationship, art did what no therapist could: teach him how to heal. 

Matty Heimgartner, a 29-year-old artist based in San Jose, graduated with bachelor’s degrees in English and visual arts from San Jose State in 2018. 

“Painting was how I would simultaneously tune out, as well as dive into my subconscious and check in with myself,” Heimgartner said. “Almost like being my
own therapist.” 

Heimgartner liked to write in his journal from a young age and always had a creative passion that took form in many different art styles. 

His sister, Amanda Hambleton, said she remembers sitting in his room when they were younger and watching him journal while they listened to a mountain of early
2000s CDs. 

“We had a band together called AM and he was the songwriter and I was his backup singer,” Hambleton said. “His first song that he made was called ‘Pepsi As For You,’ modeled after his icon Britney [Spears].” 

His love for pop artists permeated into his journaling, where he would imagine alternate universes for fictional pop stars that he created. He thought up entire lives for them and stuck with a few characters like Antinda, an exuberant blonde pop star. In this alternate universe, Antinda got married, had kids and even had a record company.

“As I got older and was in college, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet,” Heimgartner said. “Right before I transferred to
San Jose State in 2014, I decided I wanted to study English so that I could write a proper novel about the characters I had been creating since I was seven.” 

Heimgartner decided to pursue art as a minor at SJSU so he could illustrate the cover for his novel about Antinda.

“I ended up falling in love with art and the process, history and just everything about it. I then switched my major to art,” he said. 

Heimgartner received a Bachelor of Arts instead of a Bachelor of Fine Arts, which meant he didn’t have to present at an art show to receive his diploma. However, he said he was “pretty bummed” because he wanted the experience of showcasing his art. 

“I get it, like in college everyone’s got a lot going on and stuff, but some of [my classmates] would really dread it,” he said. “I didn’t understand, like what’s the point of studying art and being an artist if you don’t want to show [it]? Like, that’s the point.” 

Luckily, Heimgartner had the opportunity to showcase his art at his first show, called “The Life of Antinda,” in the DeSkaand Gallery, located in the art building at SJSU.

His show presented eight colored pencil drawings of Antinda, a beautiful, deep side-parted, long-haired blonde who is almost an early 2000s Britney Spears
look-alike. Antinda has piercing blue eyes, long lashes, chiseled cheekbones and a perfect hourglass figure. 

Along with the drawings, Heimgartner’s art show had a one-page short story detailing different milestones in Antinda’s life. 

“It was really mixing together my two years, my two worlds of writing and drawing,” Heimgartner said. 

From there, he began emailing galleries where he could potentially see his art gain exposure. One of those places was the KALEID art gallery in Downtown San Jose. 

“I asked if I could be in the gallery and she said ‘You know, we can put you in there,’ ” Heimgartner said. 

The owner of KALEID Gallery, Cherri Lakey, said she’s always been interested in unique art that is authentic to the artist’s voice and that is what Heimgartner does. 

“His work is bold and colorful, with a narrative that often uses humor as a counterbalance to the intensity of the subject matter [he] may be questioning or contemplating at the moment,” Lakey said. “He is honest in his questions of himself that make his work relatable because we all question ourselves.” 

From ages 18-28, Heimgartner said he abused drugs and alcohol while also in his six-year relationship. Within the same month, Heimgartner separated from his partner and decided to get sober and became his grandma’s caregiver. 

He said he needed painting as an outlet to process everything he was going through.

“I feel like I have to be painting what is current,” he said. “A lot of my paintings, even though they’re really bright and colorful, a lot of them have really darker meanings because that’s when I’m driven to paint.” 

Heimgartner’s sister said that she’s happy about everything he overcame so far. 

“I’m so proud that he found art as an outlet for him to be able to transmute that energy and make it his therapy,” Hambleton said. “He turns something that was so dark and such a tough time into
something beautiful.”