The Art and Graphic Design of Punchgut

Rarely is a fine artist an extraordinary graphic designer and vice versa; but North Fargo’s Punchgut is both.

The Plains Art Museum exhibition of Matt Mastrud, a.k.a.. Punchgut, features the commercial posters and the art-for-art’s sake works of this home-grown artist, presenting Mastrud’s graphic design aesthetic alongside the commercial posters that have gained Punchgut local, national, and international notice.

His illustrations and gig posters have been featured in The Art of Modern Rock: the Poster Explosion, which contains the finest national and international rock art posters of the last two decades. The collection is considered the “bible of rock poster art worldwide.”

Mastrud is described here as a “North” Fargo artist because he affectionately describes and identifies with his home turf, a two-block area in North Fargo where he grew up and where he now resides. To be attached to a very specific locale informs part of the content of this versatile artist’s work. His own childhood and that of his two children, along with the weather and geography of his environs appear as Punchgut themes, especially in his fine art pieces.

For example, in works like “Quiet is My Companion,” “Squish the Moon,” and “I Walk the Pines,” the starry and snowy night skies of the Midwest often materialize, creating poetic scenes that pack a nostalgic wallop. The artist’s fondness for the night is featured with sparse visual specificity. Thus, the expanse of sky in each work reads as part of the expanding universe, which sometimes dwarfs the architectural and figurative elements and puts them in proper perspective. At other times, as in “Squish the Moon” the child is oversized and takes pride of place alongside the luminous moon.

In works like these, mystery is also a key aesthetic player. Mastrud describes the peaceful tone in “Quiet is My Companion” thus: “It’s based on the first snowfall when a blanket of silence covers everything. All the sounds are muffled and things come to a standstill.” This quietude that Mastrud so convincingly portrays is palatable and familiar and draws the viewer into Punchgut’s personal vision with its otherworldly undertow.

On the commercial side, Punchgut has created gig posters for bands that play local, regional, and national venues, and his out-of-area commissions are all made via internet connections. Sometimes it’s a promoter that views his work on the web, is impressed, contacts him. At other times, he has a connection to the band itself or to a producer.

No matter the order, whether local, East or West Coast, Southern, or international-quality of design is an obvious Mastrud concern. Examples of this design bravado include works for bands like Drive-By Truckers, Queens of the Stone Age, Hackensack, and Slobberbone Burn--whose fourth album was produced by the legendary Don Smith, who has to his credit productions for Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. And this is just the tip of the rock n’ roll iceberg for Punchgut posters.

Mastrud has the uncanny ability to match message to medium and to create powerful images that render text subservient to fine art elements. He often adds a trompe l’oeil feature or an iconic image, such as the fly that sits on a realistically rendered tilted jar from the Hackensack poster or the Disney castle from a Queens of the Stone Age work.
Castles in visual art often symbolize the ideal, and Mastrud seems to concern himself--consciously or unconsciously--with the idyllic, whether the innocence of childhood, pristine but moody nature, or his vision of how the world should be--full of simple virtues and genuineness.

It is no small feat to capture the quintessence of a band’s ethos while adding personal signature elements as in the aforementioned works. Overall, his posters read like puzzles. The potent design draws the viewer in and the search for event dates, times, venues, band names and concert titles are treasures found in the hunt for specifics.

Mastrud’s art career began with what he calls “scribbling on everything, including the backs of notebooks, when I should have been doing math” and an interest in the striking images found in cartoons.

Punchgut describes MSCTC-Moorhead graphic design instructor Rob Johnson as a significant mentor. “He taught me a lot about illustration and meeting deadlines, which is important to a designer. If you can’t meet deadlines the whole thing is useless.” He also credits his Fargo North art teachers Sue Torson and “Miss Anderson” (Jackie) for encouraging his artistic development by teaching the basics and letting him “do his own thing.”

He gives credit to Fargo promoters Jade Presents and DM Cooperative for giving him opportunities to create posters for local events. The doling out of thanks to others offers insight into Mastrud’s humility, an attribute he wears with ease.
Mastrud often uses a fine art process, such as watercolor, and ink and brush, to complete his basic design. He drips and splatters paint or ink for areas of detail, such as with his teensy stars and snowflakes. He then turns to the tools of the graphic design trade, including Photoshop, making sure the conceptual perception and his fine art application used in the initial process remain intact. The result is the retention of the creative process which speaks through what could become sterile if computer processes were overused.

Mastrud prices his prints so the ordinary art lover can afford them. He is nearly sold out of one of his most alluring serigraphs: “Quiet is My Companion.” This was a popular print in Ireland, he disclosed-several were sold over the internet. Punchgut puzzles over why the Irish would be drawn to a ghost-like figure levitating under light in a snowy landscape. I offer comments about the beauty and mystery of the Irish landscape and the soulful sounds of ancient Irish musicians, plus the likes of Enya. I connect these ideas to the mystifying quality of “Quiet is the Night.” Masturd continues to muse.

As we finish our discussion, I ask one of the most important questions, that I had nearly overlooked: “Why do you call yourself Punchgut?”

“It’s memorable, isn’t it?!” he asks and exclaims. I concur. “People remember that more than my name,” he says. “But why Punchgut?” I repeat. “I think my younger brother and I were fooling around and he called me “Jerkface” but I decided I preferred “Punchgut.”

I should have known that Mastrud wouldn’t have a high-minded or commercial reason for his choice of alias, and this brought us full circle in our conversation--back to family, to his home territory, to his wife and his children, and again to his mentor, Rob Johnson, who Punchgut says must be the “nicest person in the whole world-the nicest person you could ever meet.”

I’m thinking that not only I have encountered a truly fine artist, but that I too have just met a very kind person.

If You Go

What: Punchgut: The Art and Graphic Design of Matt Mastrud
Where: Plains Art Museum
When: May 22 through August 3
Info: (701) 232-3821