Matthew J. Tasley ’82 died on January 2, 2020, in Greenbrae, California.
(The following was provided by the MarinArts.org on April 24, 2022)
Matthew J. Tasley ’82
Art and Mental Illness: Honoring Matt Tasley
Marin native Matt Tasley, a diagnosed schizophrenic and recovering alcoholic, used oil painting for his mental health. Until his schizophrenia diagnosis in 2001, Tasley initially coped with his mental health by self-medicating, using drugs and alcohol. In August of that year, he got clean, quit drinking, and remained sober until his death in 2020 at the age of 59. Friends and colleagues remember Matt Tasley as a kind man, a very talented artist, and a passionate advocate for those experiencing mental illness. Tasley’s longtime friend, Mary O’Mara, MarinLink’s executive director, said. “I’ve collected so many of his paintings. I met him through WildCare, years ago. He’d given up on painting in his journey to get sober. I encouraged him to try art again and took him to buy supplies… He painted our wildlife and donated the canvases for a fundraiser. He kept painting.”
Tasley used art as his therapy. Art therapy is commonly used as a tool for the interaction with subconscious ideas or feelings, and communication in psychotherapy. The act of artmaking can also have a soothing effect when used as a mindfulness practice, which can be a powerful tool for healing.
Celebrating the Power of Healing, through the Arts
Before he died in a tragic accident after a mental health crisis, Tasley found healing and direction through art even with a difficult mental health diagnosis. Tasley’s diagnosis didn’t keep him from giving back to the community. He volunteered both through his work with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and as an art teacher and mental health advocate. He served on the NAMI Marin’s board, volunteered with Sunny Hills Transitional Age Youth programs, and Marin City Community Development Corporation’s Empowerment Clubhouse. In 2014, he received the Pacific Sun’s Heroes of Marin award for Courage
“Three things stand out about Matt. 1) He was completely committed to his art. 2) He never broke his sobriety even during six months of homelessness. 3) Fatherhood—he dearly loved his 3-year-old son. Matt faced many challenges, but he was a great and loyal friend. He stayed connected and touched the lives of hundreds of people,” comments longtime friend O’Mara.
Supporting Art Therapy in Marin
Tasley taught art at the Buckelew Programs. He also often donated paintings to Buckelew’s MarinScapes fundraiser, and became an effective mental health advocate through Buckelew.
There are many fond memories of spending time with Matt Tasley, that remain with me until this day, while I attended Bowdoin, back in ‘81-‘83, talking art, politics, philosophy, and nature, over meals at Moulton Union. Coming from what was then a provincial part of the US, just outside St Louis, Missouri (yet always loving nature, a fact that had drawn me to Bowdoin), Matt influenced me in his own, unique ways, then and now.
He was a real force of humanity and for nature: outspoken, smart, opinionated, dedicated to the causes he embraced. I will never forget seeing Dersu Uzala, at Matt’s passionate behest, (likely my first from Kurosawa), at the small screen theatre in downtown Brunswick.
Visits to his art studio in the attic of the college’s math studies building, at the time, to see him working, were a memorable treat. I was thrilled for him when he went to Skowhegan, seeming to keep in touch for a brief time, until I left the college, and moved back to the Midwest, where I completed my undergraduate studies.
News of Matt’s death, a few years ago, close to my long time home in the San Francisco Bay Area, stunned and saddened me.
Like so many cherished Bowdoin memories, big and small, some ancillary, Matt had emphatically introduced me to the Defender’s of Wildlife magazine, a charity to which I continue making donations, always keeping him in mind.