Matt Lamb: The Art of Success

I admire Matt Lamb's projects, in particular his Umbrellas for Peace activities. Richard Speer's book is about that and about his undertaker's career, his transition from undertaker to artist, Lamb's learning difficulties, his critics, his wit, and his talents. Each chapter includes one of Lamb's paintings (unfortunately, the print is in black and white), and there is a section with photographs of Lamb and his family. I love the book and my copy in particular, since it includes an original Lamb drawing of 2005.

Richard Speer, journalist and art critic extraordinaire has crafted a masterpiece that does justice to an artist who has reached the pinnacles of creative success, achieving what even the most jaded observer would have to applaud. In Speer's own words, artist Matt Lamb "...has converted the passion and energy that made him a powerhouse in the business world and translated it directly into a successful, if controversial, art career. He has searched for and found his strengths as a painter and capitalized on them, deploying his every spiritual and material resource to widen the audience of his art and philosophy. He has, in other words, devoted everything he possesses to his life's highest mission. Can a man do any more?". I would say not, but more importantly, the reader is treated to a fascinating, first hand look at how he did it. All the human drama from the beginning of Lamb's life to the present, is captured with exquisite attention to detail and a faithful presentation of the ingredients to Lamb's success. We witness the tireless work, the failures, the spiritual vision, setbacks, principles and players involved with an ascent to the peak of artistic achievement. Regardless of the complex issues raised in the process, we are left inspired and awed by what can be accomplished against all odds. By any standard, this is an amazing story told with marvelous wit, profound psychological insight, and journalistic expertise of the highest calibre. The issues involved with Lamb's career are offered with rigorous scholarship, clarity and objectivity, leaving the reader to decide the merits of the case, but in the end, it hardly matters. We have been taken along on an odyssey, a rich, colorful, creative journey so unlikey that it engenders faith in the impossible. Only the most embittered cynic could read this book and not feel buoyed up and encouraged to reach for the stars. And this is exactly as Lamb would have it. He is in the end, a motivator, a man of tremendous inner strength who is capable of generating hope even during the darkest of times. And yes, like many of us, Lamb appears flawed, self questioning and conflicted by the challenges of life. But through a very real compassion for the human tragedies we all face (no doubt from decades in the funeral business), and with a transcendent vision expressed through painting, he embodies the true spirit of a great artist. You will marvel, laugh out loud, be challenged, inspired, and entertained. When finished, we are left with the feeling, no the conviction that one can make a difference, not only in our own small life but for the world at large. Yes, this is an important book. It is a story that needed to be told and should be read by anyone who doubts if daily life can be transformed into a magnificent experience, or that the world is too far gone to bother with. Lamb and Speer are a dynamic duo in this rare literary endeavor full of heart, integrit

THE ART OF SUCCESS BY RICHARD SPEER Richard Speer has completed a well conceived and well written global view of Matt Lamb that cleverly incorporates and blends his personal and artistic life. The fascinating vignettes concerning Lamb's interludes with the mafia, his seething wit, and his membership in a boyhood gang are retold with clarity and humor. The reader is not just introduced to Matt Lamb's world, s/he is engulfed by it, living through generations of Lambs before seeing pictures in her/his head of a cherubic baby Lamb, a boisterous boy living with a strict conservative Catholic father, an ambitious young man's goals, the successful entrepeneur, and the anticlimatic change of the adult Matt Lamb to art. Speer plays with words in the re-telling the way Lamb played the business world - with outward charm and inner irony. For instance, Lamb's innovative interpretation of the word "conversation" and one of his primary ideas in painting, is clearly explained by Speer as he portrays how "conversation" is applied and shown through multitudes of Lamb's paintings. Speer aptly uses the term "paradox" to define Matt Lamb - his life, his works and his politics; the contrast between Lamb's strong political beliefs and adventurous business nature with his conservative and cautious father; or his "ready, fire, aim" policy that helped him build an empire of thirty-six successful businesses. Introductions are made to the primary people that surround Lamb - who they are, their relationships, and how his life seems to be ordained with the people around him, each uniquely gifted to enhance and enable Lamb's vision; to help him "gravitate toward that which [he] secretly most love[s]" (p. 36). Lamb's eclectic life is reflected in the diverse people with whom he has associated himself as an artist - from well-known established gallerists to Joe Cerqua and Wilfredo Rivera, from universities to hospitals, nuns to 20-something modern day hippies, from fashion designers to the Pope. Matt Lamb's network evokes a deep emotional response lying at the core of every human being. Many of Lamb's works, perhaps especially Ghands, The Ascent of Man, The Civil War, Dachau and An Gorta Mor, are described by Speer as a "progression from oppression to crisis to liberation" (p. 135). The same formula could also easily be used to describe Lamb's life, beginning with his autocratic father, then a demanding business, to the crisis of facing death, and finally to the self liberation Lamb found in art. The author of The Art of Success does not simply retell an amazing life, he also uses descriptive terminology and defines artistic terms, thus making the book an entertaining and educational read for the lay person, while still maintaining the necessary detail and interesting tidbits a Matt Lamb scholar would desire. PROF. DR. ENRIQUE MALLEN ON-LINE PICASSO PROJECT TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY