Matthew Ballou is an artist originally from New York, now living in Columbia, Missouri where he holds a position as Assistant Teaching Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Missouri. He received a BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 2001, and an MFA from Indiana University-Bloomington in 2005. His work has been recently exhibited in Belgium, Seattle, WA, Boston, MA, and Louisville, KY. Matt is also a writer, and his essay “Second Horizon: The Changing Vision of Odd Nerdrum” was the featured article in the Summer 2006 edition of Image Journal.