Marty is a well rounded individual, who has traveled great distances for his frame making business, he also paints incredible masterpieces and spends a lot of time in the great outdoors. He was a delight to meet, and I am quite excited to share his greatness with all of you.  Please take a moment to look through some of his Fine Art on his website as well.

You’re an artist and a frame maker, what have you had to overcome to be successful in these fields?
Doubt and fear. Interestingly enough, my doubts and fears multiply as my facility improves. I guess that indicates that the closer you get to something, the more you realize how far away you are.

You have to take your joy and satisfaction in the process rather than the end result.

You’ve traveled a lot for work, where has been your favorite destination?Kiev Ukraine.

Much of my travel opportunities come from the frame business and our work for the LDS church temples. When they asked me to go to Ukraine I was excited because my Dad’s mentor art instructor Sergei Bongart grew up in Kiev and escaped after the war. I wanted to investigate the roots of our family art tradition.

I went looking for the landscapes of Isaak Levitan, my favorite Russian Landscape painter.

What interested me most were the people and I came home and attempted to paint what I was clearly out matched to accomplish. My attempts were not completely awful, just mostly.

Where is the strangest place you’ve fallen asleep?

You’ve been talking to my daughter haven’t you! Where do I begin, there are so many!

Probably the worst place was about every week at the BYU singles ward in one of my church callings. I don’t know how I was managing the sleeping but I was almost completely horizontal and when I woke up I had drooled all over my shoe!

Do you believe forgiveness is essential to true happiness?

Don Henley summed it up in “Heart of the Matter”. “When it all comes down to the heart of the matter, and everything changes and my thoughts seem to scatter; I think it’s about forgiveness”.

The most important thing in life we can learn is to forgive. Like painting, we don’t become masters just because someone told us about it. It is a process.

Your daughter said you always made her feel beautiful, how did you do that?

Now, that would have been an achievement had I been given even one ugly daughter. I never wanted to emphasize physical beauty as the most important thing for my girls. That they got naturally from their mother.

What advice would you offer a group of strangers seeking inspiration?

That question is big and my initial response seemed pretentious.

I can say that to wait for inspiration before working towards your goal is a mistake. Study the forms and then practice. Follow the path as it unfolds naturally. Be patient. (Not my strong suit)

Believe in yourself and love what you are doing. Love, like belief is a choice.

What do you believe it means to truly love someone?

Do you ask all of your candidates such big questions?

Like I said, love is a choice. People spend too much time wondering what they should do with their life or if they are really in love. Apply yourself. Love what you do. Love the one you’re with and one day you will know that you “truly” love someone