Menton J. Matthews III has had a lifelong interest in the relationship between symbols, signs and images and that part of ourselves we most commonly refer to as "unconscious". Though he has always drawn and painted, his first methodical exploration of this field was through music, which he saw as a tool enabling a composer to bring to light 'interior' imagery in the listener. Matthews currently records under the name Saltillo, which had its first release in 2004 with Hive/Suspicious Records. His music, like his painting, draws on a patchwork of emotional impressions from his childhood in rural Mississippi, in an environment he has called "a place of fanatic religious practice and rampant social abuse".

Both his childhood and his experience as a musician emerge as significant features of his painting, which often reveals frozen phantasmagoric instants, realized subjective memories and encapsulated emotions. The images he crafts suggest a comparison with the works of Southern Gothic writers like Faulkner, McCullers and O'Connor, filled as they are with the supernatural, the unexpected and ironic. Matthews is also deeply interested in the intentional manipulation of "unconscious" aspects of the psyche.

Menton is currently working on projects for both Image and IDW comics. Learn more about Menton at his website: Menton3.com