John Mattson received a BA and MA degree from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California and an MFA degree in painting from Mills College in Oakland, California. Over the years he has worked in a variety of capacities ranging from industrial painting in the lumber mills of Northern California, to working in commercial galleries including Andrew Smith Gallery and AOI Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He and his wife Karen lived in San Angelo TX for nearly 15 years where Mattson was adjunct lecturer at Angelo State University and also worked part time at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts as Museum Preparator. He and Karen relocated to San Antonio in 2014.
Originally from New Jersey, Karen Zimmerly graduated with a BA degree from Drew University, Madison, NJ. She first started working in photography when she was employed at a small weekly Rhode Island newspaper. Her interest piqued, she went on to take photography classes through the art department at the University of Rhode Island and eventually enrolled in a graduate program at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, earning an MA in photography in 1981. Karen has earned a living as a picture framer, a photography teacher and most recently as Collections Manager at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, in San Angelo, Texas.
Mattson comes to photography trained as a painter. He discovered photography years ago when he bought a camera to photograph his paintings and became enamored with the possibilities inherent in the medium. Since 1982 John and Karen have been been involved in a project photographing declining rural Texas towns. It is a long standing project which they have exhibited at numerous regional museums and art centers across Texas from the Square House Museum in Panhandle, Texas to the Beeville Art museum in Beeville, Texas.