Matt Cauthron is an artist and educator living and teaching near Palm Springs, California, where the stark beauty and resilience of the desert deeply inform his creative practice. His work in photography and mixed media is driven by a desire to uncover meaning within the overlooked—to transform fragments of material and memory into quiet sanctuaries of reflection.

​

In his current studio practice, Cauthron creates assemblages that explore the interplay between material, image, and place. Using treated woods, aged metals, and original photographs sourced from the surrounding desert and beyond, he constructs compositions that evoke both fragility and endurance. The desert, with its constant tension between decay and renewal, mirrors his own creative process—an ongoing search for balance between control and surrender, preservation and change.

​

Matt is also an adjunct faculty in Digital Design and Production at College of the Desert, an Apple Distinguished Educator, Adobe Education Leader, and co-founder of the Digital Arts Technology Academy. He has worked with Apple, Adobe, The California Department of Education, and The California Arts Project to assist other arts educators, develop and present model practices, and co-author the current California Arts Standards for Media Arts. ​