Matt Moffett has been an artist in Tulsa for nearly 30 years, but growing up he never thought that would be his future. “I always thought I was one of those people that didn’t have that gift,” Moffett says. It wasn’t until he had difficulties finding someone in Tulsa to paint a portrait of his dog that he decided to just do it himself. “Then all my friends were saying ‘paint my dog, paint my dog,’ and that’s how I started in art,” he says. Teaching college-level Spanish at the time, his newfound painting career was slow going at first. “My friend said, ‘Don’t quit your day job right away. Just work at it.’ I think the hardest part was giving myself permission to be an artist. But after a while, it just really took off,” Moffett explains, adding that he also transitioned into teaching art at elementary schools. In 2007 Moffett founded the Tulsa Girls Art School, a nonprofit afterschool art program in the Kendall Whittier neighborhood, where he worked as a teacher and the executive director for 10 years.