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Check out my website: http://mattsissel.com/
I am currently pursuing an education in realistic drawing and painting at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto, Canada. Ever since I was a child I've been interested in art. My father, Robert Sissel, is a nationally recognized wildlife artist and perhaps due to his influence my enjoyment of drawing was born. Throughout my youth I was interested in mainly architecture and pursued all the drafting courses I could through junior high and high school. A rebellious adolescence turned me away from art and instead toward philosophy.
Upon graduating high school I was awarded a scholarship for a year long student exchange program in Germany. After thoroughly enjoying myself for a year I came home to Iowa and joined the Iowa National Guard as a combat medic. After finishing my basic and medical training I went off to college and spent a couple years in a philosophical daze pondering the big questions, which I still have yet to figure out. My interest in philosophy incidentally led me back to art and thanks to the greatest invention know to man, the internet, I discovered the Academy of Realist Art in 2002. My interest in art was renewed and I was determined to make it to the academy.
In 2003 I headed off to Iraq with my National Guard unit and spent about 15 months on active duty expanding my international education and medical skills. Upon my return home I headed for Toronto and finally made it to the Academy of Realist Art. I spent about 4 months in school before the war bug took me over and I decided to go back to Iraq. I moved home and was finally put into a unit that was headed to Iraq. I spent another year in Iraq as a combat medic and returned home in October 2006.
