Rooted Earth

Matthew Obrakta grew up in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Bloomington, Indiana when he was 12. Since childhood, his parents have supported his interest in the arts, encouraging him to draw and pursue other artistic activities. By the time he was of high-school age, he had decided to pursue a career in the arts. He focused on drawing and photography while in college, and, in 2005, received a B.F.A. in photography from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). After graduating from MIAD, he started a photography business, Matthew Obrakta Photography. Then, just three years later, Matthew found himself going back to school at Indiana University at Bloomington. In 2010, he graduated with a Masters in Human Computer Interaction Design from the School of Informatics and Computing and moved to Lawrence, Kansas, to start working for Garmin as a software user interface designer. He still enjoys drawing and photography and shows his work throughout the Midwest.