Matt Rosen, raised in Coral Springs, FL, is now known as baseball card artist Matthew Lee Rosen.

Matt Rosen (Coral Springs, FL) with his Giant Baseball Card Art Gum Sticks
Matt Rosen (aka Matthew Lee Rosen) with his Giant Baseball Card Art Gum Sticks.

Growing up as kid in South Florida, my friends and classmates simply knew me as Matt Rosen from Coral Springs. I guess that’s quite common when you’re a kid anyway. Our names always tend to get shortened. Occasionally, my mother would yell out Matthew Lee when she was upset for whatever dumb thing I did at the time. I’m sure we can all relate to that. 

After graduating high school in 1995 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, I packed up my things and drove about 3 hours north to the University of Central Florida. That’s when I first picked up a paint brush, and began to embrace my full name. I suppose, it was a transformation of identity and maturity. My early works of art at UCF were signed M L Rosen, and a bit later I began to mark paintings with the initials MLR.

A couple years after college, I spent time in the Tampa area with some great friends, and built up a collection of large oil paintings on canvas. I had every intention to exhibit them in the big city and grow my art career. However things often don’t work out as we imagine.

I moved to Chi-Town in 2002, and began working in art galleries and museums, hoping to find my way into the art world. Most of my paychecks came from the Rhona Hoffman Gallery and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art… where I installed exhibits and packed artwork for shipment. I was billing for my professional services as Matthew Lee Rosen.

Along the way, I started freelancing as a graphic designer, and my career would take a turn. I suddenly found myself traveling across the globe to help produce corporate events as a presentation specialist and graphics operator. The dreams of art openings and gallery walls soon faded into the past. 

Matt Rosen of Coral Springs shows off his mini Baseball Card Art Collector Cards
Matt shows off his hand-painted gum cards.

Fast forward to today, in the COVID world of 2020. After 15+ years of traveling to conferences on a near-weekly basis, there were no longer any corporate events to work at. I had to pivot my career. So, I returned back to the arts and began painting bubble gum cards. It was a long journey, but finally… the little boy named Matt Rosen from Coral Springs, became baseball card artist Matthew Lee Rosen.