I am Cayla Zeek, an artist from South Louisiana and MATTEA is my middle name. When I was younger, I hated my middle name as it was hard for teachers to spell and kids thought it was super weird. My Mother wanted me to be guarded by Saint Matthew and chose Mattea as the feminine version of Matteo or Matthew. I told this to people who asked me for years and then I met an Italian woman who said there is no feminine version of Matthew, it doesn’t translate. Well that just made me appreciate the name even more deeply. It is a spark of creativity, innovation, and my ties to spirituality – all perfect to represent my ideas of art and business. My artistic process began very young with drawing rainbows, diving into children’s books, creating plays, making up stories and games for the neighborhood kids to play. Today, I create detailed designs using my talents of illustration and wordplay (most would believe my extensive use of puns is a curse, but I love it!!). I am also a painter in my soul and balance between creating artwork just for myself and running a business in my community. I gather many of my inspirations from traveling all over the United States and Internationally, but I always come home to South Louisiana. This place is a big part of my heart and mind in the creative process. You will probably run into me at Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge, or making a spontaneous trip out to Arnaudville to look at a giant tree.
