Matt Tooni

Matthew Tooni’s family has done crafts his entire life so it was natural for him to start making art at eighteen.  Matt had the help of his father to guide him in making gourds and turtle shell rattles along with his music. 

Matt doesn’t live in the past, he acknowledges it through his crafts.  What’s now known as art once had a practical purpose, and now that purpose is to connect us to our history. 

Matt has won awards for his rattles at the Cherokee Fall Festival and he enjoys making his crafts at his home in the Painttown community.