Matthew Barton grew up in southern Indiana, where in high school he worked as a performer at Chuck E. Cheese. He danced in a rat suit while a mechanical animal band performed hit songs, such as, “Walkin' on Sunshine.” He graduated from Montana State University with a BFA and a BA in Art Education. During his undergraduate studies he spent a year in Italy studying sculpture under two Italian artists. He also completed his student teaching in New Zealand. He received his MFA at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 and is currently teaching sculpture at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.