About

Born: Kittery, Maine

Living in and around Philadelphia all my life.

University of the Arts, BFA

Fine Art Painter, (previous life: Art Director and Illustrator)

Artist Bio

Michael’s paintings are constructed as a brief moment in time where he witnesses; an outdoor walk in nature, a stroll down an unfamiliar street, or even internet surfing on Flickr, Tumblr and Instagram. Collecting photos and screen shots with his smartphone he creates a boundless electronic sketchbook of images that is stored in his mind and on his phone. His art becomes a process of distilling and synthesizing these pictures and ideas much like he did when he was a commercial Art Director and photo editor. Collaging and composing in his mind, this stockpile of ideas is then transfered onto a board or canvas with acrylic paint that manifests into a final artwork. By finding and assembling these mental experiences and physical pictures, he allows the viewer to participate in this imaginative editing perspective, and thus, turning a group of impressions into a tangible event.

Artist Statement

Although my heart has always been in fine art, growing up with twelve years of parochial school meant that the practicalities of life were deeply ingrained; Job, marriage, children, retire. Not possessing a desire to retire, I find myself here - a trained commercial artist but a fine artist in my mind and in my heart.

The advent of the internet and its search engines created infinite image search possibilities. I was taught in art school to never use photos as a reference. Always paint from life. However, the images I saw while working as an Art Director were too tempting and inspirational to dismiss.

As a graphic designer and illustrator, I’ve brainstormed ideas for commercial purposes, but when I researched concepts for work I found that I visualized many of the photographs as fine art paintings. By combining the images that I saw with my own outside influences, I developed a painting method.

My work became a combination of many images and tangible experiences rolled into a conceptual painting. My parochial thought process morphed into a pathway for my creative fine art side to emerge.