"I started painting about four years ago after almost four decades of photographing the built environment for architects, builders, realtors, and magazines. 'Homage' represents the first public exhibition of my paintings, and I am grateful to the community of Fogue Studios for giving me this opportunity, for believing in and encouraging me. This is all very exciting and frightening.
'Homage' refers to the process I have used to try to learn how to paint: my imitating or attempting to copy the works of my favorite painters, and eventually to putting my own mark on them. Some of the artists I model after include Robert Schlegel, Sean Scully, the Fauves, Maurice Utrillo, Samuel Peploe, Anne Redpath, Jean Michel Basquiat, Alfred Wallis, Irma Cerese, and Gabrielle Munter, among others. My paintings are simply about color and form. Why do some combinations work and some do not? Why do we respond to a piece of art, or not?
When I read the description of naive art, it seems to fit what I do. 'Childlike simplicity of execution and vision', 'geometrically incorrect perspective', 'lack of sophistication', 'idiosyncratic scale'. Also, 'someone who lacks formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes'. These descriptives apply to many artists I greatly admire.
And lastly, if my photography career represents the yin (precise, accurate, geometrically true, realistic colors) then perhaps these paintings represent the yang (loose, raw, arbitrary, personal), opposite but interconnected forces.
Thank you for looking ..."
Check out Mike's current work on display at Fogue Studios
