Fine art is, well, not so fine. It’s risky.
You don’t know whether you’re going to like the art until you live with it. But, you have to buy the art to to live with the art. In other words, you have to marry the art before you date the art. You could be stuck. That’s wrong.
That’s why I change it up. You get to live with the art for a month before you really own the art. You get to date. You get to live in sin. I take all the risk.
If you love it, keep it. If not, return it. I’ll refund your money. No hard feelings that years of therapy won’t cure, really.
It’s like Amazon, only better.
Life is chaotic. It’s also precious and beautiful. Most days, we need a reminder for that second part.
The first part is in our face. The kids are sick. The job blows. The 405 is backed up. The bank account is missing a zero, maybe two… You know the story.
That’s what I do. I remind myself, and others, of the second part.
I focus on (sorry) people being people and abstract landscapes.
Through photography and painting, I help us to appreciate life, to see the beauty in the everyday, to savor the moment. I don’t want to reach my deathbed and regret that I wasn’t really alive when I was alive.
All of my images start as photographs. Sometimes, I use a regular camera and lens. Sometimes, I use a plastic camera and a plastic lens, sometimes a modern camera and a retro lens. Sometimes I paint the image; sometimes, I don’t.
Either way, whether it’s wall or accent art, when viewing my work, I hope you smile, and appreciate life just a touch more.
To The Beauty Of Life,
Mike
I like humans. They’re interesting.
What interests me is people doing everyday, middle of the village type of stuff. Swinging kids on the swing. Going to a concert. Walking along the beach. Lawn bowling. Playing volleyball. Hanging at the beach. Having coffee.
It’s the beauty of the banal, the sacred in the secular.
It’s easy to call life mundane. Same shit different day. We need a reminder that life is beautiful, that the routine, with the right perspective, is art.
That’s what I do.
I love people, but I love empty spaces too.
There is something to less is more, something about taking people out of the art, at times, that makes it most about being human.
I’m not exactly sure why that is, but I have a guesstimate. As humans, we’re much more than humans. William Blake was right. The universe is in grain of sand. If so, we’re more than we know.
We connect with abstract and minimal images because they speak to the deepest, most infinite part of us. They remind us that we’re more than us, and that life is more than what we see in front of us.
Black and white is a mix.
Mostly, it’s People Being People but there is some Abstract, Minimal Landscape as well.
The main difference is that, shocking, there’s no color, which is abstract and minimal.
I’m edgy and artsy like that. I might even get a tattoo, a black and white of a rainbow.
Each print in each size has a maximum edition of 50.
Each print is signed and numbered, so it looks cool and impresses your friends. It’s printed on archival paper, and printed with fancy archival inks. I personally print each one.
If you buy one, I would name my next kid after you, except for that whole vasectomy thing.
Give me a refundable deposit, and I’ll give you one of my limited edition, signed, framed, museum grade painterly photography prints.
Live with it for a month. If it doesn’t make you smile, make your home look bitchin, and impress your family and friends, return it for a 100% refund.
Or, keep it and pay the balance off interest free within a year. Plus, if the print ever gets damaged, return it and I’ll replace it. No charge.
Win. Win. Win.
That’s fine art made simple.
I was in Laguna Beach, about July 4, looking for something to photograph when I came across these gentleman – in every sense of the word – lawn bowling. I asked if I could take their photograph, and, I’ll never forget it, they said, “Only if you make us look young and get our best
I was on vacation with the fam when I saw this guy playing The King of Swing. HIs arms must have got tired. Kids didn’t stop and he never said no. What caught my attention was this very ordinary moment that was so beautiful. What dad hasn’t pushed a swing? Who, at some point, has
In Ventura, about 20 years ago, a company, appropriately called The Yellow Umbrella Company, rented these umbrellas, and the shade beneath the umbrellas, during the summer months. What I loved, and still do, is how it gave the beach an other worldly look, like Christo visited for the weekend and had some time to fill.