Born and raised in Las Vegas, Michael uses the desert and the surrounding mountains filled with otherworldly flora as his muse. The mountains are a refuge to gain inspiration, and through long hours trail running all forms of cacti and wildlife combine into a neural soup of experience which are later transferred to canvas.
After receiving his Masters in Contemporary and Modern Art History in New York, Michael returned to the valley in 2016 and served as the Artist-in-Residence at Opportunity Village’s New Opportunities for Visionary Arts (NOVA) initiative teaching classes to the learning disabled and at the Rogers Foundation. There, Michael taught art classes to at-risk youth through the Foundation CORE Academy. The Rogers Foundation first introduced Michael’s artwork to a large-scale format which eventually led to more opportunities throughout the valley and a partnership with The Fashion Show, Las Vegas. Michael received recognition from Mayor Goodman due to his mural at the Fashion Show Las Vegas titled, Be Kind to Bugs. His most recent exhibition titled, Levitate West, displaying large paintings and prints was at the West Charleston Library and traveled to Left of Center Gallery, Las Vegas.
Michael is currently living and working on artwork in Las Vegas.
My artworks are a depiction of a realm just outside our own where the network of desert flora throughout Southern Nevada interact in a way that aligns with the neural connections of the human brain. This ancient floral language is the underlying pulse of the artwork. It is my hope that these artworks provide the viewer with the experience of an altered state of consciousness: a feeling of levitating through space, time and the Southwest Desert.
