By Anna Van Voorhis

Why you should know him: Growing up right near Cincinnati, Ohio (yes, Kentucky does border Ohio), Mike has been “making stuff” as long as he can remember. He was exposed to art early on through his mom, who paints, though not professionally. Mike also took a lot of art electives in high school, though his high school program was not “really intense.” When looking for colleges, he thought briefly about fine arts schools, but being unsure about what he wanted to study, he decided on a liberal arts education. Mike chose to take 3D Design as his first year course at Macalester, despite the fact that he wasn’t planning (at the time) on an art major, because he “wanted to live around art kids.” Though he was not particularly smitten with sculpture at the time, he has since turned from more two dimensional art (namely painting) to art with a more sculptural feel, using his 3D Design background often. Though he is now in a more sculptural place, Mike has spent a lot of time in the painting studio as well. One of his favorite teachers at Mac is Chris Wilcox, the painting teacher. “She is levelheaded and helpful, she can work well with people at all skill levels, and works with everyone on their own terms.” Mike’s switch from 2D to 3D began to be realized during his junior year. That fall, he took an independent study class with Stan Sears. The class was a sculpture, woodworking, furniture mash up from which he created a bunch of chairs, some of which you can find still on display at Stan’s farm. The nest semester, Mike went abroad, with Hillary Frey and Mabel Kessler, to Barcelona, Spain. There he dove into architecture, studying both the city and the techniques of architecture. As far as the future is concerned, Mike is unsure as to what exactly he wants to do. Although he thoroughly enjoyed his time in Barcelona, he has decided against architecture as career path. He spent last summer working in Charleston for a carpenter who specialized in modern furniture, and enjoyed that as well, but also thinks that he doesn’t want to be limited by one vein of work. Ideally he would like to work in some combination of carpentry, furniture and design. As far as the near future goes, he is planning on going fishing in Alaska this summer, but then has plans to return to MSP for a while. He might even apprentice for Stan, the same Stan mentioned above, for a year or so. refresh –>