Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Coleman.
Hi Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always had an interest in Art for as long as I can remember. I’m the oldest of a large Irish Catholic family so my parents got me drawing and painting gifts a lot for my birthday and Christmas. I really liked the drawing projects, I fondly remember the pencil drawings scenes and the charcoal compositions I copied from the kits. I bored quickly though with the paint by number kits, wanting to make my own numbers and paint my own colors. I had a wonderful Art teacher in Catholic elementary school that really brought out my interest in Art but my Bishop LIllis High School Art teacher is my inspiration for becoming an Artist and my role model for teaching Art later in life.
The collective message I remember getting around the end of high school was, “what are you going to do with an Art degree”. So I studied Drafting Technology with an Art miner when I started college, this was way before Auto Cad and computers. I went through the draft lottery in Jan ’72 and received a high number and so didn’t get drafted. I decided to leave college during my sophomore year and joined the US Air Force on a four year enlistment at the very beginning of the volunteer military with a guaranteed job field of Electronics, they put me in the nuclear missile field and sent me to a SAC base in northwest Louisiana. After settling in at the new base I returned to taking basic college classes at Louisiana Tech’s extension center on Barksdale AFB. During this time I met my wonderful wife and life totally changed. I was honorablely discharged in January of 1977 and the two of us took off for college at LSU in Baton Rouge. After several more changes I finally ended back at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana and finished my BFA in 1985.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not a smooth road at all but each change and struggle was a learning experience. I think the biggest and most difficult challenge was that I dealt with an addiction problem which temporarily ended my marriage for 8 years. We remained friends as I dealt with these issues and we finally overcame them and got back together and are growing old together now. I always say that this time was God smacking me up side the head and saying it’s time to wake up fool! And I did, thank God! She was always the only one that understood my passion for Art and supported that passion, and still does with all her Love and Support even after dragging her and my daughter all over the place!
Anyway, I finally started taking my personal artwork seriously and began painting nights and weekends. During the day I worked in art related commercial fields, graphic design, illustration, pre-press design and production and advertising in Kansas City, Houston and Albuquerque, were I also taught as an Illustration Instructor at a local commercial art college.
It was in Albuquerque in 1996 after unhappily working for a small Ad Agency for about 6 month that I met two of my greatest influences for my Art. I met the owner of Opp Art Inc., Chris Opp and his primary muralist, Pietro Palladini, an amazing artist who worked in the movie, television, and music industries as a journeyman scenic background painter in Hollywood. We worked together on many commercial Art projects, for individuals, the restaurant and casino industries. One of the most interesting was a two year project turning all the newly built structures on the Imus Ranch, in Ribera NM, into looking like they were 100 years old, including an 8 building small western town. Chris is an amazing designer, sculptor, painter and original sign painter as well a being a great business owner/operator. 911 change everything and we all eventually went our own way but have stayed close friends and continue to work together on many different projects over the years. I just recently returned from Louisiana and helping Chris Opp with the restoration of some old graphics in a storm damaged 129 year old church in downtown Shreveport, LA. Besides teaching me how to paint murals, Pietro got me to work with a couple of drawing workshop, drawing and painting from life once a week for over 12 years in his amazing art studio in Corrales, NM.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After Opp Art Inc. basically broke up in 2002, I started teaching high school fine art classes, primarily drawing and painting from beginning classes to advanced studio at a rural high school in Bernalillo, NM. My portfolio got me the teaching job on a waiver program, but I had to start working on my Masters of Art in Education to get my teaching license. I started a masters program at the College of Santa Fe, the Albuquerque campus, nights and weekends while teaching high school art during the day to achieve that goal. I finally received my MA in Education in May of 2005. I taught for 12 years in New Mexico, including 4 years on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in Dulce, NM. In 2016, after my grandson was born we moved back to my original hometown, Kansas City, Missouri and my last five years I taught at the Guadalupe Centers High School, a Hispanic Charter school in Kansas City, Missouri.
What I am most proud of in my Art teaching career is the artwork created by my students, and the foundations of Art that they learned and produced some amzaing Artwork. Not all of them continued with Art for a career, a few did, but they all learned the creation and technical processes and my classes were always full and fun.
It was in New Mexico that my personal Artwork took off and grew with the Art influences of my friends, co-workers, and the Art industry as a whole in New Mexico which is colorful and vibrant! Once I learned how the light worked in the high desert of the southwest my work changed and progressed. These changes were. also helped by an Art History Professor at the College of Santa Fe, helped me see many types of Art differently and through new eyes. The years of drawing from life in several art groups also drastically change my observation skills and help advance my drawing and compositional skills, it was the influences, practices and experiences I needed at the time to grow as a Artist.
New Mexico change my whole understanding of light, both natural light and spiritual light which has lead to my current series of oil paintings based on Visionary Art, Angels and Sacred Geometry.
What’s next?
I retired from teaching high school art is May of 2021 at 68. I now stay home, work on my oil paintings, commissions and help raise my grandson. I’m a member of a co-op gallery, Images Art Gallery in downtown Overland Park, Kansas and help with our Featured Artist Program and our Annual Juried Art Show. I’ve just finished working with my old friend Chris Opp on a couple of his art projects in the Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana area and plan on going back after the first of the year to paint a large commercial mural in the area. I’ve also designed two foundational Art Classes, drawing and painting, for home school children that need a Fine Art class for their home schooling program. I’ll also be continuing my oil painting series, starting with a new painting of St. Michael, my name sake. I’ve been rolling this one around in my head for a while now, it is time he comes out!
My grandson is now almost 10 years old and turning into quite a good artist himself. In fact he is starting to take over my studio now, but Popa will share it with him. He is also a black belt in Taekwondo and learning to teach younger belts himself while working on his second degree black belt. I look forward to seeing him grow as as artist and learn from his many sports interests.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mikecolemanfineart.com
- Instagram: mike_coleman_fine_art
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.coleman.464143
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-coleman-8b009724
Image Credits
Michael R. Coleman
