Michael's work has so many good qualities, and it's like nothing I have ever seen! He has such an original taste--I love how beautifully botanical each of his mixed media and collage pieces are. His paintings are a perfect combination of retro-looking paper, bright colours, flowers, and graphic paint splatters.

Michael Mew
www.michaelmewstudio.com
(Grew up in Los Angeles, CA, Live and work in) Oakland, CA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Large scale collage mixed with painting, drawing and resin.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I use images from books, magazines, the internet and scale them up to the size I work, generally 48x36 inches.

I use painted and drawn images as well. Often I will sand back into the surface to allow the imagery from the surface below to show through and give the work a worn, weathered appearance. Then resin is poured over the work to meld the layers together and saturate the the colors.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started doing collage exclusively in 1994. Before that I did assemblage which incorporated collage as well.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Just a artist for the last two and one half years. Before that I worked at a art moving company where I packed, crated, shipped, installed and stored artwork 4 days a week, and did my art after work and the other 3 days of the week.