I'm Michael - a mixed media artist based in London's East End, working from my studio in Bow. I've been making art for over 30 years, across painting, sculpture, spray art and digital, but drawing has always been my first love. However over the last two years I have been able to explore oils more deeply and it is now my primary medium.
Art has genuinely saved my life - more than once. It pulled me out of addiction in my twenties and pointed me towards art college and then fine art at university. For two decades after that I worked as a scenic painter and stagehand while building my art practice and exhibiting in solo and group shows around the city.
Then, a couple of years ago, everything stopped.
I woke up one morning having seizures. Three weeks later I came out of a coma unable to walk, talk, or think - let alone make art. I'd had encephalitis, out of nowhere, and the first year of recovery was essentially learning how to do everything again from scratch: slowly plugging the connections back in, one by one.
The second year, I came back to art. It wasn't easy - my cognitive speed is slower now, and I'd forgotten some of what I'd learned. But something unexpected happened too. I finally had the patience for oils. Before my illness, I worked fast and loose - acrylics, ink, aerosol, pencil - seeing the world in line and shape. Now I see it in light, colour and values. It's like discovering a completely new language in a medium I'd always wanted to speak.
Something else shifted too. During the seizures, I had an experience I can only describe as leaving my body - finding comfort in a church, before being sent back. I know how that sounds. But it led me to explore faith for the first time, and that's become a real part of my life and my work.
I'm now studying light and values, and making what I genuinely believe is the best work of my life. My cityscapes try to capture what it actually feels like to live in a city - the buzz, the silence, the claustrophobia, the moments of unexpected beauty. I'm a member of the ACME Studios community, and I sell original work, limited edition prints, and commissions right here.
I can't wait to see where this next chapter goes.