Mike grew up in Boston and attended Boston University graduating with a degree in psychology. Although Mike won an award for his art at 12 years old he really began to shape his style and vision while studying with portrait artist Robert Cormier at Boston’s, Fenway Studios. Cormier taught in the spirt and style of the 19th century Ecolé Des Beaux Arts where Mike truly learned how to draw, paint and compose. Moving to Manhattan, Mike began developing his own personal approach to painting in a West Village art community while also continuing his studies at the School of Visual Arts as well as in private sessions.
While a mental health counselor at a locked psychiatric facility in Boston, Mike observed the difficult, yet fascinating stories of his patients and quickly understood that these people had faded from the world and their personal stories went untold. Remembering each and every one of those patients, Mike began documenting his series of psychological portraits, oil on wood, titled "Small Stories".

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

THE SENTIMENT OF MEMORY
I’m redefining how we think about portraiture through my multi media painting installation. I look at portraiture as a series of memories all contained in a single painting illustrating a person who’s influenced others, yet human nature dictates memories will fade over time. My art is about resurrecting the stories of those people who have been forgotten.
In our everyday lives we randomly come across various scents and sounds such as the smell of chalk dust reminding us of an inspirational teacher from grade school or hear a classic song that brings us back to a childhood friend we haven’t thought of in ages. They may have disappeared from our present lives, but are still embedded in our subconscious. My conceptual installation is a mechanism for insight. Enclosed in plexiglass and submerged in seawater my paintings fade into pulp over time. The scents and sounds attached to the installation serve as powerful memory triggers resurrecting the subject’s existence & reaffirming their importance.
My experience working in a Psychiatric hospital as the head mental health counselor exposed me to so many untold stories that needed to be told. These people were going to fade from the public consciousness and so I felt compelled to preserve their stories through my art.
The process is, I paint a portrait of my subject on found wood. I then build a plexiglass container in which to house the wooden portrait. The plexiglass container is filled with seawater that will disintegrate the portrait over a lengthy period of time turning it into pulp wood. Attached to the plexiglass case is a small glass box filled with a scent representative of the subject which could be anything from juicy fruit gum, to musty books, tobacco, or old leather from a motorcycle jacket. Also attached to the plexiglass case is an iPod filled with music and recorded conversation that becomes the soundtrack to the subject’s life.
As in real life our visual memories of even the most important people from our past fade, my portraits also disappear. We are left with only the scents and sounds which serve as powerful memory triggers to remind us of that person’s existence and influence.
There's importance in never forgetting.