Mike is an award winning scrap metal artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He grew up in California’s Central Coast as the son of a physics professor and a textile artist. They encouraged creativity, self-sufficiency, and conservation (they routinely took their recyclable goods to the local recycling center). Mike credits both his upbringing and his years spent in the moving and storage industry witnessing the rise of mass-produced, low quality goods for his desire to create art out of scrap metal. He is passionate about giving new life to durable, yet broadly useless, items that would otherwise end up in the landfill. 

 

Mike’s first metal working project was working to restore an old Jeep, for which he learned to weld. Once he had developed the foundational skill of his work, his graphic design degree kicked in and he started to see pieces of scrap metal in a new way. Old parts started to take on new life; where many would see an old iron bound for the dump, he saw a boat. It didn’t take long for him to start creating sculptures out of the assorted metal scraps that somehow found their way to his garage workshop. He has always found it satisfying to breathe new life into old pieces, whether he is building a robot to showcase an old camera as its head, or using thousands of tiny pieces to create a conversation starter. 

 

In the last few years, Mike’s sculptures have started to garner attention. He has been written up in the local paper and featured in a calendar internationally distributed by one of the world’s largest metal recycling companies. His work can be seen in galleries throughout Northern California; currently, his turtle Eddie is on display at 480 Lighthouse in Pacific Grove. His horse sculpture Papanick recently took second place and People’s Choice at Edgewater Gallery in Fort Bragg.