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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Artist Spotlight: Michael Mentler

Michael Mentler of Dallas, TX, is this month's Spotlight Artist. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and Washington University in Saint Louis, where he taught figure drawing and design. Michael's work has been featured in Saint Louis magazine, Communication Arts, Art Direction, Graphis and more recently in American Artist Drawing Magazine in a feature article titled "Learn From The Sketchbooks of a Modern Day Leonardo." Michael has also been featured in Juliette Aristides' new book Lessons in Classical Drawing (Essential Techniques From Inside the Atelier). More on Michael at Artist Daily.

Interview with our December Spotlight Artist, Michael Mentler:

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art? About age 8 or 9

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in? Study with Howard Sidman at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill. 1958 to 1963
- First Solo X 1959 at Mac Center for the Arts
- American Academy of Art  and The School of the Art Institute (Figure Drawing) 1963
- Layton School of Art in Milwaukee 1964
- Washington University in St. Louis 1964-1970
   (Instructed at Washington University 1972-74

I work in any and all mediums in drawing/painting/sculpture
Figurative/Formal Representation
    
3) What do you try to express in your work? For me the expression is in the creative process not the product.  The product is only a faint reflection of the original experience.

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences? Francis Bacon, Isabel Bishop, Charles Bragg, Bruegel, Corot, Coubert, R. Crumb, Daumier, De Kooning, Delacroix, Diebenkorn, Dubuffet, Durer, Frank Duveneck, Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Goya, Franz Hals, Hans Hofmann, Hokusai,   Holbein, Wassily Kandinsky, Ingres, Wolf Kahn, Klimt, Franz Kline, Lautrec, Mantegna, Javier Marin, Matisse, Michelangelo, Modigliani, Henry Moore, Rembrandt, Rodin, Medardo Rosso, Rubens, Schiele, Sorolla, Antonio Tapies, Tiepolo, Titian, Euan Uglow, Anthony Van Dyck, Velazquez, Rogier van der Weyden, Whistler, Zurbaran and Zorn to name a few.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work? Get out of bed.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now? Breathing

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art? Yes, but they change every few minutes.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently? In the end if you had a choice you are probably not an artist

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share? Yes

10) Best piece of advice for other artists?  Being an Artist is not for sissies.

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