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Where people share and discover artistic talent and more
Where people share and discover artistic talent and more
I was eight years old and the boat had broken down again, Dad cursed beneath the open engine hatch, the air smelled of ether from the starter spray. The boat bobbed up and down like a cork in the choppy bay. My brothers and I huddled together on the salty cushions to avoid the salt spray of the white caps and our father’s ire. I looked up to see a sunset so spectacular that it became clear to me why they call the strip of land beyond the bay Fire Island. The sky was on fire with luminous oranges, splashes of gold and streaks of crimson flowing into purple. It was perhaps the first time that I was really aware of the magnificent beauty of our planet and it took my breath away.
The wind was picking up and so were the waves, whipping up my father’s temper. And though things were tense on board, I was so enraptured by my first experience of aesthetic arrest that I stood up and announced to my family that I was going to be an artist so I could keep this sunset forever. My mother shushed, my brothers laughed and my father growled that I should sit down and shut up, that artists are beatniks. And while I still had a lot to learn about timing, on that day I found my enthusiasm, that welling up of passion that I feel for what is beautiful, evocative and compelling on this blue planet. That is what I try to convey in my work." ...
It was on my Dad’s old wooden boat in the middle of the Great South Bay off New York’s Long Island that I first knew that I wanted to be an artist.
Michael is intrigued by the visual grandeur of the world he sees. This fascination for tone, contrast, color, shape, depth, pattern and texture has shaped his work as a photographer and artist-illustrator in a career spanning 30 years in which he has honed his unique style. From his initial roots in New York, his path led to Los Angeles and to the California Institute of the Arts, founded by Walt Disney, where he was awarded the first multi-disciplinary BFA diploma in 1983. Michael has since worked as a professional designer, illustrator and photographer for clients and collectors spanning the globe; from New York to Tokyo and Switzerland, his home since 1990. His illustrations and photographs have appeared in magazines and ads, on billboards, in books, on the Web and in film and television productions. It is perhaps his multi-disciplinary approach that singles out Michael Brewer. The boundaries of writing, film-making, design, illustration and photography merge leading to his unique perspective and skillful execution.