Mike Wicks shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Mike, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is a normal day like for you right now?
A normal day in the life of Mike Wicks:
6:15ish Clock radio goes off, NPR is on, clock is 30 minutes fast. Just the way its been and to change now would be ludicrous.
6:30ish put the harness on the Sheepadoodle puppy, Alunda, force her out of bed to do our 1st walk.
7:30 brew some tea, wash dishes from the night prior (part of my ADHD procrastination)
Work till lunch, take the puppy out again
Work till about 4, take the puppy out again. Come back, she sleeps, I decompress.
Make dinner for me, Make Dinner for the puppy.
Watch X-Files or some other silly show
Take puppy out for last walk of the day, go to bed and get ready to rinse an repeat. Interspersed in these lovely events could be creating something new, smoking my pipe or a cigar with a sidekick of 2 fingers of 16 year old scotch.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am trained landscape/underwater photographer that has ventured into the world of abstract painting. I started with brush and standard scenes, a sunset, still art, etc, had some success but finding the right new owner for a piece was hit or miss. Moving into abstract opened the world up to people who would be drawn to the design, the colors or both.
I use a pouring method but with intention and what I mean by that is that most people will pour the paints and just let them do what they do. I, however, have an image in my head that I’m trying to acheive. Could be something like a sunset, or waves or even mountains. I’m using metallic powders mixed into the acrylics and resin to achieve these images.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
The word powerful has a different meaning to me. I would more equate it with something like influential or impactful. There is one memory that comes to my mind a lot. In my late teenage years I was a camp counselor at a waterskiing/Sailing camp. We had a blind camper, an amazing kid, could sail the pants off anyone in the camp but just couldn’t get up on skis. After 4 years, his last year as a camper, in the last week of the camp, working with another counselor, we got him up on skis. I like to think this impacted him as much as it did me as an accomplishment and shaped us both knowing that pretty much anything is possible, as long as you commit to it. Yeah, that was a powerful moment for me.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I think everyone has that time in their life. Mine was during my divorce. I live or try to live an honest life, expect that from others, especially loved ones. This was turned on it’s head to a point where I actually fled for fear of my life to another state. I had no idea whether I was going to be able to work, be homeless or have a life due to what was happening. One of my brothers would call me each day and ask if I had considered it and I knew what he meant. I told him yes but then put those thoughts away.
I, obviously made it out of that dark hole and am thriving today but yea, it was hard to keep my heads up and truly almost gave up. Glad I didn’t and that I had a support structure there for me.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Interesting question. I’m not sure really what “real” means but as far as my public persona and my private persona goes, they’re the same for sure. When you meet me, it is the genuine me and what I say or do in public typically represents what I would do anywhere.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Working! I would immediately switch to the fun things in life and never look back. Scuba, painting, photography, playing with friends and of course the puppy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.MichaelWicksArt.com
- Instagram: michael_wicks_art
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeWicksFineArt
