By Whitney Richardson
The mission of this series is to give local artists, of any medium, the recognition they deserve. This month, we pushed to get a little more variety in the artists we feature, and Mikey’s vibrant and culturally engaging art is what captured our attention the most. It was a pleasure to sit down and speak with him.
Mikey is a Maryland native artist who grew up in Waldorf. You may have seen some of his artwork spread out across Twitter and Instagram. He blends his passion for painting and his love for the culture and creates unique and flavorful pieces. Mikey first started painting about two years ago, in late November. His first creation was a red spade, from there he simply hasn’t stopped.
He explained to me what art means to him. It lets him express his creativity and deciphers the thoughts and ideas in his head and puts it in a physical form. His motivation to keep creating really increased when he posted his artwork to Twitter. There, Mikey posted several of his completed pieces and the response was unbelievable. He received over five hundred retweets and over twelve hundred likes on one post. The world seemed to like his art as well and he garnered an audience for himself via social media.
The Baltimore born artist has had a tremendous amount of support from the local community since his start. He told me about his art showcases that he regularly puts on at his job, Proud Mary. He sites his mother and cousin as his biggest supporters. Making art your career isn’t always easy for your family to grasp, but Mikey’s family was very supportive of his creative steps. His mother knew from the beginning while his dad was simply happy for him finding his purpose.
We went on to break down his inspirations. Mikey has always been a fan of cartoons such as ‘The Boondocks’ and ‘Hey! Arnold’, however, he’s not much of a fan of the newer cartoons. This is what lead him to recreate his favorite cartoons in his pieces and make them his own.
Vibrant colors in whatever I do, unless it has a meaning.
He uses faceless characters in order to pay homage to the Black Lives Matter movement. He cares deeply about the system and the unlawful murders and convictions of African Americans and he uses his platform to keep that awareness going. I asked him who would be his dream client to complete a painting for would be. His top pick, the late and great Tupac, with J Cole, Lil Yachty and Joey Badass following.
In the future, Mikey would like to be an art teacher. Although he doesn’t agree with the current structure of art classes in public schools, he wants to teach the technique and let students find their niche in the art world. “You have to have the audience to teach”, he explained to me, “I want art to ultimately be a thing to escape to”. He wants the next generation to see his own art and feel that they can do whatever they want, as long as they work hard and do what it takes to make it happen.
Mikey has a lot of big plans for himself and his mission to get art back into the community. He wants to set up a paint session for others in the DMV area and encourage others to express themselves through art. He’s also in the early stages of creating his own clothing line, merging fashion with his artwork.
Mikeyluv’s Socials
Twitter: Mikeyluvv__
