A Very Literary Artistic Genius (Mike Stilkey)

San Diego,

Southern California artist Mike Stilkey does what most of us did when we were in school, adding our own art to the literary or scholarly work of others, in other words doodling in and on our books.  I recall my own favorite ‘canvas’ being those yellow and orange ‘Pee-Chee’ folders that we carried from first grade through to high school.

 

Stilkey uses a variety of mediums including pen, ink, pencil, acrylic paint and watercolor to create characters that are exaggerated in their elongated, somewhat gaunt looking faces and corporal frames. He seems to show the weakness and vulnerability of man, his characters express a kind of loneliness and uncertainty that hits at the core of the human soul, his art makes me think about our frailty and uncertainty in a world where we think we’re in control. I am, as so many today, quite a nostalgic being, I feel the same nostalgia in Mike Stilkey’s works, to me they are evocative of the years between World War 1 and the great depression, in style and character they reflect the human spirit and character of that time.

 

Today, Mike Stilkey is the featured artist in Hurley’s Against the Grain arts initiative that features up and coming artists, including their work in company installations, as well as promotion through company website video, point of sale and activity (special events). This partnership between commerce (Hurley), media (Surfer Magazine) and artists such as Mike Stilkey is proof that Arts Commerce not only has merit, is has a great future!

 

Discover more through CIBU Arts Commerce Initiative

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