Mars Painting

Michael Collins is an artist who lives and works on the Southside of Hermosa Beach, California. Obsessive by nature, Collins often creates several practically identical works, upon which developing thoughts and emotions are revealed: notes are made and then crossed out, "mistakes" often repeated. He approaches each piece waiting for "the trouble" to begin. "I'm not interested until the mistake happens. I'm waiting for the wheels to fall off. For me, the painting begins here...when I am ready to throw the brush across the room and walk away from the canvas." It is in this battle that a kind of "terrible beauty" arises. He produces acute personal moments for the observer, manifested by the absence of rules and incorporating intentional omissions. Each piece of the story luring the viewer round and round in circles. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and obscure. Interpretation becomes boundless. It is this penetrating injection of ambiguity that blurs the breach between the pedestrian and the extraordinary. The vitality and power of his paintings is captured in vigorous and intrepid brush strokes, exploiting bold colors which he uses to depict human desire and conflict. The thought processes are highly subjective and unfiltered in their references to the subconscious but also the very present and real.