"Drifting Through (Pink Minnow)" Print

Michael A. Knutson grew up and found his place in the natural world in Port Townsend, Washington. His childhood was spent out in the woods or in his rowboat looking across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. After graduation, he was accepted to the University of Washington where he became an aspiring poet and a gold-medalist on the rowing team. It was during this time that he cultivated a friendship with Northwest painter Galen Garwood and became more deeply acquainted with the Northwest Mystics. At age 23, Knutson joined the United States Marine Corps and trained in the infantry. While in Virginia, he started sketching and painting. He was assigned to Washington D.C. on Presidential guard where he rented his first studio in Eastern Market and began painting prolifically. On visits home to Seattle, he shared his works with Galen and other local artists and was urged to show. These showings quickly sold out and garnered attention of Wesley Wehr, Marshal Hatch and other art world notables. "Mak" painted five exhibits before leaving the service in 1998 upon which he returned to Seattle and began painting professionally. Michael joined an arts collective, the Soma Group, in 2003 which was based in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. He grew as he collaborated with other artists, made short films and expanded his works to large canvas. In 2004, he moved to New York City, showing in Tribeca. Afterwards, Knutson rented a house in northern Maine and remained there, painting alongside native Passamaquoddy craftspeople. In 2007, he moved back to the West. Michael currently shows in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. His triptych, "No Man's Land" stands eight by seventeen feet behind the bar at Neumos in his old neighborhood of Capitol Hill. His work continues to give homage the souls around us: the lone bird on the forest floor, the trees that mark the sky, and the small, silver minnow drifting through.