Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Walden.
Michael, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I guess the uniqueness of my story might be that I always considered myself an artist/painter, but it took some time realizing how important it was. Just out of college, after studying art, I decided to do an MFA program at Boston University specializing in Art Education. In my mind, it was a way of supporting my art. I didn’t expect that when I did get a position teaching in the Worcester Public Schools that for a while, teaching would become my art. Ten years into that job and the death of my mother inspired some sort of need for an adjustment in my thinking. I realized that not making art for myself was having a huge effect on me, and I had to retrain myself to do art when I wasn’t teaching. Part of that process was taking up a painting class at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts with the esteemed artist Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz. This class, which I took over and over for two years allowed me to create a portfolio of work that afforded me a place in a second MFA program at Mass Art. With a specially crafted sabbatical from WPS, I was able to complete this program in 2014 and truly feel as though I was balancing what it meant to be both an artist and me, as a teacher of art. About two years ago, I came to a point where I realized that the art and the teaching where not getting the attention that either of them needed to be successful in my mind, and after many years of talking to kids about how art had the ability to change the world, I felt it was time for me to put all of my energy into testing that. I took a leave of absence in 2017 and in the spring of 2018, gave up my position to pursue this dream of making art full-time.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am primarily a figurative painter, but I use different printmaking processes to support that work. I believe my work is about the human condition. My work explores my connection to the things that are happening in the world. Most of my favorite art is based on abstract expressionism, but my work tends to tell a story. I use the things that I see in abstraction to tell those stories. I think the work I do inspires stories in the minds of the viewers.
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
If I only knew then, what I know now… I think my only advice is to keep working and keep learning. Be inspired by your life, and the things around you. Don’t be afraid or put too much energy into what other people think. Also, there is no set course to follow. In this day and age, we, as an artist have to create it for ourselves.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I think the most important way for people to support an artist is to do and see the work when it’s on view. At the moment, I don’t have work on display, but I am always open to people coming to my studio for a visit. I also have a website and am on various social media sites.
Contact Info:
- Address: Michael Walden Studio
42 Drift Road
Westport, MA 02790 - Website: michaelwalden.net
- Phone: 978-807-1123
- Email: mw.art67@gmail.com
- Instagram: mwaldenart mw.arte67
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/michael.walden.319
- Twitter: MichaelWalden67
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