“I enjoy the process of making art. For me, it is not the meaning of a painting that I want [viewers] to leave with, but a sense of the joy I felt in creating it.”


Michael Summers burst onto the scene in a blur of technicolor, delighting all withhis sense of whimsy and bold color palette. A self proclaimed “child of hippies,” Summers spent his childhood amidst a seemingly endless arsenal of art supplies, stretching his imagination to its farthest reaches. It is no wonder his work embraces the process of painting so completely. Driven to paint by a “compulsion to create,” Summers tends to care less about the end result and more about the act of creating. When asked what drives him he speaks of having a vision and the struggle to help it escape from his mind, turning his thoughts into objects. “More than anything,” he says, “I enjoy the process of making art. For me...it is not the meaning of a painting that I want [viewers] to leave with, but a sense of the joy I felt in creating it.” It is with this sense of joy that we look at his latest fine art limited edition, Color Play. Continuing his colored rain series, Color Play shows another family of tigers frolicking in and out of a kaleidoscope of puddles. Anything you experience can change you and the rain is experience. Some hide under cover, but the tiger cub fearlessly ventures out. Mimicking life, Summers alludes to the risks and freedom that comes with innocence. Children are not hindered by fear just as the tiger cub is not afraid to splash in the rainbow puddles. As we get older, taking that leap of faith, making the decision to change becomes more challenging. Summers reminds us to never lose sight of the world around us and get the most out of life. He views the world as extraordinary where others see the ordinary and urges us to have the courage to delve into the unknown.


Summers’s new show “Evolve” draws on his surrealist scenes and cavalcade of colorful characters, while examining the idea of evolution. Approaching his 40th birthday, Summers has found himself looking back on his work and life, finding that the man of his twenties and thirties, like his subjects, has been changed by experience. He finds that life, like colored rain, has revealed a brilliant, vibrant version of himself, a self that exhibits a boundless exuberance for his work. Join us this March to see how Summers’s upbringing, coupled with life and all of its uncertainty, has produced a world-class artist that has collectors expecting the unexpected.


12 OFF THE EASEL MAGAZINE – WINTER 2014

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