Armed with a voyeur’s propensity to observe, and a mash up of collected tastes and interests, Michael uses words, shapes, colors, and sounds seen, said, imagined, heard and overheard in real life, film, literature, art, music, memories, dreams, and popular culture to formulate his abstract expressions.
Michael is drawn to the little details of life: patterns, shapes, intersections, colors. He is also fascinated by how language—with its colloquialisms, idioms, and varied meanings—shapes our everyday existence. Michael believes language, French language in particular, is in itself a work of art.
Michael prefers working in acrylic, with bright solid colors and simple lines. Influenced by his graphic design background, he gravitates toward an arrangement of words and graphics that most impactfully tells a story in a nonverbal way. He thinks of his work as “talking pictures.”
Michael’s goal as an artist is to create works that are accessible and relatable. Works that invoke a smile, and as writer Thomas Merton said, “...enable us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” He was first inspired to pursue the arts after seeing Keith Haring’s subway chalk drawings. Among his influences, Michael is in awe of the genius of Cy Twombly, Marc Chagall, Arshille Gorky, Francis Picabia, Chaïm Soutine, Stuart Davis and Joan Miró.
Michael lives and works in New York.
Facebook: michaelquinlanwashere
Instagram: instagram.com/michaelquinlanwashere
Saatchi Art: saatchiart.com/michaelquinlanwashere
Paris, 2015