Michael Hoffman

"Costa Del Sol XII" Multi Colored Target Painting with Luminous Effect

Born December 12, 1965 in New York City, Michael's father owned a fine art moving business and his mother was a playright/director. They were surrounded by a diverse crowd of artists,such as filmmaker Gary Galsworth and painter Charles Mingus Jr.. Michael’s family moved across the USA, living in Madison and Santa Fe, and finally settled on Whidbey Island in Washington State. He spent his teenage years clearing a six acre plot of land with his family and building a seven sided geodesic dome house. Michael attended The Evergreen State College from 1983-87, studying film and photography. After graduation he took his camera and, over a ten year period, traveled extensively throughout Europe. While travelling he lived with, performed with, and documented circus performers and their communities. With no formal education as a painter, Michael draws on his eclectic past for inspiration - strongly influenced by his travels throughout Spain and France and rich colors and textures marked by time. Michael moved to St. Louis in 2001, where he works as a full time artist and raises his daughter and twin boys - a lifetime dream. His artwork is collected by individuals and corporations worldwide. "My paintings are meditative studies done with rich colors and bold graphic compositions - I often incorporate circles, grids and stripes. The universality and appeal of this symbology pulls the viewer in and holds them there to explore the subtle details. I try to create work that both captivates and calms. I work with abstractions because I want to put forth something universal that can be open to interpretations that are unique to each individual and can continue to evolve over time. A common theme in my painting is the relationship between rigid linear form and the organic flow of nature, order and disorder. I feel this is reflective in many ways of our society and peoples’ longing for something more than the sterility of technology in our modern lives. I believe inclusion of these two elements creates a certain universal harmony in many of my paintings. My pieces are also about the act of painting itself. I explore the physical nature of my materials and push to use unique and original methods of applying them. Many times there is strong evidence of my physical relationship to the canvas as I paint - using my body motion as a natural pendulum and the random arcs of my markings. Other works are done on wood panels that I coat with a plaster mixture and carve into before it sets. The geometrical markings bring to mind old nautical maps...

This piece is round and is 42 inches in diameter. For Dugar, nature is sacred. Dugar mimics this belief in her art by creating a sacred and tactile space. This series of large canva...

This piece is framed. Pricing includes the pictured frame. The unframed dimensions are 66 x 42 inches. For Shivani Dugar, nature is sacred. Dugar mimics this belief in her art by c...

This piece is circular, with a diameter of 29.75 inches. Aron Hill currently lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. He graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design in 2000 with a...

This piece is framed. The price reflects the framed piece. Unframed dimensions: 52 × 52 inches. When in the studio, April Midkiff finds herself drawn to...

This piece is round and is 20 inches in diameter. Aron Hill currently lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. He graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design in 2000 with a BFA in ...

"Lawn Chair with White T-shirt" is part of the latest on-going series from Eleanor Aldrich. These "behind the lawn chair" vantage points provide Aldrich with the perfect subject matt...

Through his artistic practice, Martin Benson is exploring ways to express questions about deeper levels of reality. Inspired by sacred geometry and esoteric symbolism, his paintings embody his own contemplative practices and the experiences within them. Reconciling the tension between spirituality and the hyper-materialist modern world, his pieces act as visual koans for both the artist and the viewer. Benson received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his BA at the University of Southern California. He has exhibited at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center (LA), the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Jazz and Heritage...

Through his artistic practice, Martin Benson is exploring ways to express questions about deeper levels of reality. Inspired by sacred geometry and esoteric symbolism, his paintings embody his own contemplative practices and the experiences within them. Reconciling the tension between spirituality and the hyper-materialist modern world, his pieces act as visual koans for both the artist and the viewer. Benson received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his BA at the University of Southern California. He has exhibited at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center (LA), the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Jazz and Heritage...

Through his artistic practice, Martin Benson is exploring ways to express questions about deeper levels of reality. Inspired by sacred geometry and esoteric symbolism, his paintings embody his own contemplative practices and the experiences within them. Reconciling the tension between spirituality and the hyper-materialist modern world, his pieces act as visual koans for both the artist and the viewer. Benson received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his BA at the University of Southern California. He has exhibited at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center (LA), the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Jazz and Heritage...

#1377 (Abstract painting) Oil on canvas on wooden panel - Unframed. Boecker begins each new work by penciling in his composition. But the work ultimately is about the colors and lay...

FAT BACK is part of the latest on-going series from Eleanor Aldrich. These "behind the lawn chair" vantage points provide Aldrich with the perfect subject matter to convey her mixed media approach. More info below: Eleanor Aldrich was born in Springerville, Arizona. A participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, she also holds an MFA in Painting & Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she currently lives. She earned her BFA in Painting & Drawing through the Academie Minerva (Groningen, the Netherlands) and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. She was a participant in the Drawing Center’s first Open Sessions. Eleanor has had solo shows in Boston, Nashville, Knoxville, Flagstaff, AZ, and at the University of Alabama. Her work has been shown at Saltworks Gallery (Atlanta, GA), the Drawing Center (New York, NY), Grin (Providence, RI) and Ortega y Gasset (New York, NY). Her work was chosen for 1708 Gallery’s ‘FEED 2013’ (Richmond, VA). She has been awarded an Endowment for the Arts through the Whiteman Foundation, and the Herman E. Spivey Fellowship. Her work has been included in New American Paintings and on Artforum. Aldrich's work is textural and alchemical; she matches materials – often industrial sealants – and techniques to the subject matter they look like, thereby approaching a likeness without realistic rendering. She attributes her appreciation of mystery and the possibility of transformation in her work to her Catholic upbringing, in which materials were transformed and images held power over life. Her work intersects modernist painting, her own experiences, and the physicality of the body. Sometimes her work is about the application – paint is combed, piped, sprinkled and sprayed, reflecting traditional feminine work and crafts. Often the subject matter acts as a metaphor. The lines of a lawn chair seat serves as a veiled reference to the grid, and its breakdown – presumably by human weight – to an imagined encounter with the human body. *Make sure to use the "view in a room...