Like many people, the natural surrounds of Yachats and the watershed is the magnet that drew Michael here from the mountains of the northern California Coast. He was raised in Livingston, a farm town located in the center of California’s San Joaquin Valley, and was encouraged by his family and teachers to pursue his interest in art. He focused his energy on printmaking, painting, and sculpture throughout his college studies. In 1975 he earned a B. A. from California State University, at Stanislaus and was awarded a fellowship in sculpture from Western Michigan University. He married Rosemarye Valentine that summer, they packed up their VW’s and moved to Kalamazoo. Michael produced and showed work for two years to earn an M. F. A.
Having enough of those Midwestern winters, they moved back to California and to the North Coast in the fall of 1977. Drawing inspiration from the scenic beauty of the area, Michael began a series of landscapes serigraphs. Along with helping to raise their children, working on the off the grid home that he and Rosemarye built in Bridgeville, Michael produced several editions a year, showing work in the San Francisco bay area and throughout Northern California and Oregon. The summers of 1988-1996 were focused on creating award-winning Humboldt County exhibits at the California State Fair in Sacramento. During the “90s” through 2004, Michael served as President of the Bridgeville Elementary School Board. For several years, he presented ecology-based art projects to local elementary school students. In 2007 Michael was hired as director of the Bridgeville Community Center, working there as a community organizer in social services through 2010.
As a former resident of the Eel River Watershed, he was an active board member of the Friends of the Eel River for 12 years. Michael designed, built, and presented an educational exhibit for FOER in numerous public events. He was also a member of the Eel River Watershed Improvement Board, a non-profit that pursued state and federal grants for salmon habitat restoration projects on private land.
One can find artwork by Michael around Yachats. The mural at the Commons was painted in 2015. It is a combination of drawing by children in the community-made in a large way. He installed a sculpture in 2019 at the Fisterra Gardens Townhouses of four figures in a precarious pose called Finding Balance. The annual banner project that decorates the Light poles each summer is led by him.
Michael would like to contribute to the efforts of View the Future because it is important to him to conserve and expand the qualities of the environment that drew him and Rosemarye here in the first place.
