1515 Lincoln Gallery
Oklahoma City, OK
1515 Lincoln Gallery features new discoveries of contemporary artists and and secondary market works of art by Oklahoma, national and international artists
Message-
Artist: Paul Micich (American, b. 1949)
I’ve always been a musician and came later to making paintings. One thing I’ve brought with me from music is a sense of the absolute necessity to inhabit a space where I can call up the below-the-surface, below-the-conscious process. The acrylic and alkyd paint I brush on my canvases are like notes in a scale. They’re waiting for the hand, the breath, the magic that’s possible with music and art.
The people who inhabit my paintings are dreamers, but I can’t will their dreams, or the viewer’s connection to them. I can only search for them, one brushstroke at a time, one beat at a time, until I hear their music. Then I can hope you’ll hear it too.
Artist Statement
Landmarks
They’re there, the landmarks, sticking up on this side of the horizon line. The rest, visible to the mind’s eye. But the paths are obscured, the maps not clear. Incomplete.
That’s where we are, things roughed in, definitely muddled, except maybe that starting point. The silence for music. The blank canvas when I paint. Pristine, so clear, so simple, captivating, mesmerizing really. Then I mess it up, make some sounds, some marks, searching for those people, those dreamers I find in my paintings.
That’s when the work, the time, the over-agains bring me to a different place, a place where the music begins to play me and the dreamers begin to hint at where they’re going. It’s still a broken path, an alchemist’s map. Incomplete, but what a destination. Come with me.
CV
Micich’s work has earned him Gold and Silver awards from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. His work has been chosen to be in illustration annuals for Communication Arts magazine, The Society of Illustrators (New York) and Spectrum International Annual for Fantastic Art.
His illustrated edition of the book, "The Littlest Angel," has sold over 1.4 million copies. His illustrated book, "She Taught Me to Eat Artichokes," by Mary Kay Shanley, has been a regional best-seller. Micich illustrated "The Memory Box" and "Rhythm of the Seasons," also picture books with stories written by Mary Kay Shanley.
Micich’s band, WORLD PORT, plays his original “world-view” instrumental music. They have five CDs. Micich has performed throughout the Midwest and the nation, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. WORLD PORT has played for art festivals in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, California and Washington State.