Neil Mick has been a visual artist since he was six. He expressed an early interest in drawing and painting and began drawing classes at the Baltimore Museum of Art in his early teens. Born in New York City, he was raised in Baltimore where he graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1983.
One day a highway sign (“San Francisco: 2500 miles,” seen outside New York) piqued his curiosity. He set out to see what was at the other end of that sign. On the way he spent intensive studio time at the Hambridge Art Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia and the Vallecitos Arts Retreat in New Mexico (He took the long route). Some of the results of that trip can be seen in the Goddess series.
He arrived in California in August of ’91. A few months later, the Oakland Hills Fire of 1991 raged, getting to within two blocks of the apartment he shared with his girlfriend. They they fled across the bay, but three weeks after they crash landed in San Francisco, she was violently mugged. Some of the works in the Goddess Series (“Fall and the Rise from Battery”) convey the trauma and re-emergence after an episode of violence.
Since then he has exhibited his award-winning work in numerous exhibits and juried shows across the US. He currently lives in Santa Cruz, CA.