ARTIST STATEMENT - JOHN MICHAEL EDINGTON
John Michael Edington - Flushing, Michigan, USA
John Michael “Mike” Edington is an artist born and raised in Michigan. Upon receiving his BA in history and literature, Mike served in the United States Army and then made a career in management for the automotive manufacturing and computer services industries retiring from Hewlett Packard in 2012. In retirement, Mike has recast himself as a writer, photographer, and recently as an artist. A fan of Monet’s use of light and Marc Chagall’s vibrant colors he also finds inspiration in the imaginative abstractions of the Abstract Expressionists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Gerhard Richter, and Arshile Gorky. As an artist, he has endeavored to find self-expression in differentiating realism from the “what could be”; expressing his “voice” in the translation of the literal into the imaginative world of abstraction. He works in pastels, color and black and white photography, and digital art where he journeys into an imaginative world often devoid of conscious intellect and the “rules” of a conforming world. These are excursions driven by instinct and by the resources beneath the grasp of his conscious mind allowing for new self-awareness and the joys of creating something unique...a different way of connecting to our world beyond the limits of sensory perceptions. 2017 was Mike’s first opportunity to make his work publicly available and he has been selected for exhibition at the Annual Michigan Fine Arts Competition and the All Michigan All Media Visual Arts Competition and has had his work exhibited in numerous on-line gallery competitions and shows. Mike, his wife, Elaine, and their two cats live in Flushing, Michigan. His work will shortly be available for view on a forthcoming website currently in development.