Michael Kalisz

In reflecting upon my body of work, I have come to realize that I do not identify myself as an artist. Instead, I choose to think of myself as a creative; with art serving as the medium through which I express my creativity. That being said, my work is cross-disciplinary and mixed-media with an emphasis on drawing, both traditional as well as digital, and sculpture. I prefer to not limit myself to one practice as my path of self-discovery often requires the blending together of traditional and new media: two and three-dimensional form. I draw inspiration from the aesthetics of popular culture and theatre. On a conceptual level, I am interested in articulating my journey of self-discovery and defining my masculinity in a world of fluid identity. I utilize humor and self-critique as a means of commenting on the transition between adolescence and adulthood; and the millennial identity. My current work deals with similar themes of identity and manhood with a particular focus on fame and how popular culture operates as a universal global language. I view at my artistic practice as a tool to discover truths about myself, understand my relationship to the world around me, and poke fun at my personal problems and insecurities. My creativity is a crucial aspect of how I define myself, and, as a result, to identify simply as an artist would be a gross understatement.