THE REFRIGERATOR MUSEUM

PART DEUX

Welcome gentle visitor to the secnd page of the online version of the Refrigerator Museum of Gainesville, Florida.These are older images that we just could not stand to delete.

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SPECIAL NOTE TO MOM AND DAD :

IF you click on one of these images with your right mouse button, you can save that image or use it as your desk top. If you save it, be sure to copy down where the computer is saving it so you can retrieve it later.

Here are some examples of Michael's artwork :

This is Michael's first picture of his baby brother, "Care" . It was drawn in June of '98 and is representative of Michael's "Blue Phase". Note again the letters "M" and "B" hidden amongst the backdrop. This has become a recurring motif in the artist's work. See if you can find the word "Care" cleaverly hidden as a design element ( Hint: the "C" is backwards)

care1.jpg

What follows is a self portrait in which the artist again included the subject matter of his younger sibling almost as if he wished to challenge the viewer to compare size and perspective of two similar DNA genomes seperated only by the consequences of 4 linear years temporally. Note how the artist's signature is employed.

caremike.jpg

Leaving the subject of portraiture behind, we next display Michael's first two landscapes. These also represent the artist's first forray into the medium of watercolor. Some of Michael's biographers believe that this sudden interest in the out of doors was piqued by his recent trip to Clearwater Beach. Others maintain he was inspired by the red tent his Cousin Brian sent him and which he slept in nightly during this creative period. Still others believe his Mother, Lady Linda, enouraged him.

This first example is entitled "Sand and Tree" and is from August of '98. Michaels wishes to point out that the red cloud in the upper left corner represents the sunsets he enjoyed while at the beach. Blue is the sky and yellow is the sand on which a lone tree struggles to provide shelter from the overwhelming radiation of the disproportionate sun !

sandtree.jpg

In this second representation from the same era, The artist once more reverts to the blues and purples ( his favorite colors ) in this scene of a boat struggling against the ocean's temperment. Note how water rises to the sky only to fall to earth again. The Artist was inspired in this by a recurring episode of Magic Schoolbus. Note again an "M" and a "B" here represented as cloudlike formations.

boatonwa.jpg

Here are some pictures Michael made in summer school . The originals are residing on the Refrigerator Museum of Pembroke Pines.

art1

art2

This is a birthday card created for the artist's father (Moi). It is the first known work to contain a message other than the artist's signature (though a backwards "Michael" can be found on the image's bottom. In this he was perhaps aluding to his father's friend, Dave Bazinet, who has spent way too much time listening to Beatles' records backwards in hopes of hearing secret messages).

Michael explains that the smaller person in this piece is a self-portrait, while the larger image represents dear old dad (Moi). The lower half of Moi's face is rendered undeciferable by a beard, here uncolored. The red represents Dad's recliner. Note how it appears both behind and above the father image. Above Michael can be seen glowing the soft yellow bulb of Dad's reading lamp. loveyou.jpg

What follows is a collage created by Michael at the Discovery Museum in Chattanooga. Many features of the artist's trip are featured. The blue sky above is reflected upon the Tennessee River featured in the lower right alongside a grassy park and the Riverwalk "that holds the water in." Michael was kind enough to explain to his public that the brown and black image in the left lower corner is a cave he ventured partway into in Rock City ( yes, as in "See Rock City" ). A kibbutzing Volunteer Redneck Park Worker, unaware of the effect he was having on an impressionable 4 year old, told Michael a bear lives in there. Michael remembered the cave and included it in this epic collage.

Two trees can be seen arising from a magazine photo of grass and a tree stump. The trees reach sensuously towards the sky, but then veer off. The tree on the right is held up by a light blue structure. Michael explains that these are the trees in his Uncle Craig's neighborhood. Being a new neighborhood in the Atlanta Suburbs, the developers wisely bulldozed many of the trees, only to plant replacements later. Many of these exist at awkward angles and are held up by posts.

Between the trees are two yellow objects. To the right is a yellow and black striped bee happily buzzing through the air. Michael saw many of these at the apple orchards near Uncle Craig's house. To the left is a beehive.

Lastly, in the upper right hand corner of the collage is an "animal". Magazine cutouts form its hair, eyes, mouth, and chin. Michael explains that this animal, too, lives in the cave with the bear. A whimsical departure, no ? chatt.jpg

SKIPPING FORWARD ..... On Michael's 5th birthday, his parents took him to the Jacksonville Zoo. There he intently studied the striped horse of the African Plains and later that night, at Rafferty's, set down in graphite his first study of this strange beast. That first image suffered a tragic transfiguration when the artist's younger brother, the aforementioned "Care", decided to teeth upon it. This event thrust Michael into a very dark mood from which he has only recently risen to readress that subject.

What follows is the Master's third rendition of a zebra ( as always, in black and white graphite ) . In this domestic scene, the mother zebra, Linda, her back to the bedroom door, is visiting her baby zebra, Care, who is bouncing about in his crib. zebra.jpg

On the same day "Zebra.Linda.Care" was created, the artist , in an awesome display of his range, took up the lighter colors and created the following "DUCK" drawing. Here Michael creates a pictoriagraph of yellow and orange on white. While this may not be appreciated by the contrast-challenged art lover, the true afficianado will understand the artist's statement that wildlife viewing has its challenges as the animal being studies may blend into the background and disapear.

Michael drew his first duck (now on display on the Refrigerator Museum of Pembroke Pines) while parked next to the Duck Pond in Gainesville while his Dad answered a page. The following day he crafted this colored version :duck.jpg

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