About The Artist

Michael Brown was born in 1942 in the north of England. His early education was oriented towards trade skills to fill a post war need to rebuild the country. At thirteen years of age Michael’s family immigrated to Canada and then at seventeen years of age his family moved again settling on the east coast of the United States. Following high school, Michael attended the State University College at Buffalo N.Y. and received a B.S. in Art Education. After college, Michael taught art in the New York state public schools for four years before attending graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received an M.F.A. in Sculpture. After graduation Michael accepted a position at W.R. Harper College in Palatine Illinois to develop and teach the sculpture, three-dimensional design, and ceramics programs. In 1996, Michael took a sabbatical spending time in Marble Colorado to focus on carving stone. In 2002, he retired from teaching college after thirty years and is now a full-time sculptor. 

 Stone is plentiful, available, durable, and beautiful.  It has abundant variation of color, texture, and density.  Stone responds to shaping by the removal process revealing form and creating structure.  Stone as a sculpture and building material has a history as long as humans have created objects.  Stone has been the material of weapons, tools, objects of desire, currency, sculpture, and architecture.  It has been our cave, our cliff dwelling, our cottage, our church, our village, our walled city and country, and the roads between.  Stone marks our waypoint, our destination, and our boundaries.  With this great history why today when we experience stone does it seem that we envision landscaping, countertops and gravestones?

Using stone, I am redefining a space in a form that invites the public to experience, to physically touch, to sit down on, or to step up to the piece.  Texture, form, and surface are important in creating a space that is inviting.  The aesthetic content is influenced by my experiences with historical, architectural, and sacred sites.  The sculptural dialog is about defined spaces that we move to, through, interact with, and experience as our own space.

Michael has traveled to the Southwest areas of the United States during the summer months. He enjoyed walking the Ruins and artworks of “The People Who Came Before”, their structures, and inventive ways of adapting their lives to the surrounding environment and landscapes.  You may see some influence in his artworks as a result of these visits. 

Michael’s childhood experience in North Coastal England and Canada also influenced his sense of antiquity, landscapes, and monuments.