Caught in Translation: From Page to Paint
Gallery
BY PHILIP LEDERER SRQ DAILY WEDNESDAY PHILANTHROPY EDITION WEDNESDAY SEP 5, 2018
With the opening of Elsewhere, the latest juried exhibition at Art Center Sarasota, local artists from all walks strut their stuff and show their latest. Sculptures, paintings, photographs, prints, etchings, sketchings and everything in between adorn all four of the institution’s galleries, turning the whole building into a celebration of the vast and varied talent of the region.
Juried by Laura Avery, exhibitions manager for Selby Gardens, as well as former director of Art Center Manatee and former assistant director of Ringling College’s celebrated Basch Gallery, the artist Mike Hanlon brought home the top honor with a portrait of the author James Ellroy. “I didn’t think there was a chance of it winning anything,” says Hanlon with a note of surprise. “I was just hoping they’d hang me in a good spot with nice lighting.”
For five years, Hanlon has painted authors as part of his Literary Heroes series. Hemingway, Poe, Vonnegut, Twain—all have gotten their due at the end of Hanlon’s brush, and always in oil. “That’s all I know,” he says. Why he’s drawn to authors, he can’t quite say, but suspects it may come from a kinship born of solitude. Kindred artists, in a way, both painters and authors often work their magic in isolation, spending solitary hours at the easel or on the blank page. They retreat in order to emerge—arriving from their exile, work fully formed, only to again step back, defined by their creations. A portrait inverts the equation.
Also, as an avid reader, Hanlon finds the exercise revealing of the authors whose work he consumes. “You know a lot about a person just by looking at their face,” he says. As for Ellroy, author of brutal and bloody epics such as The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential? “He’s a pretty tough guy,” says Hanlon. But being his subject doesn’t mean Ellroy’s a favorite. “There are writers I like a lot better,” the artist says, including the late Tom Wolfe and Philip Roth.
Hanlon’s penchant for author portraits has also given him a rather distinct avenue of exhibition. In addition to hanging as part of Elsewhere, Hanlon plans to continue submitting to every Art Center Sarasota show that he can, citing the gallery’s layout and lighting as high points. But he’s also found a home in area libraries and bookstores, including delivering a new portrait to Shelf Indulgence every month.
James Ellroy hangs in Art Center Sarasota through September 28.
"James Ellroy" by Mike Hanlon.
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Literary Heroes at Gallery 120
Written by: Laura Castro of the Largo Public Library in Largo, FL
September 2017
Artist Mike Hanlon began painting portraits of beloved authors five years ago, since then the series has expanded to over sixty paintings... and counting! Henry Miller was the first author he painted, after that came Patricia Highsmith, after that came many more.
He confesses that when he started, he didn't think he would paint so many portraits. When choosing who topaint next, he looks at authors whose works he personally admires. His favorite author is Tom Wolfe of which, he says enthusiastically, he has read everything by him.
When visiting his exhibit, the result of all his hard work gives you the sensation of being in the room with some of the greatest literary minds in history. Mike's talent for capturing a dreamy-realness of the author's personality gives the effect of feeling like you could have a conversation with the author's portrait.
Indeed, Mike's goal is to deepen the connections people have with authors to "show what they look like, not just their name".
Often, when Mike picks up a book, he will first turn to the back page of the dust jacket to read the author's biography to get a perpective on the author's personality. Just the same, by visually portraying the humanity behind the byline, Mike helps the viewer learn more about the author as a person.
See the collection yourself, Mike Hanlon's Literary heroes Exhibit, Larger Than Life is currently on view at Gallery 120 inside the Largo Public Library.
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Featured Artist: Mike Hanlon, A Hyde Park treasure
Written and Photographed by Charley Greacen,Hyde Park resident and artistHanlon Close Up 2014
Standing in Mike Hanlon's tiny apartment above Hugo's Restaurant on South Howard, I felt as though I had entered a cross between King Tut's tomb and the Algonquin Club. Seeing photos of Mike's work on the website his brother George built for him (mikehanlon.info) did little to prepare me for witnessing this gathering of his literary and artistic heroes, enshrined in oil paint. Here was George Orwell, richly textured and rendered with near clairvoyant insight. On another wall columnist Mike Royko and raconteur Studs Turkel share a couple of beers and a laugh. On other canvasses Henry Miller and Patricia Highsmith eavesdrop. Sprinkled among them are smaller self-portraits and some of his 178 Bayshore/Hillsborough Bay stud-es, representative of his 40 years of work.
Although I've known Mike since shortly after we both arrived in Hyde Park in the early 1970's, the visit I made to write this article was my first glimpse into his treasure trove of art. As it turns out, I was equally unaware of many aspects of his colorful past. Back in 1962 Hanlon, who grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, earned an amateur featherweight Golden Gloves boxing championship. After a stint in the Marines he spent 1967 and 1968 in San Francisco, an experience that reawakened his artistic itch. "I always knew," he had said at the outset of our interview, "that I could draw." A job as a roustabout with the King Brothers Circus brought Mike to Florida. "It was a terrible job, working with illiterate hillbillies and people hiding from the law," he laughed. He fled the circus' East Coast winter camp and came to Tampa because, "It looked good on the map."
Here in 1971 Mike took the first in a succession of restaurant jobs that would allow him to walk around in the daytime, sketching in his sketchbooks, and to paint by natural light. He recently retired from restaurant work but continues to fill his sketchbooks. His sketching caught the attention of Christopher Clark, a semi-retired painter who taught in his home studio across the street from Tampa University. Hanlon acknowledged it was this kindred spirit who forever changed his life. "He taught me everything, and he taught me nothing. He just taught me to see things." Clark's tutelage was brief (he died in 1973) but Mike says, "I feel my life began in 1971." Mike began paint- ing in oils the year Clark died. Originally he painted from his sketchbook studies. He filled pages in places like bus stations, because he could always find subjects that had time on their hands. When he moved on to painting images of his cultural icons, he needed to resort to working from photographs, a method he originally looked down on. "I didn't want to be just another picture-maker." He works from black and white photos that, he feels, require more of the work to come from within him. Mike readily admits he has always been intimidated by modern art, and the same probably holds true for the business end of art. His balance between artistic talent and self-promotional skills has to be the perfect inverse to those of the late Thomas Kinkade, the commercially successful "Painter of Light."
Mike has gained admirers, and they are starting to draw this modest painter's work out into public view. Nine of his works were recently on display at the Charles Fendig Library on Neptune Avenue. Stefani Beddingfield, owner of independent book store Inkwood Books, has been rotating his paintings of writers as an Author of the Month feature. As we sat under the gaze of his canvas luminaries, listening to the music of R. Crumb and the Cheap Serenaders, we reminisced about a different Hyde Park that existed in the 1970's. Broad porches, peeling paint and inexpensive rents were a natural draw for creative folks. Jerry Bickle and Holly Rubin, who still travel around the country with their Bits and Pieces Puppet Theatre mingled here. Phil Lee who still shares his music insights on WMNF radio, had his photo studio here back in the day. Jackson Walker who now paints his historic venues in his Stewart, Florida, studio and Rick Melby, a glass worker of renown, who is now based in Peoria, Illinois, were regulars in the neighborhood. That community vanished as real estate prices rose. Even if you aren't aware of his work, you may have seen Mike, with his ever-present sketchbook, stalking the sidewalks of Hyde Park. Sometimes, to unwind, he'll pedal down the streets on his unicycle, juggling a few clubs, maybe in homage to the circus that brought him here. If you do recognize him, savor the moment, because you are observing a true Hyde Park treasure.