Mikey's work questions traditional expressions of masculinity in modern day coastal Massachusetts. The namesake painting of the show, 'Tears in the Sun', paired with pieces such as 'Buckets of Flowers', bring a sense of fragility to a sea salted male visage. We are at once hardened by the past and yearn for a vulnerability that was previously unallowable.
Bucolic New England landscapes abut paintings whose hand drawn figures and lettering evoke the early days of flash tattoo and hand painted signage so common on old town street corners.
The history of flash tattoo alone is inextricably linked to the sea. Sailors at port would flip through pages of flash tattoo booklets and select imagery to transform into art on their skin; the figure of a woman, religious crosses, anchors and hearts, something to ground them to feelings of warmth and home while they contend with the elements.
This theme of opposition, hard and soft, warmth and coolness, creates a bond through Mikey's work; we are drawn to relics of the past while at the same time acknowledging how the present has changed us.
- Monique Juliette Baron