Michael Herring’s Artist Statement

My paintings deal with dark and/or humorous situations, and usually contain single or multiple skull- or cartoon-like characters. The mixture of pain and humor in everyday life fascinates me.

My abstract paintings grew out of my recent interest in drawing imaginative organic objects and my interest of using many layers of semi-transparent acrylic paints.

I began a serious interest in drawing when I was first exposed to the heavy-metal album cover art of Derek Riggs and Pushead (Metallica T-shirt Art) in junior high school. Throughout junior high and high school, I was influenced by these two artists and artists like Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, and HR Giger.

I am now influenced mostly by artists like Robert Motherwell, Philip Guston, Richard Diebenkorn, Hans Bellmer, Francis Bacon, and Zdzislaw Beksinski.