Artist and Chef, Michael Cunningham is the Co-Founder of Vision & Sound: An African American Experience. Michael is a graduate of the Culinary Arts program at the California Culinary Academy where he received his Associates degree. He has had a long career as an Executive Chef in California and Arizona. He owned and ran the Starpointe Café in Goodyear for several years before becoming the
Executive Chef for several Catering Companies. He co-owned the first African American art gallery in Orange County, California with his wife, Norma which closed in 2003. Michael has been featured in numerous art exhibits in California and Arizona and he continues to create and exhibit art throughout the region. Michael has also served as a curator and student art instructor.
Artist Statement:
My work is an exploration of abstract impressionism through texture, color, and form. I work to achieve the perfect balance between form, content, and abstraction. My emphasis on texture and color gives the work an alluring quality. My work reflects what I see and imagine from day to day. I create this work in a highly energetic process of orchestrated colors, mixing pigment with specific values. I paint with brushes used for details, palette knives to create texture capturing the spontaneity and impulsive thoughts that flow through the painting process. I use the natural world, human endeavor, and inner creative visualization to generate images of interest. My compositions are inspired by my immediate surroundings impulses and ideas. My process has become less about rendering and more about capturing the emotion of the moment. The process of painting has opened the world to me and given me a powerful tool of communication. I challenge myself to interpret everyday life experiences through a lens of fun. My motivation to paint is not obsessive but more a way of telling a story. Currently I am working on a new series after taking a long sabbatical from my studio. I am looking forward to a fresh beginning.
