Mike Foran

I don’t believe I follow any philosophy of art. I can create rules and in the next instant disregard them. Ultimately, it’s about play. If it’s not fun, why bother? I like what Carl Jung says about play, “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the object it loves.” Suggesting, I love paint, and I do!

I attended S.U.N.Y. College at Oswego and the University of Wyoming. I received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1978 and received a Roswell artist in residence grant 1979.

Creative Infuences

Bela Bartok

Ornette Coleman

The Mothers of Invention

Stuart Davis

Steve Reich

Captain BeefHeart

Piet Mondrian

Edgar Varese

Lenny Bruce

Paul Klee

Charles Mingus

Thomas Merton

Ad Rheinhardt

Duke Ellington

Beatrix Potter

The Hairy Who

Cecil Taylor

Earnest H. Shepard

Hampton Hawes

The Art Ensemble of Chicago

Miyazaki

Hokusai

Hiroshigi

H.C. Westerman

Thelonious Monk

Miles Davis

Jorge Luis Borges