Michael Nix's Page

My detailed pen and ink illustrations are a venture into the land of pattern and repetition. These drawings, created in the art form known as stipple. Stippling is a drawing process
made up of thousands of dots, bears a close visual and formal affinity to the patterns found
in benday dots. These were halftone images that formed the visual images in print media
that pre-date the pixel which forms computer generated imagery. All of this is to simply
say that my illustrations have a formal and social history that connects and overlaps with
my other creative work.

My illustration drawings of African warriors and tribal people are a formal play of color,
pattern and repetition. The fluid tapping and releasing of ink from my radiograph pen
serves to remind me of the joy and concentration I need in creating these illustrations.
My drawings are celebrations of a process; a connection to a land and an ancestry that
provides an inspirational springboard. Images found, altered and redeveloped employ
spots of color intricately described inbead work, headdresses and facial decorations.
I want to jolt the viewer away from the black and white tattoo like dots that outline
surface and shape in this figurative work. Formed from tapping out hundreds of
thousands of staccato dots on a surface call into mind the other art form I'm passionate
about- drumming; another patterned repetitive voice as the connection overlaps
in all my creative work.

For 30 years, I have provided award-winning creative campaigns for print advertising;
package design; training and promotional videos; film titles; web site design development;
and corporate identity. creative design solutions for the following industries: education, government, health care, and non-profit. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from the College
of Staten Island, with BA degrees in Filmmaking and Dramatic Arts. I'm a Ford Fellow
earning my MS degree in Communications Design from Pratt Institute. I have served
as a art faculty advisor for college publications. Those publications have won the 2009 Gold Crown Award, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, 2008 Silver Crown Award, Columbia Scholastic Press Association and 2008 First Place with Special Merit, American Scholastic Association.