DrMike in his element: In his studio Po, wearing a found crown - try saying that fast three times - which he found in the woods. The sheet metal crown is likely part of an old stovepipe.

As a young child, Mike preferred drawing to other activities and aspired to be an artist. Instead of pursuing an art career, Mike earned a Doctor of Psychology (University of Denver, 1983), became a psychologist, and served for 40 years with the goal of integrating creativity and art into his personal life as well as in psychotherapy with all ages in medical settings, an art college, and with military families.

DrMike collaborated with his counseling  clients - children, teens, families, and adults – creating art during sessions as a catalyst for cultivating life skills, and finding purpose, equanimity, and joy. For example, DrMike created a set of hand-drawn illustrations, The Circles of Emotions, to teach emotional intelligence skills for managing life’s difficult emotions to all ages. Later, as Director of Student Development at an art collage in Denver, he guided art students to create collaborative art projects for visitors to the Denver Art Museum’s Friday evening events. During his 14 years counseling military families in Europe and Asia, photography emerged as his primary medium; he also created a guide to bicycling in the Rhineland-Pfalz province of Germany, illustrated with hand drawn maps. He developed art constructions for teaching social skills to preschoolers and a pocket cookbook with hand-colored vintage cartoons of animals cooking to encourage children and adults to cook together.

Since retiring from psychology in 2023, Mike treasures the freedom of working on a project to completion without interruptions! Perched on the mountainside overlooking Green Mountain Falls, Mike’s home and studio, Po Gallery & Workshop, is a whimsical realm! A favorite of visitors to his studio is his room-sized installation, Museum of Found Art, a curated assemblage of found and collected eccentric objects. Visitors are drawn in for deeper seeing through playful “interactivities,” eliciting child-like curiosity, wonder and the joy of discovery and play.

Dr Mike recently completed ArtPLAYpages: Historic Green Mountain Falls, a coloring and art activity book featuring twenty-eight of Mike’s hand drawn renderings of historical photos from the town’s early years as a summer resort and mountain retreat. The upcoming second volume in his ArtPLAYpages series features coloring pages based on his photographs taken while living, working, and traveling around the world.