Mike often used painting murals as a way to scrounge out income when he was between jobs or needed extra income because of low paying art jobs. It was amazing what he could create from nothing but his talent and initiative.

While an art student at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Mike painted the nursery for one of his art professors. He loved the old illustrations of N.C. Wyeth and maybe this comes across here.

Mike restored and enhanced the half-timber and stucco exterior of one of Milwaukee's finest German restaurants, Karl Raztsch's.

Painting the Grand Canyon on a Casa Grande miniature golf course gave the new Arizonans some needed cash. Mike painted it in the heat of the day and shortly came down with Valley fever.

The most extensive murals Mike did are at Von Trier's, on the corner of North Avenue and Farwell in Milwaukee. He painted the mural behind the bar, the ceiling, and the entire "Bitburger Stube."

Here's a watercolor mock-up that Mike didn't end up doing as a mural. The close-up alludes to his past as a successful high school trumpet player.

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Created September 5/6, 1997
by Tom March