Artist Spotlight
Avondale Artist Michael Goettee Focuses on the American Southwest
This issue’s featured artist is Michael Goettee, a former Arts Alliance board member and host of the monthly Artists’ Coffees.
Mike has known he wanted to be an artist since his firstgrade teacher handed him colored chalk to create a holiday drawing on the blackboard. Mike followed his dream through college with degrees in advertising and in art from the University of Florida. He has made art his life as a graphic designer and painter.
He was a staff artist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for eight years. He continued his design and illustration with 10 years as a magazine art director for two publishing companies, followed by marketing design for Morris Visitor Publications. Mike is devoting more time to painting and sculpture.
A realist, he works in acrylics and crafts the woodworking on elaborate frames. Mike’s credits include numerous commissions, several one-man shows, and purchases by the Columbus Museum of Art; The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, Germany; and Xavier Roberts (creator of the Cabbage Patch Dolls).
He won second place, painting category, in the juried show, of the Artists Guild of Northwest Georgia, hosted by the Booth Museum of Western Art.
Mike says everyone is creative whether you are a painter, sculptor or CPA. “Our self-expression is how we establish ourselves as individuals,” he said, “yet we all drink from the same deep well of ideas. Some sip. Some gulp. Some scoop it out in buckets and share it. I’m in that last group. That’s an artist.”
Mike has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and experience, and he draws deeply from that well to create art for public consideration. This art serves to expose our interconnectedness:
“When someone enjoys a piece of art, then they’ve felt the connection at that deeper level. I hope to always be awed by things around me, and then share that,” said Goettee.
