About Mike
Mike Wehner (born 81’) is an American artist and author. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana with one wife and two dogs. It’s much better than it sounds.
What is a work day like for a painter?
My day is more structured then you’d imagine. I am both the king and the janitor around here so every working day has a similar cadence. In the morning I pack boxes, print labels and tend to any internet business. In the early afternoon I drop off packages and go hiking with my dogs. After lunch, it’s time to paint and that’s where the variance comes. At minimum, I do a few small palette knife pieces a day, but my wife often has to come into the studio and 9 p.m. to remind me to eat, so I don’t pass out and end up the first guy impaled by a palette knife.
What do you do when you aren’t painting?
I don’t understand the question. =P
When I’m not painting you can usually find me in my basement which is just a giant adult playroom. My guitar collection is down there and a quasi recording studio and a dumb looking gaming computer with a bunch of neon lights flying from every direction because powerful computer equipment is required to look stupid.
I’ve got a full vr setup and deeply enjoy painting in 3D with programs like Google’s Tilt Brush. I don’t know if I will ever do anything with it. I also have a full digital studio with a Cintiq that I never use. I have concept art and scripts for at least 3 different graphic novels that I’ve never found time to draw.
Sometimes I write books too. I do sleep, I’m 40 and I don’t have kids so there’s a lot of time to make stuff so long as I walk the dogs first.
Tell us something about you, we’re not asking for a full biography.
Hrmm. Well I’ve never had a day job which is weird, I had odd jobs as a kid and in college but my entire adult life I’ve survived on my own entrepreneurship and creativity—I’m quite proud of that. On the other end of the spectrum, the great tragedy of my life is that I didn’t start drawing until I was over 30 years old. I’ve always been a maker of things and an artist but painting always seemed so alien and impossible to me growing up. I’ve always loved visual art I guess I never had the courage to try.
The first time I put a pencil to paper I let out an audible groan. I’d been seeking my whole life and finding your thing is terrifying when it means starting life over. I literally stopped everything (including making money of any kind) and drew 10 hours a day for 10 months. That was my art school and from there it was right into the work force and traveling around trying to sell all the stuff I was making.