Michael Hunt
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Michael Hunt (born May 10, 1970) is an American artist conceived at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York and born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
Michael Hunt is a self-taught artist with no formal art education. Hunt's works of paintings and sculptures are known as Cosmic American Art - an outsider hybrid of Pop & Folk Art - which explore the limits and myths of the American Dream. "Cosmic American" is a phrase created by groundbreaking early 1970s country rock icon Gram Parsons to describe Hunt's music, a "oneness through song."
Hunt's primary painting medium is naturally felled, sandblasted redwood. The technique was learned at Hunt's family's sign company in Pennsylvania. The redwood is purchased from a “Mom & Pop” lumberyard that has a federal permit to bid on naturally felled redwood trees. Often the wood is recycled from signs. Images are sandblasted into the wood in Pennsylvania and painted at Hunt's studio near Woodstock, New York. Textures vary from smooth, raised surfaces to a cut, rippled effect. Colors vary from intense and vibrant to simple and earthy, subtle & faded, which highlight the natural beauty and individuality of each piece of wood.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Hofstra University's New College, Hunt worked as a mover, truck driver, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in New York's Lower East Side, a mailroom supervisor at Miramax Films and for the 2000 United States Census.
Some of Hunt’s exhibitions have been shown at Zeke's Gallery in Montreal, Canada, CBGB’s 313 Gallery in New York City, and the Wynwood Arts District Tour in at Basel, Miami. Hunt's sculpture, "Heavenly Beatles" was auctioned by Sotheby's.com.
