We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Mucker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.

Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was sitting next to my grandfather watching television. I looked up at him and saw the reflection of the tv in his glasses and was in awe with what I saw. I immediately thought, I wonder if I can draw that.

The curvature of his lenses, the images on the lenses… I tried very hard to draw exactly what I was seeing, even as it changed. I worked on this one drawing several times until I got it right.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Beginning his artistic career at the tender age of 7, Michael “Ol Skool” Mucker knew from an early age that he wanted to create. As the son of an artist, Mike possesses a natural talent and passion for fine art. Despite the fact that he routinely failed art classes while in school, Mike continued working on his craft, using graffiti as a means to express his creativity. While in high school, Mike transitioned from spray cans to airbrushing, using his previous experience with spray cans to hone his airbrushing skills.

Amazingly, Mike is self-taught and has no formal artistic training. His perseverance and love for art pushed his desire to learn. From this dedication, he was able to build a career for himself, working and owning airbrush shops in several cities where he’s resided.

After completing a Tour of Duty overseas, Mike relocated from Kentucky to Tennessee in 1995 and continued to diversify his experience working with several mediums, including graphic design and animation, automotive painting, commercial and residential murals, textured artwork on canvas, and most recently, body art and tattooing. Mike’s work has been featured in many art displays located in and around Nashville, one of the most well-known being the larger-than-life mural of Bruce Lee that remained on the side of Kung-Fu coffee for many years, as well as a Dr. Suess-themed mural located in the Woodbine area on Glenrose Avenue that still remains today.

In addition, Mike has participated in notable art exhibits with well-known local artists such as James Threallkill, Michael McBride and Joe Love, the Art of the Lost Boys of Sudan, and the Norf Wall Fest. As fiercely dedicated to teaching art as he is doing it himself, Mike has taught in numerous art programs around Nashville including the Amun-Ra Performance Arts Camp, the Boys and Girls club, Beech Creek Baptist Church after school art program and currently as the resident airbrush instructor at Plaza Artist Materials, where he has been teaching beginning and intermediate airbrush work shops for over 19 years.

Convinced by his friend and owner of One Drop Ink Tattoo, Elisheba talked Mike into starting his apprenticeship over and to take tattooing serious. 9 years later, Mike can be found most days perfecting his craft in his studio or at One Drop Ink Tattoo Studio and Gallery.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

During my freshman year of high school, I was heavily influenced by graffiti and the use of a spraycan to work large. Excited to share my new found love to my art teacher, I couldn’t wait to tell them about the adventures of getting up. My art teacher was a traditionally trained artist. Taught to do all of her work in black and white and then glaze her colors over top of her rendition. As the first few weeks of class pass, I start introducing my graffiti art to my teacher. I could see in her face, that she wasn’t impressed with the technical display of subject matter, gradations and color blending. She said to me the graffiti is a fad and I’m wasting my time and energy trying to excel as a graf artist. It was one of the most disheartening experience I had received from a instructor.
By my Junior year of high school, I was excelling as a graf artist, doing large scale pieces and small pieces for students and friends. My art teacher was still not happy with my decision and she stopped looking at my work, which made me lose interest in her class. I started doing homework in her class and would draw freely in all my other classes. My teachers would complain about my drawing in class instead of focusing on class work, but I would tell them, I can be me and draw what I feel in your class. When I’m in art class, I’m not allowed to be myself.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In the beginning, my goal was to just create. I would draw whatever I could to expand my artistic knowledge and range. Recently, I learned my biological mother was an artist and after seeing some of her work, I was channeling her creativity. Now my drive as a artist is to help heal the inner child who misses his mom.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.worksofmike.com
• Instagram: @worksofmike_ink & @worksofmike_art
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/michaelmucker
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/skoolanski