Mike Walsh Man of Steel
Artist Mike Walsh has created an artistic world that stands as a testament to his life.
Yet, after years of being ensconced in a kingdom of mind-bending steel sculptures, surrounded by the enchanted forest that posed as a muse at Studio Walsh in Peter’s Rest, Mike Walsh is searching for the next chapter in his creative journey.
Studio Walsh decided to shut down recently after nearly 40 years of being an integral part of the St. Croix arts community. Barbara and Mike Walsh were foremost hosts in presenting gallery shows on all levels of the creative STX arts scene. But all good things come to an end. And they will surely be missed. But now, Mike Walsh, a towering man who created towering steel works, has an unusual opportunity to sit back and slowly contemplate his next moves.
“I’m getting organized now, trying not to think too hard about what I might do next. Letting the world kind of lead me into the clouds of discovery,” Mike told the St. Croix Times. “Hopefully, this current process will open doors for me to enter a new phase of my creative being.”
This is a man who is not new to life-altering changes. He came up the hard way, paid his dues, struggled to survive, and wound up at the top of his game for a long, long time. Not only as an artist but as a human being who cares a great deal about his fellow man. Although he was not born on St. Croix, he exemplifies the Crucian spirit. You can feel it in his firm handshake, his knowing and genuine smile. He exudes that calm, never say die confidence, that ability to overcome all obstacles in his path; to fight the important battles and still find his way back to solid ground, where he is able to plant new seeds. Mike has learned all these lessons by trial and error, the old school of hard knocks.
“I was late to art. I never really studied it at school. I started off in business school, but that didn’t work out,” he said. “It was 1968 in America, and Kennedy was shot, Warhol was shot, Martin Luther King was shot. I started getting involved with political campaigns, McCarthy was in Iowa when I was going to school there. And I started going to demonstrations all the time. Radicalization set in. And it led me to become involved with art.”
Walsh has created some iconic steel sculptures. His Double-C statue that sits in front of Complex High School and CTEC is a masterwork that is hard to pass up without bending your mind around its shape. He has a way of bringing new meaning to the immediate world that exists around his art.
“What you have is infinity in all directions,” he explained.
His towering sculptures challenge our conception of what the world is all about. They stand triumphantly against time’s gravitational pull, daring anyone or anything to dismiss their strength, or to break their grip on the space they occupy. Some stand on the thinnest of steel legs, beckoning the world outside to come enter their steel kingdom, allowing the air to flow in and out, but still maintaining a dominance of time and space.
And yet he has the creative ability to produce small metal objects that seem crafted for a Prince; or plastic blue bags that are tethered down but float free in the wind; or opposing mirrors that could have belonged to a pair of giants with steel benches beneath them, connected by a floating cloud of twisted plastic.
Much of his work poses a series of challenging questions in the viewer’s mind, questions that are not easily answered, nor do we want them to be. Are we entering another dimension, a new melding of space and gravity, or are we being fooled by the optical illusions created by a master artist, a man whose works may stand the test of time like the Picasso in Chicago or Botero’s exaggerated women?
“I could go into a new phase and work exclusively with smaller pieces,” he said when asked about what his future creative vision might be. “With metal, you can design a specific tool or a latch and it will push you onto a new creative avenue.”
This is a man who has walked down many roads in life, a Crucian who has lived like a nomad in the rainforest, drinking water from a rain barrel, enjoying the simple pleasure of walking amongst the people of his island, feeling the beating heart of St. Croix.
And therein lies the measure of Mike Walsh. He developed his art out of his sincere love for the world around him. A world he has taken the time and pains to cherish and understand.
