MICHAEL PINCHERA - Timber Stand Gallery

The Art of
MICHAEL PINCHERA



	Michael, who was born in Detroit in 1953, had a strong, early affinity for art, an interest supported by his parents. He was especially devoted to drawing the natural world, and in his late teens he attended The Society of Arts and Crafts (now known as the Center for Creative Studies), concentrating on drawing and printmaking. At 19 he was hired at a Detroit commercial art studio as an illustrator's apprentice. At this stage, Michael was first drawn to the works of the impressionists and the surrealists, followed by the paintings of Miro, who he particularly prized for the poetic quality of his work. Along with Picasso's work, Pinchera was attracted most intensely to the art of Klee and Kandinsky, whose visionary paintings combined abstraction and figurative elements. In the late 1970's, Pinchera attended Thomas Jefferson College and continued to paint, while majoring in psychology and sociology. He later studied to become a Waldorf elementary school teacher, encountering the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner, which would prove to be fundamental to his approach as an artist. Anthroposophy, Rudolph Steiner's world view, focuses on the spiritual reality behind everyday life. Access to this reality is possible through logical thought and the training of one's awareness, by looking at oneself and the world. Art and color play a role in this process, and Pinchera later discovered that his two primary influences, Klee and Kandinsky, had been directly affected by Steiner's thinking.