Mike created the pieces as part of a free choice assignment in his AP class. Influenced by a friend who used bright colors a lot, Mike decided to experiment with Berol Prismacolor sticks. These sticks have no blending quality - they just produce one flat color - and Mike was able to use this to his advantage by playing off the extreme colors against the extreme angles and the exaggerated perspective of his subject matter. He hand-drew the heavy black lines with marker pens, without the benefit of ruler.

Mike loved his AP experience. In fact, he actually switched high schools so that he could enroll in the AP Studio Art class at Bangor High School, Maine; he felt that he needed the additional stimulation he would receive by working with a group of dedicated AP students, and an AP Studio Art teacher. He recalls that his teacher Gudrun Tarr was adamant that her students "learn by doing," and that he and his fellow students fared very well with this approach. They had weekly critiques of each others' work in which they discussed such topics as format, subject matter, and quality of light; when they couldn't find words to express what they were thinking, they made up their own words.

Mike has been keen on art for as long as he can remember. He is now a sculpture major at Rhode Island School of Design, and is in the process of working out what he will do with his talents. We wish him all the best!