At Northwest College, he received his Associates of Art, and at the University of Wyoming, he attained his BFA and MFA in 1976. While going to school he helped support himself by selling paintings and playing drums in various country and jazz bands. Mike has always loved astronomy and airplanes. In 1973 at age 23 he got his private pilot’s license. While at the University of Wyoming, Mike learned how to carve stone. For a semester he was a studio assistant to the famous sculptor Robert Russin.   

At the University of Wyoming, Mike met his long-time friend Tom Brinkerhoff through his first wife, Suzy Noldan, who was a geology student. They climbed, skied, dived, and caught big fish together. Tom also commissioned several paintings from Mike including a 20’ mural of the Grand Canyon and his 16-foot teepee on Flathead Lake. In the Brinkerhoff Geology Library at UW hangs a portrait of Tom and his father Zach Brinkerhoff painted by Mike.

In 1981 Mike won the mural competition for the Wyoming State Capitol. He painted an 8 foot by 22-foot mural which is in the Legislative Hearing Room on the  3rd floor. He has since painted several murals which are in different business locations. In 1984 He began to develop steel relief murals, the first one hangs in the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission in Casper. While living in Casper, Mike met his longtime artist friend Jim McVicker, who is a successful artist in California. They went out and painted on the scene together and later had a two-man show at the Nicolaysen Museum in 1983. At that time Mike was teaching part-time classes at Casper College and the UW extension program.

In 1987 Mike won a mural competition in Rockville Maryland Dept of Transportation, which is a 20 foot brazed steel relief mural called the History of Transportation. After that, he created several steel reliefs for banks and private collectors. First National bank of Powell headed by Dick Nelson, commissioned many paintings from Mike and a life-size steel farmer called Desert Redeemer. Later Pinnacle Bank of Powell commissioned three lifesize steel figures for their bank.

In 1996 his painting the” Spirit of Wyoming” was selected to go on the USS Wyoming ballistic nuclear submarine. It still travels after over 25 years in the officer’s wardroom on the sub.

Mike has always had an interest in geology ever since his dad took him and brother Ron fossil hunting as a child. Later he was married to Suzy, his first wife, who graduated from UW with a Masters in Geophysics. Many of his climbing and caving friends at the time were also geologists. In 2008 Kiby Siber commissioned Mike to do a large painting of the Howe Quarry dinosaur dig near Shell, WY. The How Quarry painting hangs in the Sauriermuseum, Aathal near Zurich, Switzerland. In 2017 Mike was commissioned to paint a 35 foot mural of a Jurassic scene for good friends Cliff and Row Manuel for the Geoscience Center in Greybull, WY.

In 1986 Mike was married to Janet Smith of Casper and they moved to Powell where she was an RN at Powell Hospital. They both enjoyed the outdoors camping, backpacking, skiing, mountain biking, and caving with their friends.  She was a great nurse but suffered from bipolar depression and died in March of 2003. After they moved to Powell, Mike taught part-time at Northwest College teaching classes in painting, sculpture, and seven years of Art History. Later in 2003, Mike was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

In 1987 He met the renowned artist Harry Jackson and they became close friends. He was a great influence on Mike and they had many wonderful discussions together about art.

Currently, Mike continues to paint both in the studio and Plein air. He has taken five trips so far to Talkeetna, AK to visit friends and to paint Plein air paintings of the Alaska scenery. His favorite painting medium is acrylic, but he does watercolors and the occasional steel project. His studio is in his home south of Powell, WY. His mother and sister live nearby in Powell. Mike is grateful for all of the support individuals have given his work over the 55 plus years as an artist.