Michael Kersh is a young painter living in Massachusetts working mostly in oil. His work portrays local landscapes and views from behind the wheel of his car.
Please reach out via email to michael.a.kersh@gmail.com with any inquires or questions. I am not currently open for commissioned pieces. Prints of most of my work can be made upon request.
Social
A few of my thoughts
“Living the dream” is a common salutation these days as an innocuous response to “How are you?” And in creating and selling artwork, to some extent I can actually rightfully claim I am living the proverbial dream. Here’s the thing: I have been creative and artistic for as long as I can remember myself, but it was never really my life’s goal to be a professional artist. People always said to me “you can do whatever you put your mind to.” And of course, it is a positive idiom, even if it is a cliché. But is it actually true? Can I do anything? I decided to put it to the test. And if I can do anything, I want to be an artist. The more I go through life, the more I find myself appreciating my habitat, the nature and the manmade landmarks that pass me by. They inspire me to try and capture their effortless beauty, to communicate that appreciation with others and see what resonates with my neighbors.
I pursued STEM in college, though I had trouble even deciding which one of those four letters to focus on. I started in engineering, but ended with a franken-degree in math and finance. Math appears everywhere in art: proportions, raytracing, approximation, etc. In calculus, we approximate the area of curvy shapes by filling them with infinitely smaller and smaller rectangles. Add up all the rectangles and voila – we have done calculus. Similarly, in my art, I begin with bold strokes and large areas of color. Gradually, adding layers of detail, each infinitesimal brushstroke contributes to an integrated work of art. I don’t regret studying math at all, I love math and always have, but at the time, it didn’t help me figure out what to do with my life. And all my life, I’ve only ever wanted to do. Do something.
In school, I always held odd jobs – a concierge, a pawn shop cashier, a US Census enumerator, to name a few. And then after college I got a full time job with good pay at a good company. And of course my default greeting was “livin’ the dream!” It never occurred to me what the dream really was. But the job allowed me to support myself, and what’s more, to buy paint. During a brief COVID isolation in November of 2022, I started painting again. And I was good! After that, I started taking art classes regularly. And my experience in sales numbed my inhibitions about getting word out about my art. I posted my work, applied to shows, got accepted, got accepted again and then in April of 2023, I said fuck it, let’s do it. I decided I would take a leap of faith, pursue a new, artistic dream, and most importantly test the theory that I can do anything I put my mind to.
Today, my work experience helps inspire me to paint familiar landscapes seeking to explore and represent how I imagine modern, industrial America. I never really enjoyed driving, I get anxious, though I particularly love painting roads, asphalt skid-marks polluting the pristine landscape. Though many of my paintings have no people in them, many have cars—car-acters—powerful beasts with glowing eyes. I find inspiration in the sonder and awe I sometimes feel on my commute. And I think about the risks we take just to get to work. After disease, car accidents are the leading cause of death for Americans. Ancient humans traversed treacherous terrains just to survive. Nowadays, we are infinitely safer than our ancestors, though to pay for our survival, we drive treacherously through death traps, often just to open a laptop somewhere else. I hope one day, we won’t need to commute. And we won’t need to risk our lives to get from A to B. So I hope my work makes people think about their commutes, and not to stop, but to still smell the roses, so to speak.
Though I always wanted to inspire others, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would actually be here, doing it as an artist. I hope my art inspires others not only to pursue their dreams, old and new, but also to just try something and see where it leads. Because one improvisational stroke of the brush can affect the entire composition of the work of art of your life.
Exhibitions
2024
- The Aht Department’s Wicked Good Aht Mahket – December 16-17 – The Armory, Somerville, MA
- Artists Group of Charlestown’s Art in the Park – September – Charlestown, MA
- The Aht Department’s Wicked Good Aht Mahket – July 21 – The Armory, Somerville, MA
- Somerville Open Studios – May 5-6 – Arts at the Armory, Somerville, MA
- Liberty Hotel Gallery Night, Solo Exhibition – Tuesday, March 19th – Liberty Hotel, Boston, MA
2023
- Artists Group of Charlestown’s Art in the Park – September 9 – Charlestown, MA
- Somerville Open Studios – May 6-7 – Somerville, MA
- SOS 2023 First Look Exhibit – Somerville, MA
- SOS 2023 Locavore Show: Good Enough to Eat! – Somerville, MA
- Light and Shadow: Bringing Art to Life – Charlestown, MA
Pictures of Me
Come back soon to see other things