My name is Michael Krouse, and my artwork is not singular by piece, but rather a continuing, connected string of ideas and inspirations. My art in life is like an evolving story, which someday (I aspire) will present itself as an epic.
My subjects, in most cases, speak of social narratives and figurative icons, resulting in work that the viewer can interpret in a creative act of their own, by contemplating on the images I make and offering an occasion for speculation. Paintings marked by a questionable curiosity, grounded in real experience, as true as they need to be with little morals at the end. Lives projected on canvas, glimpses of the intimate memory traces all of us possess.
Michael was born smiling, during the second round of the biggest fight in history, when Ali met Frazier for the first time as two undefeated champions in New York City's Madison Square Garden. Raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, the son of a Holocaust survivor turned exotic dancer and a WWII fighter pilot turned cab driver. He spent his early years as a thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass kicking. At the age of 17 his father signed the permission slip so he could enter the Marine Corps at an early age. It was during a 19-mile hump up a very steep hill that he decided to live with passion, purpose, integrity, and a sense of humor. He went on to receive a BA from Marquette University in 1992 and has had his work shown throughout the United States.
His work has been covered in Ad-busters Magazine, Punk-Planet Magazine, The SF Chronicle, CNN, and Jazz Now Magazine. He has been awarded grants from The Office of the Mayor, San Francisco, and the Bill Graham Foundation