Michael Higgins

I have early memories of my dad’s art school paintings on the walls of our sparsely furnished home in Xenia, Ohio. Another early memory is surviving a devastating tornado and growing up in a disaster zone. It seemed normal until I realized the trauma of it as an adult.

After the tornado, we moved to the outskirts of town where fields and pastures became my natural domain. I had a good childhood. My family was stable and nurturing.

I left home at age 18 but stayed in town. I commuted to Wright State University in Dayton, OH on a full, honors education scholarship but eventually dropped the scholarship for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1991 with a focus on drawing and painting.

I earned 33 credits at Wright State University towards a teaching degree in 1992, including art therapy courses, but I didn’t finish the third and final phase of the program since it required me to quit my job which I couldn’t do. I wanted to keep studying art but couldn’t leave my family and home for graduate school. Then I saw an ad in Art in America magazine for a non-traditional graduate program at Antioch University MacGregor School in Yellow Springs, Ohio - right in my own backyard.

I earned an Individualized Master of Arts degree (IMA) from the MacGregor School of Antioch University. With this non-traditional degree program, I replicated a Master of Fine Arts Degree Plan under the guidance of Jerry McDowell, Chair of the Wright State University Fine Arts Department who also served as Chair of my Degree Committee. At first, the focus was on administrative development of a Master of Fine Arts Degree Plan, including recruitment of qualified instructors and a course-by-course curriculum for drawing, painting, sculpture, print-making and art history. I then completed the courses I designed as taught by the teachers I recruited. I studied one on one with artist, professor and administrator Jerry McDowell; art history professor Matt Rohn (Wittenberg University); artist and art professor Terry Hitt (University of Dayton) and international sculptor Jon Barlow Hudson in Yellow Springs, OH. The Degree Plan Thesis culminated in an expansive solo exhibition at Wright State University Galleries.

Following graduate school in 1995, I had solo exhibitions in Dayton including the Fidelity Building lobby downtown, Go Home Interiors in the Oregon District and Roger Sayre’s Art Now Gallery in the Santa Clara Arts District. I also participated in group shows at the Dayton Visual Arts Center and in Columbus, Ohio with the Acme Art Company.

I interviewed a few times to be a college art professor to no avail. I partnered in a picture framing business for a couple of years. I shared a studio with a master carpenter and learned to build stretchers, frames and studio furniture. I kept practicing my art but priorities changed when I became a parent.

I started working full-time in direct care at the county juvenile detention center where I earned a steady paycheck and started on a 30-year pension. I figured I would return to being a full-time artist at retirement or at least die trying.

I had a knack for working with incarcerated teens and taught a popular art class in the court’s residential detention and rehabilitation centers for about 10 years. I completed a series of 56 illustrations for a curriculum that was used intensively in these facilities for 20 years. My leadership and administrative talents got me promoted several times to supervise, manage and direct various juvenile court programs - mainly felony-offender residential programs.

I stopped showing artwork for almost 30 years but practiced as an outsider isolated from the art world. I opened a studio at Front Street Studios in Dayton, OH the same day I retired. Front Street is a bustling art community and my studio is open to the public for art hops and special events. I work full time as an artist showing and selling work regularly. I post original content on Instagram weekly and continue to immerse myself in the art community.