Mike has been airbrushing for 28 years.  He attended art school and majored in Commercial Graphics with an emphasis on Medical Illustration.  In 1991, back in his hometown of Erie, PA, Mike began working at the local sign shop and was introduced to the vinyl cutter.  Right away Mike saw the potential in mixing the media he was working with, and he started using the vinyl cutter and shop computer to create simple text masks, graphic layout and silhouettes.  

When he moved to Arizona in 1993, Mike bought his first home computer and immediately began working with CorelDraw.  It took him about a year or so to convince his new boss that he needed to invest in a computer and plotter for the shop, but once he did, they were unstoppable, landing 2 huge accounts.  For years Mike designed and painted the motorcycles for Bourget’s Bike Works and Titan Motorcycles, able to handle the volume because of the efficiency of cutter based stencils.

When Mike finally went out on his own in 2003, the first item he bought was a Roland CAMM 1 plotter.  Over the years Mike had become a master at CorelDraw and without the pressure of a production-based shop, Mike was able to feed his drive to push his art to the next level.   

Mike is known throughout the motorcycle industry as one of the premiere airbrush artists.  He won the prestigious V-Twin Painter of the Year Award in 2004 and has painted dozens of high profile motorcycles.  Not tied only to the two wheeled world, Mike has created numerous album covers, including the latest Megadeth release, The System Has Failed.  This year, we have diversified even more, and have negotiated a contract to work with Jackson to produce and paint Mike Learn custom guitars.

In addition to the work that we pump out of the shop, we have begun to really focus on the education opportunities in the custom airbrush industry.  Mike holds Airbrush Seminars about every 6 weeks and is a guest instructor at other events across the country.  The LearnAirbrush.com Web Site is a wildly popular resource of information with monthly airbrush and computer how tos, downloadable masks and loads of tips and tricks. Mike is known as an expert in the art of combining complex masking with incredibly detailed free hand work.  His class curriculum, web site, and the 3 educational DVDs all focus heavily on how to embrace the computer and vinyl cutter as tools equally important as your airbrush, and how to use technology to improve art.  

Moving forward our business will focus on more and more fine art, education, seminars, on-line training, DVD How Tos and Trade Show demonstrations, all produced to "Enable the Creative Mind".