My name's Miko and I dig the hell out of making art and writing and playing guitar. Especially smiling. Life's cool. Trippy, really. I'm the youngest of 10 kids and had a pretty interesting awesome shitty great extravagant wayward magical childhood. I used to joke and say I was the 'Marriage Saver' but now if I said that it'd be just mean. My parents are super awesome. The best date I ever had was calling my Indiana-dwelling mom a couple New Years ago, instead of any of the girls at the time who were enjoying breaking my heart. I could tell you I went to the University of Texas at San Antonio and did some art there - But if I ended it at just a script of places I studied, I think I'd be keeping something from you regarding the lessons I think are significant to the life of becoming a better artist and human being.

I didn't grow up thinking I'd be an artist. I just got taller, I guess. Fatter sometimes, skinnier other times. I spent so much time looking up to my brothers sisters and mom and dad I don't think I ever quite learned to look straight level at myself. I was always drawing and doodling and sketching, you know - Making fun of teachers and drawing to impress the girls and my friends.

If you asked me when I was 11 years old I would have said I wanted to be a physicist. That was me looking up to my brother Marc. If you'd asked me when I was 15, I'd have said I wanted to be a doctor. That was me looking up to my sister Nancy. If you asked me when I was 18, chemist - Jeanette. 20, writer - Hey, at least I was looking up to Kurt Vonnegut. There were a lot more look-ups, but they all just led to the darkness of hating my family and where I was from - Down more unfortunate paths I didn't realize resulted from the way I was choosing to see the world.

Eventually, Jeanette died, and I was struck with the fact that I lost someone I could look up to. I went through new, amazing, first-rate hard times, and it seems the gods were looking out for me, because in that darkness, I would never have planned, chose, or expected to end up in New Mexico, the greatest place ever. I didn't even know what it was. Since being here I've made more art, met more appreciators of it, learned what yoga is, met great teachers of all sorts of amazing subjects from Consciousness to Recovery, and have learned since that I can choose to add to the opinions and visions of the world we all live within.

So, to wrap it up, yes, I did college, I've done lots of jobs from mowing lawns to graphic illustration to drawing children's text books to sanding floors to tech-support. But the thing that I feel joy while doing is turning something that was completely stark and empty into something that turns right around and talks to my soul. Then, the more I open up to myself and in turn open up to others - I find it's talking to their soul. And bam! I just got called an artist. That's when I sometimes joke and say, 'Yeah? Well it takes one to know one!'

Drop me a line if there's anything else you'd like to know!

~ Miko

© 2009 Miko / MikoArts.com 87106
Reproduction with License Only
Inquire:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it