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Mike Stilkey was born in Tarzana, California, and spent his childhood moving from city to city primarily in the Los Angeles area.Most of his childhood was spent in Malibu Lake, a small town Stilkey describes as a "hippy party community".
When people are looking ahead, I'm looking at the details of the curb…looking at different things."Stilkey's dream of becoming a professional skateboarder was crushed at age 20 after a series of injuries. -
Stilkey's first encounter with art came at age 18.He did not produce graffiti but was influenced by the culture and enjoyed the rebellious spirit of their work. After painting for a few years, working odd jobs, and dealing with a recent suicide attempt by his father, the 24-year-old Stilkey fell into a major depression and had what he called a "mental breakdown". He donated his car, quit his job and promised himself never to work for anyone ever again.
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I was painting on book pages for forever. At the time, I was drawing on books, records or anything else I could find at a thrift store. Eventually, I started drawing on the books themselves. It dawned on me that it might be a good idea to paint down the spines of the books instead of just on the covers. The first one I did I didn't really think much of, but I brought it down to BLK/MRKT, and I remember Jana going crazy over it.
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Mike Litter (Mike Stilkey) - American artist from Alta dena, California. Instead of the traditional canvas, paper or wooden base, Mike takes a bunch of books and draws his works directly into their spines. In essence this work is quite challenging and even provocative.
